Rebel Galaxy Outlaw

[vinraith]

@RichVR

So I started a new RO game. I forgot how to play this. So I’m starting from the tutorial yet again. Such a great game.

And it reminds me of the battles in the Aubrey/Maturin books. Broadsides. Small ship against the bigger ones. A fantastic game. Better than the second one by far.

Rebel Galaxy the first was indeed fantastic, it had a unique approach that solved a lot of my problems with space combat games. I’ve lost all patience with the circlefest dogfight stuff that makes up the vast bulk of the genre, and that RGO seems to have re-embraced.

[CraigM]

And, plot twist, the reason for that insanity is part of the games plot! There was a traitor Admiral trying to kill you

[J_Thomas]

@vinraith

I’ve lost all patience with the circlefest dogfight stuff that makes up the vast bulk of the genre, and that RGO seems to have re-embraced.

I think that the point of the auto-pursuit feature, though I didn’t use it myself.

[KevinC]

@vinraith

I’ve lost all patience with the circlefest dogfight stuff that makes up the vast bulk of the genre, and that RGO seems to have re-embraced.

RGO specifically avoids that.

[stusser]

Well, no. It’s still there, it’s just automated. Which is better.

[vinraith]

@stusser

Well, no. It’s still there, it’s just automated. Which is better.

Is it? I haven’t played it, but I’m not sold on the idea that automating an annoying gameplay element makes it less annoying. It’s certainly not as good as just avoiding it in the first place, which is exactly what the first game did.

[BrianRubin]

You should, you know, try it.

[stusser]

Oh yes, it’s much better, although it does feel like the game is playing itself for you at times.

[morlac]

Agree, it’s hard to explain the impact it has. Really needs to be played. I love both games as they scratch different itches with a little overlap. One thing throughout both…best music ever.

[RichVR]

The auto follow is a great thing. And the game is a great game. Just not as good as the original. :)

[vinraith]

@BrianRubin

You should, you know, try it.

There’s no demo, right?

@morlac

One thing throughout both…best music ever.

RG had an astoundingly good sound track, that’s for sure.

[BrianRubin]

There’s a refund policy. Sir.

[RichVR]

No honorable man would abuse the refund policy thusly. You are undone sir!

[tomchick]

@vinraith

@stusser

Well, no. It’s still there, it’s just automated. Which is better.

Is it? I haven’t played it, but I’m not sold on the idea that automating an annoying gameplay element makes it less annoying. It’s certainly not as good as just avoiding it in the first place, which is exactly what the first game did.

From some dude’s review:

But the real genius of Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is so simple, so obvious, and so smoothly implemented that it has pretty much obsoleted every other game about being in things that fly. It’s called autofollow, and it’s exactly what it says it is. Hold down the left trigger — games about being in things that fly will be played with controllers from now on — and your spaceship turns toward whatever you have targeted. You still have to do the fine-tuning to aim your guns, but the act of steering is gone.

Will you miss anything by not having to steer? Perhaps surprisingly, no. Not a thing. For so many years, we have had an implicit agreement with videogames that we’re going to keep turning to try to shoot at the other spaceship. But why not let the game do it for us so we can concentrate on the cool aiming and shooting part without having to also hold the stick to one side, much less having to figure out where the ship went when it flew off the edge of the screen?

There’s more about the issue in the review, but the long and the short is that, yes, it makes a big difference.

As for comparisons to Rebel Galaxy, they’re apples and oranges, even though they share a title. Rebel Galaxy is a capital ship game and Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is an arcade space sim. And the fundamental gameplay of an arcade sim – space or flight – is working out the choice between turn-and-burn or boom-and-zoom. That’s the game right there. Complaining about having to turn is like complaining about having to press the fire button in a shooter.

-Tom

[Nightgaunt]

How much money do I need to give Double Damage to jettison the Privateer trappings of this game and just make a Wing Commander 1/2 style branching campaign? I just don’t think fighting generic pirates in generic systems is nearly as interesting as big tactical battles, wingman conversations, and cinematic storytelling. Ah well. At least the ship HUDs are beautifully reminiscent…

[Greadle]

Small indie developers are much more likely to experiment with deep systems and mechanics instead of hand crafted content which is expensive and requires lots of man-hours to produce. Conversations have to be written and recorded while cinematics require even more specific steps. Travis is on the record for not wanting to work on games in large teams ever again.

For this company, Privateer makes sense as reference point while Wing Commander simply does not. Just my two cents, obviously…

[stusser]

Tons of games from indie developers have those things these days. Not cinematics, but in-engine conversations and such, certainly, and in fact, RGO has them too.

Travis made Privateer rather than Wing Commander simply because that’s the game he wanted to make. And that’s fine, it’s just not really the game I wanted personally. Not everything is for me.

[BrianRubin]

@RichVR

No honorable man would abuse the refund policy thusly.

Abuse…the…

Fuck it, I’m stepping away for a bit. If Vin wants to shit on a game he refuses to even try, what the fuck do I know?

[Nightgaunt]

@Greadle

Small indie developers are much more likely to experiment with deep systems and mechanics instead of hand crafted content which is expensive and requires lots of man-hours to produce. Conversations have to be written and recorded while cinematics require even more specific steps. Travis is on the record for not wanting to work on games in large teams ever again.

I think that’s a fair point generally, although there’s still a decent amount of conversational content in RBO (or seems that way from the couple hours I played). And if you’re willing to hit the same quality bar as WC1 (standard backgrounds, professional VO, fixed character portraits, phoneme-based lip-sync) it doesn’t have to be expensive in the way that mocap or hand-animated 3d models are. But, I could see the argument that that part of WC2 wouldn’t hold up as well today. They’d have a big fan in me, though!

[vinraith]

@tomchick

And the fundamental gameplay of an arcade sim – space or flight – is working out the choice between turn-and-burn or boom-and-zoom. That’s the game right there. Complaining about having to turn is like complaining about having to press the fire button in a shooter.

I guess the complaint, such as it is, is that it’s an arcade sim at all when the previous game wasn’t. If it were an arcade fighter sim with a different name I wouldn’t even have noticed it.

That said, trying to figure out whether it’s not to my taste isn’t an attempt to “shit on” the game (per Brian’s post above), and I apologize if I’ve given that impression. Not everything has to be for me, I just prefer it when sequels to games I really like are. :)