The 30-second answer
Both are PvE survival crafting games where you explore, gather, build and hunt. After that, they diverge on almost every axis that matters.
Enshrouded is a third-person action RPG in a persistent fantasy world. You build a base that stays, develop a character with skills and spells, and push outward with up to 16 players.
Icarus is a first-person, sci-fi survival game built around timed missions as much as persistent worlds. You drop onto a terraforming-gone-wrong planet, complete an objective, and extract — with up to 8 players.
Persistent fantasy RPG → Enshrouded. Session-based sci-fi survival → Icarus.
Head to head
| Enshrouded | Icarus | |
|---|---|---|
| Release | 1.0 on 15 October 2026 | Released 3 December 2021 |
| Perspective | Third-person | First-person |
| Max players | 16 | 8 |
| World model | Persistent voxel world; your base stays | Persistent Open World or timed missions with extraction |
| Setting | Dark fantasy kingdom of Embervale | Terraformed planet after terraforming failed |
| Combat | Action RPG: dodge, parry, Warrior / Ranger / Wizard builds | PvE survival with hunting and wildlife threats |
| Price | $29.99 at 1.0 (increase confirmed) | $34.99 |
| Monetisation | Single purchase | 20 DLC listed; tech-tree content gated behind them |
| Storage | 60 GB | 70 GB |
| RAM (min / rec) | 16 GB | 16 GB / 32 GB |
| Steam Deck | — | Unsupported |
| Steam reviews | Very Positive | Mostly Positive — 75% of 69,303 |
| Concurrent players (Oct 2026) | — | ~2,700–5,300 (30-day avg ~4,464) |
World structure: the real difference
This is the part that decides whether you enjoy the game.
Icarus offers two modes, and the mission mode is the distinctive one. Individual Missions drop you onto a fresh map with a timer and an objective — gather survey data, clear a hazard, extract before the clock or the storm gets you. You keep the character progression and some gear; the base does not come with you. Players report this as both the game’s best idea and its most tedious element, because a failed run means rebuilding your early crafting from scratch.
Open World operations are Icarus’s persistent alternative, and that is the mode an Enshrouded player would recognise.
Enshrouded has one model: a persistent, hand-crafted world you permanently alter. Your Flame Altar, your builds and your terraforming all stay. If the idea of losing a base to a failed extraction sounds exhausting rather than exciting, you want Enshrouded.
Combat
- Enshrouded is third-person and build-driven. Dodge windows, parries, a deep skill tree and three loose archetypes. Since 1.0, every swing, dodge and block costs stamina, and a timed parry fills the stun bar to open a Merciless Attack.
- Icarus is first-person PvE. Threats are wildlife, weather and storms, and the preparation happens before you leave the shelter — not in the middle of a fight through dodge timing.
There is no PvP in either. Both are PvE.
The DLC question
This is the honest sticking point for Icarus, and it is worth stating plainly because it is not a minor footnote.
Icarus was praised in reviews for its crafting and progression systems and for offering both mission and open-world play. The dominant complaint is that a significant amount of content — including parts of the tech tree — is locked behind paid DLC. Twenty DLC are listed for the game, on top of a $34.99 base price.
Enshrouded is a single purchase. Whatever you think of its 1.0 price increase, there is no equivalent content paywall inside it.
Performance
Both are heavy, and both have reported frame drops around large bases.
- Icarus lists 70 GB storage, 16 GB RAM minimum and 32 GB recommended (i5-8400 / GTX 1060 6 GB minimum, i7-9700 / RTX 3060 Ti recommended).
- Enshrouded lists 60 GB storage and 16 GB RAM (GTX 1060 6 GB / RX 580 6 GB).
Roughly comparable, with Icarus the marginally hungrier of the two. Neither is officially Steam Deck supported, so handheld play is an experiment in both cases.
What each does better
Enshrouded is better at:
- Bigger groups (16 vs 8)
- A persistent world where building accumulates
- Action-RPG combat with class-flavoured builds
- Voxel terrain sculpting — Icarus has no equivalent
- Clean monetisation: one purchase, no gated tech tree
- A hand-authored world with designer-placed ruins
Icarus is better at:
- Short, structured sessions — missions are self-contained with a clear objective
- Tension from extraction: the clock and the storm genuinely raise your pulse
- First-person survival, if that is your preference
- Sci-fi survival with a terraforming premise
- A long update cadence — weekly content updates through 2026
Verdict by player type
- You want one base that you improve for months → Enshrouded.
- You want 40-minute missions with a clear objective → Icarus.
- You have 9+ friends → Enshrouded (Icarus caps at 8).
- You hate DLC-gated progression → Enshrouded.
- You prefer first-person → Icarus.
- You want sci-fi over fantasy → Icarus.
- You want to sculpt the terrain → Enshrouded, and Icarus cannot do it.