Icarus, the co-op sci-fi survival game from Dean Hall and RocketWerkz, has been delayed from its August 11 launch date. Icarus will be released in November.

“We have been closely monitoring the state of our development builds, and have decided that Icarus deserves more love by delaying it,” says the Steam announcement.

Dean Hall, RocketWerkz CEO, and DayZ creator, tweeted: “Big lesson learned from DayZ: The actual development state sets out the timeline. To be truly amazing, the game requires a bit more time to bake.

 

Since its debut at the PC Gaming Show 2020, Icarus has seen many twists and turns during development. We learned that the original plan was to make Icarus a free-to-play game. However, it has now been made a paid model and will have a $30 price for the first chapter. As paid DLC, additional chapters are being planned.

There’s some good news for those who ordered and are eager to play. The beta weekends will run from August through November. This beta schedule describes a strategy to test specific environments over a series of two-day testing.

 

These are the dates for beta weekends and what each beta will include:

August 28-29: Forest

  • Torrential storms can occur
  • Only forest biome

September 11-12Storms

  • Torrential storms are now possible
  • Only forest biome

September 25-26Arctic

  • Unlock Arctic biome
  • Arctic animals and blizzards

October 9-10Desert

  • Desert biome unlocked
  • Blizzards and desert animals

October 23-24: Factions

  • Faction Missions unlocked

November 23-24: Community

  • Special Community Event
  • Prizes

A second piece of good news is that you can freely play the beta without any restrictions on how long you have played it. If you request a refund, this will be possible. Pre-ordering Icarus will grant you access to the Beta. You can also get a refund at any time, regardless of how long you’ve played the Beta.

Icarus’ early builds have been played twice by me, mostly in the forest biome. I also took an excursion to the freezing arctic areas. It is a beautiful place to spend some time on and it is full of terrifying (and exciting) animal encounters as well as devastating weather events. Icarus’ session-based approach feels fresh. Players are required to return to their ships by the deadline. However, I was disappointed to learn that the crafting system is XP-based and more traditional. You can read my early impressions of Icarus here.