[ACE-OF-ACES]

Looks like an effects+poly boosted IL-2 to me.
The good old IL-2 engine shines through on many occasions.
While SOW might be an optical improvement, currently I don't get the general advantage over IL-2 for real.

Agreed 100%

Other than the shadowing effects..

The rest just looks like a slightly higher poly version of IL-2..

I guess what I am saying is I 'dont' see 8+ years of improvments over IL-2

Which can be taken one of two ways..

IL-2 was way ahead of it's time

Or

SOW is not that far ahead of IL-2