The Universe is supposedly infinite. Expanding for eternity. Within it, many galaxies. Stars. Planets. Rebel Galaxy feels like a game trying to capture the unique perspective of what it would be like to be a galactic pirate. Solar systems are the new ocean. The sounds of crashing waves are replaced by warp engines and massive scale ship wars, the firing of turrets and laser beams. And what many would say is one of the hottest features of Rebel Galaxy; a soundtrack loaded and overflowing with what my quick google search told me was, "dark country". To me, it all sounded like a weird blend of The Black Keys and Audioslave. Not exactly what I imagine myself listening to while scouring infinite space for a lifetime. But this is part of targeting a specific audience. I've seen RG (Rebel Galaxy) compared to everything from Firefly to Cowboy Bebop.
While one of those dark country tracks repeats for the 50th time, I depart the most recent space station that I docked at for ship repairs and upgrades (and for a quick save before my next big battle). I traded away some robot parts that I collected from a few cargo containers, some designer clothes I scavenged from the remains of a few bully destroyers that attacked me on my last run, and held on to a few miscellaneous items that this particular station wasn't offering enough of a reward for. I'll sell them somewhere else for a larger profit. It's a true shame the trading lifestyle doesn't compensate well enough to make ends meet. Instead, I have to take a few missions from a nearby merchant guild. It's the best money for the smallest risk. I fly into a life threatening situation, tractor beam some dropped cargo, and get the hell out of there as quick as possible.
Other options are mostly battle oriented. Collecting bounties, helping ships in distress, clearing out large groups of aggressive space pirates. The damage to my own ship is so great in most battles, that a third of my earnings go to making repairs. But this is RG, a game mostly about huge ship to ship battles. Literal huge ships, but also ALWAYS lots of tiny, annoying fighter craft chipping away at my health while I try to focus on the larger opponents. There are enormous difficulty spikes, and 75% of the time (or more) it's best to run. It does make for extremely memorable moments, when I finally take down an enormously over-leveled ship. Or when I see my upgraded turrets and lasers making quick work of everything within firing range. Those moments are great, because as many battles as there are, it seems to almost always follow the same pattern: separate the quicker ships from the swarm and pick them apart, then slowly try to take down each of the larger class ships. It can drag out for far too long at times. It's equally frustrating to be traveling along only to be attacked by a ship and it's companions, unable to escape and brought to a quick end. It's a mixed bag.
Since battles seem to be the main focus, a lot of options go to waste. Ships NEED to be outfitted for battle. It's what the story of the game forces upon the player. Ships designed for cargo transportation, trading and mining are mostly useless. I guess someone could purchase multiple ships for different activities, but everything is so damned expensive. The grinding it takes to bank that much cash is not something I'm interested in. Later in the game, certain missions start to pay out 500,000. The higher end ships cost 10-20 million. The higher end upgrades for a fully decked out ship could total 50+ million. You don't even want to know what missions pay out at the beginning of the game. It's kind of ridiculous.
Speaking of ridiculous, I think RG looks incredible, but there are some serious performance issues. Perhaps near light travel was a bit ambitious. The engines late in the game allow for incredible speed, but the game doesn't seem capable of processing it properly. I experienced tons of random pop-in: planets, space stations, ships, mine fields. I'm not sure how things are generated, but it's wrong. My ship exploded on a few occasions thanks to this. And I also found it unacceptable how fast I could travel, but how useless it seemed at times. There are so many needless interruptions that inhibit warping. When traveling from point a to point b takes a minute or two at the fastest speed, regular interruptions are the last thing I want. Isn't space suppose to be kind of... vast? How do I keep running in to people??! And those people suck too. Paper thin personalities. There might be 25 lines of dialogue in 30+ hours of game. There's enough to move the story forward, but every thing else is a bunch of palette swapped faces speaking cookie cutter trash.
The sense of discovery is great. Seeing planets, asteroid and junk fields, enormous stars, space stations, dreadnaughts... that's all fantastic. The variety is fine. Space is just so huge. I kind of wanted to see imaginative anomalies, wormholes, comets. This is such a huge undertaking, that I just feel like once the initial excitement rubs off, Rebel Galaxy reveals itself as a paper thin experience, hitting mostly only one note. The ship battles just weren't entertaining enough for me. To make matters worse, it didn't run well and I disliked the soundtrack. And to top off this whole thing with a cherry, my save file was corrupted 30 hours in. Right at the final stretch. That hasn't happened to me since the PS1. There's just no way I can recommend it.