ICARUS

 PC
User Score
4.7

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 33 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 33
  3. Negative: 17 out of 33

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  1. Clod_Grondle
    Dec 8, 2021
    2
    Review after playing with a team of 4 after 4 days:

    Runs at about 40fps on a 3080ti with a 5900xt and looks like a crummy early access game. The forest has the same, if not better graphics. Has serious memory leaks on release. Extremely grindy and repetitive, game mechanics exist to rob you of any sense of progress. Endless gathering to build everything - and you'll be building    Review after playing with a team of 4 after 4 days:

    Runs at about 40fps on a 3080ti with a 5900xt and looks like a crummy early access game. The forest has the same, if not better graphics. Has serious memory leaks on release.

    Extremely grindy and repetitive, game mechanics exist to rob you of any sense of progress.

    Endless gathering to build everything - and you'll be building the same things every hour or so. There is no point in investing in a base as you will have to tear it down when you move camp, and it will be destroyed once you complete the mission.

    Sparse content - there's lots of stuff to unlock but it's all mechanically identical - you fire the same arrows at the same charging enemies but with bigger numbers.

    Samey, overlong and dull missions.

    Very easy to waste talent points on skills that turn out to be useless

    All the animals have the same AI - they just run at you. The worms spit at you. not exactly groundbreaking stuff.

    full of bugs. You can be randomly launched 50 feet in the air and die upon landing. Your stuff disappears constantly. Animals get stuck on geometry. Buildings clip through geometry.

    Awful UI and frustrating inventory management dropping stuff because something needs to be transferred from one window to another in order to wear it or whatever.

    unusuable map - it doesn't zoom in close enough to actually find people when they're nearby, all the icons are too big and stack on top of each other.

    If a player in your group skips a mission, they don't share your progess when you unlock other missions    … Expand
  2. Andrudis
    Dec 13, 2021
    3
    This game have a good potential and some nice survival mechanics, but currently it is plagued by terrible optimization, absurd design decisions, lack of meaningful progression balance and general inconsistency in lore.

    Permadeath in not integrated in gameplay loop in any way - currently it serves only to punish players, who were forced to take a few days break because of technical or    This game have a good potential and some nice survival mechanics, but currently it is plagued by terrible optimization, absurd design decisions, lack of meaningful progression balance and general inconsistency in lore.

    Permadeath in not integrated in gameplay loop in any way - currently it serves only to punish players, who were forced to take a few days break because of technical or real life issues. Not to mention there is no any clear warning and most players do not know about existence of Permadeath until they will permanently lose their character with all his/her progress

    Mission timers - do not create any real pressure because most missions can be completed in 0.5-4h even solo, so 7days timer does not correlate with gameplay in any way

    Tech tree progression where you can unlock tools blueprints many levels before you'll be able to unlock blueprints for crafting component to actually craft that tool - is a clear indication nobody cared about any balance or even simple fool-proof validation of existing progression before release.

    This game is too buggy and unpolished to call it a Released Product - in reality it is an Early Beta at best.    … Expand
  3. EReviews
    Dec 15, 2021
    0
    Icarus is such a letdown and a far stray from what the trailers showed. This game does run horribly and IDK what this guy means by a "cheap" graphics card. I have friends complaining from 1080 all the way to 3080. Games like this one is the reason why indies get a bad rep. Also after yet ANOTHER patch/hotfix it corrupted some data and I started getting blue screens. There is absolutely noIcarus is such a letdown and a far stray from what the trailers showed. This game does run horribly and IDK what this guy means by a "cheap" graphics card. I have friends complaining from 1080 all the way to 3080. Games like this one is the reason why indies get a bad rep. Also after yet ANOTHER patch/hotfix it corrupted some data and I started getting blue screens. There is absolutely no lore, no endgame, and has the tiniest map I've seen in this modern era of gaming. Icarus tries to cash in on the current trend of empty shell sandbox games like Tarkov, but in the end you're looting everything for what? To lose it all and go back out to do... Nothing? At least Tarkov has some hidden elements and some lore to dive into. There is absolutely no secrets and no discovery in this game. You drop, scan, kill animals and repeat. *Side note it looks like they don't know how to code birds because there are none at all … Expand
  4. Athanath
    Dec 11, 2021
    4
    Incredibly boring and repetitive. No story, world building makes no sense. Seems like it was built to intentionally troll its players.
  5. SherlockHolmess
    Jan 1, 2022
    3
    What a horrible release.... Performance is a mess. Graphics don't look good at all. Game is buggy.... I could go on but i keep it short. ATM Icarus is not even in Beta state... it's at least Alpha. The game itself may have potential but in it's current form, not playable. I will wait some months and update my review if the game becomes better.
  6. rageslash
    Jan 8, 2022
    0
    1) Its not a complete game. The lie that it is awful. I really want to like this game. I have done many missions and sunk over 50 hours into this. I really want to like it but the game design decisions that were made are bad. I can forgive bugs, but deliberate poor design I cannot.
    Missions that require ludicrous amount of resources, but then they dont have enough of those resources spawn    1) Its not a complete game. The lie that it is awful. I really want to like this game. I have done many missions and sunk over 50 hours into this. I really want to like it but the game design decisions that were made are bad. I can forgive bugs, but deliberate poor design I cannot.
    Missions that require ludicrous amount of resources, but then they dont have enough of those resources spawn to do it. The whole time limit thing is just a poor idea. Yes they removed perma-death (that should of never made it to release) but the time limit makes it so taking any break longer than a week while in a mission is impractical. The amount of wildlife is just spammed wild life. Long grinding of materials. Ridiculous debuffs that grind you and your progress to a halt.
    The game itself is not the worse, The devs did heck of a job to make something look great. However, the choices made just put an anchor around the neck of this game and drags it WAY down.    … Expand
  7. VendonJura
    Jan 18, 2022
    1
    Actually I do like this game but it has all survival illness that was ever made and even many many more.
    ✅ The Graphic is not bad
    ✅ The Sound effects are rlly great especially the weather sounds. I just love them ✅ There is always something there to do ✅ You can play with your friends BUT it is Peer2Peer, means, the host is your server ✅ Ingame Achievements like harvest 100 copper ✅    Actually I do like this game but it has all survival illness that was ever made and even many many more.
    ✅ The Graphic is not bad
    ✅ The Sound effects are rlly great especially the weather sounds. I just love them
    ✅ There is always something there to do
    ✅ You can play with your friends BUT it is Peer2Peer, means, the host is your server
    ✅ Ingame Achievements like harvest 100 copper
    ✅ This game has the most satisfieing bow mechanic I ever seen. It feels so good to use a bow in this game
    ✅ This game has damage popup numbers, I don't even buy many games which does not have it
    ❌ FPS Drops especially in the desert/snow
    ❌ WORST Shadow of all time.
    ❌ There is absolutely no optimisation at all. Recommended is a RTX 3060Ti, apperantly you need a 5000 € to play this game with good fps
    ❌ Structure durability is wrong, Stone has 2500 and the last tier has 1000 durability. These deffs clearly don't know what they are doing
    ❌Some missions are almost impossible to do. There are missions where you have to harvest several 100ts of food like 200 pumpkins etc. but this food spoils so redicolously fast that it's almost impossible to do this quest solo without having to learn unwanted talents or blueprints like the fridge.
    ❌ As I've mentioned before, the spoiltime in this game is a joke. In what world does 1 steak spoil in less than 10 hour?
    ❌ Everything you do in a mission will be lost as soon as you leave the map. It whipes everything. No matter what you achieve on this mission. There are missions where you have to build outposts for others but why? They get whiped out as soon as you leave the place. Structures which you place will get destroyed by a storm that appears when you leave the place BUT the little lvl 1 rabbit and bushes are not harmed. Yeah sure
    ❌ Crafting, this is one of the dumbest mechanics in this game. Not the crafting itself but the materials needed for each craft. Forexample the Stone Structures, you need Iron to craft stone structures but there are no iron structures. Or the fact that you need like 30 concrete bags for a machine bench which is used to craft electronics. In what world you need CONCRETE in electronic benches?
    ❌ Thatch is useless since it get destroyed during any weather event, same for wood. Even stone gets destroyed in snow biom dua of weight of snow no matter if you support your base with beams or not. So why is this Iron needed in stone structures then?
    ❌ No respawn of nodes.
    ❌ Balancing of bears is a joke, as soon as a bear spots you, its over. They can climb up 70 degree walls like its nothing.
    ❌ Most of the time when you die, your gear glitches and clips in your face so you won't see anything at all especially when using a bow. You have to unequip and Equip your gear again.
    ❌ If you are close to lvl up at 99% and die, you lose all 99% and have to go all over vom 0% to reach the lvl up. If you die again, you are at 0% again. Enjoy
    ❌ This game is an EARLY ACCESS or even an Alpha title but it's being solt as a full and finished release with missing items in the game like mushrooms and blueprints which say, comming soon.
    ❌ Sometimes you don't even get rewards at all by finishing a mission dua to a bug.
    ❌ You are wearing an sealed space suit because you can not breath the air on this so called alien planet with 1 alien worm and thats it. You get Pneumonia in that sealed suit when you are in a cave for to long but you can be under water just fine. Well atleast your character learned to eat and drink through his helmet.
    ❌ Since humans can not breath that toxic Oxygen on that planet, you have to inhale stones to get Oxygen. I've seen alllllot of stupid ideas but this one is on another lvl of dumb.
    ❌This game has allllot of bugs. I can not count how often items just fell through terrain. If you die and you have workshop items with you and are unlucky, you will lose them.
    ❌ Invisible walls on many places. You can noreach some nodes thanks to that stuff.
    ❌ You can not even fully harvest most nodes at all. Most of them are below the terrain where you can not pick axe them. This crap happens most of the time in caves. I had harvested 30 nodes and 7 of them I could harvest fully.
    ❌ This game has like 1000 talents you can learn like 40 of them. No Skillreset nor anything close to it. Although most people are asking for this features weeks ago, they just get ignored and instead new buggy missions. Thats all we got.
    ❌ Animal Spawns are a chaos, they spawn near to the player. One animal even spawned inside my character. I couldn't move because of it and got killed by a bear who spawned just behing me. Then I killed the bear after comming back and BAM 10 seconds that bear respawned.
    ❌ You can not stop the worm spawns by placing foundations on their spawns. They still spawn inside your foundation and destroy it.
    ❌ Wolfs etc. can bite through your stone / concrete structures like its some berry.    … Expand
  8. Iceman6891
    Feb 4, 2022
    0
    When the CEO of a company decides that he is going to forum ban someone offering constructive criticism for their product, that should say enough about the company and their products to discourage others from getting involved with them.

    Dean Hall, or as he is known on the Steam forums as "rocket2guns" is as arrogant as he is a scam artist. Icarus is a fine example of the mentality that    When the CEO of a company decides that he is going to forum ban someone offering constructive criticism for their product, that should say enough about the company and their products to discourage others from getting involved with them.

    Dean Hall, or as he is known on the Steam forums as "rocket2guns" is as arrogant as he is a scam artist. Icarus is a fine example of the mentality that he displays.

    I pre-ordered Icarus back in July just before the BETA weekends began. I had read multiple reports regarding Dean and the history of games that his company had essentially created and then abandoned. I’d read the stories of him bragging about his Lamborghini Aventador. I’d read the reviews of products talking about how people who were offering constructive criticism on forums were banned. But I very much believe in giving others a chance. And Icarus, in my opinion, was a great concept and could provide a lot of entertainment.

    I can now say that I was wrong in so many ways. Having been a staunch supporter of both this product and the company producing it for so long, I now understand all of the reviews, reports and criticism that others had offered in the past. My own constructive criticism netted me a permanent ban from the Icarus forums on Steam. And that was the nail in the coffin.

    What does Icarus get right? It is a great concept. That’s about it. Coming from that great concept is a game that is VERY OBVIOUSLY so broken that it should have been released in Early Access. But instead, it was released as a Full release title. Content was still lacking, the game wasn’t optimized at all, and there were more bugs than many early access titles have. After playing for almost every Beta weekend, I felt like that the official release should have been delayed while they worked on truly polishing the game and getting it to a more presentable state.

    But even after release and the peak of roughly 52k players, I continued to support the game. But the real killer of this game was the very poor communication from the development team. Apparently, they do not have a community manager. Dean Hall himself (rocket2gunz) is the only one to respond. And 2 months to the day from release, we’re only now hearing information on how the development team plans to address one of the biggest issues plaguing the game: a lack of any ability to respec the talent points of a character.

    Until now, the answer has been to simply “make a new character” and grind out the 40+ levels of talents again just so that you can try a new talent build. This mentality along with the poor communication and now coupled with the suppression and downright censorship of my constructive criticism has led me to writing this review to warn anyone who may be considering giving this game (or any other game produced by RocketWerkz) to stay away. This is only my opinion based on my personal experience. But I can definitely say that those other reviews that you read are telling the truth. I’ve now witnessed it for myself.    … Expand
  9. Axeroz
    Oct 9, 2022
    0
    No Polish language (translation), that's why such a rating
    NO POLISH TRANSLATION THAT'S WHY SUCH A RATING
  10. SovietPuma
    Dec 7, 2021
    0
    Unfinished, buggy, and broken, Icarus should not have released at this stage. With mind-numbing repetition and baffling design decisions, it's a survival game that's more frustrating than challenging.
  11. RDonnell
    Dec 4, 2021
    1
    Another game by dean hall aka the guy behind unoptimized and then abandoned Day Z. Abandoned Day Z only to learn no lessons. This game should be removed from sale. Buggy and unoptimized early access trash. Requires 32gb of ram as they are so lazy. I will not be fooled twice by dean hall agan. He will abandon Icarus as well. Dean Hall to me is like Peter Molinox except Molinox ruined moreAnother game by dean hall aka the guy behind unoptimized and then abandoned Day Z. Abandoned Day Z only to learn no lessons. This game should be removed from sale. Buggy and unoptimized early access trash. Requires 32gb of ram as they are so lazy. I will not be fooled twice by dean hall agan. He will abandon Icarus as well. Dean Hall to me is like Peter Molinox except Molinox ruined more games haha… Expand
  12. Nunubuffs
    Dec 4, 2021
    0
    Unoptimized garbage. If you like being disappointed, go for it. Don't except nothing much other then another New World/ BF2042 type game, early access alpha build with 0 to no content & trash optimization. That's the tweet, put your wallet away and walk away from this god awful game.
  13. Kerber
    Dec 4, 2021
    3
    Game has a great potential. Unfortunately it is pushed as unfinished and still on early access level as final product. Optimisation is not implemented, still present bugs and unpolished menues, resources usage way above needs and fps drops without reason.

    Someone thought that pushing game in such development stage is good just to grab some holidays sale numbers. And that is plane wrong.    Game has a great potential. Unfortunately it is pushed as unfinished and still on early access level as final product. Optimisation is not implemented, still present bugs and unpolished menues, resources usage way above needs and fps drops without reason.

    Someone thought that pushing game in such development stage is good just to grab some holidays sale numbers. And that is plane wrong. Unless you got it for free no reason to waste time on it in this stage. And check steam reviews if in doubt.    … Expand
  14. deanhole
    Dec 6, 2021
    0
    Unfortunately a complete disaster caused by mismanagement that forced the developers to ship an incomplete product. The cherry on top are those responses to reviews written by the marketing department on Steam pretending to be a "developer", apologizing for shipping an incomplete and buggy game, which they claim to be FINE, ACCEPTABLE.
    "Sorry. We, a team of 50 people (?) Never noticed    Unfortunately a complete disaster caused by mismanagement that forced the developers to ship an incomplete product. The cherry on top are those responses to reviews written by the marketing department on Steam pretending to be a "developer", apologizing for shipping an incomplete and buggy game, which they claim to be FINE, ACCEPTABLE.
    "Sorry. We, a team of 50 people (?) Never noticed that the game crashed randomly or that there were hundreds of bugs .. Sorry !!!" but keep playing for at least 2 hours so you can't get a refund.
    I think if you sell a product that doesn't work ... and the supplier still convinces you to keep it ... that it's called SC**Something else!
    And also, congratulations on posting a fake review here and on Steam too - it just demonstrates the childish, immature and arrogant mindset behind those pseudo producers and managers who can't even ship a decent game.
    Congratulations on ruining a title that could have been a real hit!
    Now is the time to find someone to blame and run away.
    I wonder if anyone of those has the decency to resign and admit the failure. Oh.. that's not gonna happen of course! Why don't we blame the developers instead?    … Expand
  15. IGreenI
    Dec 5, 2021
    8
    Whatever your position is on the Early Access vs. Release today, remember ICARUS's price point when considering the content you will find within (which is a lot, and tons more is added every day as can be seen on Dean's Reddit or the official Discord server).

    Bugs are not all that bad, to be honest (especially compared to some other releases), and a lot of very important fixes have been    Whatever your position is on the Early Access vs. Release today, remember ICARUS's price point when considering the content you will find within (which is a lot, and tons more is added every day as can be seen on Dean's Reddit or the official Discord server).

    Bugs are not all that bad, to be honest (especially compared to some other releases), and a lot of very important fixes have been done during the Beta. A lot. I have big faith in this developer. Dean is very honest, and he is very dedicated. I think once they nail down explaining how the game works for new players the experience will be much more straightforward. Perhaps I am biased as a Beta tester, but ICARUS has been a very fun experience for me and my strategically-oriented group of friends.    … Expand
  16. CartoonFace
    Dec 6, 2021
    9
    The game could do with optimizing without a doubt but as for gameplay; it's extremely vibrant and certainly keeps you on your toes at times. I've spent most of the weekend on it and i have to say it is quickly becoming my favourite survival game. I expect a lot to come from updates over time. It's worth it's price tag that's for sure. Just make sure to carry a fire whacker with you at allThe game could do with optimizing without a doubt but as for gameplay; it's extremely vibrant and certainly keeps you on your toes at times. I've spent most of the weekend on it and i have to say it is quickly becoming my favourite survival game. I expect a lot to come from updates over time. It's worth it's price tag that's for sure. Just make sure to carry a fire whacker with you at all times if you're in anything lower than a stone base.... i speak from personal experience :)… Expand
  17. zugzugnz
    Dec 5, 2021
    8
    An enjoyable and interesting take on the survival genre.

    The performance is OK for me as I have a reasonably good computer, but could use improvement further. The graphics are very pretty though. i won't lie, there are some bugs/glitches and missing icons but to me these are very minor issues that will be fixed very soon and don't hurt my enjoyment overall. Having a mission    An enjoyable and interesting take on the survival genre.

    The performance is OK for me as I have a reasonably good computer, but could use improvement further. The graphics are very pretty though.

    i won't lie, there are some bugs/glitches and missing icons but to me these are very minor issues that will be fixed very soon and don't hurt my enjoyment overall.

    Having a mission progression and choices of talents and blueprints with a fresh world every time you drop is is actually a cool idea when you get used to it.

    The game is super fun in coop play too.

    All in all I am having a lot of fun and think that for the price it is a great game with a lot of potential to get even better.    … Expand
  18. NakedVegas
    Dec 5, 2021
    10
    Amazing game!
    The negative reviews are laughable. Either people complaining about graphics and optimization due to their cheap graphics card or quit after 30 mins not even getting passed the 2 starter missions. This game is deep and continues to impress you even after playing ever beta weekend. Highly recommend this to anyone looking for a survival game. Bring friends, it is tough.
    #BearBonesCrew
  19. theirrelephants
    Dec 27, 2021
    6
    I don't understand the bad scores or the great ones. This game is average at best. It has optimization problems, but I'm running it just fine on a 1060 card (I saw someone with a 3080 saying they couldn't run it?!?).

    It has an interesting death mechanic which is nothing short of either irritating or hilarious depending on how capable you are of planning. If you die, you lose    I don't understand the bad scores or the great ones. This game is average at best. It has optimization problems, but I'm running it just fine on a 1060 card (I saw someone with a 3080 saying they couldn't run it?!?).

    It has an interesting death mechanic which is nothing short of either irritating or hilarious depending on how capable you are of planning. If you die, you lose everything - but more importantly, you get an EXP debt to however much exp you gained up until that point. If you're high level and you were 1% away from leveling up, it will make you want to throw your keyboard at a wall. if you're ANY level but had 0% towards the next level, the death penalty... isn't a penalty at all. I'm sure you can see how easily such a thing could be abused.

    I'm still playing it, but so far the progression system seems rather pointless. I'm maybe 3-4 missions away from unlocking the last one, but I've found zero reason to make any building past tier 2 wood or craft any tools past iron. The only threatening animals are bears, which can usually be run past.

    There are also more than a few bugs that still need to be fixed.

    The most glaring of which shows up in most missions that require you to 'survey' an area. What can make these missions difficult is that when your survey machine starts up, it summons waves of animals. However, if you build ANYTHING around the survey machine... nothing spawns. Nothing at all. Which means any mission can easily be cheesed by placing down a few floors and walls.

    I'm enjoying it so far, but I give it an average score because it just doesn't come together as well as it should.

    The devs should take notes from ARK's progression system if they want to see how meaningful progression works. A lot of the unlocks you simply don't NEED.    … Expand
  20. Nerodon
    Dec 6, 2021
    9
    An amazing new take on the survival genre.
    Getting some space station unlocks and going back in feels really good.
    Basically, a rogue-like applied to survival! Playing with friends is definitely the best way to go. 20hours played this weekend, utterly hooked! Some performance issues but all relatively minor, patches come with fixes quickly, and can't wait to see where the game goes    An amazing new take on the survival genre.
    Getting some space station unlocks and going back in feels really good.

    Basically, a rogue-like applied to survival! Playing with friends is definitely the best way to go. 20hours played this weekend, utterly hooked!

    Some performance issues but all relatively minor, patches come with fixes quickly, and can't wait to see where the game goes in the future with extra content and updates.

    There are a lot of hateful reviews mad at the performance issues, but they are hardly worth crying about, the game works fine for most people, sometimes a tweak to some settings or driver update or alternate between DX11 or DX12 fixes the issue. I think there's a ton of hate because of the ongoing backlash for BF2042 and people come on here saying that the same thing is going on everywhere, but it is NOT at all comparable.

    Although I honestly agree that the game could have been delayed another few weeks, but really, in the end, the game is a real gem, fun to play and worth every penny!    … Expand
  21. dalefish
    Dec 29, 2021
    9
    Not sure why people are having issues with frame rate, I'm running a 3070 in 4k on 2 screens (one for me, one for a spectator) at 60fps 99% of the time. The occasional stutter is slightly irritating but not enough to detract from a thoroughly great all-round game.

    It can be tough playing solo, certainly if you haven't discovered all the little tips and tricks yet but the deeper I get    Not sure why people are having issues with frame rate, I'm running a 3070 in 4k on 2 screens (one for me, one for a spectator) at 60fps 99% of the time. The occasional stutter is slightly irritating but not enough to detract from a thoroughly great all-round game.

    It can be tough playing solo, certainly if you haven't discovered all the little tips and tricks yet but the deeper I get into the game, the more I want to play. Don't get me wrong, I've had moments of "surely this can't be right" and "this just isn't fu^*ing possible" but once I realized there was a better way to achieve X Objective, everything suddenly made sense and the satisfaction in doing so was worth the pain of getting there.

    If you want a high octane shooter, go elsewhere, otherwise I'd highly recommend this for an in-depth survival adventure.    … Expand
  22. Asarig
    Mar 13, 2022
    10
    Un juego que no es para gente que no se maneja en el tipo de juego survival desnudo, empiezas con nada y poco a poco segun avanzas en las extracciones puedes seguir mejorando a tu explorador, con misiones limitadas por tiempo de 7 dias, donde si no lo retiras y pasa el tiempo todo tu progreso será eliminado con la muerte de tu personaje, sin considerar algunas fallas en la optimización,Un juego que no es para gente que no se maneja en el tipo de juego survival desnudo, empiezas con nada y poco a poco segun avanzas en las extracciones puedes seguir mejorando a tu explorador, con misiones limitadas por tiempo de 7 dias, donde si no lo retiras y pasa el tiempo todo tu progreso será eliminado con la muerte de tu personaje, sin considerar algunas fallas en la optimización, este es uno de los pocos juegos que me ha logrado amarrar completamente.… Expand
  23. BorkoBoi
    Jun 12, 2022
    10
    Review after 6 months / 1000+ hours of gameplay.

    Icarus avoided falling into the No Mans Sky trap. They hinted at a lot, space travel and interstellar travel are there in the trailer, but started small. We are the first cohort and we will earn our living by the sweat on our brow. This game will grow at the speed a small developer can grow it. Soon(TM) there will be a 'second cohort'    Review after 6 months / 1000+ hours of gameplay.

    Icarus avoided falling into the No Mans Sky trap. They hinted at a lot, space travel and interstellar travel are there in the trailer, but started small. We are the first cohort and we will earn our living by the sweat on our brow. This game will grow at the speed a small developer can grow it. Soon(TM) there will be a 'second cohort' that will go off planet, a 'third cohort' that will go interstellar and an 'Icarus the Final Frontier' that can go beyond what we can imagine now.

    How can they do this while remaining small? Simple. They started with a small team (call them A-team) who created a small 8x8 map aka the base game. Once this was good enough (not perfect) they released to get some money. This money hired the B-team from 'hire-a-developer'. These are the guys that crank out more of the same with a weekly new mission and an extra free DLC thrown in once in a while. All to keep the patient player base busy while the A-team works on the next DLC which will have the alien fauna and flora we are all waiting for. And the C-team is already working on the next game, which will take us off planet.

    If Rocketwerkz plays it's cards well they can grow this game beyond our wildest imagination with a small well controlled team. They will do so by taking their time, start with a small area, get the bugs out, check with the player base if it matches with expectations and adjust where needed. Then they hand down to the B-team for filler while the next new thing gets created. No bloated teams, no need to sell out to a big publisher for a big budget, no need to do desperate things to stuff a huge empty box with crap content.

    Could they have done different? No! Not without the right balance between enough money and enough freedom.

    Prepare the ground, plant the seed, water and manure till the roots catch and now your tree grows all by itself.

    But that's just my opinion and prediction, only the future can tell.    … Expand
  24. wolfaust
    Feb 6, 2023
    6
    Icarus is not a successful game in terms of performance. But basically, I'd say the Prospect idea was a success. There are mechanics that we usually don't have a chance to see this kind of thing in some other survival games, but that we are already accustomed to in some survival games, which are almost a minority. On the whole, I don't think Icarus was successful. The reason is that thereIcarus is not a successful game in terms of performance. But basically, I'd say the Prospect idea was a success. There are mechanics that we usually don't have a chance to see this kind of thing in some other survival games, but that we are already accustomed to in some survival games, which are almost a minority. On the whole, I don't think Icarus was successful. The reason is that there are some completely unsuccessful mechanics, the fact that the performance issues are annoying, some mechanics are very unnecessary (like you lose all your experience points when you die), and wild animals attack you even if you dodge.

    You get in-game currency as you complete Prospects. You can purchase unlocked items from the Workshop before entering a Prospect with currencies. Frankly, on a Prospect these work pretty well. However, what I don't like is that Prospects don't give much currency, so you have to carefully choose the items you activate in the Workshop. Because you need to craft these items before you go to Prospect, just as you spend currency while unlocking these items, and you spend currency while crafting. Maybe it would make more sense if the currency rewards from the Prospects were higher. However, I do not think that this is sufficient at this stage.

    There is no mode in the game where you can play the whole map freely like in Conan Exiles, Valheim or similar games. Instead, there is a mode where there are no predators, no dangers, and even mild weather conditions on a very small map surrounded by 4x4 tile and mountains. I think it's of no use. I think it is a wrong choice to limit players in "Open World Survival Craft" games like this.

    I believe Icarus will be successful when it comes out of early access (I think the game is still in early access). The potential in the game is very high, but they destroyed it due to performance issues, some unsuccessful mechanics, and the reasons I mentioned.    … Expand
  25. Fataga
    Mar 19, 2023
    10
    After The Forest, I was looking for another survival game and stumbled upon Icarus. I wasn't expecting much, but WOW: What a great game this is. The concept? Great. Innovative. Phew, I'm really flashed by this game. Really ingenious. And the graphics on UQWHD with ray tracing GI and maxed out is awesome. Mega immservice. Mission enough. Content enough. AWESOME. I don't know why this gameAfter The Forest, I was looking for another survival game and stumbled upon Icarus. I wasn't expecting much, but WOW: What a great game this is. The concept? Great. Innovative. Phew, I'm really flashed by this game. Really ingenious. And the graphics on UQWHD with ray tracing GI and maxed out is awesome. Mega immservice. Mission enough. Content enough. AWESOME. I don't know why this game hovers so under the radar.… Expand
  26. f0reverr
    Jan 6, 2023
    0
    Literally no one should purchase this game. I am honestly astonished the developers are able to sleep at night knowing this atrocity is labeled as a full release. This game is MAYBE equivalent to an early level Alpha build of Ark: Survival Evolved. From nonexistent optimization that they try to mask with resolution downscaling to some of the worst AI I've ever witnessed in modern gaming toLiterally no one should purchase this game. I am honestly astonished the developers are able to sleep at night knowing this atrocity is labeled as a full release. This game is MAYBE equivalent to an early level Alpha build of Ark: Survival Evolved. From nonexistent optimization that they try to mask with resolution downscaling to some of the worst AI I've ever witnessed in modern gaming to a lazy progression system that makes no logical sense, this game truly has a bit of all negative things that exist. I wouldn't recommend to my worst enemy, if you want this type of gameplay just buy Ark instead, just about everything this game does Ark does better and with graphical optimizations and more than two brain cells involved in the development process. Also, don't pay attention to the positive review andy's they're just fantasizing about sucking off Dean Hall and are used to running games on the Lowest quality setting so they can't see how absolutely horrible this game is optimized, even with a 4090 (the best graphics card money can buy you right now) this game is borderline unplayable for anyone with any kind of actual standards or expectations beyond "durrr hurr the game runs on my PC and doesn't give me a virus 10/10"… Expand
  27. wolfnet18
    Jun 12, 2023
    8
    Looking at the reviews of icarus, i had to push my 7 to an 8 to put it in the green.
    Since launching Icarus has struggled, and it's still struggling, but the devs are extremely busy on the game. Weekly updates, even if it's something small show they're constantly working. A new map was released, though i am strongly against them letting people who have bought the game get the new map for    Looking at the reviews of icarus, i had to push my 7 to an 8 to put it in the green.
    Since launching Icarus has struggled, and it's still struggling, but the devs are extremely busy on the game. Weekly updates, even if it's something small show they're constantly working. A new map was released, though i am strongly against them letting people who have bought the game get the new map for free, and are making the new map a paid dlc later.
    Building and bugs have been getting fixed.

    The game struggles hard with optimization however, and i believe it is due to their grid system. when you cross grid lines you can feel the game stutter, or sometimes freeze as it tries to load in the new grid, which is frustrating on multiplayer as other players crossing gridlines seems to affect everyone.

    I want to give the game a lower score additionally for the repetitive farming portion of the game, where you have to start a mission from the ground up, but the devs recently revealed their next update is going to allow missions to start from the surface, meaning you'll be able to tackle those tier 4 missions without having to start over again.

    The latest update with fishing and the beast book took them a while, and honestly i was expecting more for the time it took them, but small crew more time i supposed. You can definitely see they're trying their best to take care of their game, but not rush it which is why the higher score balances out it's current state.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
67

Mixed or average reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 6
  3. Negative: 1 out of 6
  1. GamingTrend
    Jan 4, 2022
    70
    Icarus is an absolutely gorgeous, engaging, and challenging survival crafting game. When it’s working correctly, it is a fantastic entry into the genre. When it’s not, the problems are deep and varied. Disconnects, corrupt characters, bugs, and balance problems abound. I look forward to seeing it reach its potential, but it’s hard to see it as anything other than a game that exited Early Access too soon.
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  2. Gamersky
    Dec 21, 2021
    70
    Despite its flaws, the superior picture quality and solid basic experience still give ICARUS a lot of potential. The level-based mission design makes ICARUS significantly different from traditional survival games, but it also makes most of the player's efforts in vain. If its mission rewards are more generous, the items unlocked in the space station have a wider range of uses, and the settings of character growth system are more reasonable, then I believe that players will also have a better gaming experience than they do now.
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  3. PC Games
    Dec 17, 2021
    60
    Icarus is a hardcore survival game with an innovative concept. Despite its great potential, the story is non-existent. The game punishes playing alone and is in dire need of some polishing when it comes to enemy AI and bugs.
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