Team Fusion has finally delivered what IL2 fans have been waiting in anticipation for years.

The quality of the new content is exceptional. The new planes look amazing inside and out, and they are a dream to fly. The map (while the age of the engine is evident in the textures) is interesting and unique. This is the first time North Africa has ever been included in a high-fidelity WWII flight simulator.

The planes - wow. There are some real pleasant surprises as well as some long anticipated classics. The Tomahawk, D.520, and Martlet are insanely fun and challenging. The Wellington is a piece of art and it's amazing to fly such a beast in CloD finally. The Spitfire V and Bf 109 F will be of great appeal (and already are) to those wanting the top of the line kit online. RAF pilots will rejoice every time they score hits with their new cannon.

The detail is amazing. The damage models are exquisite and precise as always and there are some unique features like the ability to isolate a hit radiator in the 109F, landing gear dropping when hydraulic pressure is hit, and EVERY SMALL CALIBER BULLET HOLE appears EXACTLY where it hit - no silly "left wing has light damage, put some decals on".

The engine modelling is also far superior to the "other" IL2 - with it's very silly engine timers. CloD has you watch the temps, keep it in the limits, or push it beyond the limits for as long as you dare trying to outrun your foe or climb to intercept that bomber formation in time.

The singleplayer AI is always a talking point. In combat itself, the AI is wonderful - they do team tactics, fly to their plane's strengths, and feel very challenging to fight. But they have some very weird quirks including sometimes totally ignoring the player and just flying straight and level once they determine the fight is over. But - in a fight itself, the AI is probably the best out of the "big 3" WWII flight sims (the others being DCS and IL2 Great Battles).

The multiplayer is very fun, servers can host so many players. CloD has given me so many amazing fights online and it still delivers.

The menus and UI are dated for sure. BUT - with a bit of experience you realize that this sim offers an INCREDIBLE amount of detail and customization in terms of the mission editor and aircraft loadouts. No other sim offers the ability to edit individual (historically accurate) bomb fuses, or change the ammo belts and convergence of each individual gun. The downside is that this takes a lot more time than just sliding a single slider to 250m and saying you're good to go. The default loadouts have been tweaked to be more historically accurate and more effective too, so if you don't want to touch those menus you won't really suffer.

Overall I think TF has done an amazing job with this sim.

The content is well worth the money - there's TONS of it and it's all very high quality.