FTL: Advanced Edition

It's a fresh concept and well put together. I like it. Here's the problem though: The nature of the game is such that you might die repeatedly before you get your ship going. This is expected since there's perma-death. The biggest problem are the random events you come across. There's usually description and a couple of choices. The outcomes seem luck-based, with no way to tell if your crew or ship stats help in any way. So for example when rescuing a survivor from some abandoned ship or planet you could either gain a crew member or lose one... What ends up happening is that instead of forcing you to choose between tough options (and I should say this is what I think roguelikes are all about) you end up choosing between random and boring: 1. Something good or something bad happens randomly 2. You leave whatever you're investigating and nothing happens I agree there are some roguelike elements in this game, even though it's more like a strategic space exploration and combat game. Where a well-balanced roguelike might make you feel like it's your own fault you fucked up, while playing FTL I kept feeling that my bad luck is just bad luck, totally unconnected from any choices I made. If you're easily annoyed, have anger management problems or like games that offer little to no challenge, skip this one. If you don't mind losing repeatedly before coming even close to winning, and can deal with the random number generator, I would recommend it.

As a Kickstarter backer, I've been having a lot of fun playing the beta via Steam quite a bit over the past couple weeks. I don't really agree with this game being called a roguelike, as it doesn't play anything like one; it's more like a board game with real-time elements. It does have a ton of game-to-game randomness, though: the beacon layouts, sector types, encounters, loot, etc. are different every time. The general flow of the game is that you jump from beacon to beacon, and sector-to-sector, choosing how to deal with random encounters and attempting to incrementally upgrade your ship in whatever way you see fit with the resources available (with an ultimate goal of being able to face down an enemy mothership/flagship). Sometimes you choose or are forced into combat, and this becomes a mini-game of micromanaging your crew and ship systems: - you can juggle reactor power amongst multiple systems if you don't have enough to go around - certain systems gain bonuses from being manned, and you may need to send crew member(s) to various parts of the ship to repair damage - controlling which weapons you fire at a given time has a major effect on combat, as different enemy ships have different systems and shield capabilities to contend with They also set up a clever mechanic where an enemy fleet is chasing you across the sectors. This is depicted by a red circle that encroaches from the left side of the map, with a second circle showing where the fleet will advance to when you make your next jump. This forces you to make judgment calls about which beacons to visit within a sector before moving on to the next one. My general strategy is usually to tack up and down the sector while staying just ahead of the danger zone, but the beacon layouts don't always make that easy. The game is quite challenging (but not downright frustrating); I haven't managed to beat the final encounter yet, despite having reached it 3 times or so. I even switched to Easy mode after the first time I lost near the end, and it didn't improve my chances to the point where I could win. What will help me win, I think, is that you can unlock new ships and alternate layouts by getting certain achievements. This is loosely analogous to classes in roguelikes, as different ships are focused on different play-styles (engi ships, for example, specialize in drones). Overall, it's a fun and addictive game that never plays the same way twice. Each session is a few hours long (provided you live that long), and I'm still seeing new encounters and such after playing it on and off for a couple of weeks.

Having spent time with the Beta I can vouch for the simple pleasures of this game. This is a game that is indie to its very core and in this instance that is a very good thing. A game that feels so fresh and yet is very much rooted in the grand old age of games like Elite. This is not my usual genre of gaming so I am pleased to report that I have found the game extraordinarily accessible and was able to jump into it with next to no hand holding. If anyone thinks the inviting nature of the interface must hide an overly simple and basic game than again I can report that this game manages to maintain a complexity that left me at least, satisfied with my successes without the hair pulling factor. The game will have you almost from the outset teetering on round after round of nail biting action. Along with the almost impossible to resist "just one more round" it is the perfect recipe for many enjoyable gaming hours, and possibly a few late nights. Having said that the accessible nature also makes it the perfect pitch for the casual time killing 10 Min pop - just be careful those 10 will soon become hours..

The title says it all. There is a deliciously deep space exploration and combat game but it is buried under so many layers of terminal misfortune and disastrous blind choices that you spend more time losing than learning. I love challenge but a more even progression of challenges would have made this game perfect. Instead you have to play through hoping not to discover impossible encounters or simply miss the chance to gain the necessary items for missions. I would have loved this but unfortunately it's hard to keep playing when there are far more balanced and enjoyable strategy games out there. I'd say pass on this one.

This game has a great game-play concept behind it, however 'arbitrary' difficulty mechanics prevent the game from really shining as it could or should. One example of the arbitrary difficulty is that your own weapons stop charging if an enemy ship cloaks, while they can continue to charge weapons and fire at you if they have the stealth weapon mod. This game is fun, but making a simple mistake can be punishing. Winning the game is not done by skill but by luck. You can make zero mistakes in a game and die quickly, and in other games you can make a lot of mistakes and still limp along far into the game. But to win, you have to get lucky as well as barely make any mistakes. I have played the game several times too many to count now and have only beat it 3 times. I am fairly certain my failure rate is over 80%. Most of the time I reset the game early because i was handed an absolutely bad wrap at first by visiting 3 systems in a row where nothing was there or that a shop was pointlessly place at the start of the 1st sector. This is the sort of game where you get the "I played FTL and survived" T-Shirt. If you are not the type of player that can tolerate inane/insane difficulty mechanics then I invite you to buy and play a copy of FTL - You will finally learn what a Love/Hate relationship is.