Graphics and Sound

Nope, not kidding

Since Starshot only supports Glide for hardware acceleration, those without will have to run in software mode, with resolutions ranging from 320x240 to 640x480. Adding a 3dfx card will allow you to support resolutions of up to 800x600. Don't sweat it either way, though, because Starshot's graphics go from adequate to downright bad. The menu screens appear to have been thrown together by a 6 year old using Paint.exe, and the "realistic shadows" were so bad that I was afraid to set them to "simplified."

In-game graphics aren't bad, although they would be better suited to, say, a 3-year-old console game. In fact, the entire game smacks of console-ism, from the gameplay and style to the fact that the game runs off the CD (!?!). Not surprisingly, it's being released concurrently on the N64.

There are some nice graphical features; you can control camera movement to look around yourself, or center it the way you're looking. Unless, of course, you're in a room-inside-an-area, in which case you have no control over the camera, and have to rely on the computer, which doesn't exactly do a bang-up job.

Lame looking beach

Ok, we lied

That's about it for positive graphical aspects. On to sound, where the game really . . . what's the opposite of shines? Although there is digital voice in the game, it isn't necessary to understand / complete the game. That being said, you're better off going without sound altogether, to avoid listening to what this game provides.

What Starshot provides is an obnoxious pseudo-techno background tune. The tune consists of some attempting-to-be-dramatic music, with occasional "thumpa thumpa!" for good measure. The sound effects are on par with the music.

Who knows?