Rebel Galaxy Outlaw

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is a fun and addicting space combat game with an amazing soundtrack. However, controls can be really weird without a game controller and playing it for the first time is very daunting unless one watches a 40 minutes long introductory/tutorial video.

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw represents a true spiritual successor to Freelancer and similar games. If you are a fan of spaceship shooters and simulators this game is a must-have. Even with a few minor faults, it is worth the admission ticket.

I can’t say enough good things about Rebel Galaxy Outlaw. It’s a sucker punch aimed at all the bloated, morbidly obese space sims out on the market today. Yes, there’s room for them, too. But Outlaw distills the ‘90s space-combat and trading sim into a great-looking, great-playing game for a new generation.

Among the many insights offered in Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, it knows that if there’s one thing better than cruising around in a sweet ride blowing stuff up and flying through their explosions, it’s cruising around in a sweet ride blowing stuff up and flying through their explosions while listening to sweet tunes.

This is a modern-looking homage to Chris Roberts’ space classics, especially Privateer and Freelancer, and one of the best space games you can get right now.

Outlaw is irrevocably everything that the first game should have been. It combines arcade and simulation gameplay in a way that is dynamic and fun but it definitely does require commitment. The space combat feels meaty but approachable. The technical graphics are great but the art style is phenomenal. The music is better than in the first game and there’s more of it. In all, I had great fun in the Dodge Sector, so much so I abandoned the main story for about 25 hours. The feeling of being a mercenary and the lure of completing “just one more job” is palpable. Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is a fine, fine game. You could even call it “shiny.”

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is like the little, cool brother of Elite Dangerous. It’s not as huge and doesn’t offer the variety in terms of ships or planets compared to it’s older sibling, but at the end of the day, Outlaw is just plain fun.

The combat is fast, frenetic and consistently challenging, although that challenge can sometimes feel impossible without stepping back and grinding out some progress elsewhere, which quickly gets frustrating. Thankfully the core of the game--its combat, trading, and space flight--are all superb and had me launching into the stars for many hours of galactic trading and explosive firefights.

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is a very successful throwback to the days of dogfighting games like Star Wars: X-Wing and Wing Commander: Privateer. It smartly updates the gameplay with optional assists that make it a snap to jump in and get right to the most satisfying parts of the action. This open area of space we’re free to defend or exploit is full of side activities (including a crazy ship-painting tool), and those blunt the inherent repetition of fighter-vs-fighter combat scenarios. And the story – while definitely padded out more than it needs to be – is suitably small-scale and personal for a mercenary/smuggler type like Juno Markev.

You also have to give the developers a lot of credit for how much fan service and configurability they've put into the game.

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw lives up to its name among space sims. It’s spirited, good-looking and vibrant, effectively spraying several cans of blue and pink graffiti over the existing space sim template. None of its systems are particularly deep, but skimming along over them can be an exhilarating journey.

Quotation forthcoming.

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw brings a smaller scope and simplified controls to a sometimes intimidating genre, watering down the grandeur of spaceflight, but making it more fun and accessible at the same time. Its repetitive missions and sparse narrative weigh it down, but its fantastically engaging dogfights make it an easy recommendation.

Outlaw is a throwback to the roots of spacesim genre, a visual aid that shows where it all began and helps to understand just how far the genre has evolved since then. And the lesson to take is this: let the past stay in the past. [Issue#241, p.40]

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw manages to take plenty of familiar elements and whisk them together into a completely original package. The dusty trucker atmosphere combined with the sharp and agile dogfighting gameplay kept me engaged for hours, although the back-tracking and cash grinding wore me out before too long. Even with those issues, there's something special about the aesthetic of Rebel Galaxy Outlaw that demands the attention of anyone looking for some good, dirty spaceship action.

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw takes the space flight simulator genre and grinds a fantastic Wild West narrative into it the likes we have only ever seen with the beloved Firefly TV series. Sporting a brilliant soundtrack to reinforce the narrative, amazing explosions, and some pretty fun dog-fighting, the game starts to stumble when it comes to its total lack of tutorial despite having multiple systems to learn both in flight and in its mini-games. As a title that would work best with a controller in hand, Double Damages partnership with the Epic Store severely hinders accessible input controls. It does offer custom soundtracks, multiple ways to play the game and guilds to join, and the freedom of trying to achieve your goals out in the black as you see fit. For fans of space flight sims, this game is a beauty to play if only it could be handled with a controller.

For a game set in space, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is rich in atmosphere. While some activities are a bit of a letdown, there's a lot of gratification in cashing in a hefty profit from a lengthy space-truckin' session.

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw successfully builds upon the first game by introducing an entirely new combat system. This change is a major step forward, and it shows that the developers are putting their resources towards bettering this series. Overall, the rich RPG mechanics mixed with classic space flight make for some deep and engaging gameplay.

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is a fresh coat of paint on a genre on a tired genre. While it's fun enough to play, though, other games have already revolutionised what this game seeks to improve upon.

Juno’s journey through the Dodge Sector left me wanting more, and I hope that the post-launch mod support allows fans to fill some of the void I felt while playing the game. For $29.99 I think the game is a great value, and I’ve paid a lot more for a lot less in the past.

In one sentence, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is much-improved over the first game, originally released in 2015. The essence of these two games is ship combat against a backdrop of a space western. Outlaw improves confrontations by offering a third camera axis, and by deepening ship improvements. Although the writing is disappointing, both the ease with which fights are handled and the atmosphere — which reminds us of Borderlands but without the cynicism — mean we had a great time taking down nasty space pirates.