Review: Rebel Galaxy (PC, XONE)
Watch this space.
I’ve often found the prospect of space simulation daunting. Elite Dangerous sits in my steam library, gathering ‘digital’ dust so to speak, with a shameful two hours clocked of play-time. The tragic pr nightmare and tremendous flop of No Man’s Sky has been and gone, yet I do have a strange fascination with the prospect of space exploration, sprinkled with caution and intimidation. Enter: Rebel Galaxy, a space action RPG by Double Damage Games. Could this be the answer I’ve been looking for? Normally, I wouldn’t be susceptible to a game involving varying degrees of grinding (that’s what she said). However, I was lured in with the combination of a kick-ass soundtrack and simplicity. It feels like they watched a ‘Firefly’ marathon with Joss Whedon in the room, drinking excessive amounts of energy drinks, just working on making the closest resembling video game. I wanna be a ‘space cowboy’, I want a ship, a sassy crew, I wanna be Han fucking Solo and no I don’t give a fuck who shot first.
Yes I realise this game has been out for quite some time, but I only played it recently and as I felt it was particularly noteworthy, I felt I needed to write a ‘mini’ review just in case anyone else needed a little push to give it a go. So you have a ship, you have a crew, but in comparison to a lot of the space exploration games out currently, this takes a huge refreshing departure from the more ‘survivalist’ or ‘mining’ focus games that appear to be a current trend. It’s influences are definitely drawn more from arcade style space combat. Yet the combat also kind of felt a lot like the pirate ship sequences of Assassins Creed 3 and Black Flag, but well….enjoyable. This is largely due to how the ship controls as there is no vertical axis, you might think this is a little restrictive, but it actually adds to the simplistic but inherently fun nature of the game. It’s extremely easy to just pick up and get on with. The mechanics take no more than a few minutes to get down, which was a breath of fresh air in comparison to the likes of Elite Dangerous which has plagued me for months (though I still love it and go back to it on an intermittent bases).
The soundtrack is something in between Firefly and Sons of Anarchy, it’s really quite wonderful. There’s no accident here, the developers new that players would instantly feel and affinity here and feel nostalgic towards how the game utilises these strange and peculiar references. It’s like when you get a smell up your nose, but that smell just invites long and forgotten memories in the far corner of your mind. That said, if your expecting a story that will change your life or shift your perspective, this is not that, in fact, I actually cannot remember what is happening in the game, I think I remember something about an aunty but nevermind.
I feel that currently I get what I need in terms of playing with a space craft and exploring the universe with Rebel Galaxy, I’m not intimidated and I get to ‘mess’ with a ship changing ‘bits and bats’, it’s fun and is easy to pick up which is very much something I crave, especially with how fast pace my life often seems. In truth I’d like to one day pick Elite back up, but I simply don’t have can’t invest in some a time sink. Rebel Galaxy on the other hand, I can’t flaw its filling a hole in my life and its also extremely reasonably priced.
Recent Comments