Test machine specs: MSI X670E, AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D, AMD Radeon RX 7900XTX, 48gb RAM
Reviewed for: FS2024
Add-ons: FS Traffic, GSX Pro
I had eyed up Azrsim’s previous airport, Riyadh, but eventually decided not to bother as it looked a bit lifeless for my liking. The promo pics for Baku, however, looked more promising and with a hefty 50% discount on a brand new product — in a lesser-covered area of the world — I decided to go for it (note I did not purchase the city pack as it doesn’t look great).
DETAIL
I decided, as always, to take a flight into my new purchase from afar — in this case, Digital Design’s Sochi. After a flight lasting just under two hours, I touched down on Baku’s runway 17. The first thing I noticed was the very generic-looking ground textures but the ground markings looked passable. I trundled onto stand B9, at the older of the two terminals (Terminal 2). While not actually obstructing any part of the stand, the GSE is placed a little awkwardly, sitting too close to an airliner attempting to park. The GSE is at least custom but its placement across all stands is just too uniform, and the variety comprises the same three models.
Having completed my powering down routine, I went to have a closer look at the airport with the drone cam… and I have to say, after a 2hr flight, it was a bit of an anti-climax — I’ve not been so disappointed since I reviewed Fly2High’s Savannah (which sticks in my mind as a particularly bad airport). The older terminal looks just okay, lacking an interior but featuring parallax windows. However it’s not particularly good parallaxing, with far too much repetition. Other airfield buildings follow a similar theme but some are more convincing than others.
The new terminal (Terminal 1) actually looks pretty decent but I think claiming it has a full interior is a bit disingenuous. There are expanses of emptiness and much of the detail looks like a cut ‘n’ paste job. There’s no tint to the glass. But some of the internal modelling is actually pretty good.
Moving landside, it’s disaster central, I’m afraid. Neither terminal’s car-park contains any cars, making the whole area feel totally devoid of life. This is odd because the promo images at all stores clearly depict cars filling these car-parks — and some of them (the purple taxis) definitely look custom. Fanning out to inspect the more peripheral areas, the detail remains in short(er) supply. The perimeter fence disappears not far from the terminals, and an entire cluster of airside buildings immediately south of Terminal 2 are left to default satellite imagery. Further from the terminal complex, some buildings look suspiciously like default autogen (the fact that I can’t tell is the concerning part!) and those that don’t, exhibit textures that look like they were lifted from FSX. There’s been no effort to really tidy up any of the satellite imagery in and around the airport, making any custom roadways and buildings stand out rather awkwardly. Trees and custom cacti stuck in buildings and other structures is commonplace. There are several Azerbaijani flags dotted around the scenery but none of them are animated (a small detail but one that should be standard in a 2025 scenery).
Perhaps the biggest issue, though, is texture flickering, which is especially bad inside and around Terminal 1. It’s terribly distracting.
One area that is pleasing is the night-lighting.
PERFORMANCE
Fine for me. UBBB isn’t an overly busy hub but, given some reports of performance problems (which have apparently been addressed over a couple of updates), you might want to exercise caution if running a lower-spec machine.
VERDICT
I’ll begin the summary by praising the very few aspects that are good. T1’s modelling is decent and what’s inside is generally fine (if not a bit repetitive). Many buildings in T1’s vicinity look okay (e.g. the tower, the Fly Inn hotel). The cargo area and hangars are also fairly decent. Night-lighting is pretty strong. But everything else is either mediocre or bad. There’s promise here, but this airport needs a lot more work to command its £21+ price tag (though I paid half that in the current Azrsim sale). The good bits don’t in any way rescue the scenery but it is salvageable if the dev chooses to acknowledge and address the shortcomings. The flickering textures need fixing. Urgently. The airside building cluster just south of T2 needs to be modelled because it’s simply too close to the primary area not to be. The terminal car-parks need populating with cars (I have no idea what happened to them as they were presumably present at some point?). Placement of vegetation needs to not interfere with important buildings and structures. Apron GSE needs more random/natural placement (well out of the way of parking airliners). Finally, the more outlying areas of the airfield need some love, because they currently look atrocious. The ground textures could do with being improved but they’re the least of this scenery’s worries, as things stand.
If you simply HAVE to have a rendition of Baku in your sim, this is it. It’s the best version (although that’s not saying much). But don’t expect Pyreegue or Flightbeam quality for your £22. In fact, I’m not particularly happy having paid only half that! I’ll stop short of saying Azrsim’s UBBB is a lost cause but it’s definitely unfinished. A LOT of work is required to get this to a standard simmers have become accustomed to in the latter half of 2025. And this brings me to a major concern with this developer: frequent updates that must be paid for. I don’t think this is the case but I could fully understand anyone thinking this is a deliberate ploy by Azrsim to ensure its coffers remain full: release a half-baked scenery, quickly reduce the price… then fix it at considerable cost to the consumer. The regularity of their 50% off sales certainly doesn’t help quash these suspicions. As I say, I’m reluctant to believe this is actually the modus operandi but charging for updates that add what should have been there on day one isn’t really ethical.
So is it worth £21.60? Definitely not. £10.80, perhaps? Maybe, if you really need Baku. But in its current state, this is NOT a good scenery. It’s not totally beyond salvation but it’s gonna require quite a makeover…
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