Rebel Galaxy
When her husband ends up dead, Juno comes out of retirement to track down his killer, a pirate nicknamed Ruthless. After their first encounter, shown at the start of the game in an animated sequence made by Titmouse, Juno ends up marooned and penniless in the backwater Dodge Sector of the galaxy. She calls an old contact, borrows a battered cargo ship, and starts over from square one.
Rebel Galaxy
Rebel Galaxy's slogan is: "Outmatched doesn't mean outgunned." As such, the game has players take control of a huge dreadnought spaceship with immense firepower. The game features an open galaxy where players can explore a huge number of planets. This open-world feature is similar to what has been promised for Starfield, and really lets players experience the expansive wonder of an open universe.
And enjoy it I did. I have 260 hours in the space-flight simulation, which takes place in a 1:1 scale model of the Milky Way. Want to see the black hole at Sagittarius A*, the centre of our galaxy? You can. But you'll need patience, it's a very long way to go. My ship's computer lifelessly intoning "frameshift drive charging" with every jump eventually drove me to mute it, though I suppose it was a clever way of hiding loading screens.
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, Double Damage Games' prequel to 2015's Rebel Galaxy, brings a much-needed slice of old-school space sim action to Switch with swagger and style to spare. Following the fortunes of battle-hardened rebel Juno Markev, whose husband has been murdered and ship destroyed as she escapes an attempt on her own life, this is a gritty space-western tale of revenge and redemption which sees you gather intel from seedy blue-collar bars and their shady denizens as you attempt to locate your would-be killers and exact some bloody retribution.
This really is a pretty hard game to knock in all honesty; a very well-priced indie space-sim effort that successfully manages to cut away a lot of the inherent flab of the genre, serving up a wonderfully grubby little galaxy that's easy to sink an absolute ton of time into. There are a few negatives here and there, however. Juno isn't a particularly interesting protagonist and, although she doesn't really need to be hugely complex in such a straightforward revenge scenario, she ends up coming across as pretty nasty and one-note overall (she also curses constantly which begins to really grate after a while).
Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is a wonderfully well-realised and stylish slice of space-sim action set in a satisfyingly seedy galaxy full of untrustworthy scum and illegal activity. The dogfighting action here is wonderfully tight and engaging thanks to the game's clever auto-pursuit mechanic, resulting in explosive ship-to-ship combat that allows you to get up close and personal, tracking your prey without much of the laborious fuss of other efforts in the genre. Juno Markev may not be the most exciting of protagonists and the story doesn't really come to much in the end, but there's a ton of side missions and a dynamic economy and morality system to keep you busy as you slowly unravel the mystery behind who killed her husband and left her for dead. Overall, this one's an easy recommendation for space-sim fans, dogfighting fiends and anyone else looking to indulge their inner space rebel.
2-D Space: Averted. In comparison to the original game, Outlaw allows the player to fly freely in every direction.
Actionized Prequel: The original Rebel Galaxy didn't lack for action, but Outlaw places a greater emphasis on dogfights.
Adventure Guild: There are two guilds players can join which provide lucrative and specialized missions: the Merchants' Guild, which offers missions revolved around commerce and transporting goods; and the Mercenaries' Guild, which offers missions revolved around combat and bounty hunting.
Anti-Frustration Features: The "Autopursuit" function makes dogfights less frustrating by adjusting your ship's throttle and orientation so that your target remains in view. Auto Pilot makes navigating out of asteroid fields and around planets as simple as a single held button prompt. Instead of a tedious task of trying to engage warp engines, only to get stopped by a nearby piece of rock, or have to make several short jumps around a planet, once you are clear enough of obstacles and hazards, you can activate auto pilto and instantly arrive at your destination (apart from other interruptions on the way, of course)
Assist Character: "Buddies" are recruitable characters whom you can call in to act as wingmen.
Crusading Widow: Juno's husband was murdered. Now, she's looking to do some killing of her own.
Escort Mission: Some ships may need an escort. Thankfully, you can fast-travel while escorting to speed the mission up, although you can be pulled out of fast-travel by pirates or interdiction forces.
Fake Radio Show Album: There are seven subspace radio stations catering to a variety of musical tastes, from hard rock to country, Latin music to electronica, with a total of over twenty hours of music. There's even commercials.
Flipping the Bird: Juno will flip off other pilots when threatening or taunting them.
The Fundamentalist: The Inviolates faction believe the jump gates are ripping the universe apart (which they kinda are) and that any who use them need to die.
Game Within a Game: There are a variety of minigames to play when at port, including billiards, dice poker, slot machines, and "Star-Venger" (an Ersatz version of Asteroids).
Gang Up on the Human: 90% of the time you'll be treated like the galaxy's most wanted bounty, even if there are plenty of other NPC ships in the area.
Hyperspace Is a Scary Place: Jump gates connect the solar systems of the Dodge Sector together, but have an unfortunate habit of collapsing after extended use and causing all sorts of nasty anomalies. You can safely (but not comfortably) travel through most jump gates, but attempting to travel through unstable jump gates can cause your ship to be damaged or thrown to another system altogether.
Lady Swears-a-Lot: Juno tends to utter "Shit" a lot.
Karma Meter: Juno has a gauge that runs from "Pirate" to "Lawful" which dictates her reputation, which changes based on Juno's actions and affects her interactions with pirates and law enforcement.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: There is one solar system that can only be reached via an unstable jump gate, called "Discouragement".
Retired Badass: Juno was a badass smuggler before trying to retire and go straight. It didn't take.
Shout-Out: You can buy a photo to put on your dashboard depicting a man known colloquially as "The Bandit". You can buy dolls for Juno's dashboard that depict characters from other recent indie games, such as the main character of Astroneer or Littleneck from Amid Evil.
Sink the Lifeboats: Pilots who have ejected from their wrecked ships can get killed by weapons fire. You can shoot them yourself, if you so choose.
Space Police: There is law enforcement in the Dodge Sector that can be a major pain if you play as a pirate, or a big help if you fight pirates.
Space Station: There are several space stations that can be visited throughout the game, ranging from small interstellar gas stations to larger-scale stations with amenities like mission boards, bars, and shops.
Space "X": The Dodge Sector can be aptly described as "America IN SPACE", with many systems named after States, in addition to planets and space ports named after American cities (the Austin Station and Planet Lubbock in the Texas System, for example).
Starter Equipment: Juno has to start practically from scratch in the beginning of the game, with only a lousy garbage scow and some cheap, crappy weapons.
Talking Your Way Out: You can attempt to get ships attacking you to leave you alone by asking (or threatening) them over comms. In a pinch, you also have the option to dump your cargo, letting your enemies take your goods in exchange for sparing you.
Variable Mix: When the subspace radio is off, the music that plays in the background will change depending on whether Juno is in combat.
Wanted Meter: If you are seen committing crimes or acts of piracy, the police will go after you with increasing lethality as your wanted level goes up. Being wanted by police also precludes you from docking in some stations.
Warp Whistle: Fast-travel comes in two varieties: Autopilot, which instantly takes the player to their destination; and Sublight, which sends the ship hurtling at high speeds to a way point. In both cases, you can be stopped midway to your destination by other ships in the path.
Wide-Open Sandbox: With 39 different solar systems to explore, the Dodge sector is a fairly sizeable sandbox with planets to explore and missions to undertake.
Zerg Rush: Enemies love to fight like this, particularly pirates. Even if they're in the middle of bullying some poor transport hauler, most if not all of them will break off and focus on you the moment you enter the area.
Straight up you can tell that what this game lacks in complex mission structures and heavy cutscenes it more than makes up with space charm and style. Rebel Galaxy may not give you thorough and memorable characters, realistically correct galaxy structure or scientific explanations, but thankfully the 2 man + handful of contractor dev team put their time into what makes this game so wonderful - the graphics and gameplay.
"One possibility is that it could be blown out by the galaxy's supermassive black hole," Wong says in an International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) release. "Another possibility is that the gas could be ripped out by a neighboring galaxy." But that seems less likely, she adds: "The galaxies in the pilot project are all isolated and don't appear to have others nearby."Related StoriesThe First Known Piezoelectric Liquids Have Been DiscoveredThe Most Distant Detection Of Hot Gas Heralds The Birth Of A Cluster Of GalaxiesBrightest Cosmic Explosion Humanity Has Ever Seen Was 70 Times Previous Record 041b061a72