by Marie (@PowerfulOrb)

• Rebel Galaxy
  
• Developer- Double Damage Games
  
• Publisher- Double Damage Games
  
• PS4, Xbox One, PC (Steam, GOG)
  

Rebel Galaxy feels like a good album where every song has the same chords. It’s hard to pick out a single that stands above the rest, and it all kinda blends together, but it’s good for the first 5 plays. When Rebel Galaxy is at it’s best, I’m jamming out to the one-of-a-kind soundtrack, as I frantically struggle to takedown a ship three times my size, with five times my firepower. More often than not however, I’m in a lengthy warp from one indistinguishable mission to another with a podcast on, grinding out credits for upgrades, to beat the bland story mission that’s kicking my ass, while mashing through mediocre writing in order to make some semblance of progress.

When starting Rebel Galaxy, I really enjoyed it. The combat felt good, the galaxies were beautiful, and the alien races (who spoke their own languages!) seemed really well thought out and cool. Very soon however, it became obvious that this veneer was all it had to offer. Even if I had no problems with the combat, it never felt different. Valuing defense over weaponry, I chose to constantly upgrade shields and deflectors, meaning I could get in close and outgun almost every ship and still run circles around them, even if I couldn’t beat them.

Changing my playstyle would mean spending hours doing tedious missions. Systems are colorfully filled nebulae and asteroid belts, which give both visual variety and thoughtful battlefields. Space is filled with trash in a way that reminds me of the junk yards of the Georgia backwater I grew up in. But ultimately every galaxy feels the same. Each change is just a different color and name. There are different species in each system, but their dialog is always a variation on a theme. The “same car new paint syndrome”, is painfully prevalent.

That car also isn’t very good. There’s plenty to do in Rebel Galaxy, but all too soon it starts to get repetitive and boring. I thoroughly enjoyed my first eight hours of the game. Developing a playstyle I enjoyed, working with the Militia faction to get help, and slowly upgrading my ship, was genuinely fun. Even if it felt like a grind sometimes. It feels good to fire everything you’ve got into a big hulking destroyer, or to disintegrate distant fighters with powerful lasers. So many of the best moments were ramming into capital ships, cleaving their armor with ramming deflectors, and unloading everything and the kitchen sink into their broadside, all while being backed by the intense soundtrack.

However over 15 hours later, there was no real challenge. Even after changing weapons and using a non-weaponized deflector, ramming head on and firing everything is still incredibly viable. It’s made the game boring, and as I forged through the story, tedious. Since there wasn’t really much thought or challenge to the combat, I ended up doing fewer missions. This meant money was constantly dwindling from expenses for repairs and supplies. Since prices for higher quality gear began getting ridiculously high, I started coming up against walls. Story missions don’t pay enough for upgrades, and the in game market was impenetrable to me.

The markets on each station operate independently, but are affected by events in the system like sieges, famines, and arms races. Seeing and fighting in sieges is cool, but it only changes what sells well on the market, or who controls the station. If you aren’t particularly interested in remembering the gibberish station names or playing the markets, this means it’s just another space battle. And combat is Rebel Galaxy’s biggest problem.

Character is Rebel Galaxy’s second biggest problem. On the surface, it would seem this game has it in spades. The soundtrack, the (eye rolling) roguish dialog, and array of factions, all have potential for interesting developments. It’s only skin deep unfortunately. The dialog is groan worthy and flat. It wants so badly to be cool and suave, but doesn’t even end up being campy. After a few hours, I just stopped reading most of it. That’s not particularly hard, given that most of the players' choices consist of moving the plot along, while most of the missions are just, “destroy this”. The different dialog options aren’t impactful. I can drop my cargo to avoid a fight, but all I get is a minuscule affinity increase for a faction that already hates me. Even though I’m friendly with the militia, whenever I ask for help, I get the same “we don’t have time for this”, denial for assistance. Yet if you ask traders if they need any help, even in the middle of a fight, they say they’re fine. There were a few moments where my choices seemed to really be a factor. When a militia ship saw that I had contraband, feigning ignorance caused me to lose a little affinity and go about my way. Factions don’t really affect much beyond who gets in the way of your warp to shoot at you.

The warps are definitely the worst part of the game. It takes time to build up the necessary speed to warp, (which can be upgraded) and you’re constantly slowed down from pre-warp speed if anything is near or attacking you. The distances are too far, and are continually interrupted by generic encounters or general space debris. It’s extremely tedious, especially since there are lengthy warps between each mission and station. It’s a frustrating mechanic that’s more about flavor than making the game enjoyable.

Rebel Galaxy screams procedural generation so loud it hurts, but even the static components lack character. There are a variety of races and factions, but they’re just archetypes and cannon fodder. The soundtrack is stellar, but the same tracks become tiresome. Rebel Galaxy’s scale and lack of depth made it’s second half painful to play. The game opens up into more of the same, and it’s such a disappointment. If the whole game had been one system, I would’ve loved it despite it’s faults. But the more Rebel Galaxy I got, the less I wanted to play. Towards the end of my review, I was so tired of playing I would get interrupted in a warp and just stop playing. I wanted to finish the game, but even beelining it felt like a chore. I’d just grown so tired of it’s loop. I really wanted to love Rebel Galaxy, but I’m tired of listening to it’s same old tune.