Summary
- Icarus is set to receive significant DLC with three initial hunts and additional content.
- The Great Hunts DLC will introduce new bosses and legendary weapons for players.
- The DLC was announced by Dean Hall and doesn't have a specific launch date but will arrive "soon."
The creator of DayZ and Icarus has announced a massive DLC for the latter game, and it's packed with new content. Originally released in 2021 to mostly positive reviews, Icarus is known for its brutally challenging gameplay and unforgiving environments. Since launch, the survival horror title has received numerous patches to fix a variety of bugs that were plaguing the game. Despite the glitches, Icarus serves as a worthy spiritual successor to the apocalyptic zombie chaos of DayZ for many fans.
Icarus was developed by RocketWerkz, a studio founded by Dean Hall, a former game designer at Bohemia Interactive. Hall created DayZ independently while working at Bohemia, initially as a mod for ARMA 2. Following the mod's massive success, Bohemia Interactive hired Hall to lead the development of a standalone version of DayZ. After leaving Bohemia in 2014, Hall founded RocketWerkz and released games like Out of Ammo and Stationeers, with Icarus being the studio's most ambitious and high-profile title to date.
As revealed by Icarus on Twitter, the game will introduce a new DLC titled Icarus: Great Hunts. The expansion will feature three initial hunts: Quarrite on Olympus, Gargantuan on Styx, and Rimetusk on Prometheus, with additional hunts planned for the future. Completing these hunts will unlock new bosses, each with unique abilities. The developer also clarified that the DLC is not essential and that many base game mechanics will be updated for free. Although no specific release date was provided, the expansion is set to be available soon.
Icarus Will Soon Get a Major Expansion Called the Great Hunts
Icarus is known for being notoriously hard, which has prompted developers to adjust the game’s difficulty in response to concerns about characters dying too often and being permanently lost due to permadeath. In 2022, Icarus introduced an insurance option, allowing players to respawn at the space station after dying from permadeath, provided they were on an insured mission. While DayZ is also considered a difficult game, it’s not as challenging to the same degree as Icarus.
DayZ is widely regarded as one of the best loot survival games, featuring mechanics like bleeding, hunger, and disease that add an impressive level of realism while players scavenge a hostile, zombie-infested world in search of resources. Icarus borrows many survival mechanics from DayZ, such as resource gathering and permadeath threats, but sets its gameplay on an alien planet rather than Earth.
Icarus also differs from DayZ in that it doesn’t feature a massive open-world environment. While DayZ is known for its expansive world, Icarus offers large, session-based maps that players can explore during missions, providing more structure in gameplay. Both games have built sizable fanbases, and for Icarus players, a major DLC is now on the horizon.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 68 /100 Critics Rec: 38%
- Released
- December 4, 2021
- ESRB
- m
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op
WHERE TO PLAY
Endure a savage wilderness on Icarus, an Earth-like terraformed planet now considered humanity’s greatest mistake. From their orbital station, prospectors drop to the planet surface to explore, harvest, craft and hunt while seeking their fortune.
Confront and conquer a brutal PvE world determined to wear you down
From toxic atmosphere to savage wildlife, apex predators to destructive storms and forest fires, Icarus is a planet with a temper. Preparation and planning are everything, whether it’s to find a source of oxygen, stalk your next meal or stockpile supplies for a long journey into the wilderness.
Go at it alone, invite up to 8 Steam friends to join your game or play on dedicated servers.
Immerse yourself in a deceptively familiar, yet formidable, world
The First Cohort of prospectors has been granted initial mining licenses for over 64 square kilometers of hand-crafted terrain, full of hidden caves and biomes to explore. Every single tree is harvestable, every rock can be voxel mined, every creature can be hunted. Tame and ride mounts, craft advanced tech to extract resources faster and prepare yourself for harsher challenges.
