Icarus: Console Edition Review – Brutal Beginnings, Peaceful Survival

Icarus: Console Edition Review

Icarus. 4.2 light-years from Earth. Selected for terraforming, the process eventually went awry with the discovery of exotic resources. While highly valuable, this made the atmosphere of Icarus highly toxic to humans. Of course, what is a little deadly atmosphere when there is money to be made?

Developed and published by RocketWerkz, Icarus is a first-person survival experience on the beautiful, titular world. Light on narrative, Icarus is about giving players the freedom to survive how they see fit. It is a delightful experience that can reach a curious state of zen. That does not mean, however, that Icarus is a walk in the park.

Initially released on Steam, Icarus has now made its way to consoles. The game brings its expansions along with it, which is key to Icarus’ survival on a new platform. Icarus originally launched with session-based missions. These are objective-focused excursions in which you are dropped onto the surface with a specific task in mind. Completing this mission within the time limit means earning resources for purchasing powerful upgrades. So far, so good.

Fascinating Open World Experience

The downside to this structure is the lack of permanence. Icarus is a survival game with a lot of crafting involved. You get the tools to build shelters and all manner of important structures that need to remain indoors. Once you complete a mission in Icarus, you are extracted. All of your hard work building a camp disappears.

Not true with the Open World expansion. This mode in Icarus removes the mission timer altogether. You are free to build to your heart’s content. Building a radio unlocks access to the same kinds of missions to complete for more rewards, just not quite as intense. This mode is where Icarus truly shines. Is it the best place to start? No. Following the advice of Icarus, you’ll want to complete the first few Session missions to get a handle on what it has to offer. How easily it comes to you is another matter.

Icarus is a survival game. Every action you take earns XP. XP lets you level up and unlock new abilities and crafting recipes. The issue is that if you don’t have any survival game experience to begin with, you might feel frustrated and lost. The first mission tasks you with the absolute basics: build a shelter, build a campfire, gather food, and build a bed. You’ll also need to monitor your hunger, hydration, and oxygen at all times.

Survival Can Be Hard To Juggle

You’ll learn the hard way that the water on Icarus is tainted without a filter system. Food will rot in your inventory if you don’t pay attention. The atmosphere on Icarus is toxic to humans, so you’ll need to mine an ore called oxide and slot it into your suit to survive. This is all well and good, but the tutorial mission explains this in the most bare bones fashion. Crafting a bed in Icarus requires leather. Logic tells you you’ll need to hunt to eventually get leather, but none of that is actually explained.

You must craft basic tools, use the tools to craft other things, defend yourself, and sustain yourself while avoiding death by poisoning, falling, storms, lightning, bears, etc. As mentioned, you unlock new crafting options in Icarus by levelling up. Those first few Session-based missions should be used to grind your way to level 10. Once there, your options really open up. Each moment of Icarus up until that point feels essential. Don’t waste daylight. Find more food. Pick your prey. Gather resources. You really feel like you are fighting to survive, but part of that fight is learning the UI.

Overwhelming UI

It took me an embarrassing number of hours to learn how to quickly move inventory items around. I nearly starved to death many times, and I definitely succumbed to wounds that leave a persistent effect until you can craft bandages and medicine. Once you hit level 10, loading into the Open World of Icarus feels like a whole new, and superior, game.

You still must get to work quickly to build a shelter and a fire. With that out of the way, Icarus becomes this isolating survival experience, almost akin to a cozy game. You know the basics now. You can spot fruits and berries in the wild. You know how to hunt and cook meat. Your actions aren’t about ‘winning’ the game. Icarus is about your day-to-day plan for survival. Stocked up on supplies and crafted some armor? Why not pick a direction and go exploring for the day? Want to expand your home? It’s very easy to gather basic resources and grow your outpost.

I reached a point of carrying 100 berries at all times and a healthy supply of meat. I have a water purifier in the river, and a rain collector on my roof. Every day is a question of what I want to do next: hunt, forage, explore, or expand. When I find myself well off with little to do that day, I can take on a mission for a huge XP boost and special currency. Icarus creates a brilliant but subtle transition of panicked survival into comfortable solitude. The experience is probably much lighter in the multiplayer mode, but my time on Icarus was spent solo.

The Will to Survive

Of course, Icarus wouldn’t be a survival game without threats to that survival. Predators and natural disasters are incredibly dangerous if you aren’t prepared. I myself was caught in a storm and was struck by lightning twice in my mad dash home. I perished a few dozen yards from my door, but at least it was an easy recovery. You’ll notice the fauna of Icarus seems familiar at first: wolves, bears, bison, etc. But every so often, you encounter a truly alien creature that suddenly makes you alert. How will it react? In most cases, hostile. In all my time with Icarus in the vast open world, I still haven’t seen all the wonders and horrors of it’s giant play-space.

While I’ve had very minor graphical issues with Icarus (distant textures taking a while to load, etc) my only real problem has been the stiff UI in the various menus. On PC, the mouse can easily click around as needed. On console, the joystick moves from option to option, adding far too many wasted seconds. At one point, I ran out of arrows and broke my spear mid-combat. I simply could not be fast enough to make more to defend myself in time because of the UI.

With time and practice it did improve, but I would far rather have a cursor to more quickly drag and drop or activate inventory. Icarus could even improve simply by making which item is selected more prominent. As it stands, the selected item has a marginally different color, making it difficult to track. This is especially true in moments where every second counts.

Cozy Challenges

Icarus is a truly beautiful experience. The environments – with all their glamor and dangers – are immersive and engaging. Its method of teaching the game may be too thin for those with no survival game experience, but if you stick with it, play the first few missions, and give Icarus a chance, it becomes something more. It’s a quiet period of respite. It’s survival on your terms. Solitude and freedom. Icarus, and especially its Open World mode, can become a cozy game with a few extra challenges if you let it. With an unfortunately lacking tutorial and mildly unfriendly UI, Icarus is surprisingly a great way to unwind after a long day. I’m not much of a survival gamer, but Icarus is quickly becoming a second home.

**PS5 code provided by the publisher**