FTL: Advanced Edition

It takes a lot of imagination to disregard the fact that there's your computer with its keyboard, screen and mouse in front of you. It takes a lot to start believing that you're actually controlling the awesome and detailed 3d model of a ship that's in front of you. It doesn't take much, however, to accept the fact that your computer is where it is, but it's actually a control panel for a spaceship, and you are its captain. That's why FTL interface doesn't try to simulate anything but that very control panel. That, and an awesome soundtrack, is what makes the game so real. Sometimes simplicity is the key. However, one shouldn't think that anything but the visuals of the game is simplistic in any way. Actual gameplay is complex and strategic, and you'll have to make lots of decisions of all kinds. The game is not easy to beat, either, as every decision you make is permanent and can't just be cancelled, and is balanced so that you have to really make the best out of what you're given, otherwise you're just doomed. One interesting point about the game's soundtrack is that every track has a "peaceful" and "combat" version, and when situaction becomes dangerous, it doesn't just switch to another track, instead continuing the one that was going with a different arrangement, which makes the experience more integral.

It's like an old arcade game. You select your ship and when you die, you're dead for good and have to restart. Luckily, you don't have to bring a bag of coins with you to continue, even to pay for the DLC (Advanced Edition) which amounts to a full upgrade of content for free as an update. A successful run will generally last about a couple of hours, so it's not a lengthy game... on paper. It is very difficult at first, but once you learn the core mechanics... it'll still kick your ass. The game features a great deal of randomness. You can do everything perfectly but you may still not win. Nevertheless, the best players in the world will still have a 90%+ win rate on the hardest difficulty, so the skill ceiling is very high. The game is fun because it is a bunch of simple systems working together that add up to more than the sum of their parts. They will often have surprising interactions that make the challenges more interesting and fun, such as when you find out you can vent a room to put out a fire or suffocate a boarding party before they can attack your crew. There are lots of different ships to use, with widly varying strengths and weaknesses, lots of "choose your own adventure" events, and practically endless variation thanks to procedurally generated worlds and enemy ships. It's about as close to a perfect game as you can get. Highly recommended.

Great game for this price! Medium difficulty to start, very hard to master! Nice to play in between other games, very addictive. Very fun to see how every story is quite a bit different between plays (and you'll see many).

"Shields are down, captain! We have boarders in the engine room!" What would you do? Will you send your crew to fight them off, leaving the ship defenseless to enemy attack? No, you'll lock the intruders in that room and open the airlock. Expect moments like this. Making trade offs to get the "least bad" outcome once the encounters start getting harder. Balancing moving through areas quickly to conserve fuel, with finding powerups and recovering scrap. It's challenging stuff, for sure. However, it might be the funnest little game you'll ever play. Indulge your inner starship captain.

FTL introduced me to a new type of play, spaceship room micromanagement combat and exploration from a bird's eye view. The game goes from 3 to 5 stars with the Multiverse Mod.