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The sci-fi survival game Icarus is developed by the new studio of Dean Hall, the man who single-handedly created the iconic DayZ. The events of the new survivalist unfold in a huge open world, on the planet Icarus. At first glance, the game is ambitious, stands out for its scale and scope. At first, all the concepts Dean suggested seem incredibly interesting, but the more you play the supposedly final version of the game, the more you find bugs, problems, errors, glitches and questionable design decisions.
The review below is primarily based on a single playthrough of the game. My character is currently at level 30, I haven't completed some of the later Explorations (that's what the story quests are called), but I've run into a lot of issues that have ruined my experience.
We all know who Icarus is, and the name for the game, Icarus, was not chosen by chance. The name Icarus is associated with the most ignorant and insane, dismissive and completely repulsed attitude of man to nature. The game takes place in the distant future. Space entrepreneurs managed to discover the planet, which they named Wolf 1061. At first, attempts to terraform the planet seemed successful. Until a substance called exomatter led to an ecological disaster.
Despite the fact that the initial regions and biomes of the game will remind you of everything that you are used to seeing on Earth (forests and so on), the following territories will be much more dangerous. They will contain both familiar and alien fauna and flora.
The first thing I decided to look at was survival and crafting mechanics, which are so important in other survival games. When you arrive on the planet, you will see several interface elements on the screen that allow you to monitor your health, oxygen, thirst and hunger. You will have to collect branches, stones, create tools for cutting trees and mining ore, hunt animals and skin them. As a result, you will have enough resources and advanced technologies to create some kind of base. At first from wood.
But damn. We are playing sci-fi survival. At least its events unfold in the distant future. But at the same time, for some reason, we are engaged in collecting stones, sticks, berries. What's more, later on we can create a sickle to cut wheat and make dough. Dean, are you serious? I'm not talking about houses with thatched roofs. There is nothing in the technology tree that could somehow refer us to the fact that we are in the world of the future. All that is from modern technology is the capsule on which the main character arrives.
By pumping a character, you increase his level and get talent and technology points. You can't drop them! And this means that there is a high probability that, due to ignorance, you will unlock something that will simply be unnecessary for your character. And you will have no choice but to "score" and continue to do your usual activities - gathering, crafting, cooking, hunting. All this brings valuable experience points.
One of the main reasons you might get frustrated while playing ICARUS is the session progression system. There are about 40 Explorations (story missions) in the game, each of which sets specific goals for you: scan the area, hunt an animal, or collect a device. You need to complete the assigned tasks, return to the landing ship and successfully evacuate. If you do this before the session timer expires, your character will survive. If you fail, your character and all unlocked blueprints and talents will disappear forever.
The time for the session is quite long (about a week). Every time you start any Exploration, you are essentially forced to start from scratch. Even if during the previous mission you had a lot of resources, crafted items, and so on, at the beginning of the next mission or when you re-enter the game, your character will be “headed like a falcon”. You will have to collect stones and sticks again, craft a pickaxe and axe, pick berries and so on. Now imagine that you have to go through all these steps in each of the 40 missions. It even sounds tedious, don't you think?
However, you can ease your suffering: the Orbital Workshop Tree. It allows you to unlock tools that you can take with you on a mission before it starts. Unfortunately, the currency for these tools can only be obtained in the online game. If you play offline, then you will not receive such rewards.
In addition to the lack of offline cash rewards, Icarus has a huge number of bugs and bugs that will annoy you. There are missions that do not even set any goals for you, and you have to guess and think: what does Dean Hall want from me? As a result, you simply leave the planet. There are also much more unusual bugs: have you ever seen a bear climbing up a sheer cliff? Sometimes strange things happen: predators of level 90-100 appear in the initial tasks. How? For what? What did I do to you, Dean?
There is another expedition called Waterfall Expedition. You need to build objects in a certain area in order to get over the ridge. In one of the places I put a beacon on a cliff, it was impossible to pick it up, and therefore I had to start all over again.
If you close your eyes to the mistakes, then you can find fault with a few ill-conceived and slurred design decisions. For example, chaotic weather conditions, which for the most part do not even give you the opportunity to hide in a shelter, as the storm breaks out suddenly. If you die from the paws of wild animals, you will receive penalty experience points. When playing in a team, you can rely on the help of your comrades. But if you play alone, then death will instantly lower your experience, and you will be "in the red" until you accumulate enough to reach the previous value.
There is a mode called Outposts. It is intended for those who want to give free rein to creativity. There is no session timer so you don't have to leave the planet. You can just create strongholds. The problem is that there are no missions in this mode, which means that there is nothing to be here. And you won't be able to get rewards for the Orbital Workbench either. There are not enough dangerous animals, so you have to fight with deer or rabbits. Again, due to the lack of a reward for the orbital workshop, this is pointless.
In any case, the visuals are pretty much the only thing I liked about Icarus. And the rest: the mechanics of crafting is identical to other games and does not fit into the description of what we are dealing with at all (technologies are developed to such an extent that a person is engaged in terraforming planets, but at the same time is forced to return to the prehistoric era of gathering), with each new start games will have to start all over again. If you want to play a sci-fi survival game, check out No Man's Sky. In the future, new add-ons may appear, but they may become paid.
At this stage it is difficult to recommend Icarus. Literally everything is not suitable - from dubious mechanics to numerous bugs and errors.
We all have long been accustomed to the fact that developers transfer games in order to polish them, bring them to a more perfect level, so no one was surprised or upset if the creators of Icarus took extra time. But they didn't, and decided to release a game that shouldn't have been released at this stage. The unfinished, buggy, broken Icarus has a mind-boggling amount of repetitive elements and obscure design choices. A game that is far more frustrating than the challenges it offers.
The success of the title is quite expected.
New heroes, new challenges.
Deadpool's world is dying.
No release date for the adaptation has been given yet.
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