Korea. IL-2 Series
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| Korea. IL-2 Series | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| VR/AR | Virtual Reality |
| Developer | 1C Game Studios |
| Publisher | FOR-GAMES CR LTD |
| Platform | SteamVR, OpenXR |
| Operating System | Windows 10, Windows 11 |
| Type | Game |
| Genre | Simulation, Action |
| Input Device | Gamepad, joystick, HOTAS (VR controllers not supported) |
| Game Mode | Single-player, Multiplayer, Co-op |
| Release Date | 4 August 2026 (Early Access from 25 June 2026) |
| Price | US$79.99 (Steam, standard edition, as of September 2026) |
| App Store | Steam, IL-2 Series store |
| Website | https://il2-korea.com/ |
Korea. IL-2 Series is a combat flight simulation game set during the Korean War, developed by 1C Game Studios and published by FOR-GAMES CR LTD for Windows PCs. It is a game in the IL-2 series and supports PC VR headsets through OpenXR and OpenVR.[1][2] The game has eight aircraft from the Korean War (two of them, the F-84E Thunderjet and La-11, are sold in higher editions or as separate DLC), a map of the Korean Peninsula covering more than 200,000 square kilometers, a 15-mission story campaign and a Career mode in which the player commands an air regiment.[1][3]
The game was first announced in June 2024 with a planned 2025 release.[4] Its VR trailer was shown at the VR Games Showcase on 23 June 2026. Pre-order buyers received Early Access on 25 June 2026, and the full version was released on 4 August 2026 on Steam and the official IL-2 Series store.[2][5][6]
Gameplay
The player flies aircraft of the Korean War (1950-1953), a period in which piston-engined fighters fought alongside the first jet fighters. According to the developer, the aircraft were recreated from blueprints, historical photographs, flight manuals and other archival material, and every cockpit instrument works and reflects the state of the aircraft's systems in real time.[1] The official site lists eight aircraft:[3]
| Aircraft | Side (as listed by the developer) | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| F-86A-5 Sabre | USA | Base game |
| F-51D Mustang | USA / Korea | Base game |
| F-80C10 Shooting Star | USA | Base game |
| F-84E Thunderjet | USA | Premium and Deluxe editions or separate DLC[1] |
| MiG-15bis | USSR / DPRK / PRC | Base game |
| Il-10 | DPRK | Base game |
| Yak-9P | DPRK | Base game |
| La-11 | USSR / DPRK / PRC | Premium and Deluxe editions or separate DLC[1] |
The map recreates the Korean Peninsula from 1950s maps and documents, including historical coastline changes, and contains dozens of airbases with historical layouts, hundreds of settlements, and targets such as ports, dams and transport hubs. The developer describes it as the largest map in the series.[1] Aircraft (including strategic bombers), ground vehicles, trains and ships have a damage model that reacts to the type of hit, the mass and speed of the objects involved, and the point of impact.[1]
Modes
The story campaign, Home by Christmas, follows Captain Jack Russell, who in 1950 transfers to a combat unit in Korea hoping to become a jet ace. Its 15 missions are based on the combat logs of the 8th Fighter-Bomber Wing and on its pilots' memoirs. Because early jets could not operate from small forward airstrips, the player flies both the F-51 Mustang and the F-80 Shooting Star during the campaign.[1]
In Career mode the player is an air regiment commander who manages personnel and logistics, plans operations, and chooses whether to fly or concentrate on command tasks.[1] A Museum mode lets players inspect each aircraft, ground vehicle and ship, read about its development and combat history, look at cockpits and compare performance charts.[1] For the first time in the series, the player can leave the cockpit and walk around the regiment's airfield, where pilots, soldiers and civilians were animated with motion capture.[1] The Early Access build also included a Mission Planner with Free Flight, Duel and Dogfight modes, and multiplayer with Team Death Match and official servers.[6] On Steam the game lists single-player, online PvP and online co-op play, and it includes a level editor.[1]
Controls
Korea. IL-2 Series is the first game in the series to support gamepads, in addition to desktop joysticks and HOTAS systems.[1] The developer says players do not need to learn engine start-up procedures and can take off and fight immediately.[1]
Virtual reality support
The game supports VR through OpenXR and OpenVR, and the Steam listing states that OpenXR or SteamVR headsets are supported but that "VR Controllers are not supported."[1] Worthplaying reported in June 2026 that the game supports a "mouse-free experience in VR".[5] An earlier game from the developer, IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad, received VR support in 2017.[4]
The Steam system requirements list a 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 PC, 24 GB of RAM and an 8 GB graphics card as the minimum. For VR, the recommended specification calls for a current-generation graphics card with 16 GB or more of memory.[1]
In a post-release developer blog (Dev Blog #85), the developers said that matching the VR performance of its previous-generation games was "objectively difficult" because of new graphics technologies and visual features. It said Quad Views rendering gave a smaller gain than in some other games because its pixel shaders were already heavily optimized, and that "Devices with 8K resolution remain the most challenging category for the time being." They said they planned to test further optimization options, with a focus on high-resolution headsets.[7]
Development
Korea. IL-2 Series is developed by 1C Game Studios, whose earlier games include IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad.[8] UploadVR reported the announcement in June 2024. At that time the game was planned for Steam in 2025, to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Korean War, with eight aircraft, a 440 by 440 km airspace and an in-game museum; the press release mentioned "VR compatibility" without further detail.[4] The game did not meet the 2025 date.[8]
In June 2026, 1C Game Studios announced 4 August 2026 as the release date and said the extra time would let it "polish core gameplay, fix critical bugs, improve performance". To let players start earlier, it opened Early Access on 25 June 2026 for pre-order buyers.[6][5][9] The game was playable at the Pimax booth at FlightSimExpo 2026, held from 12 to 14 June at the Saint Paul RiverCentre in Saint Paul, Minnesota.[5] After release, Dev Blog #85 set out further work on pilot AI, radio communications, multiplayer leaderboards, a basic flight and air combat training mode, more Commander Career scenarios, and an early-stage Dynamic Campaign mode in which the player's actions would affect the course of the war.[7] In September 2026, after speaking with the development team, DualShockers reported that the game's first DLC, Deck Ops, would add the aircraft carrier USS Essex in its SCB-27A configuration and five aircraft (F9F-2 Panther, F2H-2 Banshee, F4U-4 Corsair, AD-4 Skyraider and Sea Fury Mk. 11), with early access planned for 2026 and a full Steam release in the first quarter of 2027.[10]
Release
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 27 June 2024 | Game reported by UploadVR with a planned 2025 Steam release[4] |
| 23 June 2026 | VR trailer shown at the VR Games Showcase[2] |
| 25 June 2026 | Early Access for pre-order buyers[6][9] |
| 4 August 2026 | Full release on Steam and the official IL-2 Series store[6][1][5] |
Worthplaying reported pre-order prices of US$79.99 for the Standard Edition and US$139.99 for the Founder's Edition, and said they would rise to US$89.99 and US$149.99 after Early Access began. The Founder's Edition included all pre-order content and access to the first year of DLC, with five additional aircraft.[5] In its August 2026 release list, UploadVR gave the price on the game's own website as US$100, or US$180 for the Founder's Edition.[8] As of 29 September 2026, Steam lists the following products:[1]
| Product | Steam price (USD) |
|---|---|
| Korea. IL-2 Series (standard) | $79.99 |
| Deluxe Edition (including future expansion) | $169.99 |
| F-84E Thunderjet Collectors Plane (DLC) | $19.99[11] |
| Lavochkin La-11 Collectors Plane (DLC) | $19.99[12] |
| Unique Aerobatic Team Liveries (DLC) | $14.99[13] |
| Korea. IL-2 Series Soundtrack | $4.99[14] |
The Steam listing names FOR-GAMES CR LTD, the Limassol, Cyprus company named in the official website's copyright notice, as both developer and publisher.[1][6] The game is available in English, Russian, Simplified Chinese, French, German and Spanish.[1]
Reception
In a 17/20 review for Jeuxvideo.com, Xavier Jehl said the game made combat simulation close to mainstream without giving up its demands. He listed the VR mode among its strengths, writing that a headset conveys the scale of the aircraft in a way a monitor does not. His criticisms were a cockpit whose controls still cannot be clicked, volumetric clouds that he found weaker than those of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, combat AI that needed work, and the lack of a dynamic campaign.[15]
GameSpace scored the game 7.5 out of 10. Catherine Daro praised the setting, the Museum mode and the game's accessibility for newcomers, and criticized frame rate drops even on mid-range PCs, weak pilot AI, the six aircraft in the base game (eight with DLC) and the US$80 price.[16] On Metacritic the PC version had two critic reviews as of 29 September 2026, too few for a Metascore.[17] Steam user reviews were rated "Mostly Positive" on the same date.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 "Korea. IL-2 Series on Steam". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/247970/Korea_IL2_Series/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 VR Games Showcase (2026-06-23). "Everything Announced at the Summer 2026 VR Games Showcase". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/everything-announced-at-the-summer-2026-vr-games-showcase/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Korea. IL-2 Series". IL-2 Series. FOR-GAMES CR LTD. https://il2-korea.com/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Jason Coles (2024-06-27). "Korea IL-2 Series Brings The Military Flight Sim To PC VR Next Year". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/korea-il-2-series-pc-vr-support/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Rainier (2026-06-11). "'Korea. IL-2 Series' Reveals Early Access Content, v1.0 Launch Set For August - Trailer". Worthplaying. https://worthplaying.com/article/2026/6/11/news/150197-korea-il-2-series-reveals-early-access-content-v10-launch-set-for-august-trailer/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 "Korea Release Update". IL-2 Series. https://media.il2-korea.com/news/release_date. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Dev Blog #85". IL-2 Series. https://media.il2-korea.com/news/dd_85. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Mike Johnson (2026-07-30). "UPDATED: New VR Games & Releases August 2026: Meta Quest, PS VR2, PC VR & More". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/new-vr-games-releases-august-2026-meta-quest-ps-vr2-pc-vr-more/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Early Access for Korea. Il-2 Series". IL-2 Series. https://media.il2-korea.com/news/early_access. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Jaime Tugayev (2026-09-01). "Korea: Il-2 Series Reveals AI Plans, Naval DLC Plane List, and Dynamic Campaign". DualShockers. https://www.dualshockers.com/korea-il-2-series-naval-dlc-plane-list-dynamic-campaign/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "Korea. IL2 Series: F-84E Thunderjet Collectors Plane". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/5026020/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "Korea. IL2 Series: Lavochkin La-11 Collectors Plane". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/5026030/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "Korea. IL2 Series: Unique Aerobatic Team Liveries". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/5026460/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "Korea. IL-2 Series Soundtrack". Steam. Valve. https://store.steampowered.com/app/5026800/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Xavier Jehl (2026-08-04). "J'ai testé Korea. IL-2 Series sur PC et il m'a mis une claque comme je n'en avais pas pris depuis des années". Jeuxvideo.com. https://www.jeuxvideo.com/test/2095633/j-ai-teste-korea-il-2-series-sur-pc-et-il-m-a-mis-une-claque-comme-je-n-en-avais-pas-pris-depuis-des-annees.htm. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Catherine Daro (2026-08-31). "Korea. IL-2 Series Review - More Than a Simulator". GameSpace. https://gamespace.com/all-articles/news/korea-il-2-series-review-more-than-a-simulator/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "Korea. IL-2 Series". Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/game/korea-il-2-series/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.