Warning: this is an initial impression after a couple of hours of playing.
Ever since I played Freelancer (I missed the Privateer and Freespace boats unfortunately), I have been religiously waiting on a sequel. In spite of more and more space-themed games coming out in the recent years, none of them quite did it for me. The closest was probably No Man's Sky after the recent patches. My money has so far been on the upcoming crowdfunded Star Citizen game, but not literally...I'm not crazy enough to fund that promise of a unicorn. I will believe it when I see it.
Then, sooner then expected, Rebel Galaxy Outlaw came along. The moment a space cop told me that he is scanning my ship for contraband, I knew I was in the right game. This is your good old space sim, with a main story line and side activities. It's not too goofy; it's not too serious; it's a space western.
The things that bother me about this game are as follows:
1. You play as a girl. Now, put your pitchforks down and let me explain. For those who don't understand: some people like me play games by imprinting themselves onto the character for maximum immersion. I AM the character I play, or else the immersion breaks for me and nothing matters. And the less I can relate to a the main character, the harder this is to do. Now, you could say, "Don't you play this game in first person view for most of the time, so just pretend?" Yes, but the storyline is quite involved, and anytime you are at a space station, you see your character a lot and you interact with the NPC's. The lady prominently features on the main menu screen. I know that for many people this is a non-issue.
2. The stars. Considering how good the ships and everything else looks, the stars look like large blurry Christmas lights. This may be intentional, but I hope that this gets adjusted through mods later (I'll do it if no one else will). Again, this is probably a very subjective issue. In general, the sky box does fit the style of the game.
The things I think are great about this game:
1. Customization trough (promised) mod support. You can already seemingly add user-made paint brushes to the ship customization menu, and a mod kit is being promised on the official website. This is awesome and could extend the life of this game quite a bit.
2. This game is a complete package for only 30 bucks and completely single-player, in 3D with no loot boxes. Today that's a breath of fresh air.
In short, play this good space sim and support the devs, because I want more games like this.