
Imagine having to do these steps across 40 missions and you’ll realize how tedious the process becomes. You’re back to picking up sticks and stones, grabbing berries, mining ores, and the like. Even if you were carrying around several materials and resources when you escaped, your next run means that you’ll repeat the same initial steps. The downside is that every time you begin these missions, you’re essentially starting from scratch.


The session timer is fairly generous (lasting around a week). If you can’t escape in time, then your character and all unlocked blueprints/talents are gone for good. If you can do this before the session timer expires, your character lives on. The goal is to finish these tasks and return to your dropship to escape the planet. There are around 40 Prospect missions in the game, and each one has specific objectives like doing an area scan, hunting down a specific target, or picking up a device. One of the key reasons why you can get frustrated early on in Icarus is its session-based core gameplay system. It’s as though your character just managed to ace their application to the space program without ever learning about the basics.
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For example, how to create wooden walls, thatched roofs, or stone tools. But, for some reason, your character, a Prospector looking for riches on this unknown land, somehow doesn’t have a clue on the essentials of survival. Generally speaking, the game is built with the framework of futuristic sci-fi (i.e., terraforming new planets and using dropships). If these sound odd, then that’s because Icarus‘ own crafting mechanics don’t make a lot of sense when you consider the setting.

Eventually, you can build a small shelter as a base of operations. You’ll chop down trees, mine ore deposits, gather herbs, and whatnot.
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Likewise, you’ll hunt and skin animals, subsequently using meat and other ingredients for cooking. When you arrive on the planet, you’ll see several HUD elements suggesting that you need to replenish your oxygen and quench your thirst. Instead, what I’ve mostly noticed are features and mechanics akin to most other survival and crafting games.
