A rebel with whatever cause she wants.

The original Rebel Galaxy was a terrific game of fast-paced space combat, exploration, and trading. It was a space western intentionally designed to make the space combat feel more like old-time maritime ship battles. The result was distinctive with an overflow of personality.

Rebel Galaxy Outlaws is a prequel that manages to completely overhaul and change the core gameplay of the series while staying firmly grounded in what makes this future Old West galaxy so much fun to live in.

Where Rebel Galaxy intentionally eschewed six degrees of freedom controls and vertical movement—you flew on a flat plane, essentially—Outlaw has full-on 360-degree controls like a more traditional space flight game. It’s a significant difference but feels like a natural progression. Ultimately, the core of the rest of Outlaw remains much like the original. You’re a down-on-her-luck space jockey with an agenda for revenge, but to even hope to reach that goal, you’ll have to take all manner of jobs to get cash.

As before, there are multiple competing factions to side with. Earn favor from space pirates and the law will be after you, and vice versa. You’re free to take the jobs you want and in this Texas-themed system, there’s always plenty of work for a motivated pilot. Kiosks at every port let you peruse the job board for a variety of missions, but Outlaw is based heavily on random occurrences opening up new opportunities.

Bartenders have valuable tips on shipping rigs to hijack and bounties to collect. Distress calls happen frequently while simply flying around and offer a great dilemma for risk and reward. That call could be coming from a ship that genuinely needs help or space pirates luring in suckers. More than that, even if it’s a legit distress call and you can help (usually by fighting off attackers), do you? Are you inclined to provide assistance out of the goodness of your heart or do you just want to steal their cargo yourself?

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is all about giving the player options. The result is a thrilling adventure where you control most of the narrative based on your own actions. The various jobs can include anything from clearing out minefields and being a glorified delivery agent to collecting bounties and protecting shipments. There’s also a thriving economic system for trading resources. Keep track of what different parts of the system are willing to pay more for, find where it’s cheap, and start making money trafficking goods.

Of course, a large portion of Outlaw centers around blowing things up and the combat is superb. Able to stand tall with the greats of the genre, especially FreeSpace 2, it walks a fine line between hand-holding for streamlined gameplay and full control. Designed with a control pad in mind, you can lock onto an enemy and use the autopilot to help track it so you can focus on shooting it down.

The help system isn’t nearly as intrusive as it sounds, though, and at no point does the game do so much that you’ll feel like you’re not in control. You can also opt out of these help features for a full-throttle hardcore experience—especially when played with a proper flight stick set-up. No matter how you choose to play, battles are intense, fast-paced, bouts of joystick acrobatics and liberal use of firepower. Outlaw’s combat is satisfying and accessible without feeling cheap and mindless.

It’s not all lonely treks through the void, however. Bars in space stations feature plenty of distractions and chances to test your luck. Play cards, dice, pool, even the occasional classic arcade game before taking off again. Gambling is a popular pastime in these parts and each station offers at least a couple such mini-games.

Outlaw uses a particular visual style that sets it apart as well. The colors pop and space looks beautiful, but not in a garish, cel-shaded way. The cockpits of the various ships you can buy, other ships, and assorted space bodies are detailed and well-defined. Most importantly, the explosions look great. One specific complaint with the original game was the initially great but very limited score (it was basically the same song on repeat). Outlaw, in contrast, has multiple radio stations and over 20 hours of tracks.

Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, like the first, is a single-player only affair, which might disappoint some. It shouldn’t, though. There are easily tens of hours worth of adventure in just a single playthrough. With the ability to take different paths, replayability is high. Outlaw improves on an already great game in all the right ways and the result is the best open-space adventure in years.

[Reviewed on PC]

9/10