FTL: Advanced Edition

I used to like FTL when it was first released. After all, aside from RPGs, strategy (real-time and turn-based) is my favourite genre, and it had a new and compelling mechanic I had not seen before. Then we got Advanced Edition. Difficulty got a considerable spike —I used to get to the final sector once about every three games and managed to beat it a few times, but on AE I was lucky to get that far after a dozen or so tries— and the ships I had already unlocked —almost all of them and their variants— were reset, meaning I was back to the basic/starting ship, which was frustrating to say the least. I really tried to like the new AE version, but it was no longer fun to play and it felt like I was just wasting my time, so I eventually gave up and stopped playing it. Maybe one day I'll pick it up again, but I realise now it's already been 10 years since I last played it, but who knows… BTW, I've read about a player who can beat the game on hard 95% of the time and posted a complaint about it being too easy. I'm clearly nowhere near that level, given I struggle even on the lowest setting.

Nothing GoG did, simply put, FTL is inherently broken due to the fact that its random number generator is not scaled correctly and is slightly off. Most games have a difficulty curve that progresses harder as you move threw the game, FTL ignores this idea and can go from simple to crazy difficult in the blink of an eye. Also during combat enemies who use the exact same weapons as you will consistently do more damage than you using the exact same weapon, are more likely to get critical hits and gain more healing from items than you get. Also the final boss' special abilities make it difficult at best, cheap at worst. Even with a ship that has green shields, 4 really good weapons, a fully staffed and golden trained crew in what they do, and are racially good at what they do as well. All of this and I still got offed by the final boss in under a minute. While the premise is a good idea, this game needs some serious tweaking to be considered anywhere near a decent game.

the title says it all ... if you are lucky you get very fast great weapons. But most time its very fustrating. Even in the difficulty mode easy its sometimes impossible.

Wow, I'm okay with "retro style" but the gameplay is seriously lacking. It's pretty much a "pop a quarter arcade-style" fiasco. Emphasis on "fiasco". One of the most overrated tablet-games-to-PC games of all time. this is a like a freemium Alpha Early Access build. You're literally clicking a button...to see if anything happens next. Constantly. And if anything happens, its 100% combat, which is poorly done. It should be easy to toggle a weapon and click on the enemy ship, but it's like it has to shift 10 gears before anything remotely happens, but in the meantime, a pea-shooter enemy ship frags you because the game's system of energizing and firing a weapon were Made in China?! What gives? Just fire the F'ing weapon. Geez. It's not rocket science! It's like your weaponsmaster, once told to fire, needs 5 minutes to calculate some crap before it can fire. LAAAAME. But like I said, it's one "click to see if anything happens" moments, static, stoic crud graphics from one "clip" to the next. Sad! Embarassingly sad. If this game came out 25 years ago, it would still suck by even those standards back then. I KNOW, because I WAS THERE, and we had 10x more better games than this cheap cash-cow-wannabe-tablet/phone-"PC" "game".

What breaks this game for me is that there's no strategy involved: your ship lives or dies depending on random maps/events generated this session and there's literally nothing you can do about it. Often it makes more sense to restart after several turns instead of pushing forward, because you just hadn't been dealt the right cards to play. You already see the outcome. Death is unrewarding and usually meaningless. There's no progression as you die repeatedly, no rewards or accumulated points, only 'personal experience'. At some point you unlock new ships... which don't make the game easier, just a tiny bit different. And remember, random events can and DO screw up any good ship and good circumstances, killing you at the spot. Any mistake is usually fatal. Micromanagement is also pretty brutal: doors are too hard to select using touchpad and... why do I even need to control doors? What fun is that? Crew members are pretty hard to select too. Overal UI experience is between 'meh' and 'the horror' depending on the specific task at hand. If you're feeling lucky, you may try this game. I don't believe it's worth its money.