Rebel Inc.

 iOS
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 7 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 7
  3. Negative: 1 out of 7
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  1. wozron
    May 12, 2019
    2
    Did you like Plague Inc? I know I did. Will you like Rebel Inc? Probably not as much.
    Pros: You'll only be out a couple of dollars.
    Cons: You need to beat the game on Normal difficulty to progress- expect to restart the second level on Normal difficulty at least fifteen times. Advice: watch a lot of gameplay/reviews on YouTube before committing and don't bother buying advisors,    Did you like Plague Inc? I know I did. Will you like Rebel Inc? Probably not as much.
    Pros: You'll only be out a couple of dollars.
    Cons: You need to beat the game on Normal difficulty to progress- expect to restart the second level on Normal difficulty at least fifteen times.
    Advice: watch a lot of gameplay/reviews on YouTube before committing and don't bother buying advisors, governors etc. as they make no discernable difference to the difficulty level. Expect to have to restart levels dozens of times regardless of what you do.

    Rebel Inc's biggest weakness is a ridiculous difficulty curve. Beating the second level on Normal difficulty will require 20+ tries depending on luck. This is not a difficulty curve: it's a 'you can pass the first level but not the second'. Player agency seems to have very little direct input into outcome: you can do everything right and still lose because the AI just throws three units of insurgents at you.
    The single most difficult factor to deal with are these insurgents. Any sector they are in will have local support for your rebuilding efforts plummet. And even if, by some miracle, they spawn somewhere where you can box them in and destroy them, more will simply pop up in another random part of the map a few moments later. You can afford maybe five or six military units at a time, all of which you will need to reliably deal with one insurgent outbreak... but you will usually have three or four insurgent outbreaks at a time. You can build garrisons to support troops, but only at random times when the game feels like it (normally when you can't quite afford them) and in random locations (which may not be where they are actually useful and needed).
    Dealing with the rebuilding effort, corruption, inflation and aid is quite straightforward. Dealing with the insurgents is what unbalances the game as they are almost impossible to destroy. You have to completely surround them or box them in with natural features, or they simply escape to a neighbouring cell. And as most cells have 4-5 other cells on their borders, you will need 5 or 6 units to destroy one insurgent unit, after which a few moments later one or more insurgents will suddenly appear elsewhere.
    The appearance of insurgents does not seem to be related to general happiness among the population, either. And the closer you get to winning, the faster they appear and the more aggressive they become.
    Where Plague Inc provides a effort/reward mechanism around making the right choice of when to go lethal, Rebel Inc simply randomly but constantly spawns a stream of nearly unkillable, highly mobile enemies. If they arose in response to unfairness, brutality, corruption or incompetence it'd be understandable in in-game terms. But they just appear because something needs to get in the way of player victory.
    In short, if you like playing a game for twenty minutes that you can have no way of knowing you've already lost, if you like randomly spawning nigh-invincible enemies, and you have a masochistic streak that has gone unflogged lately, you may like this game. Personally, I'd rather play something that is more based around player inputs and not just 'AI decides you lose, sucker'.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
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No score yet - based on 3 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. Metro GameCentral
    Dec 12, 2018
    90
    There are all sorts of decisions to make: should you try and cover up the civilian casualties from a stray airstrike or fess up, lowering support? Will you educate farmers on use of pesticides, or offer passive advice? It sounds dry, but once you’re in the thick of it, using the game’s myriad social and political leavers to lessen the chaos, it’s utterly gripping and offers layers of extra complexity over Plague Inc.’s already highly compelling ruleset.
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  2. 148Apps
    Dec 12, 2018
    80
    Rebel Inc. is fascinating and fun, but if you find a strategy in the game that works, it works just about everywhere. This doesn’t bode well for a game that doesn’t really have enough story or other content to it to switch things up dramatically, but somehow I still find the game fun. It’s just oddly satisfying to walk through the steps of returning a region to stability, even if the way you go about it is largely the same every time you do it.
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  3. Pocket Tactics
    Dec 11, 2018
    100
    Initially obtuse but ultimately highly rewarding spiritual sequel to one of the App Store's biggest hits.
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