Rebel Galaxy Review

Space is FUN!!!

My broadsides rip into the opposing ship, turning space between us into a vibrant display of deadly beams. I've already torn their shields to pieces with the fire from my turrets and now this massive capship is taking a volley from my beam weapons. I can see their hull degrade and eventually with a curse and crackle of static they expire in a gorgeous, satisfying, and deadly explosion. I loot the cargo and mop up the fighters, or rather my turrets do the rest, four mining lasers doing an incredible job of keeping the skies clear around my ship.

I've been playing this for several days, I've amassed enough cash to get some great weapons and stuff for my ship and best of all - I've got a ship I wanted, the Arcturus.

This is Rebel Galaxy

If there's one thing I want you to take from my time with Rebel Galaxy, first out on PC, then on PS4, and (this version) Xbox One - it's that space is fun, especially when you pack it with trade, shooting, tactical battles and a genuine feeling of progression as you gain money, power and influence in a gorgeously realised procedurally generated galaxy which feels fun and fresh, every time you start a new game. (I've got 3 on the go where I was testing out various things.)

The story is fairly short and a fun sci-fi romp which takes your character on the search for their missing aunt. Rebel Galaxy drops you into a hostile galaxy and provides only the basic tutorials, expecting you to grasp things early on.

It's even got dialogues, it's not a deep system, but it adds to the immersion.

You genuinely feel as lost as the player character, zipping through space on their search for adventure. It might feel a little daunting at first, but you soon get the hang of it and after a short time you're getting further and further into the game, sucked into the gameplay and drawn into the galaxy itself. Rather like XCOM's reboot, it's the stories which come from the emergent gameplay which drive Rebel Galaxy and provide countless hours of enjoyment.

It's a great game. It's simple enough to play, yet tactically driven. The game's Galaxy is provided in gorgeous 3d, with a hell of a lot of detail on ships, stations, and locations. Again, this is all procedurally generated so you'll get different planets and so forth on new play-throughs. And whilst it's 3d, the game plays in 2d. Your massive ship moves only on a 2d plane, turning and swishing through space like a massive capital ship should.

This is a game about bigger and better ships, more guns, more firepower, and more money to buy said things.

If you've played Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, ship to ship combat in Rebel Galaxy should be a doddle - you can let the AI control the turrets, setting them to any ship, or picking each turret and allowing them to target something different, like fighters, or enemy turrets for example - in Broadside mode, you'll be using the main BIG guns on your ship via the Left Trigger to charge (aim) and the Right Trigger to fire, whilst the rest of the face buttons perform flak functions (X) and Acceleration (A), Deceleration (B), and opening a Command Interface (Y) - used to view the map, perform pulse scans and pick various close stations, missions etc.

All the buttons you need are explained on the GUI and it does a good job of presenting the information without overloading you.

Movement is on the left stick, camera on the right.

Deflectors (Right bumper) are triggered to mitigate incoming damage, extremely useful when you need to get the hell out or take a massive hit. Holding down the button keeps them active, they deplete quickly when hit by torpedoes and missiles however.

Left bumper locks a target.

You can scan targets (which pauses the game) and check various things about them, including cargo and if they have a bounty.

You can also go into your turret mode manually and shoot at incoming ships/fighters with more precision, you'll switch out of Broadside mode when you do this.

Making Money!

Bounties, Missions and other ways to make money exist in the game, following the successful pattern of the great Elite (BBC Micro) and its many counterparts (Freelancer) you can also engage in trade. Be warned, you'll need to be sharp to make a lot of money this way, you'll need a keen eye on the markets between two stations which are close - the markets in RG can shift quite unpredictably and you suddenly find you're packing cargo which is now worthless when you arrive.

Once you click with it though, you can luck out and get a few good trade runs which turn a heck of a profit. Once you really click with it you can turn a great profit, especially when you hit the second system.

Upgrades

If you're looking for new ships, new equipment, and all that good stuff. You came to the right place, Rebel Galaxy has a great upgrade system and provides a lot of opportunity for new vessels, either from the shipyard of main stations or the specialist ships provided by the Mechants or Mercenaries Guilds. There's something for everyone and usually, they're massive, bristling with guns, and pretty decent looking too.

Secrets

Yep, there's stuff out there hidden in the black, just waiting to be found. I'm not going to tell you what it might be, just that there's goodies for the taking.

Issues

Some Xbox One owners have reported issues with the game in terms of aspect ratio, the game cuts off some important GUI information. Whilst this can be fixed or mitigated by HDTV settings - it'd be nice if the game had a Safe Zone option in the display section of the options.

Apart from that, the game runs smoothly and hasn't had any issues so far.

Final Transmission

 It looks gorgeous, plays really well and it's a superb title with a lot of replay value. You can probably clock around 8 hours just on the main story, then spend the rest of the game trading, exploring and discovering all there is to see the wider Galaxy beyond. It's paying homage to Elite, to Freelancer, to all the great space games which came before it, marking its own territory, and taking its own path to glory - giving the player agency whilst it does so, never railroading you and rewarding you for taking risks - punishing you for making stupid tactical choices...

Result: Ship go BOOM...

Fortunately salvation is only a save point away, as long as you docked at a station before you got turned into space dust that is.

All this Galaxy for £14.99, bargain!

Great stuff!