2o2p Game Review | FTL: Faster Than Light

 

 

If you are not familiar with FTL, it was brought to life via a very successful Kickstarter campaign that managed to raise over $200,000 after an initial goal of a mere $10,000. According to the creators, a two man team known as Subset Games, FTL was almost finished and they were looking for some extra cash to finish it with some fine tuning. I like to think that FTL would be just as enjoyable if they only raised their minimum. The results are evident-I can see and hear the quality and polish the extra cash provided. The sounds, music, backgrounds and overall atmosphere really shine through in this little Indie game.

 

 

FTL is what I call a turn based RTS. The creators call it a “spaceship simulation roguelike-like.” Either way, the goal is to survive long enough to manage your spaceship, battle aliens and sometimes the environment to deliver your package to the Federation. Meanwhile, the Rebels pursue you across the galaxy.

 

You start the game off in your hangar where you’re eventually able to choose your ship and layout types as you unlock them through completing achievements. At the start, however, you are limited to one ship: The Kestrel. You can also gather information about your crew such as their names, gender and species. After playing through the tutorial, I changed all three of the initial crew to human females and named them after my wife and two daughters and named the ship after one of my dogs. All that was left to do was choose the difficulty: easy or normal. I picked easy. It was my first time through and I wanted my girls and The Tucker to survive!

 

 

After hitting play I board my ship where I can make adjustments and assign crew posts before we embark. I assign Mrs. Soup to the bridge (she is the only one with a license), Syderella to the weapons and the youngest, Taitortots, to the shields. I am ready to take my first jump! A map of the sector I am in opens

up and highlights the exit point and all the possible jumps in between. You expend one unit of fuel per jump and there are more points to visit when you have fuel (to start). From each point FTL shows one or more possible jumps from which to choose. I picked the one that looked to be the most direct route and I jumped. I landed next to a Rebel sentry. Time for my girls to earn their pay.

 

 

After completing each jump your ships weapons are down. You must click or use hotkeys to start the weapons charging process and place a marker on the enemy ship. The default weapons on The Tucker start charging, shields go up and the sentry fires the first volley. The shields hold but are depleted briefly before coming back online. I paused the game to decide which part of the enemy ship to target. He has no shields, so I pick his weapons. Returning to the action, my weapon is still charging and my opponent fires again. He hits and damages my engine room. The shields are still in decent shape so I send Taitortots next door to begin repair. My weapon finally fires and does some nice damage to his guns and hull. I pause again, this time setting up autofire to take out his weapons. Once again I return to the action. The engine repair complete, I send Taitortots back to the shields. After a couple more volleys, my autofire does enough damage to obliterate him. I collect some decent loot including fuel, a drone part and some scrap (FTL's credits). I survive my first battle suffering only a couple minor scratches! I raise a beer to my crew while I wait for the FTL drive to finish spinning up. I use this time to start upgrading my ship.

 

 

The ship section is where you will need to spend some time and thought as to how you want to upgrade your ship. As you upgrade each of your ships systems (weapons, shields, sensors and engine) they require more power. I decided that I should purchase the power first and followed by the upgrades. I collected enough scrap from the sentry to purchase two power bars. With my credits depleted, the FTL drive charged, I pick my next target and away I go. After several battles, some good loot, a trip to an outlying store to restore my hull and Rebels right on my tail I make it to the exit.

 

 

A map of the overall system opens up with two possible path options. Each sector is color coded as Civilian, Enemy or Nebula. Civilian is self-explanatory but besides Humans it also houses friendly Alien races such as the Engi and Zoltan. The Enemy controlled sector could be races such as the Slugs and Mantis or Space Pirates. Each area is not entirely filled with either Civilians or Enemies as you encounter both in your travel through those sectors. The reference is meant to designate the majority of what you may find. The Nebula’s are big gassy electrostatic clouds that mess with your sensors both externally as well as on your own ship. 

 

In this instance I am provided two options: The Engi or the Slugs. The Engi are a peaceful race of sentient robot beings and are considered friendly and the Slugs are slugs and aren’t friendly. Looking at the big picture though, the path through the Slugs features more civilians sectors open to it. I cross my fingers, grab a handful of salt and vinegar chips and jump into Slug territory.

 

As I travel and fight through this sector I manage to rescue an Engi ship and gain a new crew member. The Engi are mechanically inclined so I assign him to the engine room. I also manage to fight off Slugs who teleport onto The Tucker and slither through my ship until I had all four crew fight them. It was a close call for both Syderella and Mrs. Soup. Thankfully, the sickbay wasn’t damaged so I healed them. I collect enough loot to upgrade The Tuckers’ shields, weapons and engine making me feel pretty badass but leaving me cash poor. My hull took a beating and though I visited stores which could help me repair it, I had little cash left to do so. The Rebel fleet was getting close so I head for the exit and jump.

 

 

In the next sector I manage to run interference between a pirate and civilian ship. The pirate surrenders and bribes me with a nice bunch of loot. I make it to a store, sell an extra weapon and drone I can’t use and spend all my scrap fixing the hull. With an almost fully repaired ship and no Rebels in sight I take some time to explore. Unfortunately, my curiosity gets the better of me and I actually run into a dead end and must backtrack. Bad news! I eat up a bunch more fuel and time than I intended and it gives the Rebels a chance to catch up to me. I manage to barely stay one jump ahead, limp my way to the exit and jump away clean.

 

I started my 4th sector low on fuel, damaged and in need of internal repairs. The battles, the fires and the unfortunate death of my new crew member all take its toll on The Tucker. I put the girls to work fixing all they can but I need to find another store to fix my hull. I also need scrap to pay for both fuel and repairs. I must take The Tucker into battle again. The lovely little popup screen tells me this is an enemy sector filled with Mantis - spider like creatures bent on destruction.

 

 

On my first jump I get my first taste of Mantis. They possess an Ion weapon that disables my shields and they teleport two Mantis onto my ship. I leave Taitortots on the shields (her experience with them provided a bonus) and send Mrs. Soup and Syderella to fend them off. I pause the game to set up autofire of my new missile launcher and activate my new repair drone. Back to the action! My weapons charge but my shields are down. Another hit damages my O2 supply. The repair drone jumps into action. My two girls are almost dead so I immediately order them to the health bay. The Mantis on board are not yet defeated and start to tear apart my sensors. I open my outside doors in hopes of suffocating them. My weapons fully charged I begin firing. I hit both his shields and weapons. With that volley I manage a temporary reprieve while waiting for my weapons to recharge. I send the girls in again to eliminate the Mantis intruders. My shields are up but his ion cannon hits again. We trade shots, again his shields and weapons take a hit but in the meantime I have a hull breach, fires in the weapons room and I lose both Mrs. Soup and Syderella. They manage to destroy the Mantis but between the hull breach and my open outside doors, the O2 depletes inside the room. They are badly hurt from the fight and I can’t get them out in time.

 

The drone robot works hard putting out fires, so I send Taitortots to repair the O2 supply. We trade another round of fire. My weapons take a second or two longer than his to charge so he hits me first. My shields hold but my missile penetrates his. While this is good news, there are more fires than the drone or Taitortots can handle. I open the outside doors again in hopes of creating a vacuum to put them out. He fires again. He misses! I fire and he explodes! Victory...but at a huge cost. I look at the loot I gathered, close the outside doors, point my youngest to the bridge and jump.

 

The Tucker can't afford another fight so when a distress call is raised I believe it’s an opportunity to get some loot and avoid a fight. Unfortunately, as Admiral Ackbar so eloquently put it, "It's a trap!" Freaking space pirates! All I can do is try to hold on until the FTL drive is charged and jump away. He fires a missile and damages my engine. Really!? Gawdammit! I send Taitortots in to repair it. I run through the standard pause and setup autofire routine but while my weapons damage the ship it isn’t enough. This guy is tough and I am war weary. I manage to survive a couple more volleys until another screen pops up....oh shit! I send Taitortots back to the bridge but my sensors are down and the rooms she travels through are on fire. She burns and the Tucker is a floating ghost ship.

 

I observe a moment of silence for the brave crew and travel back to the hanger. I unlock a new ship, pick out a new crew (this time I don’t change their names to family…it was too painful last time) and begin again. Everything is different! Each playthrough is completely randomized; the players’ names, the enemies, the sector maps as well as the overall path you choose. All right, Mr. Sulu. Let's see what she's got.

 

It took a few times before I finally progress to the end but even after 20 or 30 games I am unable to take out the final boss. In some games this would frustrate me to no end but in FTL the journey to that point is the most fun I have had in a long time.