Dean Hall, creator of DayZ, and his studio RocketWerkz have offered a new look at survival game Icarus in a new live-action mockumentary trailer. The 7-minute short offers a glimpse at how the characters of Icarus' perceive its events, how it has impacted them, and much more. It's a rather unique way of promoting a game and certainly helps flesh out the world before players actually go hands-on with it.
Following his departure from the DayZ team, Dean Hall was given a lot of creative freedom. Xbox's 2015 E3 press conference. The developer spoke about his ambition to make more than just a game, but rather a whole virtual universe. It unfortunately was maybe too ambitious as the game was eventually canceled, but Hall has his eyes on Icarus, a survival game that takes cues from games like The Forest.
Hall and his studio, RocketWerkz, seem to have found its footing with Icarus as the team gears up for its release later this year. It'll be a constantly evolving PC survival game with new content constantly coming. The new trailer certainly seems to show what sets Icarus apart from Rust thanks to an in-universe documentary posted to the Icarus YouTube channel. The harsh world was also expanded upon by Hall himself in a statement. "Icarus was humanity's greatest mistake," explains Hall. "It was to be a second Earth the first planet we terraformed and colonized in space. Unknown to us the exotic matter reacted and corrupted the planet's terraforming, but once we realized their true value the exotics sparked an interstellar gold rush."
The eight-player co-op survival game will feature some horror elements, according to Hall who says that the game is meant to fill players with some dread. Similar to the transparency of Rust's recent gameplay trailers, Hall also revealed that there will be frequent gameplay streams to give players a closer look at Icarus. The first gameplay premiere will air on Twitch at 5 PM PDT/8 PM EDT on Thursday, April 8.
So far, Icarus sounds to be incredibly promising. Not only is its premise totally unique, but it sets up an ambitious future with an ever-expanding universe filled with new biomes, threats, lore and more. Players looking for something to sink their teeth into long-term will likely want to keep an eye on Icarus as it could be a massive hit if it manages to live up to its own expectations.
There are plenty of other games like Icarus, so it's a crowded genre. With coming to consoles, it'll only make it more competitive, but hopefully that will only inspire RocketWerkz to make a bigger and better game. The developer has already teased pretty bold features like destructible buildings, so perhaps the untapped potential from Hall's canceled projects will be realized here.
Icarus will be available on PC in 2021.
Source: SurviveIcarus
