The extreme random elements of this game take it from being a potentially fantastic game and make it an annoying experience. The Good: The music is great and really sets the atmosphere. Combat is seemingly simple on the surface. As the game progresses, new challenges appear that add difficulty but also opens up new strategies which makes combat engaging and satisfying. The various upgrades, ship hulls, and options make progression fun and interesting. I love the element of the unknown and the mystery of exploring the various sectors of space. I love the encounters and the choices you are presented with. The Bad: The random encounters that you come across are just that: random. The difficulty of an opponent is random. The outcome of a choice is usually random. This isn't bad in itself. It keeps the game interesting and adds replayability. The problem is that a lot of these outcomes are so detrimental, it only takes a few bad rolls in a row to kill you. And this can happen very quickly and very easily. Despite all of the choice and the skill that comes in to play, the outcome of the game is ultimately decided by the roll of a dice. Sadly, this absolutely kills the game for me. It's a frustrating waste of potential. I want to lose because I made bad choices or because I wasn't good enough. I can get better and try again and that's what makes a game fun for me. In FTL you can certainly lose for those reasons, but you're just as likely to lose because a random number generator decided it.
