I found the original Rebel Galaxy way too restricted and stripped down. Like a cross between a console game and a handheld game, which was such a shame as it had a lot of 'depth' potential in it, it just focused on that stripped down 'shooter' gameplay. Fingers crossed this has the real meat and bones on it (and robust modding)
My greatest gripe was that whenever you "aimed" with the ship you got that huge 3d ship model RIGHT IN YOUR FACE instead of hiding the ship so one could aim.