Quick Review: Guns of Icarus Online

For a moment, I was afraid I’d have two game eulogies this year; turns out, there’s only one (it’ll come later in this set of Quick Reviews), but... today's title has definitely seen better days.

Enemy on the left! Uh... how do we say left on a ship
again...

A creation of Muse Games released on October 29th, 2012, Guns of Icarus Online is a multiplayer game about operating steampunk airships and going at war against other factions. Before I start, I want to say that, like pretty much every multiplayer-only game in my collection, this one has been sitting a long time unplayed; I received it in a Humble Bundle back in February… 2017. At a time where I can safely assume the game was a lot more active. And though it’s still receiving occasional updates, unless I’ve played at a particularly slow time, the playerbase appears to have gotten low - the most I saw on my first session was 9 players online at a time.

Say hello to my friend Mortar! You've already met Gatling.

The game features multiple factions warring over a large map, taking, stealing and reclaiming territories, similar to other multiplayer games I’ve played in the past (such as For Honor). However, combat is exclusively dogfights. Each airship has a crew of four, the captain steers (forwards, backwards, turning left or right, and ascending/descending), while the other three can man the ship’s weapons or fix any machinery that gets broken by enemy fire. You don’t need to have four human PCs on one ship; all it takes is one. However, the captain must always be a human player, so if you’re on your own, your job is automatically to drive. I imagine the big interest in this one is to have a full team of four communicating and coordinating their efforts to both get to the guns in time to shoot down enemy ships that come close, and repair what needs to be. The tutorial focuses a fair bit on repairing and maintaining the ship, with piloting as its final course.

Hell yeah, I'm on fire! Wait... No! Ahh! I'm on fire! Ack!
Quick, the extinguisher! My gun is on fire!

There's a wide variety of battle types and matchups. The friend I played with and I went through two modes that could be played between the two of us; together as a team against CPU enemy ships, whichever team destroyed three ships of the opposing team won; and me versus him, attacking each other across the desolate deserts, broken cities, and graveyards of giant dead machinery. (And him wiping the nonexistent floors with me, ‘cause he has more experience with driving/piloting games than I've ever had – but hey, I got to test the game, that’s what matters!)

Nothing a little percussive maintenance can't solve.

The tutorials cover every position, so you should know how to operate no matter where you land on a team. You have Practice options to play on your own, summoning enemy ships at will to train yourself, or playing against CPU pirates. Multiplayer has 5 modes allowing for varying numbers of players and teams (2v2, 3v3, 2v2v2v2, 4v4, and King of the Hill Mode can be an 8-player Battle Royale). There’s even Skyball in there – whatever that is.

I do wish there was a mini solo campaign to this thing, it
would be interesting to have. I could have taken more
piloting skill tests like this one at the end of the tutorial,
where we're driving through canyons.

Add to this a ton of options for your secondary tools when driving and many choices to customize the look of your personal ship (though a lot of cosmetic stuff is locked behind real money) and weaponry loadout (lots of different gun and ammo types). Like I said earlier, I can imagine what Guns of Icarus was like at the height of its popularity, and even a few years after that; the concept is interesting, the controls and mechanics take some getting used to but can make a seasoned player a definitive threat on a map, and there are enough lore and details to have players care at least a little about the story.

Hello, pirates. Time for you to go down.

However, though I still linked to it and tell its current price at time of this article’s publication, I don’t know if I can “recommend” it, not nearly 13 years into its existence and with such a massively decreased player base. Unless you buy copies for all your friends as well, but even then, I don’t know how much mileage one can get out of it at this point. Same for the update, Guns of Icarus Alliance, advertised in the base game.

Still, if you’re interested, Guns of Icarus Online is available on Steam for 4.99$ USD. I also don’t know how much longer still it’ll be available for purchase, after all this time. But hey – not a eulogy for once!