To say Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is inspired by Privateer is an understatement. If anything, it feels like a more modern, highly polished version of the classic from yore. It's got slicker controls, more ships you can fly, more varied missions, a motley crew of wingmen you can unlock, each with their own ship and banter, a chunky assortment of guns, turrets, missiles and upgrades you can cram into your ride, a nifty storyline, great voice action (particularly if you considere it's basically just 2 people doing those), the twangiest dark country soundtrack this side of the New Dallas Sector, and an incredibly nifty paint tool to customize your ride. As far as those rides go, it's Privateer all the way down - you fly what can best be described as oversized fighters and small cargo haulers, and dogfighting is the name of the game. No, it's totally unlike the original Rebel Galaxy. No broadsides, no deflectors, and far less auto-aiming turrets, instead you get to twiddle with energy management, gun firing patterns, various types of missile locks, shield and armor facings - yep, it's bloody Privateer. A happy middle ground between Elite Dangerous and No Man's Sky in terms of dogfighting (and yes, the inertia dampeners can be disabled). You read it here, you heard it from Travis, the Dev, you can check the reviews from back 2019: IT'S TOTALLY UNLIKE THE ORIGINAL REBEL GALAXY. At the same time, it's also more fun than a barrel of Greel Whiskey. For the faint of hear and the folks in my age group, there's the nifty auto pursuit button, which helps a lot with motion sickness and shaky old gamer hands. For you young whippersnappers, there's 2 extra hard modes. And for shit and giggles, there's also a lovely pool billard game, dice poker and asteroids arcade machines which you can play for fun, money, the occasional ship upgrade, a secret quest and a slightly psychotic wingman. Definitely worth the asking price. Totally worth double that if you liked Privateer. Get it!
Well, as a disclaimer: I haven't cried this much since watching "Grave of the Fireflies". This game will hit you in the feels, hard and repeatedly. At face value, it's a management game, not unlike Stardew Valley. You're Charon's holiday replacement, manage your little lot (in this case, a boat that slowly turns into a floating village), find new spirits to accompany you, run errands for them and keep them in good mood with decent meals and the occasional hug. Various chores are implemented in the form of small mini games, all of them entertaining without outstaying their welcome. Upgrades are pretty straightforward, and you can expect to get somewhere between 25-35 hours out of the game. Unlike Stardew Valley, the game has a definitive end, as have your relationships with the other spirits...they're coming to terms with their lives, the good and the (frequently) bad parts of it, and once they're ready to move on, you'll accompany them on their last journey. The characters are well written, their stories excellent, and quite a few of them hit a little too close for me. This isn't exactly a light-hearted game. It's a game about loss and coping with it, and both stories and writing reflect that. If you're an older gamer that already has lost loved ones, it can be pretty cathartic. Or, as in my case, if can make you reflect on the fact that you never got to say properly goodbye to them. I'll have to come to term with that before I can go myself. I just hope a get a guide like Stella (the protagonist) to help me along with that. And now excuse me. The air somehow seems full of freshly cut onion, and I still have to rate the game 5/5 before I close this review.
Someone put a lot of effort in this. I'll give them that. Sadly, the end result is anthing but stellar. Story: Starts with "Oi, I'm not feeling so well, guess I caught a bug or something." Ends with "Talk to some actually-not-really-but-quite Gods about the fate of the world." Sadly, the actual story progression stars you and a bunch of people that I'd gladly dump at the next village playing plumber/janitor for a world filled with lazy NPCs. Your career as Fedex-boy/Murderhobo for hire occasionally gets interrupted by lazy exposition dumps. The people you travel with are like diarrhea: Grim serious and not particularly fun to be around with. No romance options here, thank the gods. Writing: Someone needs to be smacked with a guide on "how to avoid boring people to death with purple prose" so hard that they cough up the thesaurus they accidentally swallowed. Show. Don't tell. And if you must tell, FFS write english and not something that looks almost like it. Combat: Decidedly meh, realtime combat on crowded maps that like to dogpile you, occasionally unresponsive companion AI vs micromanagement from hell, garnished with a light drizzle of friendly fire and unexplained arcane mechanics. It's better than the writing, though. World: Utterly generic grimderp fantasy, the highlights being "our hobbits are furry", "our orcs surf", "our definitely-not-planetouched™ look even stupider than the originals". Also pretty uneven writing, at the start everyone is "oh woe is me, for the chiiiiildren are born without souls!!!" to "eh, here, have some political conspiracy....kids, what kids?" in about 3 very small map transitions. The "manage your own keep" thing was nice, but ultimately unfulfilling, the extended 15-story-dungeon below felt like tacked-on busywork designed by someone who really, really wants to do an old-schoold D&D dungeon crawl. It's a serviceable RPG in the vein of Baldur's Gate. It doesn't hold a candle to the Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2.
