STAR WARS™ Rebellion

I don't have the GOG version, but the original CD. I remember getting it at a discount software store when I was like 12. I spent probably a week just digesting the hundreds of pages manual and figuring the game out, but once I got into it, Rebellion became my favorite PC game ever! I love grand strategy games that are able to play on your imagination, and Rebellion fits the bill. You truly feel like the commander of the Rebel Alliance or the Empire (depending on your choice), commanding vast fleets, armies, and agents. No silly step by step side missions or anyone telling you how to run your war. You have every option available to you on the table at game start and are able to hyperspace to any system in the vast galaxy. This game has awesome mechanics that revolve around careful interplay between economics, politics, military action, technological R&D, intelligence, subterfuge, and characters. Each system is fairly shallow on its own, but they play together nicely to form a complete picture where you can focus on overall strategy rather than annoying micromanagement. For example, you can't just hyperspace to a system and orbital bombard it back to the stone age without some careful consideration; not only could you destroy valuable infrastructure that could be captured and used in your war effort, but you have to consider the planetary defenses, civilian casualties that could generate sympathy for your opponents cause in neighboring systems and hamper any diplomatic efforts you have there, and where you really are needing your fleet at that time. Also, this game requires alot of advanced planning since trips in hyperspace can take weeks of game time and those ships can't be turned around mid-trip, and also R&D and capital ship construction can take months upon months. All in all, if you are looking for the definitive Star Wars grand strategy game, look no further, there is no alternative. I still play it to this day and it has yet to get old.

I originally owned this game way back in the 90s on CD-ROM and it was always one of my favorite games, in the same group as Warcraft 2, Age of Empires 2, Civilization 2, etc. You can imagine how happy I was when I found out that there was a Windows 10 compatible version. The game is a 4X strategy game but works in real time. That means you can't just sit there and think for too long - the days go by and things happen in the background. Unlike most modern space strategy games, you can travel to (and attack) any star system from anywhere on the map - no hyperlanes or anything like that. This adds a very interesting strategic element as you can't just fortify a choke point and call it a day. You have to CHOOSE which systems are important enough to defend. The game is also full of characters and Lore from the Original Star Wars Trilogy as well as a number of things from the Expanded Universe (including Admiral Thrawn from the Heir to the Empire trilogy - not the Post-Disney version of him). This opens up many opportunities for solo roleplay, so to speak :) Graphically, the game is rough. Obviouysly, it's a 90s game. The strategic graphics and interface remains decent, however, graphics and functionality in the 3D battle mode is EXTREMELY rough. Thankfully, it's also entirely optional as it's not very difficult to win the game by auto-resolving every battle. There is also no ground combat whatsoever, unlike games such as Empire At War. Invasions are thus simulated and the result calculated according to number and types of involved troops, defenses and RNG. Despite these few weaknesses, it's a must-have for any Star Wars and strategy games fan and promises to give a good many hours of fun for the price.

I was really stoked to see SWRebellion on sale here on gog, apparently also supporting Windows 10 and it does work...kinda Using the launcher helps prevent the upside down/reversed colours bug for me, but during battles, which I prefer to do manually, all the ships colours are messed up and lasers are hardly visible. This makes battles much less engaging, as I am basically looking at a few blobs of vomit shooting at each other with invisible vomit projectiles... I tried scouring the internet for solutions to this, but i could only find fixes for the aforementioned bugs, that were already solved by gog (kudos for that, btw ;) So yeah..playable but not 100% successful port

Like many others I played Rebellion back when it came out in 1999, but I think its more than nostalgia; Rebellion is actually a pretty good 4X-lite. It lacks the sheer complexity of the really deep 4X games like Europa Universalis or Hearts of Iron, but there's a lot of empire management going on; building fleets, garrisons, resources, scouting the map, using special forces to abduct enemy characters, sabotaging their buildings and units. You can never really play the game on fast because there's so much going on, but it's never overwhelming and it just hits the right spot. You may experience graphical glitches (even back in 1999 this was a problem). In my game I couldn't do the space battles, so I often just auto-resolved it, but that's much less of a problem than it sounds because you will be auto-resolving a lot of battles anyways. Ground battles are always auto-resolved. There's no real singe player story like Empire At War, and if you want a fancy game that's got pretty space battles, you should go get Empire At War instead. However I found Empire at War very lacking in depth and got bored of it quickly, where-as Rebellion has a lot more replayability. Honestly, dont let the negative reviews about the graphic glitches stop you, it is a good game at its core with good solid game mechanics and there's a reason why many Star Wars fan still play this game after 22 years on the market.

The game suffers from some glitches, especially as your fleets grow to enormous sizes, however the core game play is solid. And let me be clear... as the Empire, you can divert resources to constructing a Death Star, and you can destroy planets to remove them from the game. Oh, and the Rebels can attempt a Death Star Trench Run, and it can destroy your Death Star. Seriously, one of the best and most underrated Star Wars games ever made.