Rebel Galaxy (Review): An Open World 3D Space Shooter

Rebel Galaxy is a 3D space shooter game developed by Double Damage Games Inc. You start with a privateer frigate spaceship to do anything you please, including destroying pirates, mining, trading, running missions, and becoming a bounty hunter. Then, you can use the rewards to buy a better ship and upgrade its modules.

There is a campaign in this game that starts with you looking for your Aunt Juno. After you stop at the nearest station and talk to Orzu, you find out that she is missing. As a result, you will take care of her frigate spacecraft and a device called The Specter. Later, you will find that The Specter is a sort of AI (Artificial Intelligence) with fragmented memory. Your journey is to find your aunt and the fragment memory of The Spectre.

This review is NOT sponsored by Double Damage Games Inc.

Summary

Price: approximately $19.99 (in 2022)
Genre: Sci-fi, Space simulation, 3D space shooter
Total File Size: ~ 2.3 GB
Platform: PC game.
Download:
» Steam, Rating: 9/10.
» Epic Game, Rating: 4.4/5.

Pros:
+ Spectacular graphics
+ Allow hiring a mercenary (wingman)
+ Fixed equipment price

Cons:
– 2D movements
– No manual save
– Long grind with small rewards
– Beware of eye strain

Pros

Open world exploration

Rebel Galaxy offers a huge sector map comprising 14 star systems you can freely explore. Although, this map is randomly generated each time you start a new game. The star system you begin with, has the lowest level of enemies. The further you travel to other star systems, you will face stronger enemies.

Each star system is a huge open world that offers plenty of activities for you to earn money and faction standing. You can decide to take some mission from a faction, mine asteroids, trade cargo between stations, do bounty hunting, or even become a pirate. The problem is that while you earn money, you may increase your standing by a specific faction that usually screws another.

In the beginning, you will have a cheap frigate with default cannons. But after playing for a while, you can buy a much better ship and its modules to destroy stronger enemies. There are many choices of combat ships, including Frigates, Light Frigates, Heavy Frigates, Corvettes, Destroyers, Cruisers, and Dreadnaughts ​[1]​. In addition, if you have a good standing with the merchant faction, you can buy a ship with massive cargo holds, such as Hauler, Light Hauler, and Heavy Hauler. You can also install and upgrade your ship modules, including weapons, defense, and engines. Fortunately, the buy and sell prices of that modules are the same. So you can sell a module for the same price you bought it.

Great audio and visual

While playing, Rebel Galaxy offers an attractive graphic display. The environment looks wonderful with amazing details, full of colors, and effects. It also filled the battle scene with laser light, explosions, collision debris, bloom, and glow effects. In addition, the appealing blues- and country-rock music intensifies the gaming experience effectively.

Cons

Gameplay control

In battle, you can switch to control either primary (broadsides), secondary, or turret weapons. The ship AI will help you run other weapons. So that you can focus on firing enemy capital ships while your AI clears the small fries. Unfortunately, although the world of the Rebel Galaxy is a 3D game, your spaceship is constrained to 2D movements in a third-person view. You can only move left, right, forward, and stop; it can’t even move backward. It is like controlling a battleship in the ocean and doing naval battles. However, small fighters of either the enemy or the wingman (that you hired) could move freely in 3D space.

On another aspect, the difficulty of the story increased dramatically, and you need to keep buying a better ship and its modules. As a result, you will grind side mission battles a lot to earn money. Some people might find it monotonous because of the tedious repetition. However, there is no in-game save button, only autosave when you undock from a station. Therefore, you may need to visit the station frequently.

Beware of eyestrain

Even though Rebel Galaxy offers spectacular graphics, there are a lot of glares in the game. It occurs when you find bright colors, especially your ship’s thruster. Prolonged playing will lead to eyestrain. Thus, once in 20 to 30 minutes of playing, please pause the game and take a short break.

Tips

1. Side missions offer higher rewards than bounty hunters.
2. Avoid clouds when warping to prevent encountering unnecessary battles.
3. Install a flak cannon in the secondary turret; spamming it could protect you from nearby missiles and fighters.
4. Use your pulse scan regularly to find nearby enemies, cargo, valuables, and mining asteroids.
5. Charon is a desolated star system. Unfortunately, you cannot return to Charon after finishing the main story. Therefore, explore Charon as much as you like while possible.

References