Rebellion was an overly-ambitious game made by developers who clearly had a great vision and who loved Star Wars, but who had to work under the restrictions of 90's-era PCs and the disadvantage of being among the first to incorporate many of Rebellion's core game mechanics. One of the most disappointing things about Rebellion is its space combat, specifically how infrequently it happens and how little strategy is involved. Neither side will likely engage the other until one of them researches hyperdrive interdictor ships which allow them to prevent the other side from retreating - and even then, they'll probably still retreat unless they have an overwhelming advantage. Only in the mid to late game does the presence of interdictors on both sides finally lead to combat taking place on a somewhat regular basis, and from that point onward it's largely a game of cat and mouse as the side that's stronger will have essentially won the game as soon as they catch the other side's fleet. Protip: send troop carriers to the uninhabited outer rim planets, drop troops there, and they become yours. Diplomacy and invasion are for scrubs. It's frustrating more often than it's fun, it's ugly more often than it's attractive, the audio is annoying and repetitive, and some important gameplay elements are never explained whatsoever. But for some reason, I CAN'T STOP PLAYING IT.
