Seems to be a sort of cross between a normal survival and something like drg where you do drops to a planet have to get resources and then make it back to a escape shuttle then spend the resources on better tech but the main gameplay seems more survival low tech building stuff bows arrows and so on.
Coming out in December according to the steam page with the current beta running at weekends now
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1149460/ICARUS/
some gameplay here
Comments
Watched the first half over lunch. I dig it! I think we can go horribly wrong playing it.
So this came out and I gave it a go
It's interesting you can play it like a conventional survival builkding up a base getting resources providing for your three need bars (food, water, and Oxygen) there is even an "outpost" mode that is essentially that. But that's not really how it's meant to be played.
You take your character and then setup what the game calls prospects these are timed deployments to the planet and usually have some sort of goal to achieve in the time limit. The pod drops you into the world initially with nothing but your space suit and then it's up to you to achieve the task set and get back to the pod for retrieval in the time limit.
The survival aspect is almost secondary you are not there to build a fancy base or collect thousands of tons of stone and wood you are there to achieve the goal and then get back to orbit all the stuff you collect is then just junked any structures or weapons you made or resources you gather all just deleted unless they are part of the mission (perhaps there are also some bonus stuff you can take back not gotten that far yet).
As you perform actions in the world you gain XP which on a level up unlocks some number of blueprint credits (think it's three) and one talent point. Blueprints are start with basic tools basic weapons and simple constructions. As you progress the tech gets slowly better but most of this is primative wood or bone or leather that sort of construction.
Talent points add to things like hunting or building or combat giving you bonuses with certain weapons more stamina or better harvesting of some resource. Standard survival stuff. This tech tree and talent points are permeant unlocks and you don't reset between prospects.
As a second level of tech and unlocks as you complete prospects you gain credits and some other resource (unobtaium or something) and you can then use this to unlock different tech you can then build and then deploy with for a better head start. Things like better tools or weapons a better suit with more inventory or even things like exoskeletons towards the end of the tech tree.
So far I've done the tutorial prospect and then the first actual one. And only unlocked the first suit with a slightly better setup than the free one.
In each area you have to survive against aggressive animals as well as keeping you food water and o2 up food goes off if you leave it (although cooking it makes it last longer) you also have to deal with periodic weather conditions some of which require you to shelter or take damage. Mostly it's been wind or rain and basically a debuff to your stamina that I've encountered but it can be worse in one of the storms it started wearing down my health and even when I build a crappy shelter it started tearing that down as the basic crap buildings were too weak to survive and started coming apart with me inside. You have various status effects like cold heat poisoned sick injured and you can also get buffs from food medicine you craft and so on.
As you go you progress you unlock new prospects with different goals and rewards for completion
The first real prospect requires you to scan three survey points. So you tool up with basic gear harvest some food and oxygen make a few basic weapons and off you go into the wilderness. This was a sort of forest biome with lots of trees and foliage resources are pretty abundant it was never a real problem to get food or water or oxygen (via the oxecite ore that is just everywhere). I proceeded to the target area mostly doing ok the wildlife consists of deer who run away wolves who are somewhat nasty if they get you in packs and then bears who are unstoppable killing machines also jaguars which are nasty but seem to be rare.
I setup the scanner at the first point waited for it to complete and then in the middle of the scan two bears come charging out of the woods and just rip me to shreds. They are fast strong tough and I have a sharp stick that breaks after a few thrusts and enough health to survive one or two hits and not enough stamina to run away. I'd also not unlocked the bed roll at this point so couldn't setup a save point and had to redeploy with nothing back at the drop pod with an xp penalty for dying.
So I slowly made my way back ... and was killed by the bear again.
On the fourth run of this it became night time and it gets really dark you can see nothing and again I'd not unlocked the bed roll so couldn't sleep through the night. Hunting bears when you can't see them is even worse than when you can. Luckilly I had unlocked the torch ... unfortuantely I managed to set fire to the forest with it.
I had hoped this would kill the bears ... it didn't.
So I decide to try building a platform to snipe the bears from, I'd already discovered bears can climb up on rocks (death 4) so that was no good.
This work ok and I killed one of the bears by slowly peppering it with arrows as it ran around beneath me.
but the second bear smashed the crappy grass supports and the thing fell down. Then the bear chased me into the nearby lake.
And I made a discovery they can swim but they can't attack while swimming however I could so I knifed the thing to death in the water and completed the first scan point.
On the way to the second scan point I worked off my xp debt and leveled up and unlocked the bedroll and so could setup a safe spawn point nearby and headed over. I assumed it would be the same deal I would start the scan and then a short while later bears would explode out of the woods and fuck my shit up. So I preemptively build a platform to stand on making it wider to allow me to jump further over if they destroyed one section.
I loaded up the scan and ... a large pack of wolves came charging out of the forest. They manage to get under my platform such that I couldn't get a good angle on them so I began jumping down to try and knife them as bows at close range is a bit hard to do. I took out three of them but the last two backed me into a corner and did me in. This time I respawned at my bedroll much closer to the objective so it was a lot easier to head back and I killed the last wolves and headed on to the final point 3.
On the way I had the severe storm where the crappy grass hut I build to shelter in during the storm started coming apart around me. I did manage to survive long enough that the storm passed but it was a close thing my health was right down.
I'd unlocked some better arrows and a better knife as well as the basic fibre armor which offered some extra protection from attacks and environmental effects and I'd refined my sniping strategy. This time it was jaguars a faster nasty version of the wolf but only two of them. I did the arrow attack from a platform trick and managed to kill them both. The scan completed and all I had to do was make it back to the drop pod and head back up to the station.
So some of the things I like the survival aspects are fairly well implemented not too bad that you have to keep stuffing food water and o2 in your face every 5 seconds and resources are fairly abundant. The only thing I tended to get low on was water as I've not unlocked a means of carrying it with me so had to pop back to lakes and rivers every now and then to stock up. Some plants like berry's give you some water as well as food so that is also a solution there. I like that it has a goal that you are not just there to muck about there are set things to achieve in the time limit you have to survive to do those things but beyond that it's not about building up a base or gathering resources you almost do the bare minimum to get by.
The animals are pretty tough but as you level and get better weapons and learn other strateges they get easier to handle. I found bows very good as there is a sneak attack bonus so if you get the aim right you can one shot wolves and deer and badly wound the bears then switch to a knife to finish them off. It also adds to the atmosphere that you are weak and everything is out to kill you the forest is full of trees and bush and a wolf or bear or jaguar could be lurking there you hear them around and it makes you more cautious. They also seem to have some sort of prey mechanic where wolves and so on hunt other animals they are alos attracted to animals you kill so leaving a carcass around your base is a bad idea.
Things I didn't really like. The dificulty can be a bit unforgiving the bear incident was one such but some of that was just lack of prep. I also had animals attack me suddenly when I respawned a few times one time a bear just came charging at me the moment I respawned in my hut and since I had nothing on me to defend myself it made it tricky to not die.
One of the things with dying over and over is you leave a backpack of all your gear where you die. It helpfully is highlighted on the map. But not in the compass or indicated on the ground. The areas in that posepect were heavilly wooded with the ground covered with leaves and twigs and foliage you can't really see where things are so I was having real trouble finding my death backpacks I would get close then have to wander around trying to find it harvesting all the leaves in the hope the thing was under them. Then going back and forth to the map to see if I was even close. This was made doubly hard by having two psychotic bears running around in the area.
I had a few instances of sudden low frame rates. I tried the dx12 version first which has ray traceing and dlss but it was basically unplayable so switched to dx11 and mostly it ran fine just every now and then it juddered for no obvious reason.
The timer is a nice idea I'm not sure how much it is a problem the time appears to be real time in that you have 6 days to complete a prospect I think this is some sort of aspect of the network part of the game as I think that is real time and the clock is running even when the game is off so if you start a prospect you have some number of days to complete it but you can stop and save and come back to it later but I think it will reset after that time. It's not the sort of time pressure mechanic I was expecting I suspect it wouldn't really impact a game. Certainly the two I ran I completed with days left.
I like the depth of it the ability to add to your skills both when deployed and then adding more high tech options to take with you. having the goal adds a lot to it makes it have more purpose than a typical survival game.
All in all I had fun with it even when I was repeatedly killed by bears and I think it could have legs for a sng option