5 survival games like Icarus that you can play in anticipation

Icarus is an upcoming co-op survival game from RocketWerkz. Icarus takes place on the planet called Icarus, which was supposed to be a second Earth.

But with the collapse of terraforming, humanity's hope of colonizing the world also went bust.

The game's site states:

"When xeno-biologists discovered the cause of the failure — exotic matter — new interest was ignited. Valuable beyond reckoning, these 'exotics' unlocked advanced new technologies and sparked an interstellar gold rush."

Players are to drop in on Icarus as prospectors, in groups or solo, seeking fortunes. Each prospect, as the game calls it, can last from hours to days. Users are to gather resources to survive and extract exotics before returning to space within that time. If left behind, everything, including the character, is lost on Icarus.

Icarus already has five beta periods that showcased various mechanics like extreme weather and biome. The final beta weekend, titled Community, is coming on November 20-21 before Icarus' eventual release in December.

The excitement and hype around Icarus have been palpable, and people are looking for other survival titles to play while waiting for this game to release.

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Amazing survival games alternatives to Icarus

5) DayZ

DayZ is a standalone successor to the mod for the game ARMA 2. In the game, the players are in the post-Soviet Republic of Chernarus, where a mysterious plague has affected the population and infected most of them.

The aim would be to scavenge the world for food, water, weapons, and medicine. Users have to be wary of the infected and other players while trying to survive the outbreak.

They can also team up with other gamers to create clans and engage in faction wars with different groups.

The survival aspect of the game is massively emphasized. Players can become sick from diseases like cholera, dysentery, and hepatitis by ingesting unclean water or rotten food. The injured must tend to their wounds or pass out from bleeding.

DayZ is made by the same developer as Icarus, so the influence of the former is pretty clear. While waiting for Icarus to release officially, gamers can drop into Chernarus and have a look for themselves to figure out what is in store for them.

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4) Valheim

Valheim situates itself in a world where slain Vikings go to prove themselves worthy of the halls of Valhalla. The player's character begins with nothing and is guided in the beginning by a raven.

As in Icarus, there are stones and twigs to be gathered first in Valheim. Then you have to build a hammer and an ax. And from there on to more equipment, weapons, and buildings.

The world of Valheim is filled with creatures that do not appreciate the intrusion of the Viking. Gamers and their brethren have several biomes, like meadows, mountains, swamps, and plains, to play in. There are five bosses in their respective biomes to slay.

Surviving and building in Valheim are brutal. There are storms and hordes of enemies to contend with. The building structures have a stability system, and users need a roof overhead to keep everything dry.

It is an amazingly immersive world, accompanied by an appropriate soundtrack and quips from Viking mythology. With regular updates and new content, it is a worthwhile game to invest in.

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3) The Forest

The developers state that The Forest is an open-world survival horror game where players have to:

"Build, explore, survive in the terrifying first-person survival horror simulator."

The game begins with a plane crash into the forest as the protagonist looks for his missing son. The Forest is touted to feel like "a living, breathing forest".

Every tree and plant can be chopped. There are vast networks of caves and underground lakes to be discovered.

Players, solo or up to a group of eight, can choose to build camps and start fires to keep warm. They can scavenge for food and even plant seeds to grow.

The forest is inhabited by a cannibalistic clan of genetic mutants. Rather than making them the clear villains, the developers gave them their own ideals, beliefs, and behavioral traits to humanize them. They are much more aggressive at night and will attack players.

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2) Raft

Raft is an open-world survival game developed by Redbeet Interactive. Players play from a first-person perspective and can either play solo or with others in co-op mode.

Gamers start on a raft in the middle of the ocean. They can catch barrels, wood, plastic, and more such debris from the water with a hook. Users can also jump into the water for a swim, but that can result in being attacked by sharks or the raft drifting away.

Gathered resources are used to make new tools, weapons, and nets and can also be used to upgrade the raft.

As in survival games like Icarus, players have to keep an eye out for needs like hunger and thirst in Raft. There are islands to explore on the map for additional items and resources. The storyline of the game is explored through the use of two-way radio.

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1) No Man's Sky

No Man's Sky is a space survival game developed by Hello Games. The procedurally generated nature of the title gives rise to over eighteen quintillion planets and lets it achieve a theoretically infinite map.

Each planet has its own unique form of flora and fauna that sometimes exhibit hostile ecosystems. Planets also have deposits of various resources that can be mined for construction and upgrades.

Surviving in No Man's Sky is compounded by extreme weather, like Icarus, and hostile planets. Dropping in on any of them can lead to death and loss of progress if a player is not properly prepared.

The game receives newer content at regular intervals for gamers to enjoy. Further weather anomalies and planet biomes have been added.

Note: This article reflects the author's views.