Rebel Galaxy

A really good game. Was not expecting it to be this good. It is easily a 200+ hour title. Good rewards vs missions. Replayability 100%. Can pick up it up at any time without feeling lost. Menu system, could use some streamlining. Interactions, yah, ok. But the game play, is great! Feels like your in control at all times. Some battles take time. You can and will be out gunned at times but it isn't like you don't have an option to run. Really cool - you can choose your own music for different areas of game play. You get to choose a folder for each area. I chose heavy metal for fights, while crusing, melow tunes. I give it a 8 out of 10 in the fun department. So much potential for a future title. This, is worth the purchase!

Catched it just recently on a GOG sale, and it's the most fun i had in a long time (in gaming, that is). Rebel Galaxy is made to be fun, easy to get in, and has a great replayability, as you will go along the storyline first, and check different playstyles later. It sort of looks like Eve Online but plays like Freelancer - no multiplayer, sadly. Being stuck on a plane in space feels like being on a naval vessel at first, dishing out broadsides from your midship batteries while spewing missiles and watch your autoturrets take down enemy boats and fightercraft. But let's not forget that this is somewhat physically correct: in real space you can't freely move up and down either, but only change your orbital parameters, as you will always be orbiting some celestial object or another. In RG, life is more simple than that, more like Pirates (the one from '87) or any of it's offspring. Do missions, trade goods, steal cargo and choose your faction. And your ship (from 21 different types). And your weapons and defenses. And as you turn on the radio on your ship's bridge, it's playing southern rock, blues and country The american dream in space. Sort of.

I was really worried at first reading the other reviews stating that Rebel Galaxy has not a world free to explore like other sci-fi simulators. Horizontal Wing Commander, what the hell? But this was all washed away after my first fights! The game is really addicting, especially if you do every side-quest you can pick up. In the beginning, you start off with a simple ship with simple weaponry, and you are easily wiped off the map if you're not careful. You have about a dozen different ships you can buy and lots of different weapons effective in against individual crafts. There are two guilds who offer unique ships too. But all these shopping sprees aren't cheap. Weapons cost a lot of money, and don't mention the ships! Also, you have to choose your ship based upon your style of play. You like turrets? Great, take a ship with lots of turret emplacements. You like the naval combat style? Fine, take one with many broadside cannons. Personally, I favoured to have a lot of turrets, but I gave the AI full control over them, because battles are so fast paced, you're blown to bits if you try to control the turrets yourself, even with a controller. Also, it is very satisfying to perforate an enemy cruiser with your broadside cannons once your turrets have taken down his shields. Just one word of advice: Don't rush on the main missions, for every main mission done do 10-15 side quests, average risk is the way to go, if you're feeling lucky take high risk, and if you're willing to reload often take the very high missions. That way, your ship is ready for the challenges farther in the game. Also, once the main campaign is done, the motivation is gone. So instead of estimated 10 hours for the campaign the game took me 50+ hours. Hopefully there will be a sequel or add-ons / DLCs.

This game is certainly neither in any way complex nor does it have a mind-blowing concept. There are games out there which have more content, a bigger world, more options, a better story...... . There is no reason why I would recommend buying this. Except for the fact that I really enjoyed it a lot. Rebel Galaxy is like a simple dish that just hit the sweet spot. Fighting, trading, exploring, upgrading, repeat. It just works. For 25+ hours. Then due to the low complexity and repetition you'll want to finish the game. Which is just then possible. Everything is perfect. If you are not looking for a long term engagement which is where it is lacking.

Buy it. If for nothing else, for the music. But let's get to that later. For the game, it's Pirates in Space. Or Privateer in 2 dimensions. Or the Ur-Quan Masters with a better fight model. You fly, you do missions, you fight, you upgrade, you find out about the story, gradually. People wonder why your ship does not roll but stays flat on an invisible plane, but it's a big a** freighter, or frigate, or battleship. By convention, those don't do barrel rolls - the Enterprise doesn't, the Galactica doesn't, Imperial Star Destroyers most certainly don't. So we don't do it here either - and it is fine, otherwise fights would be impossibly confusing. As they are, it's different from others, and it's a lot of fun. Graphics are good for the low specs the game needs. Voice acting (especially alien languages) is superbly absurdly hilarious. The story is nice too and adds the amount of flair the game needs to immerse yourself completely into the gritty, frontier-like world. But - the music! If you don't care for all the above, buy it for the music. A mix of mostly little-known artists, playing a mix of blues rock, blues metal, or just plain blues with fries on the side. It's like ZZ Top with more variation and less hair. Over 30 titles, from reflectively brooding to finger-tapping boot-stomping aggressively fun. Sure, the game has some shortcomings like the grind, the controls, the length, and most of all - no sequels or DLC. Yet. But hey. Listen to that music once again.