Did you ever dream about spaceship simulator with minimalistic design and re-playable story? Look no more as Faster Than Light is here. It’s top-down roguelike video game where you turn into the captain of a single space vessel with an extremely important mission. Remember about resources, manage your ship to survive, be ready for permanent loses and crashes. Well, this sounds pretty boring, yeah? But trust us, FTL is the best game in recent years.
Sit down and listen to old space wolf who know everything about space sims, kid!
Basics
Faster Than Light is a time machine. It takes us to the age of 16-bit games with primitive graphics and sounds but extremely detailed world around you. FTL looks like a really simple game at first sight but you surely have to play at least half an hour to realize its power. It’s clear, captivating, and easy to start. But it also features several different systems and resources between which you should balance to succeed. Simple but thorough. That’s FTL.
All in all, your main goal here is to deliver an extremely important document to your mates on the other side of the map. Good guys from Federation wait for this info and bad rebel guys chase you to destroy it. With your ship, of course. The gameplay is based on quick jumps from system to system and from sector to sector. Rebels leave no time for exploration, so each run takes from 30 minutes to 1 hour. But you cannot simply jump to your friends as you need money, repairs, and ammo. That’s the idea of FTL: fly fast but don’t forget about resources.
Let’s review main features of Faster Than Light including good and not so good ones!
Advantages
Well, we love this game, really. So, we cannot be fully objective in the review, remember it. Hope, you will like FTL also because it’s cool for everybody who loves space and spaceships. Its minimalistic design is the first feature you will see. The game is top-based, so all ships are presented like a schematics with different rooms. These rooms stand for various ship systems like engines, weapons, shield etc. Crew – those small guys in rooms – maintain systems, repair them, and fight with invaders. And… That’s all gameplay elements!
Okay, not at all. The gameplay is based on traveling through space systems and activating random encounters when the most of them are battles with enemy ships. Fuel is the main resource for traveling, missiles and other ammo help you in battles, and scraps are the in-game currency with which you can improve the ship. Shields and hull durability are the main parameters which define your vessel’s health during battles.
Fights are pretty similar but difficult. You can attack certain enemy rooms and destroy systems related to them. So, it’s possible to damage weapons and enemy will have no chance to attack you. Or there is a chance to destroy engines, so the target will not escape through the hyperspace. But be careful! Enemies also can target your rooms and destroy systems. You should order the crew to repair them but it’s impossible to handle everything at once, so prepare for hard choices. Oh, yes, there’s a tactical pause in the game which helps a lot.
Another cool feature related to the gameplay is developing the ship. Each system can be improved for scraps which are quite rare resources. It’s vital to improve your ship so far as various enemies become stronger near the end of the game. Try to balance between developing reactor which creates energy and improving other systems which drain this energy. You will feel this balance in the battle when some weapons or shields will deactivate due to lack of energy.
Basically, gameplay can be divided into two parts:
On the main map, you should choose certain points – space systems – for jumps. Prepare for random encounters, especially, bad ones featuring pirates, monsters, and rebels. Also be ready to moral choices, e.g. to help victims or ignore them, destroy the harmless ship for extra scraps or ignore it, accept escaped slavers or kill them. Developing of the ship is also a part of the main strategy as you should invest money wisely.
This part of the gameplay features various battles. You can read about them above but here is another important thing to know. Different weapons can help you in different situations. Ion guns are cool against shields when missiles can easily penetrate the hull. So will you focus on shields or crew? Will you destroy weapons or engines? Or maybe you will prefer to board an enemy ship? And, of course, don’t forget about defense and repairing your own vessel.
So, you can understand that FTL isn’t easy at all. It features different aspects which you have to handle. It’s almost impossible to get familiar with all options during the first run, so better play several games. It will be difficult and your ship will be destroyed every time but paradoxically this fact only enhances the interest!
Disadvantages
However, Faster Than Light isn’t ideal. It is old-fashioned, so all fans of modern graphics and sounds will not enjoy this game. Yes, graphics here is like in old games their classic era. A few screens with simple primitive backgrounds, plain top-down view of ships, another screen of developing and the map. That’s all. Note also sound features which are limited to simple space electronic effects without music or voices at all. But FTL has its own atmosphere.
The more important disadvantage affects the gameplay. Despite the game is really re-playable, it also can become boring. Random encounters are limited, so you will face similar battles and choices only in different order. Another problem is based on the game’s pace. On the one hand, it’s too fast, so you cannot explore all systems as rebels are chasing you. On the other hand, the game is too slow when it comes to progress. At the start, you can choose only one ship but there are various other models. However, it takes hours and hours to unlock them.
The last thing is the plot. It’s absent almost at all. Decorations feature this story about Federation and rebels but we don’t know anything about our crew, about ships, about the story of this galaxy. Encounters and battles let you imagine your unique world but it feels like developers just didn’t have enough resources or time to create a detailed story.
Summary
Our traditional system of evaluating is a bit modified here:
- Story – 6/10. The intriguing world with its own mysteries and secrets but without details.
- Gameplay – 10/10. Classic and detailed gameplay with various features.
- Graphics and sound – 6/10. They are too unfamiliar for modern players.
- Atmosphere – 8/10. Old-fashioned decorations in the minimalistic style.
The total rating is 7,5/10 but fans of spaceships, Star Trek, roguelike games and sims can add extra 1-1,5 points. FTL is really paradoxical at all main aspects. It has primitive graphics and sounds but they create a wonderful atmosphere of classic space simulator. It features a few systems with intuitive controls but the game becomes really challenging when it comes to strategic planning and battles. It offers limited encounters and only basic plot twists but you worry about the crew indeed. And it costs only $10 in Steam.