Rebel Galaxy

It has been years since i played this, i remember i liked the concept very much, the broadside battles in space were fun.
What i didn't like was that whole game was scaling upwards, so you always fought an uphill battle to progress, but when you returned to some older locations for whatever reason, the lowly rusty space pirates you fought at level one on equal footing now has same insane battlecruisers as you do...
That and bit of a repetitivnes towards the end.
What i absolutely loved about the game though is the soundtrack, i sometimes listen to OST to this day.
No idea why i decided to write the review now, but here it is :)

The game is pretty dang fun if you're looking for an uncomplicated space battle sim & you're ok with 2d naval type combat. However it's really more about style & atmosphere than substance.
On the plus side: the combat is simple & fun, atmosphere & music are pretty great & the game maps are very, very pretty. Turn up the volume & shoot some baddies while carrying cargo from station to station (or system to system) & you'll feel like a space trucker / space cowboy.
On the downside: combat, factions, number of available ships, ship customization, npc interaction & the overall complexity of everything you're interacting with is... well, thin. Story & quests are very forgettable. This feels more like the backbone of a game rather than a full experience. What's there is functional but simple. Once i got the ship i wanted & upgraded it there really isn't anything to do.
Short & sweet experience, I appreciate the game for what it is & while it doesn't hold me engaged for long, it's good enough that i wish it did.

Rebel Galaxy is a praiseworthy AA attempt at creating an open ended space sim single player experience.
The most spot on description I can give to sum it up (paraphrasing my friend Emilio for recommending it to me) is: Rebel Galaxy is a space sim that plays like AC Black Flag and scratches the Elite Dangerous itch while being 90% less complex and time wasting.
That's about all you need to know!

For 17 euros, this game is a good buy.
Honest 40hr playtime to finish the game, while not rushing it at all and its only 2.2GB to download.
What I liked :
- Beautiful space environment, I mean just gorgeous to be in and fly around. I was surprised to notice that the lens flares were not in my face and were quite realistic. Whoever was doing lighting knew what they were doing.
- Naval Style engagement was definitely the right choice.
Even though the game itself is 2D in the movement of all ships bigger than a fightercraft, it totally made sense considering that capital ships are just too slow and bulky to be making any kind of excessive 3rd axis manoeuvre.
The overall gameplay loop when it comes to combat DOES NOT get boring, which I found to be surprising considering its not complicated at all.
- Gun sounds are impactful and thoroughly enjoyable
- Visual effects, from explosions or moving at Warp speed are just great and satisfying.
- Every system has multiple space stations each with its own economy, enabling trade, provided you keep up to date of the event happening within said system (although this could have been fleshed out more because it stops being efficient mid-late game when quests start giving 1M+ credits).
- Music, although you have put a few more tracks in.
What I didnt like :
- The Story could have been more fleshed out, should have been longer and more impactful.
it amounts to basically running around looking for fragments of memory only to end abruptly and to absolutely no reward for the player.
It feels more like a chain sidequest then the main storyline.
- Main villains appear near the end game but are never fleshed out AT ALL, only passingly explained as a threat to everyone and then "killed off".
- There should have been more options to interact with factions other than doing quest + or - reputation.
Militia will never need your help even if offered and will also NEVER agree to assist you when asked to. I dont understand why is the dialog even there to begin with, considering...
I dont understand why you cant actually trade with the merchants you meet in space other then buy and sell 1 random(or not so random if you think about it) item from their/your inventories respectively.
Other than it being a clear lack of options it also poses an opportunity to be exploited to get stupid amounts of credits early game.
- Inability to recruit mercenaries OTHER than fighter craft. why? because in the mid-late game they become useless and get targeted and killed against even moderate amount of enemies, let alone swarms.
- inability to recruit other factions to your cause like pirates, syndicates, militia or civilians along side the regular fighter craft sidekicks that you meet in bars.
Overall, 8.7/10
The biggest chunk of the missing score I attribute to lackluster story.

I went into Rebel Galaxy expecting space exploration and ended up captaining what is basically a flying 18th-century warship… in space. Forget elegant dogfights: this is broadside simulator 3000. Line up, turn sideways, fire cannons, repeat. There are other weapons, sure, but let’s not pretend they matter when the game clearly wants you to roleplay as a cosmic pirate frigate. The campaign? I played it, I finished it, and I’m still not entirely sure what it was about. It’s one of those stories that exists mostly to justify the next delivery mission or bounty hunt. And speaking of missions: get ready to grind. A lot. There’s barely any skill curve here: just do jobs, earn cash, upgrade ship, rinse and repeat for about 28 hours. Honestly, this could’ve been a tighter, more enjoyable 15-hour experience if it trimmed the filler. Now, credit where it’s due: the soundtrack absolutely carries this game. It’s got that Firefly-esque space western vibe and does a lot of heavy lifting to make everything feel cooler than it actually is. In the end, Rebel Galaxy is a bit of a mixed bag: shallow, repetitive, but oddly relaxing if you just want some arcade-style space combat. Just… maybe wait for a big discount. Final score: 5/10.

Do you like EVE Online but wish it could be single player? Thats basically what this game is. Great story, combat, and upgrading.

I'm back playing this old gem because I never finished the campaign the first time around, and decided to start over and see the sights again. It's so good to be back! This is not Freelancer, but feels a bit like it. This is not Windward, but feels a bit like it. Maybe a hybrid of the two.

This is a 2D flight game, meaning it's more like a ship game (ie, Windward) in terms of movement during combat. Like Freelancer, there's a dynamic trading market. Like both games, there are missions aplenty. You can buy all sorts of new ships, new weapons, new components, and the way the game's progression goes, you have to build stronger to take on harder enemies in your own sector, and the even harder enemies in further sectors.

Each sector is pretty large, having 20+ stations and lots of various special areas (only a few varieties of these, but what you find there does vary). In sectors, warp is just faster travel to get around--to get to other sectors, find the jump gate(s) in your sector and jump there if you installed that jump drive in the first system.

It has a rocking soundtrack of blues rock, but also supports custom music in case you get bored with the small set of songs in the game.

Overall, it's a great romp, will kick your butt if you try to jump ahead without upgrading your ship, and the story is....well trod. Nothing new, but it gets you from sector to sector.

Graphics are good for the age is came out, but nothing pretty by today's standards. So, any modern potato should run it.