FTL: Advanced Edition

The random stores wouldn't be so bad but the random contents of the stores hurts the strategy and forces the game into luck of the draw at times. Because of this the game is hard on easy, specially when it comes to the final battle. All the same, the game is addictive and a lot of fun.

I'm reviewing the Advanced edition. As other reviewers have mentioned, a bad event can ruin a long game, without you being able to do anything against it. There's no strategy involved. A successful run mostly depends on getting the right weapon setup: and most weapons are crap, you have to find out which are the good ones. But it's purely a question of luck, if you can find these weapons or not: not all shops have weapons, and even less have good weapons. This almost works in the 'normal' edition, but with the extra content of the 'advanced' edition (that is optional at least) I found the game basically unplayable. Add to this that this is essentially an RTS, but without a speed slider, so that if battles are easy you have to stay there for minutes just watching, to see maybe everything ruined in 10 seconds after one jump in space.

It may be simple, but it's definitely my game of the decade. I looked forward to this game for months after missing the kickstarter, and I was not let down... four straight hours and I'm still in need of more. Amazing. Well done.

I wanted to like this game but it's just too random. it's basically a game of constantly making blind choices and hoping enough of them pay off (or at least don't hurt you) to beat the game. for example one run I was doing fine boppnig through sector 3, then boom picked the wrong node, 4 guys with lasers beamed aboard and were far too tough for my crew of 3 to beat. game over just like that. the utter randomness combined with the ability for a lucky first shot to completely tip the balance of a fight against you makes this game simply too hard and fickle for my tastes.

I've been playing this game in the late beta for the past two weeks. It is excellent - lots of polish, good balancing, hard but fair. It is also highly, highly addictive. It reaches deep into your brain and tugs on that "just one more turn" string. One turn becomes five becomes ten, and then it's "Oh crud, I meant to head to bed an hour ago." I've put a good twenty hours in so far and I've only managed to beat the game once (on easy), I've only scratched the surface of the hidden secrets and I've unlocked less than half the extra ships. I'm having a blast.