Icarus is a session-based survival game designed around cooperative multiplayer developed and published by RocketWerkz. You, among other prospectors, live on an space station orbiting planet Icarus. While it is a dangerous, inimical place with toxic air and hostile wildlife, the planet harbors untold riches of minerals worth exploiting. Most importantly, exotic matter – a resource so valuable that its existence on Icarus singlehandedly justified all investments made into that miserable rock.
Yet, the place is so unhospitable to human life that special strategies must be devised to harvest its natural resources. Even in protective gear, humans can only survive on the surface of Icarus for a very limited period of time, requiring all prospecting to be done during short, time-limited missions. As a prospector, you will be required to promptly accomplish each missions objectives and evacuate in time. The orbital station cannot come back for those who have loitered – any delay may result in you being left on Icarus to die. The resources you harvest are not merely for sale, though – special technologies can be developed to assist you in accomplishing these painfully time-sensitive goals. Up to eight prospectors may embark on a single mission – cooperating will improve your chances of success.
Although the game is available only on Microsoft Windows, you can play Icarus on Mac as well. How? Read the guide below to discover.
Play Icarus on Mac with Parallels
Icarus requires lots of PC resources, but if you have a powerful Mac computer (iMac, iMac Pro, or Mac Pro) Parallels Desktop can be a solution. This is an application that allows for Windows virtualization on Mac with the full support of DirectX and GPUs. In simpler terms, what this means is that it allows you to install Windows 10 on Mac with just a couple of clicks and switch between MacOS and Windows instantly. So you will be able to run Windows, install Steam, and enjoy the Icarus game on Mac just like on a regular PC.
Note: Recommended devices to run resource-demanding games: MacBook Pro (models with an Intel processor, discrete graphics cards, and 16 GB of RAM or more), iMac (models with Intel processor, discrete graphics cards, and 16 GB of RAM or more), iMac Pro (all models are suitable), Mac Pro (all models are suitable). Parallels on Mac computers with M1 (M1 Pro, M1 Max) chips may not support recent games. Games that require DirectX 12 and later are currently not supported by Parallels. AppsOnMac recommends using Parallels’ free trial feature to determine whether you can run the game or not if you’re uncertain.
Play Icarus on Mac with cloud gaming services
If you have an old Mac or it cannot satisfy the Icarus game system requirements, there is an easy solution. Cloud gaming services will be happy to provide you with sufficient computing power – though not for free, of course. All you need is a browser or a small client program and a good internet connection starting from 15 MBit/s. There are several great platforms that provide these services, among the best are Boosteroid, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Nvidia GeForce Now.
The image above demonstrates that Icarus is available to play on Boosteroid, making it an obvious choice if you seek to play this specific game.
Play Icarus on Mac with BootCamp
Note: Mac computers with new Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3 Pro, or M1, M2, M3 Max) currently do not support BootCamp. In this case, please, use the options above to run Icarus on Mac
This method is simple but time-consuming. If your Mac meets all the system requirements above, you can play Icarus on Mac by installing Windows. You need to set up a dual boot of Windows and Mac via BootCamp. This is an application that allows users to choose the system to work in on startup, however, you won’t be able to switch between systems like in Parallels. You will need to reboot your machine every time you want to switch from Mac to Windows and vice versa. Remember that Mac is just a computer, in the end. And while newer Macs have their own special Apple Silicon chips that cannot run Windows, older Macs are very much similar to computers that run Windows, they have Intel processors, compatible RAM, disks, and other components. So you can install Windows on an older Mac by allocating no less than 64 GB of disk space (to be able to run Windows and a couple of games) and following these steps:
For OS X El Capitan 10.11 and older
For MacOS versions prior to OS X El Capitan 10.11 you will need to create a bootable Windows USB.
- Download this Windows ISO file.
- Open Boot Camp Assistant (Go to Applications > Utilities).
- Define the Windows partition size and choose the Windows ISO file you’ve downloaded.
- Format the Windows partition and go through all Windows installation steps.
- When Windows boots for the first time follow on-screen instructions to install Boot Camp and Windows support software (drivers)