Stars of Icarus hands-on preview: Red Leader, standing by

Muse Games has announced Stars of Icarus for PC with a targeted launch in 2026. A spiritual successor to its steampunk airship combat game from 2012, Stars of Icarus involves players in thrilling multiplayer space battles — and this time, pilots can take a seat in the cockpits of solo fighters, so dogfights are very much on the table.

Stars of Icarus pits teams of five players against each other and both teams can decide how to approach the match: Will everyone hop into single-seaters to overwhelm the enemy, or is more balance between small and large crafts the key to victory? All maps in the game are handmade and feature tons of interesting terrain and environmental effects that pilots need to keep an eye on. The developers intend for lots of adjustment options when it comes to player count and the rules of a match, though, so even larger battles will be possible.

Similar to Guns of Icarus, characters and ships are heavily customizable, so players can bring the tools, weapons, and modules that suit their playstyle. Several game modes will provide the necessary structure for both competitive and casual players, but matches are designed to last for about 20 minutes to respect everyone’s time.

Although an exact release date is not yet announced, Muse wants to launch Stars of Icarus in 2026 as a premium title, so all gameplay-related content will be included in the purchase.

I’ve had the opportunity for a little hands-on experience with the game ahead of its reveal and came away very impressed with the mechanics. Mainly piloting one-man starfighters, I learned quickly that the game has a skill ceiling and was able to progressively improve as time went by. The game does an excellent job at taking the basics from Guns of Icarus and adapting them to the zero gravity environment. My favorite mechanic is the Battlestar Galactica-esque drifting of ships, which you can initiate by cutting the engines at the right time and then using the momentum to control your craft. This enables some slick, satisfying maneuvers that make you feel like an ace pilot.

Teamwork is incredibly important in this game: Not only do you want to cover your allies from enemies, but a starfighter alone will have a difficult time cracking a larger ship. With the right team composition and timing, though, you can make quick work of the enemy.

I tried my hand at playing a stealth fighter equipped with mini-rockets and gravity mines — both devastating against ship hulls, but less so against shields. It was great fun to go dark and lurk in the vicinity of larger enemy vessels until my allies created a gap in their shield section for me to exploit. Making my attack run, I dropped off all my ordnance and got out of there, flying in zigzag to avoid fire.

From the thrill of such bombing runs to intense fighter duels, Stars of Icarus’ mechanics are a marvel already. I was less convinced of the game’s visual style and ship designs, but honestly my initial gripes with those aspects were very strongly pushed into the background when the excellent ship-on-ship action began. When you’re trying your best to outmaneuver a fighter to line up your next volley of missiles from close range it really doesn’t matter anymore if what you’re seeing on screen doesn’t have the most cutting edge look — what counts is landing that shot.

As someone who’s played a lot of Guns of Icarus Online and TIE Fighter and read the X-Wing novels, this truly is more of that adrenaline-fueled starfighter combat gameplay with intense portions of hide-and-seek mixed in that veterans of the series and sci-fi fans in general crave.

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