ICARUS: Console Edition

Forget the romanticized stories of space colonization where you land on a new planet, plant a flag, and sip cocktails. In Icarus, your first interaction with a new planet will likely be trying to show an angry bear with a stick and a stone that you are not breakfast, while your helmet is slowly running out of oxygen and the wooden cabin you barely built is disappearing in flames because it was struck by lightning. Welcome to the most beautiful panic simulator in the world, which after years of processing on PC has finally landed on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X&S.

Icarus is developed by Dean Hall, a man known to survival game enthusiasts as "the guy who made DayZ." If you've ever played DayZ, you know his philosophy: the game isn't fun if it doesn't bring you to the brink of tears at least five times an hour. His studio RocketWerkz, located in faraway New Zealand, decided that the survival genre needed something new – a blend of battle royale sessions and classic crafting. Before embarking on the adventure called Icarus, RocketWerkz honed their craft on games like Stationeers and the VR shooter Out of Ammo. However, Icarus is their largest and most expensive project.

Icarus arrived on current consoles on March 26 of this year, after several delays. In this version, it is called Icarus: Console Edition and brings all the updates that PC players have endured for years. The game has been available on PC since 2021. The price of the standard PlayStation 5 version is €39.99, and there is also a complete version with all DLCs, which will cost you over €100. The price may steer some players towards competitive games in the genre that are currently cheaper – The Forest, Valheim, No Man's Sky, and similar.

Icarus is the first in its genre with its session system. We do not live forever on one server, but we are a mercenary who completes a job and returns to the station within a certain timeframe. If we do not make it to the ship before time runs out, our character remains on the planet. And dies. Permanently. All our effort, equipment, levels, and upgrades disappear into the universe. This is one element that gives Icarus a dose of adrenaline but also weight. However, there is also an Open World mode for those with more sensitive nerves where we build shelters in the forest without a time limit.

This game features perhaps unprecedented fire physics. It behaves here like a real living being. If our torch ignites in the cabin, the entire forest will burn down. Which is both impressive and terrifying. The visual effects are top-notch. For example, storms tear off roofs and knock down trees, giving the game interaction with terrifying nature in real-time. Icarus also has a phenomenal sense of progression. After crafting our first gun after hours and hours of bashing with a regular stone, we feel like gods who have descended onto this planet.

Playing Icarus with a controller is quite complicated. The inventory is cluttered, and navigating through the menus is slow and tedious. Even on the powerful PlayStation 5, the game can 'stutter' when a lot of action is happening on screen, which is mildly irritating to say the least. Solo play is extremely difficult. This is a soulslike game in the survival genre. The game is designed to be cooperative, which is evident at every turn. Personally, the worst thing about this game are the ninja bears – namely, the bears have no walking sound. You don't hear them approaching. They simply materialize behind our backs and kill us almost instantly. This is not survival, but a pure horror movie. Another downside is that after each session we have to craft a stone axe again, from scratch.

Icarus: Console Edition is a game for a specific type of people – those who enjoy hiking, logistics, and the constant feeling of barely escaping with their lives. Despite the interface shortcomings and occasional glitches, this is still one of the deepest and most beautiful survival games you can currently get. Whether it's worth it depends on whether you have a gaming team with similar interests, as solo play is brutal. If you're looking for an easy walk in nature, you'd be better off getting a walking simulator. Icarus is a video game that doesn't forgive, but after you manage to survive for a week, the feeling is better than any trophy.

A copy of the PlayStation 5 version of the game was provided for review purposes by the development studio GRIP Studios