Rebel Galaxy - Yes/No?

[Draco18s]

So Is There Any Deal just informed me that Rebel Galaxy is half off (best deal since I started tracking it).  Sale lasts until Friday.  Steam reviews are Very Positive.

Anyone know anything about this one?

At $10 it's inside my general "space combat pew pew" price threshold.  I'd still feel disappointed if I didn't like it, but not up in arms over it.

[Mánagarmr]

Huh, I'd never even heard of it. I guess look up some LPs on youtube?

[tombik]

I have not tried it, but the only valid criticism of it was about its being too grindy.

[Toranth]

The complaint I remember was that 90% of the game was cookie-cutter fetch quest grind, so you ended up doing the same thing over and over and over again, with minor breaks for story missions to advance the plot (and unlock new grind quests) every once in a while.

That basically killed my interest in the game, so I haven't paid much attention to it since then.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Mixed.....but if I had to say one way or the other....yes with caveats. Combat is really fun but missions are kinda samey at least from the 15 hours I've put into it. Story missions are clearly where a lot of the unique ideas went. There's enough variety in the optional missions to break up the flow and prevent too much boredom but it's honestly going to depend on how many open world games you've played and how much tolerance you have to "grinding".

I haven't really finished my play on it on account of getting distracted by other games so I can't say for certain.

[Draco18s]

I think I'd be ok with a little grindy and samey sidequests as long as the combat is rewarding.

Good combat is what I really want in a space game.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I think I'd be ok with a little grindy and samey sidequests as long as the combat is rewarding.

Good combat is what I really want in a space game.

Yea, as far as the combat itself goes, it's pretty darn fun so long as you remember that there's no movement on the Y axis, just the X axis. I know some people dislike "2D" combat like this but I'm completely ok with it because it's more about broadsides and positioning. You've got plenty of ship types, builds, weapons and modules you can build. Everything from light frigates to battleships? and such. It's quite rewarding and fun too, especially when the music is going. Can get some pretty intense firefights so keep an eye on the mission difficulty rating, they aren't kidding around with them. New Ships can be acquired at a fairly reasonable rate depending on what you shoot for. And there's not just combat, there's mining, trading, transport and piracy (if that's your thing) to do as well.

[Draco18s]

Yea, as far as the combat itself goes, it's pretty darn fun so long as you remember that there's no movement on the Y axis, just the X axis. I know some people dislike "2D" combat like this but I'm completely ok with it because it's more about broadsides and positioning.

2D space combat is fine by me. I'm not very good with 6 degrees of freedom without some kind of global gravitational "down."  I get lost and turned around easily.

[Mick]

Tried it, got bored quickly.

[Mánagarmr]

2D space combat is fine by me. I'm not very good with 6 degrees of freedom without some kind of global gravitational "down."  I get lost and turned around easily.

You're not alone. It's very easy to get disoriented without a global horizon. Some games solve it relatively simply by adding a galactic horizon (like we have if we look up at the night sky without too much light pollution).

[Draco18s]

Mm, mhm.
I sorta feel like this talk about various space games makes me want to go make my own.
I'll probably pick this one up, likely won't play it for a while, though.

[TheVampire100]

2D space combat is fine by me. I'm not very good with 6 degrees of freedom without some kind of global gravitational "down."  I get lost and turned around easily.

You're not alone. It's very easy to get disoriented without a global horizon. Some games solve it relatively simply by adding a galactic horizon (like we have if we look up at the night sky without too much light pollution).

I remember the first X game ( X Beyond the Fronter) and that you could get easily lost because it had a free orientating movement. And I mean completely free, you could move up and down, left and right but you could also roll your space ship, flipt it like you want. This is actually more realistic since there are no clear directions in space, there is no "up or down, left or right". But because of this, especially since there is a lot "nothing", you could get easily lost. There was some kind of "pseudo map" in the game that helped a little and at least you got an auto-target system that selected a space station when you were close enough but the thing is, you had to be close enough.
Still a good game...

[ptarth]

It's pretty, but shallow.

Combat is pretty, but very shallow. The class of your ship doesn't really do anything other than increase your size and weapons. Shooting is performed along the same lines as a on-rails shooter, its just you control the direction of the rails. It is the same formula of X enemies together peel the outside ones off one at a time. Equipment is essentially a level check, if you are under-leveled you are outclassed and won't make much progress against targets.

There isn't that much variation or many interesting choices when it comes to combat. You try to line up shots with your maingun on a 1D line (target leading handled by eye, with poor visual feedback on hits), while holding down the subweapon firing button. You can switch it up with continuous firing guns or maxing out turrets, but you can't drive and shoot turrets well at the same time. The combat doesn't really change once you have all your modules filled, that's what its like forever.

Trading has the problem of procedural generation being used without finding the heart. You take Good-A from Station-A to Station-B. You take Good-B to Station-C. You take Good-C to Station-A. Repeat. Occasionally there are sales on goods to increase your profit margin. You can disengage from virtually any combat so there isn't any risk, just time spent travelling and offloading/onloading goods.

For Space Sims I think Space Pirates and Zombies (SPAZ) is probably your best current game, with SPAZ2 being an option with its early release on Steam.