Icarus: Iceholm Outpost Review Summary

Atmospheric, top-tier genre game with active, community-friendly devs, stunning photogenic builds, and safe snow outposts for building, but no water sources on the map.

Excellent snow outpost for building: Players praise the outpost as a perfect location for building in the snow, with a beautiful snowy landscape and great layout including a small forest chunk. It is ideal for a Boreal fortress, ski lodge, or arctic station.

Atmospheric and top-tier in genre: The game is the most atmospheric among open-world crafting, base-building, exploration, and survival games the reviewer owns, and is considered one of the best in its genre. It brings calm and peace to players who love snow.

Developers active and community-friendly: Developers are open to the community and have outstanding communication. They provide weekly updates and fixes, and paid DLC helps keep the game alive and fun.

Stunning views and photogenic builds: The map offers beautiful views in all directions, especially from the large central mini mountain that can be scaled. It is excellent for photogenic builds and in-game photography.

Rich wildlife and resource availability: Wildlife includes arctic moa, mammoths, hares, deer, snow leopards, and snow wolves. Mammoths provide epoxy, ensuring it is not in short supply, and resources respawn on log out and in, benefiting creative snow builds.

No water sources on map: Players report a complete absence of water sources, including no water caves and only ice chunks. This forces reliance on melted snow for drinking and makes crafting reinforced glass or building glass houses extremely difficult. Many suggest that adding water to caves would improve the experience.

Deadly wildlife overpopulation: Aggressive animals such as polar bears, leopards, and wolves spawn excessively and can appear anywhere, even on easier difficulties. They destroy buildings and kill players repeatedly, hindering progression. A balance patch is urgently needed to adjust spawn rates and difficulty.

Farming limitations due to no land: The map lacks land for farming, and players can only purchase land at the orbital station as a workaround. Seeds other than basic fiber are scarce, and crops now require indoor greenhouse setups. This makes tea production at outposts impractical due to time and resource investments.

Early game distance from resources: Players start 2 km away from any plants, making initial runs for basic tools and materials extremely dangerous. Without securing a spawn point, repeated deaths occur, and players respawn via a Sinotai pod. The outpost itself offers few resources to ease this burden.

Polar bear spawns never-ending: Polar bears spawn continuously in certain areas, making snow cave basements risky. They can easily chomp through buildings, and killing one with a wooden stick is impossible. This creates constant danger and discourages base building in those regions.

Outposts offer safe building: Outposts are smaller maps with regenerating resources, safe from open-world creatures, and can be returned to between missions. They provide a secure environment for unrestricted building.

Open-world survival crafting experience: The game is an open-world survival crafting title with base-building, exploration, and co-op support. It emphasizes creativity and offers many options for players.

Outpost features cold and snow: The outpost map is set in a snowy landscape with a large frozen ice lake and icebergs. Cold is a minor threat, and weather is generally calm.

Early game survival steps: Early game involves dropping in, gathering basic tools and materials, securing a bedroll for spawn, and building a campfire, oxidizer, and wooden mini base.

Difficulty affects spawns and weather: Difficulty settings affect spawns, and raising difficulty changes weather and wildlife to include storms, polar bears, snow leopards, and mammoths.

Great for creative snow builds: Reviewers praise the outpost as an ideal setting for building structures like ski lodges and arctic stations, making it a must for players who want to build in icy environments. It is especially recommended for those who love cold and snow.

Safe, creative sandbox for builders: Players who enjoy open world sandbox creativity and want to build without threats find this outpost highly suitable. It is recommended for builders seeking a safe place to freely construct and experiment.

Excellent for immersion and photography: The outpost is praised as a beautiful environment for players who like to sit back and immerse themselves, alone or in co-op. It is also an excellent option for making photogenic builds or taking in-game photography.

Good value for money: Several reviewers recommend the outpost because of its value for money. Some also suggest it is best snagged on sale, indicating that the price-to-content ratio is a key consideration.

Supports game, recommended purchase: Some reviewers recommend buying it to support the game or simply because they highly recommend it. The sentiment is generally positive and encourages purchase.

Session length: 7.0h.

Chill Cozy Base Builder: Slow-paced, low-risk outpost building and decorating with minimal combat or survival pressure, often in short comfortable sessions. Motivation: Relaxation and finding a peaceful, low-pressure space to unwind while building a cozy cabin. Stance: buy.

Creative Sandbox Architect: Concentrates on Outpost maps to build elaborate structures, skipping long traversal and large-map survival chores. Motivation: Unlimited creative construction with steady access to regenerating resources. Stance: buy.

Immersive Solo or Co-op Wanderer: Leisurely exploration and co-op play focused on enjoying scenery and mood rather than strict survival efficiency. Motivation: Immersing in a beautiful, atmospheric snowy environment, played alone or cooperatively. Stance: buy.

Praise for developer communication: Developer communication and community openness are outstanding, with weekly updates and fixes. The developer listens to the community, as shown by the addition of outposts.

Supporter's Edition unlock: This outpost is unlocked as part of the Supporter's Edition. One reviewer bought it as a support purchase despite not playing the outpost.

Open world better for bases: The Open World is considered a much better place to build an actual outpost or base than these paid DLC outposts. It offers the same experience but with threats still present.

High quality across game: The quality extends to the main game and all its extensions, including this one. One reviewer rates the outpost 10/10 while acknowledging a bias for cold and snow.

Outposts poor for tea farming: Outposts are not good for creating teas because of farming limits. Other outposts like ARCWOOD, HOLDFAST, or EVERBARK are better suited for warm beverage production.