I had a buddy come over last night to play some games. He has been playing a game called Guns of Icarus a lot recently. I've been hesitant to get it due to the 66 rating it got on Metascore, but I figured with his 100+ hours playing it, it was worth the $20.

The game is a steampunk naval combat game, where instead of fighting on boats, you are fighting in airships. The teams consist of four players. One must always be the pilot, then the other three can choose between being engineers and gunners. The engineers get a myriad of repair tools, a hammer for a heavy repair, a wrench for small repairs, and a fire extinguisher to put out fires on the ship. The gunners get to choose their bullets to shoot, which range from being long range bullets to exploding rounds to the equivalent of cannon balls for close combat. I believe there are 6 or 7 different types of ammo.

Both engineers and gunners can do eachothers jobs, but their items in their 'off class' are less useful. For example, an engineer can only choose one bullet-type, and gunners can only choose one repair tool. The pilot is always at the wheel.

There are a good number of ship selections. Ones that excel at close combat which are fast and maneuverable but suffer from low health and limited guns, while others are more like battleships with four guns on either side with heavy armor, but are slow and don't have guns on the front or rear, making it necessary to stay at range and broad-side from a distance.

The ships have a number of places they can get hit... from the balloon (which when it reaches 0 health causes the ship to drop from the sky until it is repaired) to engines (destroyed mean the ship can't move) to the guns (destroyed and you can't shoot) and finally the hull itself, which when destroyed blows up your ship.

Most guns shoot slow ammo, meaning you need to lead your target a good distance. There's also bullet drop, which makes gunning a difficult job. I probably had an accuracy close to 5% at the start, and by the end of our 10+ games I was still sitting at about 20%, if that.

It is a fun game, and for the price tag of $20, it is worth it in my opinion. The game relies heavily on communication. You can 'tag' ships a la Battlefield, which make it easier for your team mates to figure out a target. It is also incredibly heavy on yelling out positions and repair orders. Most of last night was screaming 'ship at 3 o'clock' while the pilot got us into position, our gunners ran on to the right side of the ship, and the engineers scrambled to get to what would undoubtedly be a necessary repair order incoming.

This is a good video showcasing some main parts of the game. If you skip to about 12:30, you can see some nice combat and communication.