GamingPickz
Game vs game · side by side

Guns of Icarus Online vs PAYDAY The Heist

Guns of Icarus Online is an FPS simulation game from Muse Games (2012) while PAYDAY The Heist is an FPS RPG game from OVERKILL - a Starbreeze Studio. (2011).

Guns of Icarus Online

2012 · Muse Games

7.3GamingPickz Score

$4.99

Steam: Very Positive

PAYDAY The Heist

2011 · OVERKILL - a Starbreeze Studio.

7.9GamingPickz Score

$9.99

Steam: Very Positive

What each one is

Steam files Guns of Icarus Online under FPS and Simulation. In contrast, it files PAYDAY The Heist under FPS and RPG.

Guns of Icarus Online

Assemble your crew, take to the skies in the premier PvP airship combat game. Guns of Icarus Online is all about flying massive airships, shooting big turret weapons, and working as a team for supremacy of the skies. Everyone as one, victory or death, together.

Description from its Steam store page

PAYDAY The Heist

Take on the role of a hardened career criminal executing intense, dynamic heists in constant pursuit of the next “big score”

Description from its Steam store page

At a glance

Guns of Icarus OnlinePAYDAY The Heist
GamingPickz Score7.3/107.9/10
Steam ratingVery Positive (90%, 14,674)Very Positive (93%, 40,968)
Critic aggregate64/10076/100
Price$4.99$9.99
Install size6 GB
Steam Deckplayableplayable
Released20122011
DeveloperMuse GamesOVERKILL - a Starbreeze Studio.

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Guns of Icarus Online vs PAYDAY The Heist, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Guns of Icarus OnlineFPS simulation game
    PAYDAY The HeistFPS RPG game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Guns of Icarus OnlineSteampunk, Team-Based, Co-op
    PAYDAY The HeistFPS, Action, Co-op

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Guns of Icarus OnlineScore 7.3 · 90% on Steam · 64 critic
    PAYDAY The HeistScore 7.9 · 93% on Steam · 76 critic

    The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment, critics and popularity, computed the same way for every game.

  4. Content and scale

    Guns of Icarus Online14,674 reviews
    PAYDAY The Heist40,968 reviews · 2 add-ons · 6 GB

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Guns of Icarus Online$4.99
    PAYDAY The Heist$9.99

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

  6. On a Steam Deck

    Guns of Icarus OnlinePlayable
    PAYDAY The HeistPlayable

    Valve's own Deck compatibility rating.

Across the rounds a number can settle, it is level at 1 each. Which one is "better" is the part no figure decides, so we leave it to what you want from the two.

The two on the grid

Compare the whole catalogue

Guns of Icarus Online and PAYDAY The Heist on the axes the GamingPickz Score is built from, on the full 0 to 100 scale so each dot is its real position. Change either axis to compare them on any measure.

2 games have both

01000100PlayersPopularityGuns of Icarus Online

Players. The share of Steam reviews marked positive, pulled toward the catalogue average in proportion to how few reviews stand behind it. A game with 200 reviews moves a long way toward the average; one with 200,000 barely moves at all. Without this a title sitting at 100 percent on nine reviews outranks Half-Life 2 at 98 percent on 278,000.

Popularity. A blend of two things that are not the same. Audience is how many people wrote a Steam review, which is a floor on how many played it. Reach is how many language editions of Wikipedia document the game, which is cultural footprint rather than sales. A game can score high on one and low on the other: a huge free-to-play title has audience without reach, and a landmark console exclusive has reach without a Steam audience at all. Where both exist they are averaged; where only one does, that one carries it.

  • PC

Every point links to that game's entry. The value map and the reception map are fixed views of the same data.

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How positions are decided

No paid placement, no favouritism, live third-party data
  • Placed by the published method, not by us. Every coordinate is computed from the axis definitions and weights printed on this site. Nobody moves a point. See the axes.
  • Nothing here is paid for. No sponsored placements, no promoted slots, no arrangement of any kind affects a position. If that ever changes it will be labelled and sit outside the ranking.
  • No favouritism, including our own. The 16 games we have written full reviews of are scored by exactly the same formula as the other 1,510, from the same third-party inputs, and they land where it puts them. Our own opinion of a game does not enter its coordinates.
  • A position is not an endorsement. It says how a game was received and what it costs, not that we recommend it. Where we do recommend something, it carries a written review with a name on it.
  • Fetched from live third-party data. Player sentiment from Steam, critic aggregates as published on store pages, prices checked hourly, attention from Wikipedia. Each figure carries its source and the date it was read, and we do not adjust any of them.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The higher-rated of the two: PAYDAY The Heist (GamingPickz Score 7.9)
  • The cheaper right now: Guns of Icarus Online ($4.99)
  • The safer bet by weight of reviews: PAYDAY The Heist (40,968 reviews)

What they have in common

Both are tagged by Steam players with:

Team-BasedMultiplayerCo-opActionTacticalIndieSimulationAdventure

Where they differ

Guns of Icarus Online is also

SteampunkCompetitiveFlightPvPClass-BasedKickstarter

PAYDAY The Heist is also

HeistCrimeGreat SoundtrackStealthDifficultSingleplayer

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Guns of Icarus Online is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. PAYDAY The Heist is demanding, for players who want a challenge.

System requirements, side by side

Guns of Icarus OnlinePAYDAY The Heist
Minimum GPUNVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX / ATI Radeon X1900
Minimum CPUIntel Pentium 4 3 GHz / AMD Athlon XP 3400+
Minimum RAM1 GB
Install size6 GB

Can your PC run them? Check each against your own kit: Guns of Icarus Online · PAYDAY The Heist.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 1 accessibility feature for Guns of Icarus Online and 3 for PAYDAY The Heist. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

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Common questions

How different are Guns of Icarus Online and PAYDAY The Heist in scope?

Guns of Icarus Online has drawn 14,674 Steam reviews. PAYDAY The Heist has drawn 40,968 Steam reviews, ships 2 add-ons and installs in 6 GB.

Is Guns of Icarus Online or PAYDAY The Heist better?

By the GamingPickz Score, PAYDAY The Heist rates higher (7.9 to 7.3). That is a composite of player sentiment, the critic aggregate and popularity, not our taste. "Better" also depends on price, length and platform, which the table above lays out.

Which is cheaper, Guns of Icarus Online or PAYDAY The Heist?

Guns of Icarus Online is cheaper right now at $4.99, against $9.99. Prices move, so this is read live from Steam and can change.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

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