While the game is charming and might be a nice experience, there is too much luck involved. You need to be lucky to finish the game, even at the lowest difficulty.
You don't find a decent weapon in the first sistems. Game over.
You get boarded by 5 mantises and have only 3 crew members. Game over.
You get attacked by a ship that has a super powerful missile weapon and didn't find defense droid, and the game decides your dodge rate of 45% is just an opinion. Game over.
You somehow get to the last boss without getting any decent gear. Don't even try that.
Just go play slot machines at this point.
Here's how FTL works: You take your space ship and crew (your options are limited at first but many more become available as you unlock them), and you set off across the galaxy. You are pursued by 'Rebels' (ie 'the bad guys') as you attempt to deliver an important shipment to another Federation station far away. Along the way, you'll encounter pirates, mercenaries, ships in distress, stations with plague outbreaks , and a huge variety of other situations that you'll have to navigate through. Meanwhile, you have to keep a close eye on your missile, fuel and drone reserves, your crews health, and the health of your ship. Your crew can repair the various systems of the ship, but merchants and items must be used to repair your hull. The game is, in essence, a 'Rogue-like', meaning that the point is less 'getting to the end' of the game and more 'getting further than you did last time'.
Basically, the game tries to simulate the feel of being in the captain's chair on the Starship Enterprise (or whichever other sci-fi universe you prefer to imagine). Does it succeed? In a way. Commanding the crew and switching power from one system to another is fun, and the situations you can get into are interesting. However, I had hoped there would be more diplomacy in the game; debating with enemies rather than fighting them, and working with NPC 'captains' to solve a puzzle or reach a goal. Unfortunately there is not a lot of that in this game. They didn't exactly say there would be so I'm not docking it any points for that, but...it's definitely something I'd like to see in a sequel.
The replay value of the title is a bit up in the air; the game should be easy enough to release 'adventure packs' for, and if the developer doesn't feel like doing that they should release the game to the modding community (if they haven't already). If they do, and new adventures and content packs are released, the game could potentially have unlimited replayability. We shall see.
But regardless, FTL is certainly worth the few bucks it costs. It's the 'starship simulator' that every nerd has been wanting (even if they didn't know it) for years now. And it hits closer to the mark than any other game that's attempted it before (including the various Star Trek games, Eve Online and- gag- Battlecruiser 3000). Pick it up!
Great game. With certain ships, this game is as unforgiving as a 9 sorcerer/mind flayer fight in the ice cave in Final Fantasy for the NES. Or maybe that secret succubus / demon king fight under Portsmith in Might and Magic 1. Yes, controller flung across the room hard or screwed by the Ranged Number God. Only with certain ships though. Others are a joy to play. All Zoltan ships and Kestrel Type B come to mind. In contrast, Engi type B is arguably the worst ship in the game.
I won't spoil much, except to say those of you trying to beat the game with the Engi type b will have some early game moments where its best to just restart.
With that said, I beat the game with the Type A and B Kestrel ships pretty soon after buying the game. With the B I only restarted once.
Switched to the Engi ship and discovered that with some ships... luck of the RNG is essential!! Not as in "nice to have" or "you always need RNG luck when engaging rebels within ASB range." I'm talking... luck for the first map or two in order to land some good gear and manage to actually survive!
This is very rogue like as in "oops, ate poisoned rations and I'm on my last 8 hps" or "oops, I just ran into 50 fire ants and they hit as hard as a dragon" or "oh crap, dwarven mines and I don't have a torch!! where'd that crossbow bolt come from?"
With that said, who the hell is funding those rebels? THE IMF? They got more ships and batteries than the Federation forces. Holy crap!
Otherwise, gameplay ranges from hard and fun to controller flinging hard, music goes from good to epic and back. Graphics... good, clean and very Xcomish. Writing is solid enough for this kind of game, with some real humor thrown in. Try having a Mantis on board your ship when you go to slug nebula for added humor. Its like taking a Klingon to a Tribble convention.
Definitely worth the winter sale price, fun... and like all nethack/rogue type games... VERY ADDICTIVE.
I love the idea of this game, but its execution is absolutely inane.
The developers want you to believe that it's possible to win a round of FTL using strategy. While there is some strategy to be had, here, it falls mostly to where you place crewmembers and, for the most part it doesn't really matter. Place a crewmember in the captain's chair, and you get a (small) boost to dodge incoming enemy fire; place a crewmember in the weapon's bay and the weapons charge (slightly) faster; and so on. The only mandatory placements are in the Cockpit and the Engine Room: you will be unable to make a Jump, allowing you to flee a fight and/or just progress across the map, without those two positions populated.
But, really, crewmember placement, beyond the needs of the Jump mechanics, don't really matter.
This game is ruled by the RNG, from top to bottom. And while a game like this does, indeed, need some randomness, the completely random nature of this game makes it a uncommonly painful experieince.
Placement of all sectors, and all jump locations within them, are random. The placement of any type of encounter -- combat, "distress calls" where one might choose to help (or not) some other ship/installation in that area, shops, etc. -- is completely random. It's not uncommon to find a shop within the first Jump or two in the starting Sector...but there's no way for the player to get anything because they haven't had any opportunity to acquire Scrap (in-game money) to purchase anything. Its not uncommon to find an enemy that is unbeatable to a starting ship, also within the first few Jumps if not at least within the starting Sector. It's not uncommon to go through most of a game with just the starting Crew of three and the starting weapons loadout.
Without a very lucky streak, where a player finds extremely good weapons, and manages to get through with a minimum of damage, the final enemy is not beatable, no matter how good one is at shifting their crew around.
For those who say the game is hard to the point of not being fun:
It's a roguelike, you're supposed to keep dying and trying again, getting better each time. It's by no means an impossible game, and once you become familiar with its mechanics, there are certain builds which could even make the game trivial.
You're not going to win every run, but that is the beauty of it. It is strategically complex, and tactically interesting. Every run will be a little different.
Massively replayable. By far my favourite in this genre. If you like challenging strategic/tactical games, this is a must have.
