Before I begin, let me clear a few misconceptions that are common in the negative reviews:

"♥♥♥♥ the micro-transactions in a $15 game."
The in-game store only sells cosmetic items such as costumes and ship decorations. You cannot gain an in-game advantage by paying $$$. Half of the catalog can be earned without paying real money by levelling up your classes and doing achievements.

"Long waiting times in lobby, takes forever to find/start a match"
This problem has been solved in the latest patch with the addition of an actual matchmaking system. The lobby now has a time limit (Forced start after 4 min).

"This game requires voice chat."
There is a voice and signal command system accessed by pressing the V key that allows you to give a variety of commands spoken by voice actors. Voice chat is no longer required, especially if you are an Engineer or Gunner as you most of the time you receive commands instead of giving them.

"New players are stomped by experienced players."
True. However there are new player-only matches that cannot be entered by experienced players. New players are automatically put into these matches, although they may opt out of them. Also, the new matchmaking system is effective in avoiding stomp matches as long as there are enough players online.

"Balanced matches are hard to find."
This problem has been solved in the latest patch with the addition of an actual matchmaking system, except when there are less than 50 players online.

"Poor graphics."
It's actually quite good for Unity graphics. There is 12x AA, water reflections, real-time shadows, dynamic lighting and a post-processing filter available.

"Laggy FPS."
This is usually caused by unexpected bugs in new patches that are quickly fixed.

"Laggy Ping."
Low ping is not required to play this game since it is not a twitch shooter. I live in Hong Kong and regularly play with no issues on US servers (150ms ping) and EU servers (350ms+ ping).

"Huge rebalancing between patches."
UPDATE 1.4.1: Flamer/Carronade nerf (Most frustrating/Most OP gun) :) No huge rebalancing (only slight) for other stuff. Meta shift because of Stamina and not because of nerf/buff.

"Shallow game, no strategy or skill required."
This is like saying Counter-Strike is shallow and requires no strategy or skill because it is a game about shooting back at enemies on de_dust2. In fact Guns of Icarus not only has a lot of high-level strategic depth, it also gives many opportunities for players to show off and excel with their mechanical skills. Examples of high-level play include ship positioning, flanking, ship loadouts, and min/maxing of engineering efficiency and gun damage. Examples of mechanical skills include engineering parkour tricks, reactionary piloting, and using hard-to-aim or long-range guns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK9hOU92chE


The game's long-time competitive community (going all the way back to beta) is a testament to the depth that this game actually has.

"Lack of new gameplay content."
UPDATE 1.4.1: New gun, STAMINA SYSTEM!, Steam Workshop hooked up. CO-OP MODE IN PLAYTESTING, IT'S LEGIT BOYZ!

"Game gets boring."
If you like the game, appreciate its strategic depth, play with the mindset of improving yourself or simply find and play with friends, you'll discover this game's longevity in the same way people have played Counter-Strike or DotA for a decade.

"The community is horrible."
This question needs to be answered in two parts: trolls and the actual community:

1) Trolls are introduced every time this game is on sale. Since they only buy the game to troll around, they leave after a week or two to troll the next multiplayer game on sale.

2) I won't deny that a sizeable portion of this community is made up of largely veterans, or that a precious few veterans can get extremely elitist, abusive and salty towards new players. However these people are quite rare and are drowned out by a mass of helpful and friendly players that are happy to help cooperative newbies.

"The game is dead (no one playing)."
http://steamcharts.com/app/209080
Concurrent players (off sale) peak at around 300. Most players play in American and European timezones. UPDATE 1.4.1: Still hitting 300-400 on weekends, 250+ on weekdays.

"No Australian servers."
UPDATE JUNE 2015: Oceania Servers are REAL now!


"No co-op/VS bots mode."
This is in the works for 2015. The co-op mode has already been demoed at PAX 2014 as recently as September. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACr0aUNSXoY UPDATE 1.4.1: IT'S IN PLAYTESTING, HYPE

Now for the review:

What should I know before playing: This game requires a lot of teamwork. Individual skill is rarely enough to win a match. Not listening to the captain's order or recommendations, running around the ship instead of cooperating with your fellow crew and leaving your allies to die while you try and fly past the edge of the map is not fun for anyone. It will only cause your ship to die over and over again while your team loses in five minutes.

This game has a steep learning curve. While most of the game's basic knowledge can be grasped within a few matches, the intricacies of piloting, the efficiencies of engineering and the specifics of gunning will take you many deaths and many losses to get good at. Very few people have truly mastered everything the game has to offer even with thousands of matches in game (UPDATE 1.4.1 myself included, hit 2466 matches, I'm a god Engi but can improve pilot/gun).


What's really good in this game: The requirement for teamwork combined with the setting and competitiveness of airships haphazardly wrecking each other makes for some truly magical highlight moments, as well as providing an environment that fosters communication and encourages friendships.

The game's high skill ceiling allows for continuous self improvement. It feels great to discover something new about the game, learn ways of maximising the efficiency of your ship, or find out how to beat a specific strategy and apply this knowledge in the next matches you play. As you cleverly circle into a Pyramidion's blind spot while you maintain your gun arcs, you smile as your recall how, once upon a time, you didn't know how to accel/decel (R/F btw).

JK it isn't that romantic. In reality you'll just suffocate yourself laughing while you crush an enemy ship into a building as your teammate is burning them into a crisp.

The huge amount of possible combinations of ships and weapons makes sure that, most of the time, no two consecutive matches will have the exact same ships in play. Also, you can experiment with new load outs or strategies and feel awesome when they work.


What's meh: Dealing with unresponsive teammates. In game that relies so heavily on teamwork, having crew members that refuse to change classes, take stupid loadouts and then steal the gunner's gun can get extremely frustrating.

Crazy King. Crazy King games... UPDATE 1.4.1: Mode reworked, not a stallfest anymore, kills count for points, if u have more ships u can cap the point instead of having to kill all enemies.

Flamethrowers. Playing with flamethrowers... UPDATE 1.4.1: Flamer nerf+Extinguisher buff+Carronade nerf, not frustrating anymore.

Analogy using another game: FTL, but your crew are real people.

Would I recommend: 11/10 would fly again, especially once you make some in-game friends.

There is simply no where else to get Guns of Icarus Online's unique blend of teamwork, strategy, airship flying and crazy highlight moments.

This game taught me one thing: Metacritic score is bullcr@p! It's an absolute gem with more than 95% of the reviews being positive, and what score do the critics give? 62/100? Are you serious?

Yes, it's still not as polished as TF2, let's say. Yes, it's somehow harder to wrap around it, to understand the mechanics (rather unique). Yes, there are bugs and there is an in-game store (purchases are purely cosmetic - like other games like TF2, CS:GO, DOTA2, etc.). But the GAMEPLAY is amazing.

You'll definetly need a microphone. You'll need good communication skills and hope to get an experienced captain (or become one). And then, you're set to go. It's loads of fun and it's worth it, both your time and money.

Play as one of these three classes : navigator (captain) - one per ship; engineer or gunner. Four guys on the same ship (captain's choice) form a crew. You'll repair and rebuild components, you'll shoot down other ships or just speed past them, you'll flank, you'll use flamethrowers and mines, you'll develop strategies with your allies and have the time of your life doing so. Even if you lose, cause defeat IS imminent. But when you taste the success, oh it will be SWEET!

I see people giving negative reviews, but they've played for 1 or 2 hours. It took me 1 hour to finish the tutorial and 2-3 more hours to understand the game playing novice games. Yes, if there's no communication between crew, it's just a game where you run on the deck, hit things with your wrench and put out fires. The whole thing comes alive when you're communicating, when you're making strategies. It's that thrill when you're an engineer and your haul is down, but instead of repairing it you take the cannon and shoot the enemy, knowing you'll be able to bring him down first. It's that split-second decision that makes it thrilling. It's that pre-buffing that you put on your weapon that makes the difference. It's that able stearing that lets you evade or flank, hide just enough to repair or get on your enemy's blind spot with a flamethrower. And yes, you won't understand all these things after 3-4 hours of playing. There's a learning curve, but in the end it's worth it!

Also, people complaining about the "latest" Matchmaking system - it has been changed. Developers are trying to listen to the players and the community is fun and friendly (for the most part).

Some later edits:
1. Don't buy this game for your 4yo son / daughter. It actually requires some maturity and sense of responsability to be played. Please, just don't. Rather play it yourself.
2. NO SPEAK ENGLISH - NO GOOD! Find someone that speaks your language to play with, don't jump into a random ship with people who can't understand you and who you can't understand and start wondering why you're losing all the matches.
3. Respect more experienced players. If you're level 1-7, and all the enemy ships are high-level, you might lose the game for your team. It's frustrating for you and is frustrating for your teammates. Try to hop into balanced games for the best experience.
4. Just wanted to say last Satuday I had the best time I've ever had on my computer, and it was playing this game. If you manage to make some friends in-game, chances are you'll bump into cool and funny guys. It's both the in-game jokes and the funny, weird ship-loadouts and strategies that shouldn't work yet they do that will make you not to want to go to bed (even if it's 5AM and you're working the next day).

This game.

Just, this game.

I saw one of my favorite YouTubers do a let's play/review of this game, and I figured my friends and I would get a 4 pack.

It was on sale, so we all pitched in 2 measly dollars (with me throwing in the extra 2), and we entered the world of Guns of Icarus as James T. Kirk, M. Scotty, Chekov, and Mr. Spock for a weekend of fun (and cheaper than going to see a movie, at that).

As you can tell by my hours in-game, I've spent a bit more than a weekend playing "GoIO."

I'm not going to lie to you guys, it's a little difficult to get a grasp on how EXACTLY to play when you first hop in at the moment, but I know for a fact that better tutorials are in the works.

But you have an even better resource available to you: the players.

Pretty much anyone who's played for more than a few hours can tell you that the playerbase is incredible. I'm here to tell you that this is 100% true. If you ever have any questions on what to do, you can ask in 'Global chat.' Chances are they will be quickly seen and answered by any random player.

You'll also notice that there are a fair number of players in-game with yellow names. These people VOLUNTEERED to help out new people, so if you ever see one and have a question, give him or her a shout.

This is also the only game I know of where you can actually play with the developers regularly.
I'm just a random player, and I've gotten to know a few of them on a first name basis.

Once you get good at the game, it should be mentioned that the competitive scene is easy to get into.
Most clans are openly recruiting, and a few even have 100% acceptance rates.
Just be aware, while some clans are on a play-to-win basis, other clans are a little wackier, one even has few other goals than to burn everything.
And we still see them come back week after week.

If you can collect 7 people to fly with you, you're more than welcome to join the big-dogs in almost any competitive event.

The game's also a hell of a lot of fun.

Thanks for sticking with me through this long winded, scatter-brained review; there's just so much to say, and so little space to say it.

I hope you seriously consider buying this game.
-James T. Kirk

For the love of god switch to a FREE TO PLAY model. This game is dead and has been for years. Make it free and see it flourish once again!

TLDR at bottom.

-Do you enjoy intricate team based gameplay, where you need to trust in the skill of your allies?
-Do you enjoy relatively easy mechanics that are tough to master?
-Do you fancy yourself a leader, that likes to communicate and see his orders carried out by real people?
-Do you love a game with a close tight community, where people follow the rules and everyone is willing to teach you?

If you said yes to any of these Guns of Icarus has a place for you.

-Do you not like having non transparent game mechanics? ( engines below 50% im looking at you )
-Do you not enjoy getting absolutely assblasted by people at the top tier of gameplay when you yourself are new?
-Do you not enjoy a shallow tutorial? Leaving your woefully unprepared at your class job ( Pilots )
-Do you not like NOT having an option to remove disruptive persons from your ship without having to remake a lobby?

If you said yes to any of THESE things. Your early adventures into Guns of Icarus are going to be a nightmare. Beware this is not a game that you will enjoy, on your own, with no friends, to help guide you into things. Although to be fair, the community is always willing to answer questions and help you learn.

I have played this game at the highest tier of play, as Pilot, Gunner, and Engineer. Theres almost nothing else like this game out there. Its intoxicating. Knowing that your ship is a well oiled death machine of personal indiviual skill AND complete trust in your companions. When I play with my clanmates, and we get matched up against other clans of equal footing, its indescribable. Sticking through the learning curve and getting to that lvl of play takes honest time effort and repition.

When I play for fun ( which is all I do nowadays ) I find that matchmaking is underperforming, claiming that a hidden MMR rating is used to match me up against people that have had this game for a couple days, whereas I've put over 1000 hours into this game. DISREGARD ALL PRETENSE OF MMR in public lobbies. There is none or near enough as to make no difference.

If you buy the game, find a clan of people that seem friendly and play often. and just learn the game from them. There are weekly and bi weekly tournaments that are streamed on Twitch, Community fights VS the Developers where the winners get FREE item choice from the store ( pretty awesome tbh )

Almost forgot the steam workshop, where player created items are hand picked by the community to appear in game, if your creative. You could put your hand to work designing cosmetic items that could charge for or let go up for free. Its your choice. In my opinion the process of created work waiting review VS getting it into the game takes way too long. Some of these created icons look simply A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and need to be in the game right meow.

Gonna wrap this up before I start rambling.

TLDR:
-New players are going to suck for a DAMN LONG time unless you get knowledge from higher lvl players.
-Hard to enjoy on your own, que with friends.
-This games community is the best I have ever encountered in 14 years of video gaming. ( besides new players spamming ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in global, I promise you they are the minority )
-Easy to learn, difficult to master mechanics, ( when charged ammo is better in a mortar then greased )
-Community events out the ass. Get free stuff.
-The top tier of gameplay is deeply rewarding on a personal lvl, and the memories of your triumphs will go with you to the grave.

This is just my TWO SILVER CENTS. that I decided to leave because I hate seeing stupid reviews saying Oh dis gaem is best buy it!

Guns of Icarus Online, is by far one of the most promising games I've seen in several months.

The game takes place in a charming Steam Punk-ish, apparently post-nuclear world, where the few fractured remnants of the human race are battling for territory, and resources. The primary means of transportation over a barren, unforgiving world, littered with wrecks and ruins from an age long past, is by a type of Zepplin battleships, which are built out of spare parts and scraps from various wrecks found on the surface. The ones you experience in Guns of Icarus Online, are the military types, armed to the teeth with innovative, obviously home made weaponry, featuring lots of Gear wheels, and some greasy, messy technology.

Gameplay:

The Gameplay, as far as I've experience, are primarily a type of Death Match. In a 2v2 match, where two ships are paired against another pair, and a 3v3, same thing, but much more expansive and difficult combat.
There are multiple ships to choose from, each with their own strengths and weaknesses...Small and light? Large and Heavy? Armed to the teeth? Favoring defense? Somewhere in between? It all depends on the specific captains style, which is where the really exciting part of this game comes in.

This game is entirely unwinable without team work, and here's why:

Each ship has a crew of 4 total players.

The standard layout of a ship's crew is as follows:
1 Sailor(Commander)
This person is the Captain of the ship. He controls where the ship goes, at what speed, when, and how they attack, if they attack at all, and when its time to get the heck out. They also coordinate with other team captains to launch flank assaults. They order the rest of the crew, such as what parts of the ship needs repairs the most, and what guns should be manned in preparation for a broadside. The Commander is the backbone of the ship, and sports several utility/maneuvering abilities that can do everything from speed up the ship, to increase evasion and defenses(However, this wears on ship parts, and threatens to cripple the ship if used recklessly, demanding a Commander to be clever in his ability usage, to avoid stressing his crew)

2 Engineers
The Engineer is the heart of the ship. Without engineers, the ship would rapidly become a floating heap of scrap metal, and fall apart within a few volleys of enemy fire. An engineer is the only means to which a ship can take a gigantic beating, and still remain functional. They also sport the ability to put out fires, and buffing the equipment temporarily to give defense boosts, minor speed boosts, and damage increase, depending on the parts they buff. An engineer needs to keep an incredibly cool head in a firefight, and always heed the call of his commander, lest he misses a vital repair on a ship part. Due to each part having a cooldown timer after being worked on, an engineer needs to be a professional 'schedule' keeper, and be able to keep a steady, constant rhythm to go from part to part to part, fixing them as required, and knowing when to break the schedule in favor of higher priority pieces(1 engine going out with 2 working, is not more important than a leaking balloon...Cause you drop to your death....)

1 Gunner
Gunners are the tooth, claw, and nail of a ship. These battlehardened warriors of the clouds are the only means to laugh in the face of an enemy's fire and shoot back with a mighty old "IS THAT ALL YE GOT!?". They're hardened, vicious, merciless killers, who favor sitting down at a weapon station, and using their expert aim, and large arsenal of ammunition types, to unleash hell on their ship's enemies. A gunner's primary job is being entirely offensive, though they are equipped with a spanner in case their weapon should be destroyed, allowing them to atleast make it operational until an engineer comes around to bring it to full potential. A Gunner's best moment is when they know what ammo type to use in what situation, to out-damage their opponents with clever, innovative use of their chosen weaponry.

These together, make a ship, and the most cordinated, best tactically skilled ship comes out on top. It is 4 players, being forced to corporate as 1, collective player, fighting against another behemoth of a collective of players. Imagine the Commander being the brain, and the engineers/gunners being arms, legs, etc.
The game permits clans, even preset crews that you can join a match with, to create not just a single crew, but an entire navy, that you can take into battle.

You are of course fully capable of customizing your character(Or your ship, should you wish to be captain!), choosing which gender, what hairstyle, what ethnicity, and what fashion statement you wish them to display; Are you a noble sailor of the high clouds? Favoring honor and good sportsmanship, who dresses in proper naval uniform and behaves like a true man/woman of the royal navy? Or are you a pirate, the scoundrel of the skies? Do you dress in rough leather, cover your face in masks, and sport threatening hairstyles, spiked helmets, and a Jolly Rodger? or something completely your own concept!? It is up to your own personality, and more items are added regularly, to both customize ship AND character as you wish! (Dyes(for characters) and paints(For ships) are available as well!)

Graphics
The graphics 'could' be better, but they are still very poweful, and are very demanding, even on the higher end rigs. My best advice, if you're having lag issues, is to turn off Post Processing, it increases your framerate dramatically, without losing too much fancy looks.

Also, you'll lag when there's fire. Get used to it!

Community
This game's community demands to be of a different caliber than your average MMO. Due to the high level of maturity, and ability to take orders, as well as the demand for being able to have an ability to take the game seriously when fighting starts, the players who are trolling/refuse to accept orders, or simply do poorly and decide to screw around rather than play the game, thereby ruining the fun for the others? These people don't last long, as griefing/trolling is considered extremely tabboo in this game. Due to this, the game's community sports a far higher number of reasonable, mature, adult individuals, who are courteous, and friendly.

Developers:
Muse has gained a new level of respect from me. They are engaging, and listen to the playerbase, without mindlessly giving into them. They have fun-loving, but still mature and talented employees, who consistently log ONTO the game, and permit people to not only hang out with them, but to even play the game with them! They are even offering events where you can test yourself against them for a chance to win free stuff, should you beat them!

Progression:
Progression in this game is quite strange. First of all...Levels? After level 4, levels no longer matter! Between level 1 and 3, you are a 'novice' player, which means some harder aspects of the game are turned off, to avoid you making progression impossible for you(Such as customizing weapon setups, and some harder to use ships). Upon reaching level 4 with ANY type of crew, be it sailor, gunner, OR engineer? These limits are lifted, and the game opens up its highest difficulty in all its splendor.
However, after you exit Novice mode? Levels are no longer anything but a bragging rights number. There are no skill trees, which set you apart from others by building the 'best build' for whatever patch you play in. THere's no 'gear' that makes your ship better or worse than the other, depending on what they have equipped. The only means of 'progression' you have? Is your own skill, your own experience, your own capabilities. You rely ENTIRELY on -yourself-, not a 'talent tree' or 'hot bar' with 'specced skills'.
This is all why, this game is worth it. Come play it with me, come serve me aboard my ship, and I'll see if you're worthy of serving under me ;3

Guns of Icarus Online Walked so Sea of thieves could run

How could I possibly summarise over 2000 hours of gameplay into a review? I think it's the teamwork aspect that creates the social aspect of this game that doesn't exist anywhere else along with the depth in strategy created by the ship designs that keep this game fresh. Also, the mine launcher.

I'll try to remember to update this review when I hit 3000 hours.

This review is long over-due



Why Guns was worth a Try.

It was a game of two halves, "lobby's of Icarus" and "Guns of Icarus". Both modes were worth playing. My hours consist of both modes, but mostly lobby There are 100's of customizations for the ships and your player from the workshop. Dyes & hats can be unlocked as you progress.

Game modes; King Of The Hill, Crazy King, Death-Match.

Guns of Icarus was the most socially intensive game out there. Where "Team-work was King and communication was key".


GOIO Player-Base was Small and incredibly friendly. Some taught the "Scrubs" (new-players) as often as they could with no thanks.

Roles are an Engineer (my main class), pilot or a gunner (least important class (imo) only needed for ammo and gun arc buffs) on-board any airship; from a Speedy Squid to the Slowest Pyramidion or the Multi-Manticore Hwacha Galleon.

Doing Battle against other airships for control of resource points (Crazy King), or the total destruction of the enemy team in DeathMatch. It is brutal, there will be salt, you will have commands barked at you, it is nothing personal. "REPAIR the HULL!" But the Satisfaction Can always be heard come match end.

A good Captain will always pass round the virtual Bottle of "Seppuku-Das Moonshine" comments in crew "how did we pull that off? That was F***** Amazing! Are common-place after a good match. Every match ends with "Good-Sportsmanship" the victors congratulate the losers and some of us offer a Rematch.

Update: The best comment will be gifted a copy of Guns Of Icarus if you don't have it. or a little something something

3 copies gifted so Far.

1 more Collectors edition will be gifted 22nd December.

1 more copy gifted during the promotion.

One day I hope some internet icon bullies everyone into playing the game, instantly reviving it.