Turbulence ahead.

I had heard of Guns of Icarus before, but never actually seen a screenshot or heard anyone talk about the gameplay at all. I had only heard the name and knew it was a PC game. Now, it hits PS4, and I’m checking it out to see what this game actually is. Come to find out, it is not what I expected at all, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. In fact, Guns of Icarus: Alliance actually has some interesting ideas going for it.

Guns of Icarus is an online multiplayer battle game that features players taking on the role of crew members on a steampunk gun ship much like Zeppelins. Players choose a faction to fight for and gain points and help the cause for said faction. There is a sort of meta game here where factions are competing for parts of the map and fighting battles along with spending coins earned for war bonuses can help take over a new part of the map.

Platforms: PC, PS4
MSRP: $14.99
Price I’d pay: $10

Now, the actual gameplay is players controlling their characters as they choose a class to play and essentially a role to play while aboard an airship. There are pilots, engineers, and gunners that all have major roles to keeping the airship running and gunning. Pilots obviously steer and drive the ship, engineers repair the ship as well as give certain parts buffs, and the gunners handle firing the numerous weapons mounted on the ship. At the same time, each of these classes can do the other classes jobs, but the pilot will be better equipped to fly the ship than say the engineer. Every class has a loadout that can be customized that can make or break the job they are doing.

Cooperation is the key to success here in Guns of Icarus. If our engineers are spending too much time on the guns, they’re probably missing the fact that our balloon is on fire and our hull is taking damage that they need to fix, same for the other classes. Everyone has a role, and while there is room to do other things, when it comes down to it, they must stick to their roles in order to stay afloat in the skies.

There is both PvE and PvP play with AI fill-ins if necessary with multiple modes in the PvE section. There are defense missions, search and destroy, and many others that break up the standard team deathmatch play. Player progression is here both for the profile and the classes. Play more with a class and unlock different loadouts, character cosmetics, and more.

One of the more impressive aspects of Guns of Icarus: Alliance is the fact that it is cross platform play between PS4 and PC. Even through voice chat. So I could be talking to a person playing on Steam using full voice chat. There is also the option to use in game callouts for quick directions on where to attack, turn the ship, or repair a certain part.

There are a few issues here and there. The first one is just how hectic it can get. I understand, that’s what the developers are going for. A well oiled machine must have all its parts working properly to be efficient, but more than that, I felt like I was trying to balance 20 things all at once when trying to play either gunner or engineer. Pilot was honestly the most stressful. If my teammates weren’t calling out where the enemies were, I didn’t know where to point the ship so that essentially made our ship dead in the water, and in the big fire fights, trying to discern targets was a difficult task.

The other issue was the performance. Due to the sheer amount of things going on, the game felt like it would drop frames every few seconds at times. I’m talking some pretty rough patches too. Almost to the point I was wondering if it was online latency or if the game was just chugging. In retrospect, I’m pretty sure it was both, and considering this isn’t the best looking game out there, it find it difficult to let frame rate drops slide, especially when they occur numerous times a match.

Guns of Icarus: Alliance is one of those games that has some great ideas and thought out implementation, but with some aspects of the performance and execution, it starts to hit some rough patches after a while. Finding a crew that works well together and does the right jobs at the right time can most certainly make this game stand out with some fantastic moments. At the same time, if you have a team that is just running around, not doing the jobs they signed up for, you’re going to get obliterated and it’s not going to be fun. It all relies on the player base and how well they want to play. Add on top of that confusingly hectic scenarios with some performance issues mixed in and players will find themselves frustrated at times. It’s a strange one for me. I enjoyed some times with it, and other times I was over burdened with things that I didn’t want to play more, yet I came back to it every time. It’s got some decent parts to it and the meta game can add another layer to the factions, just remember that for all the intelligent things it does, there will be some frustrations to go along with it.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Interesting concepts
  • Great cooperative play
Bad
  • Some confusing interfaces
  • Very reliant on player base
  • Performance issues
6
Decent
Written by
Drew is the Community Manager here at ZTGD and his accent simply woos the ladies. His rage is only surpassed by the great one himself and no one should stand between him and his Twizzlers.