ICARUS stands out as a PvE survival game that challenges players to endure a hostile alien planet through resource gathering, crafting, and strategic planning. Set on a failed terraformed world once meant to be a new Earth, the game puts you in the role of a prospector dropping from orbit to extract valuable exotic matter while battling environmental hazards and wildlife. Developed by RocketWerkz, this PC title emphasizes co-op play for up to eight participants, blending action, simulation, and adventure elements in a brutal yet rewarding loop.
Gameplay
In ICARUS, the core loop revolves around landing on the planet's surface, gathering resources, and building up your capabilities to survive and complete objectives. You start with minimal gear, forcing careful management of oxygen, food, and shelter against a toxic atmosphere, aggressive creatures, and natural disasters like storms and fires. Harvesting plays a big role, with every tree choppable and every rock mineable using voxel-based tools. Hunting and taming mounts add depth, letting you ride animals for faster travel or combat advantages.
Crafting ties into three distinct tech trees that shape progression. Planetary tech offers four tiers, advancing from basic hand tools to complex electronics and composites with over eight building materials. Player talents provide more than 100 options to specialize in areas like exploration, farming, or fighting. The orbital workshop lets you trade extracted exotic matter for advanced items, giving an edge on future drops. Multiplayer mechanics encourage teamwork, whether scavenging together or defending against apex predators, all in a PvE setting without player-versus-player conflict.
Game Modes
ICARUS features three main ways to engage with its world, each catering to different playstyles. Open World mode delivers a persistent experience where you forge a lasting presence on the planet, tackling narrative quests known as Operations. These integrate story elements into the survival challenge, supporting co-op with up to eight players via Steam invites or dedicated servers.
Missions mode focuses on timed challenges, where you drop in empty-handed, set up a base, mine exotics, and fulfill contracts before extracting. These episodic tasks mirror Operations but run in isolation, emphasizing efficiency under pressure. For a more relaxed approach, Outposts mode provides creative freedom in safe zones with regenerating resources, ideal for experimenting with builds without survival threats.
Updates and Expansions
The game has evolved significantly since its 2021 release, with over four years of free weekly updates enhancing base mechanics and adding content. Major expansions such as New Frontiers, Styx, and Dangerous Horizons introduce new biomes, threats, and lore, expanding the playable area and deepening the narrative around factions like the power brokers and xeno-engineers who oversee exotic extraction contracts.
These updates keep the experience fresh, integrating community feedback to refine systems like tech progression and multiplayer stability. Dedicated servers remain a key feature for Open World sessions, ensuring smooth co-op without relying on peer-to-peer connections.
Is It Worth Playing?
For fans of survival games that reward preparation and teamwork, ICARUS offers a compelling option with its unique drop-in, extract-out structure. Player reception has improved over time, earning a Mostly Positive rating on Steam with 76% positive reviews from over 50,000 total submissions and the same percentage from nearly 2,000 recent ones. Many highlight the stunning visuals and the thrill of starting fresh in each session, though some note the grind in repetitive tasks.
With ongoing free updates and expansions, the game maintains active support, making it suitable for solo players or groups seeking co-op adventures. If you enjoy building from scratch in a harsh environment and don't mind the lack of PvP, it's a solid choice, especially during sales when the base game often drops in price.
