A
fter a tense night
hunting wolves in the
pitch dark forests of
Icarus, a friend and I
trek back to our small
but sturdy wooden cabin. The dull
orange glow of our campfire in the
distance is our target, growing
steadily larger as we get closer. It
grows too large. That’s not a
campfire. “Is that our home base?”
my friend asks. “Our home base is
on fire!” We sprint there, finding
our third friend casually chopping
trees not even 50 feet away, totally
unaware of the conflagration
behind him. We do our best to
smack the flames off the walls with
the fire whackers we’d crafted. In
the end, it’s too late. Flames spread
to every one of the walls we’ve
built, and our wooden base burns to
the ground. Again.
My favourite part of exploring a new
survival game is finding out just how
reactive its world is. Icarus has
dangerous wildlife, the constant
threat of starvation, oxygen
deprivation, and more, but what
brings me the most joy is the ever
present threat of accidental arson.
The first clue that fire would be
my group’s main nemesis in Icarus
came on our very first night. With no
bedrolls to sleep in, we took our
newly crafted axes into the forest to
cut trees by torchlight. Without the
ability to dual-wield tools, we
chucked our torches on the ground
while we chopped. That’s when we
found out that standing on top of a
torch would set us on fire – and that
running for the nearest body of water
would put us out.
After collecting wood all night and
building our first tiny, thatch shack
the following day, we spent our
second night huddled inside our
home. Without bedrolls to pass the
night in, we spent the dark hours
goofing around inside our little hut.
We huddled in its corners, squeezed
between our first wooden chest and a
tiny oxidiser. We found out, as our
tiny home turned to cinders at our
feet, that holding a torch too close to
a thatch wall also starts a fire.
We diligently made every single
fire-related mistake at least once. Webuilt a floor torch too close to an
interior wall, which nearly cost us
another base. We gestured at one
another with torches in hand,
catching one another on fire and
sprinting in a circle around the inside
of another base, tracking fire behind
us with every footstep. We built a
campfire inside the floor, somehow.
When initially perusing Icarus’
tech tree, we spotted the rake-lookingdevice called a fire whacker. We
laughed, believing it to be a frivolous
specialty tool. After our third
encounter with fire, we maintained a
strict one fire whacker per prospector
policy. Just in case.BLAZING SQUAD
All that property damage might have
been more discouraging if I weren’t
playing online with three friends all
willing to laugh over every unlikely
mistake we’ve made – and if Icarus’
fires weren’t so beautiful.
They start small. A single torch
placed too close to a wooden
structure will kick things off. One
section of floor or wall begins with a
small flame on its surface, eventually
turning glowing orange, pulsing like
the last charcoal in a campfire. Fire
spreads to adjacent building pieces,
floors to walls to support beams until
an entire structure is ablaze and
glowing. Beams creak and crack,
falling to the ground in flaming piles.
It’s a horrifying mess to be in the
middle of – desperately slapping the
floor with my fire whacker and
knowing that I’m fighting a losing
battle as my stamina is depleted
while the fire keeps spreading. Icarus
is an undeniably lovely-looking
survival game, and its devastating
fires might be its most beautiful.
Icarus doesn’t contain itself to
house fires. Lightning can be the
catalyst too, striking forested areas
and kicking off a chained
conflagration even more frightening
than a cabin fire. Trees catch their
neighbours on fire, and the spread is
a thing of awe. I’ve watched them
from the safety of a cliff above,
standing in the drizzle at the end of a
storm while a fire rages on for hours.
Rarely do I get so much
enjoyment out of something that
routinely ruins my day, but Icarus’
fires are an exception – whether by
self-inflicted arson or punishment
from Mother Nature. They’re just
the right amount of chaos in a genre
all about control.NEED TO KNOW
RELEASE
December 3, 2021
PUBLISHER
In-house
DEVELOPER
RocketWerkz
LINK
surviveicarus.comWE DILIGENTLY MADE EVERY
SINGLE FIRE-RELATED
MISTAKE AT LEAST ONCEGET WHACKIN’
Fire whacker crafting guide27%
Fiber (10)
Ever
important in
early crafting
recipes,
found by
harvesting
small
bushes.11%
Sticks (4)
Also easily
foraged from
forest brush.5%
Stones (2)
Snag these off
the ground or
with a pickaxe.57%
Forethought
If you’re crafting a
fire whacker while
inside a burning house I
have bad news for you.EXTRA LIFE
NOW PLAYING I UPDATE I MOD SPOTLIGHT I HOW TO I DIARY I WHY I LOVE (^) I REINSTALL I M U S T P L A Y
LEFT: (^) The arson was
coming from inside
the house.