Saw a promo for Rebel Galaxy Outlaw on Epic and looked for it on Steam. Steam only had the old Rebel Galaxy. I was watching the trailer thinking "This doesn't look too bad". Then saw that Leisher wants it and Stranger has it. I wonder "Why haven't I put this on my wish list?" Then I saw that I owned it. Must have been in a bundle at some point. Score.
It's not too bad. It's your basic space trader game. Think "Wing Commander: Privateer" maybe. The combat is NOT first person though. You manage your ship, and fly, much like you did in Eve. However, this is MUCH more simple and fast paced than Eve. Much more arcade than simulator. At first, I couldn't really control anything or accomplish much. In fact, the very first mission it sent me on was kicking my ass. I had no idea how to aim or target the enemies. Never knew if I was hitting them, etc. Was horrible. A tip came up saying "If you are getting beat up by the story missions, run missions from the bar to upgrade your ship." Damn, the FIRST mission is kicking my ass?! So, I ran bar missions and added a couple things to my ship. Tried the first mission again. About this time, I was also learning that while warping, you can be pulled out of warp by pirates or other 'Space Debris'. That's what had been happening. The first mission wasn't beating me up, it was higher level pirates in my warp path. The mission was actually very easy.
The story line so far has been fetch missions. I'm guessing, that's all there will be. Run this cargo here. Go pick up that cargo. Go kill these bad guys. Etc. But it's a spaceship game. What else are you going to do? There haven't been any "Go race this guy" missions, yet.
As stated, you can get pulled out of warp by other objects. You can also pull yourself out of warp if you detect something you want to check out. There are cargo containers all over the place you can stop to pick up. Some are in the middle of magnetic mine fields. And yes, if you get close enough, at the right speed, you can pull the magnetic mines behind you. I have yet to kill any large bad guys by doing this though.
Weapon/ship systems are pretty basic. Deep enough to give you some variety, but this is no Eve. They really push the 'broadside' battle tactics. All of your weapons are mounted on your sides and you fight old school broadside style. Except for turrets. Those are on top and can shoot everywhere. Those are good for killing smaller, faster ships. Broadside cannons are better for larger ships. You have missiles too. They shoot out both sides at the same time, broadside style. Not sure I'm using them 100% correct yet.
I hired a merc, and he flies with me. I can take on harder missions because of it. He's a good meat shield and can score kills as well.
I'm making money fast enough to be able to have options. Have not had to grind for insane hours to get my first new ship. You can also salvage goods from ships you destroy. Parts and cargo. You make good money from the cargo as well as the mission payout. You need a tractor beam to capture the goods though.
You have plenty of opportunity to go full bad guy too. There are factions you earn favor with as you do missions and based on how you interact with NPCs. Blow up random blue guys you pass during warp to steal their goods, you are going to gain favor with the criminals and the blue guys won't like you. I can't land at red stations (They shoot at me) and at the blue stations, they help me kill the red bad guys. Stranger will appreciate their embracing his play style.
There are other solar systems I have not been to yet. The map isn't overly huge. I'd say for the type of game play, and how quickly you advance, it's an appropriate size.
The combat is a little clunky, but I'm used to it now, for the most part, and am ok with it. The combat in Outlaw looks way better, as it's first person. It has an aim assist which obviously helps ALOT. It's very hard to hit targets without it. With practice, I'm sure I'd get better at it. But for now, I'm leaving it on and just playing it like it's an arcade game.
You can bounty hunt, trade goods from station to station, mine asteroids, kill good guys for their stuff, and run missions.
One complaint. . . you fly on a single plane. No up or down flight. BUT. . . the enemies CAN fly up and down! So, they can fly above you, and you can't see them. You can't even look up. So they can be above you, shooting you, and you can't shoot back!! But, a quick hit of your booster fixes it. They don't hover up there and exploit. You just can't see/shoot them when they do a fly over. I think this is to keep the controls easy. A and D steer left and right, W and S are your booster/brakes. Q and E are your throttle. Your mouse targets ships. So you can fly 'north' while looking west to target and fire on ships. Remember, it's all about the broadside battles. Again, this is much more arcade than simulator.
I'm having fun grinding missions and killing stuff and buying new stuff. You get cash fast enough so you can always buys something. That's keeping me interested. I can buy something to try it and not worry about wasting hours of work if I don't like it. It doesn't take that long to be able to get stuff. However, the top tier ships are WAY out of my price range, so there will be something to work towards for some time. But there are a ton of ships between the newb and the pro ships to try out on the way. I'm looking forward to finding out what's in the other systems. I have looted weapons/gear that is not for sale in the system, so I'm guessing I haven't seen everything yet.
If you like arcade space sim trader mercenary games, it's worth looking at during the next sale. I'll be watching for the new RG:Outlaw which is 'coming soon'.
Rebel Galaxy
Rebel Galaxy
Just finished the story line tonight. VERY short. Maybe 20-30 missions deep. I'd guess closer to 20.
Grinding is fun trying to upgrade your stuff and then test to see how quickly you can take things down. Early game, I couldn't touch capital ships. Late game, it takes a while, but I can take them down.
The story is good enough that it keeps you wanting to move it forward. There are a couple of other story lines, but they were VERY short. 3 missions I think? Not sure what the point of those were. There really was no point to them. "Lets go destroy these things to mess with these people." then nothing. Nothing telling you why they were bad or needed to be messed with, etc. Just fancier grind missions basically.
Now that the story is done, it's just grinding to bigger ships. Unfortunately, that will get old somewhat quickly. I can still upgrade to a capital ship, but they are so slow, there not much to them other than sit there and tank and kill everything. I liked my faster ship, but it just didn't have enough power to take down the biggest ships. My current has the power, but it's slow. Slow enough that I can still do some hit and run type tactics, but not as well as my faster ship. Any slower, and there is no hit and run. So I doubt I'll upgrade past what I have.
In summary:
Good game. Solid addition to whatever bundle it was included in. (I think it was the bundle that included Sins of a Solar Empire and that space corp game we played a couple of times) Really glad I played it. But, very short and not a lot of replay. Steam sale worthy. In fact, a quick look showed it at 80% down to $4. I got just under 50 hours of play time out of it. I'm not quite done, I don't think. And I did take my time going through the story. I did a good amount of grind missions to buy more hardware/ships. You might be able to do the story quicker. But, you WILL have to buy a bigger ship, I think, or you will struggle to finish some of the later missions with the capital ship battles. So, ya. I'd pay $4 for this game.
Grinding is fun trying to upgrade your stuff and then test to see how quickly you can take things down. Early game, I couldn't touch capital ships. Late game, it takes a while, but I can take them down.
The story is good enough that it keeps you wanting to move it forward. There are a couple of other story lines, but they were VERY short. 3 missions I think? Not sure what the point of those were. There really was no point to them. "Lets go destroy these things to mess with these people." then nothing. Nothing telling you why they were bad or needed to be messed with, etc. Just fancier grind missions basically.
Now that the story is done, it's just grinding to bigger ships. Unfortunately, that will get old somewhat quickly. I can still upgrade to a capital ship, but they are so slow, there not much to them other than sit there and tank and kill everything. I liked my faster ship, but it just didn't have enough power to take down the biggest ships. My current has the power, but it's slow. Slow enough that I can still do some hit and run type tactics, but not as well as my faster ship. Any slower, and there is no hit and run. So I doubt I'll upgrade past what I have.
In summary:
Good game. Solid addition to whatever bundle it was included in. (I think it was the bundle that included Sins of a Solar Empire and that space corp game we played a couple of times) Really glad I played it. But, very short and not a lot of replay. Steam sale worthy. In fact, a quick look showed it at 80% down to $4. I got just under 50 hours of play time out of it. I'm not quite done, I don't think. And I did take my time going through the story. I did a good amount of grind missions to buy more hardware/ships. You might be able to do the story quicker. But, you WILL have to buy a bigger ship, I think, or you will struggle to finish some of the later missions with the capital ship battles. So, ya. I'd pay $4 for this game.
Rebel Galaxy
So...get it? Speaking strictly on Steam, Humble Bundle, or GOG. I'm not buying anything from the Epic Store.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
Rebel Galaxy
At $4, I would.
I do wish the story was longer though so there was more incentive to keep playing it. But $4 for about 50 hours, I'm satisfied. If you beeline the story, you would probably be done way before 50 hours, but you'll also have a hard time with some of this missions with an under powered ship.
I do wish the story was longer though so there was more incentive to keep playing it. But $4 for about 50 hours, I'm satisfied. If you beeline the story, you would probably be done way before 50 hours, but you'll also have a hard time with some of this missions with an under powered ship.