Game Reviews

Soaring high above the clouds with the sun beaming down and the wind in your face, it’s simply exhilarating to look out across the deck of your airship and marvel at the freedom that comes with piloting your own vessel capable of sailing the skies. But such moments of calm and tranquility are fleeting in Guns of Icarus, since heavily armed air pirates with itchy trigger fingers seem all-to-keen on swiping your cargo through brute force. And that’s when the excitement kicks in full throttle.

Guns of Icarus is an impressively-crafted 3D third person defense game that makes you the pilot of a huge zeppelin airship in a steam punk world filled with the omnipresent threat of danger at the hands of countless bandits and air pirates. As a hauler of important and highly valuable goods, your job is to see to it your precious cargo reaches its final destination intact. But the path ahead is a long and treacherous journey through lethal skies, and each leg of the trips has you fending off waves of attackers coming at you from all sides.

Once you’ve plotted a course and selected your armaments, you get to directly control your character in a 3D over-the-shoulder perspective as he flits around different areas of the ship. The airship essentially runs on autopilot, leaving you with the challenging task of making sure it doesn’t get too chewed up before the destination mileage counter ticks down to zero in each level. Swarms of enemy fighters and other ships will approach from the distance in different directions to attack you, forcing you to take frantic defensive measures.

Much of your time is dived almost evenly between manning different gun emplacements located around the deck and repairing hotspots that are prone to taking damage. One of the great things about this game is you’re given the freedom to travel along the desk, into the cargo bay, across elevated walkways, along the side railings, and into other nooks and crannies to access the different interactive elements on the ship. The crucial systems that keep you afloat and the numerous gun emplacements that serve as your main line of defense are scattered all around the different levels of the deck.