FTL: Advanced Edition

I love the idea of this game, but its execution is absolutely inane. The developers want you to believe that it's possible to win a round of FTL using strategy. While there is some strategy to be had, here, it falls mostly to where you place crewmembers and, for the most part it doesn't really matter. Place a crewmember in the captain's chair, and you get a (small) boost to dodge incoming enemy fire; place a crewmember in the weapon's bay and the weapons charge (slightly) faster; and so on. The only mandatory placements are in the Cockpit and the Engine Room: you will be unable to make a Jump, allowing you to flee a fight and/or just progress across the map, without those two positions populated. But, really, crewmember placement, beyond the needs of the Jump mechanics, don't really matter. This game is ruled by the RNG, from top to bottom. And while a game like this does, indeed, need some randomness, the completely random nature of this game makes it a uncommonly painful experieince. Placement of all sectors, and all jump locations within them, are random. The placement of any type of encounter -- combat, "distress calls" where one might choose to help (or not) some other ship/installation in that area, shops, etc. -- is completely random. It's not uncommon to find a shop within the first Jump or two in the starting Sector...but there's no way for the player to get anything because they haven't had any opportunity to acquire Scrap (in-game money) to purchase anything. Its not uncommon to find an enemy that is unbeatable to a starting ship, also within the first few Jumps if not at least within the starting Sector. It's not uncommon to go through most of a game with just the starting Crew of three and the starting weapons loadout. Without a very lucky streak, where a player finds extremely good weapons, and manages to get through with a minimum of damage, the final enemy is not beatable, no matter how good one is at shifting their crew around.

The concept is great and if you play smart and careful you can make it far. but I can't even get to the final section on anything other than easy, and it isn't because I don't know how to play. If this game had more option to buy equipment, hire crew, and survey system then the game would be more enjoyable. Like most other of this type is seem unnecessarily diffifult for the sake of sadism. It honestly ruins my enjoyment to be able to handle every encounter and then get creamed by a unfair boss who can regenerate 3 times and reconfigure itself every time. Meanwhile you have almost no options throughout most of the game unless you are extremely lucky.

I've been seeing FTL pop up quite a bit over the years, but resisted even looking into the game. I've played my share of super serious space simulators over the years, so the premise of and look of FTL did not appeal to me... until I started playing it. It's very much a crew and ship management game. Simple, intuitive, and just fun. FUN FUN FUN! There, I said it.

I love the game and can't say enough good things about it. It's challenging hard, it's all about learning the different tactics, micromanagment of your ship and adapting to your enemy. Story isn't interesting but is enough to enjoy the game. In short FTL is pure gameplay without bullshit, for me it is a must play!

As the title of my review suggests, yes this game can be a lot of fun. The problem is the difficulty is kind of all over the place. One minute you could be holding your own against a pirate ship, the next minute, Mantis board your ship and steamroll the crew into dust, game over. If you like games that are brutal and unforgiving, you will love this game. Otherwise I would probably say go with something else. I will admit, it is a bit of a guilty pleasure to play it because sometimes you get a good run where most everything goes right and those run throughs are exciting. On the other hand, you can get a game where you die after one or two systems. So, beware. I did not encounter any technical issues per say once I set the settings I wanted.