Game Review: Rebel Galaxy by Double Damage Games
Score: +3/-11 Despite the low score, it has solid core gameplay if you like the type of grind. There simply aren't that many contenders in this genre.
+1/-1 Rebel Galaxy plays like Freelancer and Darkstar One, both excellent games in their time.
+1 This is "space combat lite" -- no dogfighting here. And this is a good thing if you don't like enemy ships suddenly zipping out of view and you have no idea where they went. Or if you're not really a fan of space combat but want to focus more as a trader.
Instead of having you move in three dimensions, you only move in two. This also tries to enforce the "broadside barrage" style of naval combat which I suppose is one of the trademark features of this title, except when you are a single ship instead of a navy, it doesn't really work that way or at least it isn't very useful all the time.
-1 Your own turrets firing beams can actually hit a part of your ship (e.g, if there is a turret right in front of it) and thereby damage your own shields.
-1 Some (story) mission scaling is badly done in the early story missions and prior to getting a Jump Drive there is nothing you can really do to improve your gear beyond the low early game limit.
-1 This is especially irritating and time-consuming when you are on an escort mission and have to "warp pair" (follow) the NPC ship but they insist on flying into asteroid fields and can barely find their way out. In that mission the NPC literally went back and forth in and out of the same asteroid field.
+1/-1 Repeatable random missions are quite properly rated in difficulty and there are frequently "Easy" or "Very Easy" ones. This is actually okay since they are repeatable and a substitute for playing the mercantile game which has even less risk. They let you grind up some currency so you can upgrade your ship and feel progress and move along in the story.
However, because of the scaling, mission-critical ships start to get destroyed more often and there's nothing you can really do about it. A workaround might be to simply take fewer protection missions or only the easy ones.
-1 The new systems you can access once you get a Jump Drive feel very boring. There are no side quests, and not much to discover in terms of new ships and gear, so essentially each region is just as bland as another even if they do look cosmetically different.
-1 The best way to get money and gear up is actually a lucky gear drop from enemies -- a very rare occurrence, though not so rare that it doesn't happen at all. Doing either missions or trade is a huge grind for single player game, so you really need to like the gameplay.
Score: +3/-11 Despite the low score, it has solid core gameplay if you like the type of grind. There simply aren't that many contenders in this genre.
Rebel Galaxy is a game of action-packed combat, exploration, discovery, trade, and “negotiation” with the outlandish denizens at the edge of the known universe.
You’ll battle pirates, explore anomalies, befriend aliens, scavenge battle wreckage, mine asteroids, and discover artifacts. Choose your path as a roguish do-gooder, crafty space-trader or power-hungry privateer in this swashbuckling space adventure.
- The core gameplay is buy-low-sell-high trading between ports, and taking on various space combat or delivery missions. This is a tried-and-true game formula that isn't often well-executed in a sci-fi genre but Rebel Galaxy does have the core gameplay down.
- The story here is ok in plot and plays out in a lackluster way in part because there are only so many types special story events you can have in a mostly action-happens-in-space game. Even Freelancer had to branch out to on-planet cutscenes -- otherwise it's all conversations over the radio. But since the game system is all about flying in space, the player can't really participate.
- So don't expect a spectacular story or even exciting story missions, but no points lost for not being especially innovative in the genre. However it does get a point taken off for really bare-bones writing. You get a very short to-the-point conversation just enough to advance the plot, barely more interesting than the randomized missions you pick up at space stations.
-1 Support/patches for the game seems to have ended. For example, remaining Mission Board missions can be buggy if you abandon or fail one. Don't expect any bugs you find to be fixed.
+1 This is "space combat lite" -- no dogfighting here. And this is a good thing if you don't like enemy ships suddenly zipping out of view and you have no idea where they went. Or if you're not really a fan of space combat but want to focus more as a trader.
Instead of having you move in three dimensions, you only move in two. This also tries to enforce the "broadside barrage" style of naval combat which I suppose is one of the trademark features of this title, except when you are a single ship instead of a navy, it doesn't really work that way or at least it isn't very useful all the time.
So there can be "dogfighting" where you try to keep your ship in a favourable position compared to the enemy, and your ship engines and maneuverability do count.
-1 Manual combat controls are very clumsy, not just in targeting but your need to swivel the camera around. Really pointless compared to the automatic turrets, which are basically on-par with enemy targeting speed.
- If you notice, many "sword and sorcery" fantasy games actually slow down the enemy moves compared to what a player is capable of. This means the player can sort of catch up because a player needs to move the camera/view, click buttons, etcetera compared to an AI that can just calculate everything.
- In Rebel Galaxy, you don't get this benefit, but the situation is at least mitigated by only having movement in two dimensions and larger ships having basically the same handicap. You are probably meant to manually target only against larger ships instead of trying to track the smaller ones that have full 3-dimensional movement.
-1 A Mining Laser is literally one of the best weapons in the game and superior to other actual weapons to the point where everything else is not worth using. Other ship system options do seem to offer more competitive choices however.
Enemies have apparently unlimited missile ammunition (and use them liberally) but you don't. So in long fights, missiles are simply not feasible.
-1 Your own turrets firing beams can actually hit a part of your ship (e.g, if there is a turret right in front of it) and thereby damage your own shields.
-1 Some (story) mission scaling is badly done in the early story missions and prior to getting a Jump Drive there is nothing you can really do to improve your gear beyond the low early game limit.
- For example, in one early mission, the "boss" ship seemed invulnerable. I literally spent several minutes following right behind it, lasering it the best weapons I had until I finally caught up with its shield regeneration and deflector use and started damaging the hull.
- In another mission ("Rescue Attempt"), you can't just go charging in because there are so many enemies. But you are also dependent on how your non-player-character ally does because if their ship is destroyed (and there is nothing you can really do to help them) you automatically fail the mission.
- I tried it again and approached from a different direction. This seemed to help because I was apparently far enough from the mission-critical NPC that they did not initiate the mission and therefore (?) combat around them did not start. This let me thin out some of the enemy at the edge first.
- This said, you can still pass the missions despite the difficulty spikes, so if you like the overall core gameplay, it can probably be overlooked. All you need to do are enough mission to unlock the Jump Drive and the galaxy is basically open to you.
-1 This is especially irritating and time-consuming when you are on an escort mission and have to "warp pair" (follow) the NPC ship but they insist on flying into asteroid fields and can barely find their way out. In that mission the NPC literally went back and forth in and out of the same asteroid field.
+1/-1 Repeatable random missions are quite properly rated in difficulty and there are frequently "Easy" or "Very Easy" ones. This is actually okay since they are repeatable and a substitute for playing the mercantile game which has even less risk. They let you grind up some currency so you can upgrade your ship and feel progress and move along in the story.
However, because of the scaling, mission-critical ships start to get destroyed more often and there's nothing you can really do about it. A workaround might be to simply take fewer protection missions or only the easy ones.
-1 The new systems you can access once you get a Jump Drive feel very boring. There are no side quests, and not much to discover in terms of new ships and gear, so essentially each region is just as bland as another even if they do look cosmetically different.
-1 The best way to get money and gear up is actually a lucky gear drop from enemies -- a very rare occurrence, though not so rare that it doesn't happen at all. Doing either missions or trade is a huge grind for single player game, so you really need to like the gameplay.
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