FTL: Advanced Edition

I would describe the game as one where your decision-making is what determines your success, it's not mechanically demanding. There is a lot of room for customizing your strategy, in the way you equip your ship, which crew members you have on it and how you decide to deal with hostile ships. You have to adapt to what you find at times and do the best with what's available. Eventually you may find a trader who has what's needed, so you can buy and sell some things in order to make things come together into your desired strategy. My advice is to start the game with little to no knowledge about it, just learn as you go. I have a lot of fun developing effective strategies through trial and error and sometimes through pure chance, by using what I find. A relaxing game with high replay value, highly recommended if you enjoy these types of games :]

It's a nice little spaceship sim. I like directing the crew about and it's very challenging to actually win. Mostly, it's a lot of dying and restarting, but each time is fun... for a while. After a couple dozen play throughs, the game does get pretty repetitive. So 4 stars for the game overall. Well worth the money, but a little more variety in the encounters would be a welcome addition.

The extreme random elements of this game take it from being a potentially fantastic game and make it an annoying experience. The Good: The music is great and really sets the atmosphere. Combat is seemingly simple on the surface. As the game progresses, new challenges appear that add difficulty but also opens up new strategies which makes combat engaging and satisfying. The various upgrades, ship hulls, and options make progression fun and interesting. I love the element of the unknown and the mystery of exploring the various sectors of space. I love the encounters and the choices you are presented with. The Bad: The random encounters that you come across are just that: random. The difficulty of an opponent is random. The outcome of a choice is usually random. This isn't bad in itself. It keeps the game interesting and adds replayability. The problem is that a lot of these outcomes are so detrimental, it only takes a few bad rolls in a row to kill you. And this can happen very quickly and very easily. Despite all of the choice and the skill that comes in to play, the outcome of the game is ultimately decided by the roll of a dice. Sadly, this absolutely kills the game for me. It's a frustrating waste of potential. I want to lose because I made bad choices or because I wasn't good enough. I can get better and try again and that's what makes a game fun for me. In FTL you can certainly lose for those reasons, but you're just as likely to lose because a random number generator decided it.

I was looking forward to this game for quite some time now and it is very addictive and very fun. It is not without it's problems though: - No resolution options what so ever, if I play in streched mode I can't see all the UI and if I play in deafult it is very small - Galaxy can screw you over as in if you take a path, it does not indicate if it leads to the exit. I just played, had rebels on my tail and turns out I cannot jump from where I though I could... This all can be fixed and I hope it does get fixed, these are impressions from first hours after launch and no bugs what so ever. Can reccomend to any and all sci-fi fans.

Like some of the other reviews say, this game is hard even on easy. It's addicting, challenging. It has elements I like from a game like Moo2 where you have full control over the gear on your ship but right down to managing your airlock doors to repel boarders and stop the spread of fire. There are only two reasons this charming and awesome game is not getting 5 stars from me. 1. This is the kind of game I 'personally' have a difficult time enjoying without multiple save slots. It allows you to save and resume where you left off. If you jump into a system with an asteroid field and a random event or attacking ship beams four attackers onto your vessel early on while you only have 3 crew you're done and you have to start over from the beginning. The game would still be plenty challenging if you could at least restart from the beginning of the current sector in case you back yourself into a corner. And you have a lot of time to back yourself into a corner or land in a plasma storm or get lit up by solar flares and fending off an enemy vessel. 2. The random elements are fantastic but harsh even on easy. In other words this game is not very balanced. For that reason it will always have a very limited audience. Still. I'm a glutton for chasing distress calls and have a lot more to figure out before I will be finishing the game. FTL gives you a modest yet ample tutorial without patronizingly holding your hand like a lot of games. Like many 'good old games' this means you learn the procs and cons of various strategies through trial and a lot of error. When you feel like getting defeated repeatedly, by this game and enjoy well more than 1,000 ways to die. Eventually you'll stop chasing distress signals and figure out how to beat the game.