Doing a job like this, one sees quite a few games. In fact on a regular basis I will spend hours each day on a handful of titles trying to determine if they’re worth writing about. As you can imagine, the quality varies quite sharply from game to game. When something comes along that’s amazing, unique, and most of all extremely fun it reminds me why I’ve chosen to write about games in the first place. Guns of Icarus Online is one of these games.

The idea of a team based, multiplayer online game has been gathering steam lately. With the popularity of titles like Team Fortress 2 and Super Monday Night Combat, many companies are starting to take actual teamwork seriously as a mechanic. Lone wolf deathmatch kill sprees are great for a certain segment of the gaming population, but for those of us interested in working together in a role towards a bigger goal it is only now that we’re starting to see games like this really take off. In Guns of Icarus you get to choose one of three roles each with a specific duty on the ship. You can be the Captain flying the ship itself, a tricky position that requires you to maneuver into range, avoid gunfire, and hightail it out of their if things start to look bad. You can choose a gunner, running from gun to gun and using special ammo abilities to enhance your ship’s firepower. Finally, you can choose an engineer. As an engineer it will be your job to bang everything you can with your wrenches until its fixed and put out any fires that break out.

There are also several maps with different gameplay types, and while only a few are selectable currently there will be many more in the final release. You can choose a team deathmatch, resource point match, or king of the hill style game and each map, along with the visuals in general for the game is absolutely gorgeous. The clouds and smoke that billows off the ground (and serves as a strategic area to duck into when combat isn’t going your way) the beautiful skies and the crumpled iron skeletons that litter the landscape really make Guns of Icarus stand out as a very pretty game. Even the animation of the guns when you’re firing is unique to each gun and really looks like it was thought out well. After you select your role and your map, you can also change those guns up or select one of four ship types. In fact there’s quite a bit of customization as to what items you hold, what guns your ship uses, and even various cosmetic choices like hats, goggles, and outfits. The developers have plenty more lined up as well for their release later this year. In addition to more maps, more items, and more gameplay types Guns of Icarus Online will eventually have an adventure mode with PvE elements and you can explore much more of the fully fleshed out universe.

Right now weekends are the only time you can jump on the servers, but as it gets closer to September more and more people will be allowed on to stress test and work out any leftover bugs. We have a video we did with Joe from Muse Games and a ton of buddies playing a few matches if you’d like to watch it you can check it out here. You are going to want to play this game, it is amazingly fun, has a ton of potential and just hits all the right notes in style and gameplay. If you follow us on twitter (@IndieLoveTweets) we will be giving a few codes away, so pay attention to that and you’ll have the chance to judge for yourself. To battle!