New survival game on Steam convinces with gameplay – Still receives a lot of criticism

On By Garmin Philip

Icarus is a new survival game that you can play alone or in co-op on Steam. It was released on December 3rd and has had balanced reviews on Steam so far. While the gameplay is well received, pretty much all of the rest is criticized.

What kind of game is this? In Icarus you are part of a group that explores new planets. You start in a space station and complete different missions that have different lengths. A mission can last 10 minutes, but also up to 48 hours of real game time. You can complete these missions alone or with fellow players in co-op.

Numerous dangers await you on the alien planet, including:

  • Wild animals that can hunt you and even poison you with bites.
  • Random world events make life difficult for you.
  • Hunger, thirst and also oxygen, which you have to keep an eye on at all times, because the air of the planet is poisonous

Icarus offers a varied skill and tech system for your survival. So you should be able to use your skills in countless combinations and experiment a lot.

Well-known Twitch streamer shroud has tested Icarus in beta and says it could be one of the best survival games ever.

How does Icarus arrive after takeoff? Icarus was released on December 3rd. The game costs 24.99 euros on Steam, but has only received mixed reviews there so far.

Of 4,400 votes, only 55% are positive. While there is also a lot of praise for the gameplay here, the players are bothered by bugs, performance problems and even placeholder texts from the beta.

In the peak, 47,370 players have gambled at the same time so far. The number could be cracked again this Sunday.

Icarus looks more like an “Early Access” title

What are the players saying about Icarus? The general tenor in the reviews is that Icarus shows many good approaches, but looks more like a game in Early Access. For example, the user Joe from Colerado writes after 15 hours of play (via Steam):

This is an Early Access title touted as a “full version”, with bugs from previous betas that are still there and features in the crafting menu marked as “coming soon”. The performance is not nearly optimized (as it should be the case with a full-fledged game). […].

To the developers, I appreciate the effort you’ve put into this game so far, and I admit it is a fun game. It’s not your fault, the project leaders let you down here and rushed it out for the Christmas sale. It’s a shame they are bringing the game out as a full version.

Similar to this review, many opinions of the players can be read, regardless of whether the rating is positive or negative. Because praise comes in almost every aspect of gameplay, including:

  • The varied missions that have to be completed in a fixed period of time
  • There’s a lot to collect and craft
  • The different skill and crafting trees should be very large, so that you really have to make decisions
  • The compulsion to search for food and water should be there, but not so excessive that one constantly lives in fear
  • The graphics are generally well received

Criticism, however, is for:

  • Performance problems and FPS drops
  • A very slow download time
  • Problems and disconnections when playing with other players
  • Mobs are said to have an unusual pathing and so be able to run up mountains at a 90-degree angle
  • The housing should still offer too few useful functions apart from workbenches

Another point of criticism lies in the endgame, which according to some beta players will become very repetitive at some point. The Steam user Würger criticizes this in his review, but also says that the reviews are too harsh (via Steam):

In all honesty, I was very critical of the game after leaving the first (very pleasant) 10-20 hours of game time (in beta) behind me. As soon as I approached the 40th to 50th hour as a pure solo player, I began to feel the repetitions of the game mechanics (having to build everything from scratch over and over again).

So what I want to say is that I’m definitely not a fanboy. But these very negative reactions are not fair to the game. It’s not a bad game. It really has some weaknesses. In fact, some of them are so deep that I’m not sure the developers really want to improve them because that would be a lot of work. However, the game didn’t deserve to get so many negative reviews […].

I would advise fans of the genre to wait maybe 2-3 months and then buy the basic version.

Who is Icarus for? Icarus is not a survival game in which you spend a long time in one place and set up a base there, like in Rust or Ark. You get a fixed mission, complete it in a given time and then return to the space station.

This creates a certain gameplay loop that you always experience, including building your own base. This is more reminiscent of strategy games than classic survival games. In doing so, however, you always unlock new technologies and skills, which can feel rewarding.

However, Icarus still seems to be in an unfinished state, as almost all reviews confirm.

Many reviews recommend the survival game “The Forest” as a replacement for Icarus. This is currently experiencing a boom again:

7 year old survival game is suddenly a hit on Steam again – Over 30,000 players

Reference-mein-mmo.de