September 1st, 2019
Review - Rebel Galaxy Outlaw
from Double Damage Games
I remember fondly playing the first Tie Fighter game from Lucas Arts. After seeing just a full page advertisement for it for the very first time in Computer Gaming World Magazine...I literally went and sold my 3-month old Amiga CD-32 (the first true 32-bit gaming console) and ran straight to the nearest appliance/computer chain store and picked up a 486 DX2-66Mhz PC, a Thrustmaster FCS joystick, and then drove 30-minutes in the other direction to Electronics Boutique for a copy of Tie Fighter.
I was hooked. In no time I purchased X-Wing and the expansion pack on 3.5 floppy disk, and after that I played damn near every flight-sim and space game released (Wing Commander, Wing Commander II, Wing Commander III, Freespace, Privateer, Independence War, X-Wing Alliance, etc).
I also remember making the $400 upgrade to 8mb of memory just so I could play Wing Commander III. So while my first experience with flight-sims were on a friend's Atari ST and Amiga...my space game experience pretty much began with Tie Fighter, X-Wing and the Wing Commander titles on a DX2-66Mhz 486.
I was really excited when I first got a glimpse of Rebel Galaxy Outlaw. I never heard of the original Rebel Galaxy, but the videos I saw of this one was intriguing. At a glance Rebel Galaxy Outlaw looked like a spiritual successor to the Wing Commander and the Privateer series of games from Origin Systems.
Visually Speaking
The moment I ended up in the cockpit...I felt like I had been here before. Even the color selection is very reminiscent of the Wing Commander cockpits. The only difference is it's rendered in full HD glory, with a modern face-lift. So on one hand I think it's very cool and retro in a Wing Commander sorta way. On the other hand my biggest complaint about this game is also the fact that it's too retro, in the sense that the game engine is clearly all 3D, but the cockpit is full-on 2D.
The cockpits feel super claustrophobic too. There's no way to pan around to the left or right, up or down, because it's simply a flat cockpit. If you're like me, and are coming from playing tons of DCS World, WarThunder, Mechwarrior Online, IL2, and the like...getting used to 2D situational awareness in a 3D world is tough to get used to.
The rest of the visuals look fantastic. The ships, all the objects, the space stations, asteroid fields, explosions, missile visuals... it's all there and looks great. Visually speaking there's not a single thing to complain about, except the fact that we are stuck with a 2D cockpit to fight from, in a full-on 3D world. I so badly wanna use my TrackIR to look above, or to the side, to continue tracking a target when they go out of my view, but I can't.
The rendered cut-scenes of your character and all of the characters you interface with on the space stations and what not, are rendered in great detail. No complaints there. The aliens are super neat and unique. Your character is a female named Juno, and she's a no-shit-taking kinda gal, and looks the part too. The “Clutch Cargo” style animation.... where the mouths don't ever seem the match the voices, that's a little annoying. It's however a small thing to pick out, but worth mentioning.
Performance-wise I have an i5 9600K at stock speed, with 32GB of DDR4 3000Mhz running off an SSD via an RTX-2080 Super 8GB video card. At 1080p I was achieving as high as 178fps. The great part is this game supports the ultra wide modes, and it supports the super ultra wide mode of 3840x1080 at 144Hz that my Asus 49-inch monitor utilizes.
The crappy part is that when using the super ultra wide mode the actual cockpit real-estate stays the same, and they just add more border to the right and left of useless cockpit wall interior textures. It's as if they're still rendering the same amount of space at the center of my screen as I would have if I just ran 1920x1080. They just added some extra useless wall textures to fill the screen sides. Playing at the 2640x1080 mode was a little better, but still the actual cockpit real-estate appears to be limited to a 1920x1080 view-port if that makes sense.
At the higher resolution I was still hitting 150fps at times. There's also a ton of little visual tweaks you can toggle and off via the launcher. So I'd imagine it should run rather well on a mid-range system too. The game definitely looks fantastic at any resolution I tried overall. I'm just disappointed that the wide-screen modes waste space and don't really enhance the experience.
Audibly Speaking...
They really went above and beyond audibly in Rebel Galaxy Outlaw. All of the voice-over work sounds superb, and is very professional. It's hard to believe this is a $30 game, because nothing about it seems skimped over or lacking production-wise. Like I said above the voices are great, but they don't match the animation that well, but thankfully that is mostly cut-scene and dialog stuff, so I can overlook that.
There's also something like 24 hours, or 400+ tracks of licensed music in this game. It's sorta a cross between country and rock, with a southern flare to it. Every bit of it is pretty awesome, and the only down-side of this is that since there's so much licensed music it's not the most stream or YouTube-friendly.
They do include an option to play only Stream-Friendly music, which makes certain you aren't playing any unlicensed music, but the down-side is you still will get a message from YouTube telling you that you have a copyright claim to address, and because of it you can't make any money off the video. They also have a little place you can click to copy and paste some wording to put into your rebuttal to YouTube, but it seems like an unnecessary step.
I really do enjoy all of the GTA-like radio stations in game, and all of the music you'll find throughout. It's really good stuff, and definitely a highlight of the game, it really does set the mood well. SoundFX throughout is also well done. I won't say awesome, or out of the world, but damn good.
Gameplay
The game begins and you're left with the choice of Normal, Veteran, Sim, and Old School difficulty levels, and once you begin you can't switch it. I'd recommend Normal. Choosing it you get the best shitty ship, with the best variety of parts and systems to work with. Selecting Veteran you get the same shitty ship to start with, with less useful parts, and you gotta work harder. Sim and Old School is even worse, and you have a lot less of the assists to utilize as well. I'm honestly not sure who the hell would ever want to play those last two difficulty levels.
The Platypus is essentially a garbage space-truck visually speaking, and overall in handling as well. It's a terrible starting ship. The good news is that there's more ships to earn, and earn you will. With the starter ship there's not a lot you'll be very good at. If anything it will motivate you to make 100K to buy the next ship in line. Even in the garbage truck its pretty difficult to do much until you earn enough credits to buy a tractor beam, and then upgrade some of the parts.
The problem is you need a tractor beam to pull loot that foes can drop, without one you can't pick the items up. Alternatively you can scare or force other NPCs into dropping cargo too. Without a tractor beam you can make them drop the stuff, but can't pick it up. The story-line thankfully pushes you into the direction of earning credits to get a tractor beam, because without one you can't finish one of the early story-line missions either.
It's definitely a grindy game. At first it really pissed me off, because it's clear after playing it for a bit that it was designed as a console game first and foremost. You can use a HOTAS setup, and customize it all you want. With a catch. I had no clue what button #11 is on Device 2 in DirectX out of my Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog stick, TWCS Throttle and T.Flight rudder pedals combo that I use. I know the stick should be device #1, the throttle #2, and the pedals since connected to my throttle are part of device #2 as well.
This was important out of the gate for me because you need to use the autopilot function to do a lot of the “warping” you are required to do to get around from place to place. On the screen is says “hold button 11”. If you have a gamepad it simply says “hold A”.
Only later did I find that the key I need to bind is called “ThrottleUp/Context”. The entire time I'm trying to find “Autopilot” or something that makes more sense. Even after I mapped ThrottleUp/Context to my throttle button #1, at times in a big gray context bar at the top of the screen still refers to the button as button 11!
I can really see why they suggest time and again to use a gamepad to begin with, because it's clear that you can use a HOTAS or a number of other Thrustmaster gear that they have profiles for... but it's a wicked pain in the ass getting them setup. Even us die-hard simulation enthusiasts don't know what EVERY one of our DirectX inputs are by button number in Windows 10.
This is also slated to be released on the Playstation and the Nintento Switch, which makes it crystal clear that they all along planed to play Rebel Galaxy Outlaw via a gamepad, and HOTAS support was an after thought.
Now once you have a working control method, the game starts to get fun Some of the basics are... you must use the autopilot button to warp you to any of the way-points. This is achieved by holding it in and pointing at the way-point once you get the cue. This same button also sucks into your cargo hold any contraband and cargo you get from killing other NPCs with the tractor beam (or that they eject when you scare them into dropping their cargo). There are cues on the screen in the top right-hand corner to assist telling you when to hold the button, or key, to auto-pilot, or to use the tractor beam to pickup items.
There's also an auto-pursuit button. When an target is in front of you, simply hold it down, and your ship will begin to essentially “follow” that target as long as its held in. This makes combat a lot easier, it also makes tracking down floating stuff to suck into the cargo hold a little easier. Beyond that you have all the others basics too...like the means to lock onto a target, cycle targets, bring up a space map, link or separate weapons to fire, the means to fire a missile or the primary weapons separately, deploy ECM, etc.
I can't say the AI is great, but I really can't say that about a lot of games these days either. They zip around and give you a moderate challenge to catch and blow them up. In the starter ship... you get swarmed and blown up by the AI A LOT, and having to cover repair cost, rinse and repeat, is what you can expect for a while.
The save game is done automatically. You'll either love or hate it, because when you blow up you tend to restart sometimes right before you're last death. Sometimes when you restart you end up in a better scenario than you were in before dying, other times you may find that you still have damage from that previous encounter, and you'll still need to pay to repair. It's hit or miss how the save actually works.
Missions themselves are pretty much blowing shit up, making deliveries, flying from system to system doing patrols, then blowing shit up, cleaning up mines, etc. You also earn faction for good guys or bad guys as you go, depending who you help or kill.
As you warp around you may find a “distress signal”. Once you warp there you may find a space cop being ganged up on by pirates. Helping him out by killing the mercenaries or pirates will earn you good guy faction. The space cops may be less inclined to run a scan on you next time if you're in good standing with them. Killing too many innocent NPCs may earn you bad faction, making you more of a target for the cops. So your actions do carry some consequences.
You can also find a ton of little mini-games within the bar of each space station. The game of 8-Ball is well done, and quite entertaining. Getting into a game of 8-Ball on the first station you get to is a good idea, as the girl you play will give you a cool weapon for your ship called a Tracer, IF you win. You can also play slots, and there's a neat little knock-off of Asteroids in some bars too. It's a neat little distraction or break from the primary game.
At each station you'll find a Commodities option, this is where you can buy and sell items, and its where you dump the crap you loot in space for credits. You can also buy low and sell high at other stations in other systems that pay more. Visually at the console you can see how high or low stuff is selling for at any given station, giving you an idea that it may be good to buy there, and sell elsewhere for a quick profit.
There's a Ship Dealer option, but don't worry about that any time soon. It takes a god damn eternity to grind up 100k in credits to buy the first ship after the crappy garbage scow you're given. I think it took so long because you will have to pay to repair your ship and refill missiles quite often as you get your ass handed to you in combat. I recall one time being super pissed that repairs cost me 10k in credits, because it just took me about 30-minutes to earn that.
In the developers defense... I'll say the communications feature allows you to select a target and then choose to be nice, or to be threatening to them with dialog. Many times this has saved me from being decimated by foes, but other times they'll just tell you too bad, and still blow you to smithereens. So you can talk your way out of trouble, or threaten ships to coax them into dropping cargo, but the end result is pretty random.
There's also a Mercenaries Guild and Merchants Guild you can join, which costs you 5k in credits to join each, both give you access to missions that pay more, but are also more challenging. Each station is a little bit different too. I like that they tried to differentiate them visually, giving them their own visual layouts and character. The Nevada one looks sorta like a casino.
As you complete the story driven missions, you end up with friends you can call into combat as a wingman if you will. This definitely comes in handy, especially when you're still stuck flying the garbage truck. Siuce there's no multiplayer options, or way to play with friends, the virtual wingman is a nice option to have as you grind your way to better parts, and ships.
The map of the overall galaxy is pretty big, and many regions will tell you by looking at them what the danger level is. Go outside of the Texas area early on and you'll be hating your life, because you'll get owned over and over again. Once I finally was able to upgrade to the next possible ship at 100k credits, I snagged the Sonora. All of a sudden I felt like I had really accomplished something, because that grind seemed to go on forever, and I could finally leave the starting area without getting decimated.
Here's the cool part. The Sonora is more like a medium freighter, only with more weapon hard-points and bigger cargo capacity. The next ship up was just 107k credits, and now that I have the Sonora it shows I can trade it back in for the 107k ship by simply paying 7K in credits, or I can even take the garbage truck back and get a full 100k refund. That's refreshing.
I've also started to encounter larger ships as I go. I can't say they're capitol size ships, but definitely bigger than the fighter-class ships I've been dealing with. Gunships maybe the right term. Some of the freighters are also armed well, which I also found out the hard way. So it's definitely more than just fighter skirmishes to be had here. There's also a place to add Mods to the game, and I'm not sure how that will play out, but it does show that it may have a future beyond just the base game.
I was hooked. In no time I purchased X-Wing and the expansion pack on 3.5 floppy disk, and after that I played damn near every flight-sim and space game released (Wing Commander, Wing Commander II, Wing Commander III, Freespace, Privateer, Independence War, X-Wing Alliance, etc).
I also remember making the $400 upgrade to 8mb of memory just so I could play Wing Commander III. So while my first experience with flight-sims were on a friend's Atari ST and Amiga...my space game experience pretty much began with Tie Fighter, X-Wing and the Wing Commander titles on a DX2-66Mhz 486.
I was really excited when I first got a glimpse of Rebel Galaxy Outlaw. I never heard of the original Rebel Galaxy, but the videos I saw of this one was intriguing. At a glance Rebel Galaxy Outlaw looked like a spiritual successor to the Wing Commander and the Privateer series of games from Origin Systems.
Visually Speaking
The moment I ended up in the cockpit...I felt like I had been here before. Even the color selection is very reminiscent of the Wing Commander cockpits. The only difference is it's rendered in full HD glory, with a modern face-lift. So on one hand I think it's very cool and retro in a Wing Commander sorta way. On the other hand my biggest complaint about this game is also the fact that it's too retro, in the sense that the game engine is clearly all 3D, but the cockpit is full-on 2D.
The cockpits feel super claustrophobic too. There's no way to pan around to the left or right, up or down, because it's simply a flat cockpit. If you're like me, and are coming from playing tons of DCS World, WarThunder, Mechwarrior Online, IL2, and the like...getting used to 2D situational awareness in a 3D world is tough to get used to.
The rest of the visuals look fantastic. The ships, all the objects, the space stations, asteroid fields, explosions, missile visuals... it's all there and looks great. Visually speaking there's not a single thing to complain about, except the fact that we are stuck with a 2D cockpit to fight from, in a full-on 3D world. I so badly wanna use my TrackIR to look above, or to the side, to continue tracking a target when they go out of my view, but I can't.
The rendered cut-scenes of your character and all of the characters you interface with on the space stations and what not, are rendered in great detail. No complaints there. The aliens are super neat and unique. Your character is a female named Juno, and she's a no-shit-taking kinda gal, and looks the part too. The “Clutch Cargo” style animation.... where the mouths don't ever seem the match the voices, that's a little annoying. It's however a small thing to pick out, but worth mentioning.
Performance-wise I have an i5 9600K at stock speed, with 32GB of DDR4 3000Mhz running off an SSD via an RTX-2080 Super 8GB video card. At 1080p I was achieving as high as 178fps. The great part is this game supports the ultra wide modes, and it supports the super ultra wide mode of 3840x1080 at 144Hz that my Asus 49-inch monitor utilizes.
The crappy part is that when using the super ultra wide mode the actual cockpit real-estate stays the same, and they just add more border to the right and left of useless cockpit wall interior textures. It's as if they're still rendering the same amount of space at the center of my screen as I would have if I just ran 1920x1080. They just added some extra useless wall textures to fill the screen sides. Playing at the 2640x1080 mode was a little better, but still the actual cockpit real-estate appears to be limited to a 1920x1080 view-port if that makes sense.
At the higher resolution I was still hitting 150fps at times. There's also a ton of little visual tweaks you can toggle and off via the launcher. So I'd imagine it should run rather well on a mid-range system too. The game definitely looks fantastic at any resolution I tried overall. I'm just disappointed that the wide-screen modes waste space and don't really enhance the experience.
Audibly Speaking...
They really went above and beyond audibly in Rebel Galaxy Outlaw. All of the voice-over work sounds superb, and is very professional. It's hard to believe this is a $30 game, because nothing about it seems skimped over or lacking production-wise. Like I said above the voices are great, but they don't match the animation that well, but thankfully that is mostly cut-scene and dialog stuff, so I can overlook that.
There's also something like 24 hours, or 400+ tracks of licensed music in this game. It's sorta a cross between country and rock, with a southern flare to it. Every bit of it is pretty awesome, and the only down-side of this is that since there's so much licensed music it's not the most stream or YouTube-friendly.
They do include an option to play only Stream-Friendly music, which makes certain you aren't playing any unlicensed music, but the down-side is you still will get a message from YouTube telling you that you have a copyright claim to address, and because of it you can't make any money off the video. They also have a little place you can click to copy and paste some wording to put into your rebuttal to YouTube, but it seems like an unnecessary step.
I really do enjoy all of the GTA-like radio stations in game, and all of the music you'll find throughout. It's really good stuff, and definitely a highlight of the game, it really does set the mood well. SoundFX throughout is also well done. I won't say awesome, or out of the world, but damn good.
Gameplay
The game begins and you're left with the choice of Normal, Veteran, Sim, and Old School difficulty levels, and once you begin you can't switch it. I'd recommend Normal. Choosing it you get the best shitty ship, with the best variety of parts and systems to work with. Selecting Veteran you get the same shitty ship to start with, with less useful parts, and you gotta work harder. Sim and Old School is even worse, and you have a lot less of the assists to utilize as well. I'm honestly not sure who the hell would ever want to play those last two difficulty levels.
The Platypus is essentially a garbage space-truck visually speaking, and overall in handling as well. It's a terrible starting ship. The good news is that there's more ships to earn, and earn you will. With the starter ship there's not a lot you'll be very good at. If anything it will motivate you to make 100K to buy the next ship in line. Even in the garbage truck its pretty difficult to do much until you earn enough credits to buy a tractor beam, and then upgrade some of the parts.
The problem is you need a tractor beam to pull loot that foes can drop, without one you can't pick the items up. Alternatively you can scare or force other NPCs into dropping cargo too. Without a tractor beam you can make them drop the stuff, but can't pick it up. The story-line thankfully pushes you into the direction of earning credits to get a tractor beam, because without one you can't finish one of the early story-line missions either.
It's definitely a grindy game. At first it really pissed me off, because it's clear after playing it for a bit that it was designed as a console game first and foremost. You can use a HOTAS setup, and customize it all you want. With a catch. I had no clue what button #11 is on Device 2 in DirectX out of my Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog stick, TWCS Throttle and T.Flight rudder pedals combo that I use. I know the stick should be device #1, the throttle #2, and the pedals since connected to my throttle are part of device #2 as well.
This was important out of the gate for me because you need to use the autopilot function to do a lot of the “warping” you are required to do to get around from place to place. On the screen is says “hold button 11”. If you have a gamepad it simply says “hold A”.
Only later did I find that the key I need to bind is called “ThrottleUp/Context”. The entire time I'm trying to find “Autopilot” or something that makes more sense. Even after I mapped ThrottleUp/Context to my throttle button #1, at times in a big gray context bar at the top of the screen still refers to the button as button 11!
I can really see why they suggest time and again to use a gamepad to begin with, because it's clear that you can use a HOTAS or a number of other Thrustmaster gear that they have profiles for... but it's a wicked pain in the ass getting them setup. Even us die-hard simulation enthusiasts don't know what EVERY one of our DirectX inputs are by button number in Windows 10.
This is also slated to be released on the Playstation and the Nintento Switch, which makes it crystal clear that they all along planed to play Rebel Galaxy Outlaw via a gamepad, and HOTAS support was an after thought.
Now once you have a working control method, the game starts to get fun Some of the basics are... you must use the autopilot button to warp you to any of the way-points. This is achieved by holding it in and pointing at the way-point once you get the cue. This same button also sucks into your cargo hold any contraband and cargo you get from killing other NPCs with the tractor beam (or that they eject when you scare them into dropping their cargo). There are cues on the screen in the top right-hand corner to assist telling you when to hold the button, or key, to auto-pilot, or to use the tractor beam to pickup items.
There's also an auto-pursuit button. When an target is in front of you, simply hold it down, and your ship will begin to essentially “follow” that target as long as its held in. This makes combat a lot easier, it also makes tracking down floating stuff to suck into the cargo hold a little easier. Beyond that you have all the others basics too...like the means to lock onto a target, cycle targets, bring up a space map, link or separate weapons to fire, the means to fire a missile or the primary weapons separately, deploy ECM, etc.
I can't say the AI is great, but I really can't say that about a lot of games these days either. They zip around and give you a moderate challenge to catch and blow them up. In the starter ship... you get swarmed and blown up by the AI A LOT, and having to cover repair cost, rinse and repeat, is what you can expect for a while.
The save game is done automatically. You'll either love or hate it, because when you blow up you tend to restart sometimes right before you're last death. Sometimes when you restart you end up in a better scenario than you were in before dying, other times you may find that you still have damage from that previous encounter, and you'll still need to pay to repair. It's hit or miss how the save actually works.
Missions themselves are pretty much blowing shit up, making deliveries, flying from system to system doing patrols, then blowing shit up, cleaning up mines, etc. You also earn faction for good guys or bad guys as you go, depending who you help or kill.
As you warp around you may find a “distress signal”. Once you warp there you may find a space cop being ganged up on by pirates. Helping him out by killing the mercenaries or pirates will earn you good guy faction. The space cops may be less inclined to run a scan on you next time if you're in good standing with them. Killing too many innocent NPCs may earn you bad faction, making you more of a target for the cops. So your actions do carry some consequences.
You can also find a ton of little mini-games within the bar of each space station. The game of 8-Ball is well done, and quite entertaining. Getting into a game of 8-Ball on the first station you get to is a good idea, as the girl you play will give you a cool weapon for your ship called a Tracer, IF you win. You can also play slots, and there's a neat little knock-off of Asteroids in some bars too. It's a neat little distraction or break from the primary game.
At each station you'll find a Commodities option, this is where you can buy and sell items, and its where you dump the crap you loot in space for credits. You can also buy low and sell high at other stations in other systems that pay more. Visually at the console you can see how high or low stuff is selling for at any given station, giving you an idea that it may be good to buy there, and sell elsewhere for a quick profit.
There's a Ship Dealer option, but don't worry about that any time soon. It takes a god damn eternity to grind up 100k in credits to buy the first ship after the crappy garbage scow you're given. I think it took so long because you will have to pay to repair your ship and refill missiles quite often as you get your ass handed to you in combat. I recall one time being super pissed that repairs cost me 10k in credits, because it just took me about 30-minutes to earn that.
In the developers defense... I'll say the communications feature allows you to select a target and then choose to be nice, or to be threatening to them with dialog. Many times this has saved me from being decimated by foes, but other times they'll just tell you too bad, and still blow you to smithereens. So you can talk your way out of trouble, or threaten ships to coax them into dropping cargo, but the end result is pretty random.
There's also a Mercenaries Guild and Merchants Guild you can join, which costs you 5k in credits to join each, both give you access to missions that pay more, but are also more challenging. Each station is a little bit different too. I like that they tried to differentiate them visually, giving them their own visual layouts and character. The Nevada one looks sorta like a casino.
As you complete the story driven missions, you end up with friends you can call into combat as a wingman if you will. This definitely comes in handy, especially when you're still stuck flying the garbage truck. Siuce there's no multiplayer options, or way to play with friends, the virtual wingman is a nice option to have as you grind your way to better parts, and ships.
The map of the overall galaxy is pretty big, and many regions will tell you by looking at them what the danger level is. Go outside of the Texas area early on and you'll be hating your life, because you'll get owned over and over again. Once I finally was able to upgrade to the next possible ship at 100k credits, I snagged the Sonora. All of a sudden I felt like I had really accomplished something, because that grind seemed to go on forever, and I could finally leave the starting area without getting decimated.
Here's the cool part. The Sonora is more like a medium freighter, only with more weapon hard-points and bigger cargo capacity. The next ship up was just 107k credits, and now that I have the Sonora it shows I can trade it back in for the 107k ship by simply paying 7K in credits, or I can even take the garbage truck back and get a full 100k refund. That's refreshing.
I've also started to encounter larger ships as I go. I can't say they're capitol size ships, but definitely bigger than the fighter-class ships I've been dealing with. Gunships maybe the right term. Some of the freighters are also armed well, which I also found out the hard way. So it's definitely more than just fighter skirmishes to be had here. There's also a place to add Mods to the game, and I'm not sure how that will play out, but it does show that it may have a future beyond just the base game.
Conclusion
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is a real unique game. It's a true throwback to Wing Commander, Tie Fighter and Privateer. I even recall seeing a mission that claimed I was working for “Origin Systems” which was the name of the company who once created Wing Commander and Privateer, before EA bought them and killed them off in the late 90s. Even the little video on the screen in your cockpit where you see the faces of the characters you're fighting and communicating with is so Wing Commander-esq.
While Rebel Galaxy Outlaw looks a lot like those old Origin Systems games... it plays out more like a game of mercenary space truckers, and it's even somewhat Firefly-esq in overall feel. I like what they aimed for here, and think that's going to be its best selling point is the retro-esq-ness of it all. If you played 90s space combat games and enjoyed them, you'll probably find Rebel Galaxy Outlaw familiar, and fun too.
I think the most off putting part of the game is the time it takes to grind credits to get anything better than that hunk of literal crap you're given to start with. More so having fast-paced, action-packed, space-combat in a really cool looking 3D world with great graphics and visual effects, but being limited to a claustrophobic 2D cockpit to play it out in, that's where I think Double Damage Games really missed the boat.
Considering the cost of admission is just $30, and it's clearly not a AAA game... at that price it's a fun little nostalgic feeling game to kill some time with. It's fun, but frustrating. It sounds great, but feels claustrophobic. However I still keep going back to it to play more. I think that most will find that even with its faults... Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is still a great fast-paced space-shooter, that won't break the bank.
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is a real unique game. It's a true throwback to Wing Commander, Tie Fighter and Privateer. I even recall seeing a mission that claimed I was working for “Origin Systems” which was the name of the company who once created Wing Commander and Privateer, before EA bought them and killed them off in the late 90s. Even the little video on the screen in your cockpit where you see the faces of the characters you're fighting and communicating with is so Wing Commander-esq.
While Rebel Galaxy Outlaw looks a lot like those old Origin Systems games... it plays out more like a game of mercenary space truckers, and it's even somewhat Firefly-esq in overall feel. I like what they aimed for here, and think that's going to be its best selling point is the retro-esq-ness of it all. If you played 90s space combat games and enjoyed them, you'll probably find Rebel Galaxy Outlaw familiar, and fun too.
I think the most off putting part of the game is the time it takes to grind credits to get anything better than that hunk of literal crap you're given to start with. More so having fast-paced, action-packed, space-combat in a really cool looking 3D world with great graphics and visual effects, but being limited to a claustrophobic 2D cockpit to play it out in, that's where I think Double Damage Games really missed the boat.
Considering the cost of admission is just $30, and it's clearly not a AAA game... at that price it's a fun little nostalgic feeling game to kill some time with. It's fun, but frustrating. It sounds great, but feels claustrophobic. However I still keep going back to it to play more. I think that most will find that even with its faults... Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is still a great fast-paced space-shooter, that won't break the bank.
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