This Icarus clip takes drop-in co-op to a new level

Icarus explorers standing on planet near space pod
(Image credit: RocketWerkz)

Icarus launched on Friday, the new survival game from Dean 'Day Z' Hall and Rocketwerkz, and has been steadily climbing up the Steam and Twitch charts ever since. It's not all plain sailing: the reviews remain mixed and there's been grousing about various performance issues and glitches but, for the most part, folk seem to be enjoying it.

That's certainly the case in this clip from streamer ButterIsPro (great name) who is doing what any survival player likes to do: Crafting the heck out of a nice house in the middle of nowhere, which will then be used as a forward base for exciting forays. Then their friend joins the game. In Icarus, new players spawn via means of a capsule from 'space' (the game has a space station hub, and then the main action is on the planet of Icarus). Perhaps you can guess what happens next.

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Oh well, it was a nice house before it got spawn killed, talk about a home invasion, this is the epitome of drop-in co-op, and so on. On another note though, who needs a wooden hut when you've got some super high-tech drop pod?

Doubtless this feature will be somehow ameliorated, in order that friends aren't constantly pissing each other off by collapsing each others' buildings when joining. Since launch Rocketwerkz has been extremely active in pushing out small hotfixes and patching glitches, while also promising additional content this weekend because, of course, people have somehow managed to complete all 35 missions the game launched with. "We will release new missions for this weekend for players who have already worked their way through Icarus," Hall wrote. "You’ve given us vital feedback about the existing missions and we’ll apply this to the new mission challenges when you return."

Rich Stanton

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."