FTL: Faster Than Light (2012)
Developer: Subset Games
Platform: Personal Computer
Induction Date: 09/17/2012
It was on the starship "Staroam-5" that Captain Clac found himself being chased by an entire Rebel fleet as he was desperately trying to get an important piece of data back to the Federation. Having lost his sweetheart, Jupiter, while exploring a wreckage inside an asteroid field, he had to stay strong to protect the ship and its two other crew members. The last battle didn't go over so well, the hull damage was severe. Clac powered up the FTL drive and jumped to the nearest point on the galaxy map only to be ambushed by an overpowered pirate ship that proceeded to kill everyone on board. Welcome to FTL: Faster Than Light.
The auto-fire is your best friend to make things a bit more manageable.
Self described as a "spaceship simulation roguelike-like", FTL is a game where you control a spaceship travelling across 8 sectors of the galaxy with the map layout and the events you encounter in the game being randomized with each play. You only have access to one type of spaceship at the beginning of the game with more available to be unlocked. You are given the choice to customize the names of the ship and it crews so you know I just had to use references to my Point to Pathos novel for my play sessions. You then travel across the map, one jump point at a time until you reach the exit that takes you to the next sector. There may or may not be any event when you arrive at each jump point. Sometimes, everything is calm and your travel is uninterrupted but for the most part you'll encounter hostiles and text-based situations that must be resolved. The ship started off pretty darn vulnerable and it is your job to collect scraps that can be used to power up the different aspects of your ship. These scraps can also be spent at the store for the defensive and offensive necessities of the ship. How you develop your ship is entirely up to you but just be aware that even the best planning may still end up biting you in the thrusters with just one simple mistake or when lady luck is not on your side. Interestingly, you can assign crew members to specific tasks on the ship and as your progress through the game, they gain proficiencies over the chosen field so you can have your dedicated captain and your warp drive technician to name a few.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. That's the basic rule of FTL.
The game's presentation may be simplistic - the layout of your ship doesn't have much details on it and the rooms are differentiated merely with generic icons - but that's just a part of the game's charm. The most visually appealing part of the game is the battle sequences where a picture in picture view of your target is shown on the right hand side of the screen. As both ships are attacking each other, you do get to see weapons being drawn and fired as well as little bits of explosions here and there. Seeing the enemy ship break apart at the end of a battle is quite satisfying while seeing the same thing happening to yours is quite devastating indeed, especially when you are getting so close to the end of the game. The problem that I do have about the graphics is that the full screen is only limited to 1280 x 720 so I pretty much played this in windowed mode on top of my 1080p desktop resolution. In the audio department, the game has a strong space-age themed soundtrack by composer Ben Prunty. One particular track entitled "Civil" is absolutely genius and it is now one of my favorite video game tunes ever. I just love how it started off sparse and rather expected before moving into a whimsical statement and then suddenly morphing into something quite dark and revelatory. Yes I'm obsessed with that piece of music. During the game, the soundtrack switches between two arrangements so the battle sequences always feel punctuated and more exciting.
Fly in style across the galaxy. Beware of space pirates.
A play-through in FTL is not that lengthy especially the fact that you probably wouldn't last that long at first but it's the kind of game that beckons you to come back for more punishment because every little bit of success feels richly rewarding. All deaths in the game are permanent though you can save and resume your play at any time you wish. The game can be rather frustrating because the randomized encounters and to be successful, you also have to make sure that you maximize your time on the map exploring and collecting precious scraps while making sure that the whole area will not be overwhelmed by Rebel fleet when you are ready to jump to the next sector, which is easier said than done because there's impending peril at every single turn.
Unfortunately, the leaderboard is only limited to local plays.
FTL is in-all a fun little spaceship simulator providing that you have both the patience and the will to endure. You will start to notice the little nuances in the gameplay mechanics with every single demise of your ship and with that knowledge, you will forge a new crew and have a little bit more confident that things will go more smoothly on your next adventure. Just don't be surprised when things still go awry but don't worry, you'll get annoyed but you'll find some reason to come back. FTL is currently available on Steam but you can get the most out of your $10.00 by getting the game directly from the developer by clicking here because you will then get the Steam version on top of the Mac, Linux, and the DRM free version. Get the game today and find out why it received so much support when it was on Kickstarter.
RATING: 4 out of 5
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