Guns of Icarus Alliance

Release Date: March 31, 2017

Action, FPP, TPP, steampunk, PvE, post-apocalypse, co-op, aircraft, multiplayer, internet

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A cooperation-based action game set in a post-apocalyptic steampunk world. The players assume the roles of crew members aboard combat airships and fight for survival during air battles. The creators of the game, the American studio Muse Games, had planned to release Alliance as a DLC expansion for their previous game - Guns of Icarus: Online.

Plot
Mechanics
Game modes
Technical aspects

Guns of Icarus Alliance for PS4 and PC is a cooperation-based, action game which places the players in the roles of crew-members aboard steampunk combat airships. Originally, the project was supposed to deliver a DLC expansion for Guns of Icarus: Online, which would enrich that PvP-focused game with PvE elements, but at one stage in the development process, the creators decided to release Alliance as a separate title offering both new features and the contents from Guns of Icarus: Online. For example, buying Guns of Icarus Alliance on Steam gains the player free access to Guns of Icarus: Online.

As in the cases of the previous installments – Guns of Icarus (otherwise known as Flight of the Icarus) and Guns of Icarus: Online, the game was developed and published by Muse Games, a studio located in New York.

Plot

Guns of Icarus Alliance for PS4 and PC is set in a post-apocalyptic world devastated by an industrial revolution that broke out of control. Blindly following the path of technological development led to the creation of powerful machines that turned the once beautiful planet into a polluted shell of uninhabitable wastelands filled with toxins.

The humans barely survived the cataclysm they had brought upon themselves. Only handfuls survived in isolated oases, slowly creating new societies based on different ideologies. Over time, some of these sanctuaries grew advanced enough to develop their fleets of airships, which allowed for trading with other settlements. It soon turned out however, that shortages of different goods and drastic differences in worldviews have supported piracy and conflicts more than peaceful exchange of goods. The most powerful parties of the world began to organize squadrons of heavily armored and well-equipped combat airships in order to fight for domination.

Several major factions are fighting for control over the skies of the devastated world. Those include the religious, class-based society Fjord Baronies, the Order of Chaladon – they live on tropical islands bearing the same name, the Mercantile Guild (an alliance of powerful and ruthless merchants), the citizens of Anglean Republic that love ancient artifacts and advanced technology, the Yesha Empire, which prefers social order and obedience to the law, and the Arashi League, made up of desert tribes loosely united basis.

Mechanics

Guns of Icarus Allience for PS4 and PC delivers a cooperation-based experience. The players gather themselves into crews to complete various missions aboard combat airships; their general goal is to increase the power of the faction they belong to. The crew of each ship comprises of four members – they fulfill roles assigned through their classes: the Pilot, the Shooter, and the Engineer.

The main task of the pilot is to fly the airship during battles. Since the field of fire is rather small, an adequate course, speed and height can earn the crew a victory. The Pilot is also the one to choose the right airship and equipment before the battle. The gunner specializes in on-board weapon systems. This class can both carry and load special kinds of ammunition, such as incendiary bullets. When it comes to the engineers, they repair broken mechanisms of the airships and rebuild components that get destroyed. The Engineer can also extinguish fires and temporarily improve the effectiveness of subsystems (for instance, by increasing engine efficiency or durability of the armor).

The players can freely move around the airship's deck and observe the surroundings from the first, or third person perspective. One does not have to be the gunner in order to grab the closest cannon and fire at the enemy. The classes improve the player's capabilities within a certain specialty, but one is not limited to serve one purpose only. The Engineer can take one kind of special ammunition for the battle, as well as three different engineer's tools, while the Shooter takes three different kinds of ammunition and one tool only. Holding the shift button allows to activate a temporary bonus tor the statistics – the bonus depends on the class chosen, so the Engineer can move quicker, the Shooter can becme more effective at using weapons, and the Pilot simply has more control over the airship.

Game modes

The game gives an opportunity to fight against others in the PvP mode, but the core of the Alliance version is constituted by PvE components, which include different cooperation-based missions and faction wars taking place on the world map.

The game features different kinds of PvE missions: air battles, attacks on convoys, assaults on bases, infiltration, and more. Completing certain quests affects the conflict between the factions.

When members of a faction manage to achieve the so-called Resource Goal (the faction takes control over resources they need), a stage of open war begins. The developers divide factions into alliances, and the players begin to make progress towards the War Goals. When one of the factions achieves victory, both the war and the season end, but the political situation in the game world changes. The results of wars and the achievements of the players have chances to become part of the game's story, which unfolds as the time goes on.