Dean Hall, the inventor of the survival classic DayZ, is currently working on a new game: Icarus. That should actually appear in August. But now there is a shift with a consolation: from the end of August, pre-orderers can play the beta.
What kind of game is this? The new survival MMO from RocketWerkz takes place in space and has a dystopian sci-fi flair. After a failed terraforming project, the “Icarus program”, a special material was discovered on the “second earth”.
You belong to one of the troops that researches the new planet, collects the material and is supposed to explore the new planet. To do this, you keep returning to the new planet and putting your life on the line. Because you have to face various dangers:
- Wild animals of the planet don’t like you there and you have to fight back
- Hunger and thirst want to be fought so that you can even explore the world
- You are also slowly running out of oxygen because the air on the planet itself is poisonous
- Random weather events make your life even more difficult
When and where does Icarus appear? Icarus was supposed to be released on August 12th, but has now been postponed to November (via Steam). The only known platform so far is the PC (Steam). There will be several betas before the release.
This is what the beta offers: Together with the announcement of the postponement, the developers provided a roadmap on which you can see which content you can play in each case. The beta is divided into several weekends:
- 28-29 August: Focus on exploration and construction, only the forest biome is playable
- 11-12 September: Storms sweep the world and pose a threat, still only in the forest
- 25-26 September: the arctic biome is accessible and brings new animals and blizzards
- 9-10 October: you can explore the desert biome with its new dangers
- 23-24 October: Factions come for whom you can complete missions
- 6-7 November: a special community event with prizes
The beta from August is no longer under an NDA, as the developers invite streamers and content creators to produce content for their community. So you will probably be able to watch videos and streams of Icarus from August 28th.
How do I participate in the beta? If you pre-order Icarus, you get guaranteed access to the beta tests. The developers also want to distribute keys to content creators so that they can invite their community. So keep an eye out on Twitch if you want to participate.
Icarus currently sounds very promising and with Dean Hall there is a creative mind behind the project. DayZ, which also comes from his pen, is considered one of the founders of the modern survival genre. It is enormously popular to this day and is one of the best and most popular survival games ever.