Rebel Galaxy

Rebel Galaxy is clearly designed to appeal to those who played and loved Elite and Freelancer when they were popular but I suspect that the game also has the potential to attract classic RPG lovers who are looking for something more than classic fantasy.

The galaxy may be a bit empty, but there's still a lot to love about Rebel Galaxy. [Dec 2015, p.64]

Rebel Galaxy offers an exciting, if streamlined experience of commanding a large spaceship with a heavy focus on combat. It doesn't do much with the story beyond inviting you into its universe, but the gameplay, Western-inspired setting and procedurally generated nature will keep you playing for many hours.

Rebel Galaxy scratches the Freelancer itch that went untreated for over a decade.

Rebel Galaxy has a ton of style and an incredible atmosphere that captures the weird little subgenre of space western to wonderful effect. But its repetitive combat and focus on trucking across the galaxy means that it’s not as exciting as it could be. There’s a lot to like, but you’ve got to work for it.

Bland story, repetitive quests and overall lack of depth made me feel like I was wasting my time. [01/2016, p.55]

The basic structure of a space sim is there, but while you grind for hours to make your ship better and better, you'll feel that something is missing, and that's the originality of gameplay solutions that can make a game really stand out.

A Firefly in a video game, if Firefly was more space combat oriented. Excellent space simulator with RPG elements, vast variation in both spaceships and their weapons, can fit all play-styles from slow well-armed destroyers to versatile frigates. Has one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard in a game - a combination of Classic Rock and Bluegrass. Only downside is players can move only in two dimensions while all the NPCs move in three.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

In many ways this game heavily resembles a slightly dumbed-down version of Freelancer, with improved graphics. The gameplay works out very similarly, with preset jump-points to go between systems, afterburners, 'warp' drive instead of cruise; essentially, a modern-day rehash of an old but good game. Not really much in the way of improvements, and some serious drawbacks coming in the form of the player being the only in-game thing operating on a 2D plane. Still; if it were just a HD retexture of Freelancer with the music produced for this game... I'd still say its at least a 7/10. The only complaint I have about the soundtrack of this game is that I want more of it, and I've left the game running in the background while I was writing this just to listen to the music. As it stands, its decent. Worth buying, especially since it's generally reasonable priced.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

A very hollow, janky, buggy game. Feels like it was made by people who read a description of games like Elite, Freelancer, Privateer, X and other games in the "space enterprise/action" genre and decided to make a game that could meet a checklist of features of said games, but with absolutely no depth or meat or, in all honesty, fun.