Taking Teamwork To The Skies In Competitive Guns Of Icarus
By TJ Denzer ·
At PAX South, we managed to make it by the Guns of Icarus booth and chat up two members of the competitive community. What's the current state and where is this high-flying steampunk skirmish headed?
For the better part of a decade, Muse Games has been inviting players to team up and take to the skies in steampunk airship combat within the aerial arenas of Guns of Icarus. In that time, this game has cultivated quite a following as players band together in teams and clans to test the mettle of their flying machines and skills against those of the world around them. A new dawn is arriving for Guns of Icarus. Originally confined to PC, Guns of Icarus Online and its counterpart, Guns of Icarus: Alliance which adds Player vs. Enemy encounters, are set to soar into PS4, featuring full crossplay and voice-chat features with PC players. Over the course of the game's life, it has had a robust community scene with stories of victory and defeat told by the players who have invested in it.
During PAX South, we stopped by the Guns of Icarus booth to chat with some members of the competitive community about where the scene is for the game and what comes next. Guns of Icarus Event Coordinator Lysanya and an active participant in the competitive scene by the player handle of corpsehatch were kind enough to speak with us about the exciting nature and evolution of competition and community events among the Guns of Icarus Online scene.
Where To Start...
The game has been around for a bit, so as it prepares to make its entrance to the PS4 scene and invite a whole new console of players into the mix, we asked where the scene sits currently. Lysanya believes it’s never been easier to join in the action.
“I’d say that if a player was ever going to jump in and make a name for themselves in the Guns of Icarus scene, this is the time,” Lysanya explains. “We actually had two teams that are relatively newer to the scene, having only been around for about half a year that have begun to make a name for themselves. One team was LLL. They’re a European team that came from complete obscurity. They had trouble making a break in the competitive scene until about two months ago when they pretty much put together a new meta for a ship called the Judgement. Since then they’ve really been coming along strong. Meanwhile, one of the older crews in the scene that had been away for a bit just pulled back together and pulled off a huge upset in a competitive match recently. With these folks sort of electrifying the scene, there’s a lot of new faces, fresh blood, and new strategies coming out of the wood work. It’s a prime opportunity to jump into the mix right now.”
But where does one begin? How does one find their place in the Guns of Icarus community and find themselves a welcoming crew? According to corpsehatch, it’s actually not that hard to do thanks to some easy in-game systems.
“There’s a clan system built into Guns of Icarus that brings groups of people together,” corpse explained. “How I got into competitive play was that a clan that I had been with started doing competitive games with other clans. From where I started, I’ve actually jumped between four different clans supplying my main role of Engineer in each one. I played a lot and built a reputation up over time for being really good at the role.”
“I would say that corpsehatch is actually one of the best Engineer mains in the game right now,” Lysanya added.
What Kind Of Player Can You Be?
It would seem that the Guns of Icarus scene is conducive to players eking out their own playstyle, exploring their opportunities, and finding their niche among teams. Thankfully, Lysanya and corpsehatch claim there are a lot of niches to find and explore.
“There are so many different crew, ship, and armament compositions,” corpsehatch continued. “Every team has some kind of gimmick. One of the teams I played for was Skyborne and one of their gimmicks involved the Mobula, which they were really good with. It’s a ship with really good vertical acceleration and mobility. So what they’d do is stay and fight from one area and then as soon as they were in danger, they’d climb fast and get out of gun range. Ships would try to rise with them and then they would just drop beneath and juke the enemy team while they struggled to keep up. It’s awesome.”
It sounds like there are a lot of meta playstyles and crew styles that have been discovered. To that end, we wondered if this was still a game that provided for creativity and skill for crews among the established builds. corpsehatch assured that it’s a diverse battlefield and it’s only growing more diverse as players go.
“A lot of different playstyles have emerged,” said corpse. “You’ve got pilots and teams that have their favorite ships and styles among them. You’ve got the Squid, which is very mobile, but very fast. It’s hard to destroy what you can’t hit. Then there’s the Goldfish, which uses its front launchers really effectively. Or the Pyramidion which is really good at ramming enemy ships repeatedly.”
So is there anything new to learn and create? Lysanya absolutely believes so based on recent competitive events and matches.
“We just saw a meta change last month,” Lysanya claimed. “The team I mentioned, LLL, came up with a new build for one of their ships that hadn’t previously seen play in competitive: The double-heavy flak Judgement. A full volley from this armament is capable of instantly killing most any ship if you time it just right. It’s devastating, but it requires a lot of teamwork and timing to pull it off just right. As a result, suddenly you’ve got other teams responding to this and experimenting with Judgement and their own ships to see what they can do about it and what will counter it. So this bold set-up has changed the meta and teams are scrambling to build around it.”
Where Does One Jump Into The Competitive Community?
With so much possibility and knowledge to take in, it was worth asking about how newbies feel among the sky aces of this game. We’ve seen massive competitive and community scenes rise up seemingly in the blink of an eye in the past and sometimes the stark difference in skill between players can act as a gatekeeper to the unintiated. With this in mind, we asked Lysanya how open the Guns of Icarus community and competitive scene is to new players.
“Truth be told, it’s a bit of a cutthroat scene at the very top,” Lysanya answered. “However, we’re a tight-knit community and there are a lot of events out there to help build new players up to that level and prepare them. It’s not a situation where you’ll be thrown in the deep end and you sink or swim. We host a lot of events that help to build camaraderie between competitive players. The events help players to learn and get noticed by teams. The scene doesn’t really just force you to build a team and get stomped to learn. You can do that, but we also try to help build players up and find their place over just forcing them to find it on their own.”
So where does one go to break into the competitive ends of Guns of Icarus? Where do players flock to test their mettle once they’ve decided they want to compete against other crews of the sky? Lysanya pointed out that there are a few events he’s seen in the community, many of which he has a direct hand in presentation or participation.
“I actually run one of the events myself,” Lysanya explains. “It’s called Chaos Skirmish and it happens every Saturday at 9:30PM Eastern US Time/8:30 Central. We’ve been running this thing for almost 100 consecutive weeks now. It’s a casual event that’s easy to get into and easy to play. We have no barriers for levels or experience. You come as you are, show up, and have fun. I bill it as the ultimate party in Guns of Icarus. We like to have fun and build a good atmosphere for everyone and there is no such thing as a bad player in our event. If you come in with an open mind and an open heart, you’ll learn, and we’ll be good.”
From the sounds of it, it’s not just a good place to mix up and compete with other players, but also a great place to be able to learn the ropes of the game among a supportive group. Corpsehatch spoke to his own experience in the event, noting that it helped him develop his skills and perspective of all roles in Guns of Icarus.
“It’s a great way to tap into and develop other skillsets you normally might not bother with in the game,” corpsehatch said of the Chaos Skirmish. “I remember my first time participating before I was known by anyone. On my first three times in a row, I was randomly assigned the Pilot role on my team. It became sort of a running joke because I absolutely hated piloting. I never want to pilot, but here I was in the driver’s seat, so I tried to make the best of it and learn for the situation. It gave me ideas as an Engineer of what the ship feels like when things break. It actually helped me to realize how important it was for me to keep the engines up and keep the balloon of the ship patched because of how frustrating it can be for the pilot when these things are damaged. The other half of that was just enjoying the unbridled fun of ramming people into walls with my ship. If you want to be put in situations where you’ll figure out every end of Guns of Icarus, the Chaos Skirmish is a great thing to explore.”
With Guns of Icarus: Alliance coming to PS4 and with crossplay and chat confirmed between PS4 and PC platforms, it looks like the winds are strong for the community in Guns of Icarus. Lysanya, corpsehatch, and the team at Muse Games seem more than convinced the game is going to continue to see a vibrant and energetic scene. Of course, if you’re still not sure and want to see what the Guns of Icarus community scene offers from the sideline, you can always check out Lysanya’s Twitch channel during the Chaos Skirmish and other events and see what it’s all about. That said, with the playing field about to increase so much in size, it most certainly seems like a good time to find your own place among the skies in the Guns of Icarus community.
Guns of Icarus: Alliance is out now on Steam with a date for PS4 still to be determined soon. You can like the game on Facebook and follow on Twitter as well for news and updates.