FTL: Advanced Edition

Sure, some might say its hard...once you get to the later levels, use the advanced features and want to win. But to me it's a good relaxation game for those times when I don't want to get involved. The basics are easy to catch on, the soundtrack does the trick as does the interface, more then enough variation of gameplay from one game to the other if only thanks to the wide selection of ships... A wonderfull little game, especially if you get it on sale.

Faster Than Light is a fun game. Its also very punishing. I'll go over its faults first. -the soundtrack is pretty good in most cases, but kind of falls flat on most areas. for example, you'll hear the main menu theme a lot between runs, and its ok at first, but its not just that it might et old, its actually just bad. -the difficulty is an awesome challenge, but if you're looking to have fun first, so you can enjoy the game when you want it to be more difficult later, I reccomend playing easy mode, which should really be called normal mode. The good things -like I mentioned before, the soundtrack can be very good in some places, very enjoyable. -sound design is also very good, you can understand a lot of whats going on by listening, and the sounds aren't grating. -The art style is very consistent, pixel art with a rigid pallette throughout, no complaints about the art here. -Gameplay, while difficult, is also pretty fun. 'addicting' is a pretty negative word, so I think 'enjoyable to return to' is how it could be described. -if you like achievements, but don't like using launchers, you can rest easy. In game achievements are accessible through the stats menu on the title screen. Advanced edition adds a lot more variety, but isn't a massive overhaul, nor does it need to be. Just make sure if you'd like to see the new content, you enable it on the ship screen.

Game just will not start for me. I've been troubleshooting for an hour now, added -directx to startup, checked my drivers, verified integrity. It just will not run. I had the same issue with the steam version. Game's great if you can get it to run.

Seriously though, you'll probably play it 20-50 times before you actually beat the final boss, but you learn a little bit each time you play. You laugh at the funny quests you do, you cry when your pilot and gunner die defending your mechanic, you'll scream in furry when you only jump 5 times then your ship blows up, you'll jump in delight when you earn a new ship or layout, but you'll keep coming back because it's awesome and you just know you'll do a little better the next time.

Now here's an interesting take one the space-combat genre: instead of focusing on your ship's maneuvering, shield sections firing arcs and such, it focuses on your crew. After all, they're are the most important part of your ship: they pilot it, they fire the guns - and they keep it intact during heated battles. As a roguelike (more or less), this game is very hard and features lots of randomization in the kind of encounters you'll have, so you never really know what comes next. Combat is refreshing and offers some interesting tactics, and the ships you can unlock for the next playthrough are very different from your standard ship and require very different tactics. All in all, a very fun and addicting game!