The game is fully playable with a standard joystick, but for a full experience a flightstick/rudder combo is required. I highly recommend learning all aspects of the manual in full sim mode - such as pre-flight check, the vagaries of oil pressure, flap controls, engine stalling/restarts, landing/take-off procedures, structural limitations, bullet arc, dive bombing, and all things flight. The closest thing I have found that gives me the sense of WW2 air combat is War Thunder, vs true sim fans, and even that lacks comparatively in some regards - I'm quite sure though that many of the devs were fans of this title as you can recognize the DNA.

The missions are excellent, the campaign(s) with dynamic battle lines (determined by your mission type/timing/performance), and pilot experience modifiers along with terrain, historical enemy tactics, and no nonsense/brutal AA weapons make this sim a real gem. There are animated addendum for many of the tactics, and really diving (pun intended) into the manual will make you a better pilot. The manual for this game is a massive volume with specs, history, tactics and instructions for any given scenario. There is a steep learning curve if playing this in a sim mode, but everything I learned playing this game has served me in every other flight simulator (using prop driven aircraft) I have ever laid my hands upon. The cockpits look great, the gauges look and work great and actually display relevant information, not just decals with no functionality.

Even dropping an external fuel tank works as a damage multiplier. Like all of the Microsoft sims there is a lot of attention to detail with the modeling, and characteristics of the available planes, ballistics and bomb trajectories. I've played a lot of flight sims and this is one of my favorites.

Combat flight simulator mac