ICARUS: Console Edition (Xbox) - Review

ICARUS on Xbox is a harsh, absorbing survival experience built around tension, planning, and the constant threat of nature. It’s beautiful, demanding, and often unforgiving, and while the console UI and controls can get in the way, the core loop is strong enough to pull you back in for “one more drop.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8DljVXnQ48

ICARUS: Console Edition arrives on Xbox with the weight of a fascinating development story behind it. The game comes from RocketWerkz, the New Zealand studio founded by Dean Hall, best known for creating DayZ. After the breakout success of that project, Hall returned home to build a team dedicated to ambitious survival experiences and ICARUS quickly became their flagship. What began as a PC-only title in 2021 has evolved through years of updates, expansions, and community-driven refinement, growing into a far more confident and content-rich survival game than the one that first touched down on Steam.

For the console edition, RocketWerkz partnered with GRIP Studios, a team with prior experience working alongside Hall, to handle the technical and controller-focused demands of bringing ICARUS to Xbox Series XS. This collaboration wasn’t just a porting exercise, it meant rethinking UI flow, performance targets, and input systems to make the game feel at home on a gamepad. The result is a version that includes the full base game plus the New Frontiers expansion, offering a massive 128 km² of combined terrain, new biomes, mutated predators, and a suite of additional crafting and workshop items.

It’s a survival game built by developers who live and breathe the genre, a team that has spent years iterating on storms, wildlife behaviour, crafting systems, and the tension of dropping onto a hostile world with nothing but an exposure suit and a plan. ICARUS: Console Edition is the culmination of that long-running effort, finally landing on Xbox with the studio’s most complete vision of the game to date.

ICARUS is a planet-sized moon orbiting the gas giant Minos in the Wolf 1061 system. Humanity attempted to terraform it into a second Earth, a long-term project meant to cool the atmosphere, seed plant life, and eventually support millions of settlers. For a while, it worked. Forests grew, genetically engineered wildlife adapted, and the atmosphere became almost breathable.

Then everything collapsed.

During the terraforming process, scientists discovered Exotics, a rare, incredibly valuable material with properties humanity barely understood. These Exotics interfered with the terraforming enzymes, causing the entire project to fail. The atmosphere became toxic to humans, and the dream of colonisation died almost overnight.

Even though the planet was now uninhabitable, Exotics changed everything. They were worth more than any resource humanity had ever found. Corporations, governments, and prospectors suddenly saw ICARUS not as a failed project, but as a gold mine.

The United Development Agency (UDA) opened the moon to licensed prospectors. These early explorers, the First Cohort dropped to the surface in timed missions, gathering Exotics and scientific samples before returning to orbit. You play as one of these prospectors.

You’re not a soldier or a hero. You’re a contractor.

Your job is to:

• Drop from orbit onto ICARUS

• Survive storms, predators, and the toxic atmosphere

• Complete contracts for corporations and research groups

• Extract Exotics and samples

• Return to orbit before your mission timer expires

If you fail to return in time, your character is left behind and your progress is lost.

ICARUS wastes no time reminding you that you’re not welcome here. You drop from orbit with basic gear, a ticking oxygen meter, and a planet full of storms, predators, and environmental hazards waiting to punish every mistake. The setup is simple: complete missions or carve out a life in the open-world mode, gathering resources and building the tools you need to survive.

The game doesn’t over-explain itself. Systems like oxygen management, crafting tiers, and talent builds are introduced with minimal guidance, leaving you to figure things out through experimentation or through death. It’s a steep learning curve, but once the pieces click, the game becomes far more compelling.

ICARUS thrives on its moment-to-moment survival rhythm. Every action feeds into progression:

• Chop trees, mine ore, and skin animals

• Build a shelter before the next storm rolls in

• Craft tools, weapons, and workbenches

• Push deeper into caves for rare materials

• Upgrade your base and gear

• Repeat, but smarter and better equipped

  
  

The early hours are a scramble for oxygen, food, and shelter. Later, the game opens into a satisfying grind of tech upgrades, new crafting benches, and more complex structures. The sense of growth is tangible, from a flimsy thatch hut to a fortified stone base humming with furnaces and generators.

The world itself is the antagonist. Storms tear apart unreinforced bases, predators stalk you through forests, and even a simple cave run can turn deadly. But that danger is what makes progress feel earned.

Base building is one of ICARUS’ standout strengths. Structures feel weighty and reactive, with storms and wildlife forcing you to think about placement, materials, and reinforcement. The building system is flexible enough to let you create anything from a tiny hunting shack to sprawling multi-level compounds.

Co‑op transforms the experience. With multiple players dividing tasks like mining, hunting, crafting, building, the early grind becomes smoother and more strategic. Solo play is absolutely viable, but it’s a tougher, more methodical game.

ICARUS excels at atmosphere. Forests sway violently during storms, lightning cracks across the sky, and biomes feel distinct and dangerous. The world is gorgeous but hostile, and that contrast gives the game its identity.

The wildlife leans more “Earth with attitude” than alien, with wolves, bears, boars, and even elephants roaming the landscape. It’s not a sci-fi menagerie, but the grounded fauna fits the survival tone.

Pros

• Deep, rewarding survival loop with meaningful progression across crafting tiers, talents, and tech upgrades.

• Gorgeous environments on Xbox, especially Series X — dense forests, dramatic storms, and strong biome variety.

• Massive amount of content, including the New Frontiers expansion, multiple maps, mission types, and open-world mode.

• Base building feels substantial, with storms and wildlife giving structures real purpose and tension.

• Co‑op elevates the experience, turning early grind into a smooth, collaborative flow.

• Strong atmosphere, with weather, lighting, and sound design creating constant environmental pressure.

• Flexible playstyles, whether you want structured missions or long-form open-world survival.

• Satisfying sense of growth, from flimsy early shelters to fortified stone bases and advanced gear.

Cons

• UI and menus are clearly designed for PC, making controller navigation clunky and slow.

• Weak onboarding, leaving new players confused about oxygen, crafting tiers, and mission structure.

• Repetitive early-game grind, especially when starting fresh drops.

• Solo play can feel punishing, with predators, storms, and resource demands stacking quickly.

• Occasional performance dips, particularly during heavy storms or dense foliage.

• Wildlife variety is limited, leaning more toward “Earth animals” than alien fauna.

• Steep difficulty curve, which may turn off players who prefer guided or relaxed survival experiences.

ICARUS: Console Edition is a demanding but deeply satisfying survival game that rewards patience, planning, and resilience. Its world is beautiful and dangerous, its crafting and progression systems are rich, and its co‑op play elevates the entire experience.

The console UI and controls hold it back, and the onboarding is rough, but once you push through the early friction, ICARUS becomes a compelling, atmospheric survival sandbox with real staying power.

XPN Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (SILVER)

ICARUS: Console Edition is available now!