FTL: Faster Than Light

I honestly do not believe that game design, as a medium, has at any point surpassed FTL. The artful use of every mechanic to create dynamic battles, the graceful distribution of shops and items, the pure elegance with which FTL creates its gameplay, and the ability for every run to be a winning run as long as you know what you're doing - FTL is so far beyond every other roguelike, and nearly every other game, that even the act of comparing it feels like reading right out of a textbook.

This is how a perfect game is made. If you're ever in doubt, look up to the stars, and look up to FTL. This is what's possible.

This was a fun game for a dozen or so hours of play, but ultimately its RNG-heavy core began to wear on me and I began to see my runs turn from enjoyment to frustration. I understand that a great player will win the vast majority of their games, but for me, the journey to get to that point just isn't enjoyable enough.

everything from this game is as perfect as roguelikes can get. while the level of randomness present in this game and the brutal difficulty of the first runs might throw you off at first, the game has a really smooth learning curve, with your first victories feeling like a huge feat.
the ambientation present in this game is great, with an extraordinary OST to top it off. with its exceptions, most weapons are pretty balanced betwwen reloading time and reward, and so do the various aliens.
most unlocks (with the exception of the dreadful Crystal Quest) are also pretty easy, though they might take a few attempts. overall, it's a really good game, and for me it's one of the best examples of what makes roguelikes so good.

when you're floating in the void, half your crew dead to fire, the cabins only just repressurized by life support, hull held together by spit and tape -- that is the shit.

Faster Than Light (FTL)'s graphical style is a throwback to 16-bit gaming. The game-play is also retro, playing in a similar style to games like Oregon Trail which relies on random events and luck to progress. Well, FTL is much more complex than that. Sure, you need a bit of luck, but there's a lot of strategy involved too which means you need to get familiar with the mechanics in order to form a plan to survive.

The story sees your vessel on the run from Rebel forces, fleeing with a secret that must be brought to the Federation. The galaxy map is made up of a series of sectors which are comprised of interconnected nodes of star systems. You jump from each star system to traverse the map in order to reach the end of the sector. After each jump, the rebel fleet moves closer. What this means is that you generally need to move horizontally, but may have room to explore other systems in order to find resources to upgrade your ship. You can enter a system occupied by the pursuing fleet, but this results in a tough battle, so your 'turns' are limited within each sector.

After each jump, a random event occurs. It could be nothing, could be a (potentially) good thing, or could be a battle. Usually, you are presented with a choice, to attack/take the quest or move on. The results of some scenarios are random, so it's a case of risk vs reward. For example, there are scenarios where if you are lucky, you may acquire a crew member, but the converse is that you may lose a crew member.

The games currency is scrap, which is acquired by destroying ships. You also need to stock fuel which is used in each jump, rockets for your missile based weapons, and drone parts if you wish to use the drone system.

You can invest your scrap in ship upgrades. Every time you upgrade a system, you must upgrade your reactor too which gives you an extra unit of power. Power can be reassigned as you wish, even in mid-battle.

The UI shows an overhead schematic of your ship, and you can move your crew members between the rooms. Placing them in a room gives a bonus to that room, and this can level up your crew's skill over time. You will need to move them around the ship in order to fix your ship, put out fires, or attack boarding hostiles.

The backdrop shows what kind of system you are currently in, such as a planet, nebula, or asteroid field. These areas can have an affect on the battle. In the asteroid field, you may get hit with asteroids which damages your ship if you have no shields. The nebula can hinder your surveillance, or drain your power to your ship. Solar flares can set fires and damage your ship. It can be a good idea to make the jump away from these systems when you can, rather than staying to fight.

Battles run in real time, but you can pause in order to plot strategies. You can target your weapons at individual rooms to damage enemies, or systems such as: shields, weapons, engines, sensors, and oxygen. Damaging their weapons is a good idea, but you may want to attack other rooms tactically. Damaging the cockpit will stop them fleeing, damaging shields will allow you to do full damage from your weapons, damaging engines will reduce their probability to avoid missiles, and damaging the oxygen supply will damage the crew unless they repair it.

In addition to the standard systems, you can purchase upgrades to give you extra systems. These include stealth (temporary invulnerability), transportation (send your crew to board enemy ships to fight the crew or damage systems), drone control (use all sorts of drone units; defensive or offensive).

Missiles ignore shields but are limited in supply. Lasers can take down shields before doing damage to the ship. Beams can damage multiple rooms but are negated by the shield, breach weapons do double damage to systemless rooms, ion temporarily disables shields or systems. Weapons need various power supply and have different recharge rates.

Even on the easy difficulty, the game offers a tough challenge. The random aspects can mean the difficulty varies between games. You can go for long periods battling away without finding a shop to replenish fuel and missiles, but can go on a run racking up high rewards of scrap or free weapons and crew members.

The game doesn't take too long to run through, and it's one of those games where your save file is wiped if you are destroyed, forcing you to start again. It doesn't feel anywhere near as brutal as games like Don't Starve and is much easier to learn too.

FTL is a simple game, yet offers enough complexity to make it fun and interesting. In my opinion, the permadeath is done well, because the game is short enough so that you feel like you haven't lost too much, but feel determined to come back to do better. There's various ships and layouts to unlock for those determined enough to persevere which will require a change in strategy to adapt to the alternate ship designs.

This game is pretty good at first, but you once you learn what to do in each situation it pretty much just plays itself. The "choices" are so bad in that regard it's kind of unforgivable. All that's left for you is the combat, which is decent but nothing to write home about. The variety of ship layouts you can pick adds some spice to to it, but these only make a huge difference early on and by the end most runs will play out in a similar way.