CCIP
10-23-15, 10:40 AM
Anybody play this one? It got a release this week on Steam and GOG, and I've sunk some 12 hours into it already, thought I would share my thoughts on it!
http://rebel-galaxy.com/
My review:
Basically, Rebel Galaxy is a fairly accessible space combat/trade/exploration game that is like a hybrid of Freelancer, Firefly, and naval ship combat. You control a single ship; the focus, however, is mostly on capital ship combat (i.e. you fly ships starting from a corvette and up to battleship size). Although the game world is in pretty nice-looking 3D graphics, the actual control of your ship takes place on a 2D plane, and much of the combat is focused on broadside-mounted weapons, making it very similar to naval combat indeed. You explore a large semi-random chunk of space, where there's a main story to complete - but most of your time will be spent on playing a mercenary/pirate/trader/outlaw/whatever and doing side quests. While some of the content gets a bit repetitive - e.g. side missions are mostly the same sort of thing - there is lots to explore and the combat is very fluid. You spend most of your time warping to - and from - trouble spots and enemy encounters. Depending on your ship, you can adapt a variety of playing and combat styles - again, similarly to naval vessels, your options boil down to finding the right balance of speed, toughness, and firepower. You always have the option of running from a battle, and you can optimize your ship for short-range or long-range combat, or anything in between. Some say it resembles the gameplay of the ship combat in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag (except in space) - I haven't played that, but it seems like a reasonable enough comparison.
The game does a good job of cutting out clutter and chores, but maybe at the cost of complexity - there's no complicated docking procedures, travel times are quick, and controls are simple. The game plays best with a gamepad-type controller (but seems to do fine with keyboard and mouse too), and has the feel and pace of an action game rather than a sim. There's no real pretense at physics or realism, just a good space romp. However, the AI puts up a good fight and there's lots of neat options for how you can play. Aside from your main broadside weapons, typically big plasma cannons which are manually fired, your ship will also have secondaries (like rockets or EMP blasts), turret-mounted weapons (from missiles to laser cannons), shields, and even the option of hired mercenary escort. Besides fighting, you can also mine, trade, negotiate, join factions, work deliveries, scavenge goodies from wreckage, and so on. The trade and economy system in the game is pretty straightforward - one thing that I like is that it doesn't force you into convoluted procedures. You get very clear indications for price of products vs. the average price for the sector, so you know when you're getting a low price. You can undo purchases easily; you can trade your ships in for their full cost (meaning that if you buy a new vessel and don't like it, you can go back to your old one with no penalty), and you get to keep all your upgrades and add-ons (like turrets or upgraded techs) to use on any new ship (although if you buy a larger ship with more turrets than your old one, you will have to buy the additional turret weapons for it). In the end, all this means is that you have lots of options at hand, but you spend most of the game flying and fighting rather than trading and tweaking.
12 hours into the game, I'm still only on my 2nd star system (out of the 14). Difficulty has ramped up a bit, but with a few successful trades I've made enough money to take on all but the most dangerous enemy fleets in the sector. So far, so good.
I can definitely recommend this game to anyone who wants a streamlined Freelancer-like (or perhaps Freelancer-lite?) experience, with shades of naval combat. It's definitely not terribly complex, it definitely does get a bit repetitive in places, but every once in a while you run into some truly awesome and challenging battles. Graphics are very clean and look great (though not outstanding) to me, and it performs very smoothly on mid-range computers. No multiplayer, though.
The game has a great atmosphere - the Firefly reference is not incidental since it has that whole "space outlaw" personality to it, and its Southern rock soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. Very good if you want that "space cowboy" sort of feel. And the asking price is very reasonably - $20 on release, currently on sale for $18. If in doubt, wait until it inevitably gets on one of the Steam sales in a few months.
:up: from me!
http://rebel-galaxy.com/
My review:
Basically, Rebel Galaxy is a fairly accessible space combat/trade/exploration game that is like a hybrid of Freelancer, Firefly, and naval ship combat. You control a single ship; the focus, however, is mostly on capital ship combat (i.e. you fly ships starting from a corvette and up to battleship size). Although the game world is in pretty nice-looking 3D graphics, the actual control of your ship takes place on a 2D plane, and much of the combat is focused on broadside-mounted weapons, making it very similar to naval combat indeed. You explore a large semi-random chunk of space, where there's a main story to complete - but most of your time will be spent on playing a mercenary/pirate/trader/outlaw/whatever and doing side quests. While some of the content gets a bit repetitive - e.g. side missions are mostly the same sort of thing - there is lots to explore and the combat is very fluid. You spend most of your time warping to - and from - trouble spots and enemy encounters. Depending on your ship, you can adapt a variety of playing and combat styles - again, similarly to naval vessels, your options boil down to finding the right balance of speed, toughness, and firepower. You always have the option of running from a battle, and you can optimize your ship for short-range or long-range combat, or anything in between. Some say it resembles the gameplay of the ship combat in Assassin's Creed: Black Flag (except in space) - I haven't played that, but it seems like a reasonable enough comparison.
The game does a good job of cutting out clutter and chores, but maybe at the cost of complexity - there's no complicated docking procedures, travel times are quick, and controls are simple. The game plays best with a gamepad-type controller (but seems to do fine with keyboard and mouse too), and has the feel and pace of an action game rather than a sim. There's no real pretense at physics or realism, just a good space romp. However, the AI puts up a good fight and there's lots of neat options for how you can play. Aside from your main broadside weapons, typically big plasma cannons which are manually fired, your ship will also have secondaries (like rockets or EMP blasts), turret-mounted weapons (from missiles to laser cannons), shields, and even the option of hired mercenary escort. Besides fighting, you can also mine, trade, negotiate, join factions, work deliveries, scavenge goodies from wreckage, and so on. The trade and economy system in the game is pretty straightforward - one thing that I like is that it doesn't force you into convoluted procedures. You get very clear indications for price of products vs. the average price for the sector, so you know when you're getting a low price. You can undo purchases easily; you can trade your ships in for their full cost (meaning that if you buy a new vessel and don't like it, you can go back to your old one with no penalty), and you get to keep all your upgrades and add-ons (like turrets or upgraded techs) to use on any new ship (although if you buy a larger ship with more turrets than your old one, you will have to buy the additional turret weapons for it). In the end, all this means is that you have lots of options at hand, but you spend most of the game flying and fighting rather than trading and tweaking.
12 hours into the game, I'm still only on my 2nd star system (out of the 14). Difficulty has ramped up a bit, but with a few successful trades I've made enough money to take on all but the most dangerous enemy fleets in the sector. So far, so good.
I can definitely recommend this game to anyone who wants a streamlined Freelancer-like (or perhaps Freelancer-lite?) experience, with shades of naval combat. It's definitely not terribly complex, it definitely does get a bit repetitive in places, but every once in a while you run into some truly awesome and challenging battles. Graphics are very clean and look great (though not outstanding) to me, and it performs very smoothly on mid-range computers. No multiplayer, though.
The game has a great atmosphere - the Firefly reference is not incidental since it has that whole "space outlaw" personality to it, and its Southern rock soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. Very good if you want that "space cowboy" sort of feel. And the asking price is very reasonably - $20 on release, currently on sale for $18. If in doubt, wait until it inevitably gets on one of the Steam sales in a few months.
:up: from me!