Guns of Icarus Online PC Review

The developers have really set out to make something unique here, that much is obvious, it’s a massive departure from the fighter jets and frantic gameplay of games like Call of Duty and Battlefield, which in many ways don’t really encourage truly co-operative gameplay like you find in Guns of Icarus, while the game does play back at a much more humble pace than most multiplayer games, when your in a full game of 4 v 4 ships with a total of 32 players battling it out for territory of the skies, there really is no experience like it out there at the moment.

I had the pleasure of speaking with the developers recently and they are constantly looking into extending the technical side of this game to allow for a greater number of ships and players in the game, even larger ships with support for a larger crew could be on the cards, whether these are features that see there way into Guns of Icarus or a future title though is something yet to be worked out, but the prospect of massive air ship battles sounds too good to be true.

Which brings me on to my next point, adventure mode, a likely paid expansion to the game that the developers are working on that offers something even more special that what is on offer at the moment, here is a little quote from the developers of what we can expect in the adventure mode.

“Adventure mode will add in persistent world, features such as player factions, an expansive world map of trade routes and dynamic towns, and an economic system with resource production, commerce, and crafting that will supplement the game’s core combat focus. Adventure Mode is built on the idea of a trade economy where players can be not only warriors but merchants, using their ships to carry goods from town to town. Towns will produce natural resources and manufactured goods, making them valuable assets to the factions that control them, but they’ll need to be protected and well provisioned or they will collapse. Whereas in the original game, Gabrie had a hold full of mysterious, unidentified “cargo,” in Adventure, you’ll actually be dealing in specific resources—food, water, raw materials, weapons—that towns need to survive and thrive. Not only will this drive trade, it will also drive conflict, as factions compete for access to the best resources and airship captains have a choice of career, from independent trader to mercenary escort to pirate raider.”

The game is a real genre buster, on one side offering a downloadable game that brings a superb multiplayer experience and in the future offering an almost story like mode of adventure that you can then use to tie back into multiplayer style death match gameplay, meaning there should be a setup for this game that pleases fans of shooters, RPGS and more upon its release.

The game is aiming for a release in late 2012, it’s definitely one to keep and eye, even in its early beta phase at the moment this is easily one of the best online games I’ve played this year, which is why I am happy to award it our Games Choice Award.