The latest in the Survival Genre was announced yesterday (June 13th) during the PC Gaming Show. Many new and exciting games were showcased, but our favorite on the list is the new survival game by Dean Hall and Rocket Werkz. The former DayZ creator has moved onto a new session-based, survival game that forces players to keep an eye on the clock. Evacuate safely off the planet or lose it all.
Take to space and explore the fast universe of planets, one session at a time. Drop-in on an unknown planet and hunt valuable resources to take back to your ship to further progress technological advancements and your personal knowledge. Join in with friends or scout solo in this new multiplayer, session-based survival game.
ICARUS, the new, co-op, multiplayer, survival game is introducing gaming sessions. A session meaning, a specific amount of time your character must survive on the planet before evacuating. These sessions encourage players to evacuate on time in order to keep their character progression as well as all of the gear and equipment gathered up to that point. Missing your evacuation pod means your character has been stranded on that planet and you will have to completely start over on a new character.
First Look at ICARUS Gameplay
- Progression Through A Survival Experience
- Personal Home Stations
- Drop-in On A Planet
- Evacuate Planet to Keep Everything Gathered
- Session-Based Gameplay
- Building
- Core Survival Mechanics
- Survival Progression
- Vehicles
- Day and Night Cycles
- Creatures
When first entering the game, your character will be out orbiting in space. Players load up on their own personal space station (think of this like your home instance in GTA). When you’re ready to enter the open world, you will select a type of session. This has not been directly defined yet, however we do know that session duration options will be determined by your character and progression level.
Easy, early game sessions will be short bursts; 20 to 30-minute sessions, maybe an hour. These early level drops will be day cycles only. As you progress in the game, sessions can span for days, (48 hours real-time) and will require you to build bases on the foreign planet to survive the nights. These longer sessions will be harder and will require your character to have built up their skills and progression because nights in ICARUS will be the most challenging as far as PvE is concerned.
ICARUS will be Free to Play
Yes, you read that correctly. ICARUS will be a free to play title in Steam, expected to be released sometime in 2021. They plan to keep it free and release premium content as a means of monetization. They chose this route to ensure they have enough players to fill the worlds.
ICARUS compared to Population Zero
Currently, Population Zero is the closest comparison to ICARUS gameplay sessions. The biggest difference is that Population Zero is a massively multiplayer online, but doesn’t allow players to keep anything physical they have earned, you only retain character progression (skills, crafting abilities, etc).
In ICARUS, these sessions are centered around keeping your loot so long as you evacuate. In addition to retaining your character level and skill progression, you will retain your gear and resources gathered. The goal is to take what you have found back up to your space station in order to craft and progress with learning new, more advanced technologies.
