Psygnosis’s 1995 cyberpunk racer Wipeout put PlayStation on the map with its exhilarating races and too-cool-for-school attitude, but many held the studio’s lesser-known flight combat sim G-Police in higher regard for its tense dogfights and cutting-edge cyberpunk cities. While its brand of aerial dogfighting is now forgotten by most players, Reakktor Studios’ spiritual successor G-Rebels aims to make it finally take off.

“For years, decades really, we hoped someone would take its core concept, a futuristic flight sim blending helicopter and jet mechanics, and reimagine it with a modern engine,” explains Martin Schwiezer, the studio’s founder and creative director. “Time passed and no one took up the challenge. So in 2022, we scraped together our courage (and our savings) and decided to do it ourselves!”

The moment you emerge from your hangar into Daevos’s nighttime skyline, it’s clear those 30 years of technological progress haven’t gone to waste when it comes to this dystopian metropolis—one of the four surviving cities left after a cataclysmic climate disaster. G-Police was held back by its draw-distance woes, but G-Rebels aims for the spectacular visual fidelity, vivid atmosphere, and boundless scale of a modern flight sim. When you’ve mastered your Skyblade’s thrusters enough to enjoy the view without inadvertently barrel-rolling into an unplanned collision, you’ll get to admire it for yourself. 

At first, you embark from your hanger toward a horizon of towering buildings wreathed in clouds, lit only by skyscraper windows, giant neon billboards, and the bright flickering headlights of ships racing towards their destination. Then day breaks, the fog melts away, and the world’s vast horizons are revealed in stunningly unassuming fashion.

Before now, Reakktor Studios have spent their time among the stars. The space-MMO Black Prophecy saw them create visually striking gameplay that didn’t demand much from the player's hardware, exploiting colorful backdrops, minimal geometry, and 360 degrees of freedom for light-years at a time. Now with greater graphical ambitions, they don’t regret being brought back to Earth.

“Thanks to modern tech, we can show the beauty of this planet's environments with dynamic weather, day/night cycles, and changing seasons,” says Schwiezer. “There are moments during development when we just want to test something for 30 seconds. Suddenly the weather shifts, lightning streaks across the horizon, and I’m sitting in my cockpit over a rocky island in the ocean, or weaving through a megacity surrounded by hundreds of aircraft. That kind of atmosphere turns a short ’just a quick test’ into an hour-long float session.”

Like its PS1 forebear, you’re still a cop with extrajudicial duties outside enjoying carefree joyrides. Schwiezer says that “unlike many traditional flight sims, we wanted to give players plenty to do,” and there’s rarely a dull moment in these cyberpunk cities that are riddled with lowlife criminals to uncover and destroy, drag races to win, and criminal factions to thwart or aid. 

In dogfights with other Skyblades, you’ll nimbly weave between skyscrapers and tear through the clouds in high-speed chases. Elsewhere, you’ll also find yourself taking on colossal carriers or fortified outposts that feel like an X-Wing taking on a Star Destroyer.

It’ll remind players of the Ace Combat series, but G-Rebels adds a unique twist outside its weighty, high-speed helicopter-like handling that prioritizes fine-tuning altitude adjustments. Scanning tools enable you to uncover enemies, hideouts, and ambushes before the action gets started. Hacking mechanics go even further, unlocking the ability to play havoc with enemies by controlling their vehicles, control outposts, disable generators or shields, and much more. 

“It adds a little stealth element to the gameplay. It’s not just about flying and shooting, but sometimes about outsmarting your environment,” says Schwiezer.

An open world where you can ascend to the stratosphere wouldn’t sound like it offers many ways to hide, but Schwiezer points out that terrain made up of buildings provides ample cover if you descend from the exposed heights. If you’re ever in trouble, tuck yourself behind buildings to buy some time to regenerate your shields before reengaging.

That open world and its four distinct megacities players will travel to clearly infatuate Schwiezer and the team, who are applying their 35 years’ worth of experience to make theirs as rich as possible.

“Bringing a world to life is one of the most rewarding challenges in game development,” he says. “In G-Rebels, every little light on the horizon, every glider or airship you pass is alive, scannable, with its own cargo, pilot, and faction. Open worlds have a special kind of magic. Players immediately want to test the limits. Just experimenting with these possibilities is fun in itself. It gives the world a sense of autonomy.

“If a player loses track of time simply flying through our world, we know we’ve done our job right.”

G-Rebels comes out soon on the Epic Games Store.