FTL: Advanced Edition

More frustrating than it is rewarding, yet very addicitive and nice looking. But frustrating. As heck. Unfortunately for my taste, this is the kind of game where you never know how well you've performed until the very, very end of the game. Which takes more than 2 hours, which is a lot. I find it very frustating that there is no bonus whatsoever to your next playthrough, even if you almost beat the boss. I find the fact that luck plays a very high role highly disappointing, The "play 2 hours and find out if your build works" mechanics is beyond me. I find the game to be very unforgiving, very punishing, especially when the luck factor is so high, and even in the lowest difficulty setting. To me, there should at least be some room for mistakes. And I find it even more frustrating when I see all these guides on the Internet, and all the high ratings of this game. All this might be because I lack the patience or masochism or whatever. But clearly, this ain't no game for me.

FTL is a game where good planning and strategy matter. It is one of those easy to learn, hard to master games. In the beginning it will seem very difficult, you will get the impression that only luck or the randomness matters. (as several reviews here presume). But this is only true, if you don't know what to do. As you learn the game and improve your strategy, you will realise that it is always possible to win despite the worst luck. And this is the genius of FTL, it rewards the player for skill, not luck. Nowadays I only lose a game if I make some serious mistake, like letting my crew suffocate,shooting down my boarding crew or boarding enemies in an asteroid field. I can recommend this game to anyone who likes strategy games that require thinking and planning. It is not really a roguelike, but more like any other strategy game on a random map with ironman mode. (and there are ways to circumvent the saving restrictions) To the people who think it all about luck I can only recommend to analyse each lost game and think about what you could have done better. You will find mistakes, avoid those the next time and you will become better. At least with the first few ships it is possible to win everytime, the later layout throw some really difficult stuff at you, but maybe better players than I can even win consistently with the DA-SR 12.

Do you love Firefly and Star Trek? FTL gives me the feeling of all these sci-fi worlds. This game makes endless fun. I can not count how many times I tried to success this game. There are some rules in the game to survive a little bit longer: 1.Don´t panic! 2.Avoid any Contact with bigger ships 3.Never forget to buy fuel 4.It´s never wrong to accept the bribe of Pirates 5.Never ever try to rescue people without devices. 6.Don´t panic! Best game I played this year. I am not joking.

An initial disclaimer: if you don't like the dying-a-lot aspect of roguelikes, this game probably isn't for you, because you will die a lot, at least at first. Once you get past that, you won't regret it. You play as an anonymous captain of a Federation ship. You and your crew are tasked with traveling through eight sectors to find and defeat the Rebel Flagship. Of course your starting loadout is hardly good enough to survive past the first sector. By defeating enemies and having other encouters, you'll collect scrap (the game's currency), which is used to repair, to add or upgrade your systems, to purchase weapons and ammunition, etc. You will find more crew along the way, including various aliens with various abilities. The most engaging part of the game's strategy is figuring out, little by little, what to prioritize. Like with most roguelikes, the RNG is an inevitability. Where do you prioritize your crew when your ship is damaged? Do you repair your weapons to take out the enemy quickly, or your shields to protect from further damage? Do you put out a fire to prevent it from spreading? Do you divide your crew among the tasks and hope for the best? Assuming you survive this encounter, will you consider purchasing a drone in the future to speed up repairs? Or perhaps a cloaking system to avoid missile strikes? Each run is fairly short, even when you win. Before long, you'll have special encounters that unlock new ships to choose from in the main menu. This makes for great replayability value, as the different ships really do play differently. Luckily the soundtrack doesn't get boring. Last but not least, FTL should be mentioned for the fan-made Multiverse mod. The Multiverse mod is basically a sequel - one that is a about five times bigger than the base game. It is so massive, with so much to encounter, it's arguably more of an open-world roguelite and IMO is even better than the base game. It is absolutely worth a download if you enjoy this game.

I bought this when it first released and have sunk, literally, more than a thousand hours into it. You can pick it up and play at a moment's notice and have a great game that doesn't kill your entire evening. Even now, it can throw up brutal surprises that devastate your defences and wipe you out - it a must have game, with loads of replay value; and that's before you consider the ever growing list of mods the offer even greater variation. I sorely wish that the big name AAA games houses could produce games that offer this much longevity.