If you go by replay value alone, FTL is my favorite game ever made. Crying Suns is *very* much in the FTL mold, which is fine by me since FTL is so good it's worth being its own genre. Other reviews have said this is like a more story-driven FTL, and I think that's on point. Overall this game is a joy to play, with a lot of the same highs as FTL, some drawbacks, and a few really pleasant surprises. Some cons: - Pacing – I think one thing that most great roguelikes share is a snappy pace. Meaningful progress is made quickly enough that starting over and/or getting through repetitive scenarios are not too frustrating. FTL and Spelunky are great examples. In this game, repetitive events can take dozens of lines of dialog with long transition animations and fades to black. For the first couple runs it's no big deal, but it gets tiresome. It should be easier to just jump in and play. - Cruft – For my taste, there's too much unnecessary content. Events that can have no meaningful outcome no matter what choices you make, bad weapons that are priced like the useful ones, squadrons that just take up space, expensive ship add-ons with very limited use. There's stuff like that in every game, but there's just too much of it here (particularly w/ the events) And the pros: - STORY. I was expecting some minimalist indie game storyline and I was blown away. The story and the overall atmosphere are really powerful, especially after the first couple chapters. Some of the dialog was honestly novel-worthy. The games chucks a lot of lore at you in the beginning and it can feel a little overwhelming, but the payoff is well worth it. - Combat – Definitely very different from FTL, and in ways that I really enjoyed. FTL battles are like a metronome in some ways – wait for this weapon/system, use it, repeat. In Crying Suns, battles are typically longer and they feel more fluid. - Management – That same joy you get from optimizing your ship/crew in FTL is very much there in Crying Suns.
