I wouldn´t recommend that, you could be successful, but the risk that the ICO is only a scam is to high
There is no safe type of investment if there's no government role in it, but ICO in altcoin projects is much better than hyip programs without regular roadmap and others. I personally suggest to be involved in ICO because we can study and monitor the process in detail from this forum, so we can understand clearly before making a decision.
Any investment is safer than an HYIP "investment" since they're just Ponzi schemes.
ICOs can be legit, but it depends on what you're doing with your money. If you perform your due diligence on the people behind the coin, their ideas and you read the whitepaper, the risk-reward ratio can be good. You do have to be safe and only put a small amount of money into each coin though - don't be tempted by the high returns of a few ICOs. They're rare cases.