Icarus breaks up the survival genre into smart session-based gameplay

Icarus is the new game from developer RocketWerkz, which DayZ creator Dean Hall founded in New Zealand following his time at Bohemia Interactive. The quick-and-dirty description for Icarus is that it is like Valheim in space. It’s a survival game where you’ll need to gather resources and build up your tech tree to survive harsh environments. But Icarus puts a spin on the formula with a session-based structure that may make the game even more addictive and appealing when it launches on Steam for $30 on August 12.

I’ve spent some time playing Icarus, including a session with Hall, who showed me around the world. And one of the first things I noticed is that I had no desire to cut my first run into the world short. I was getting my bearings and learning the mechanics, and the last thing I wanted was to go back up to my space station. And that’s something that Hall said the team learned when testing the game.