FTL: Faster Than Light hit hearts at light speed

January 14, 2013

This the player’s vessel in flight with its crew manning its battle stations. The ship is now beginning the for hyperspace jump into yonder.

FTL: Faster than Light (FTL), was first released on Sept. 14, 2012. The goal of the game is to pilot the space ship away from the Rebel Fleet into the Federations’ Fleet. Then the player has to destroy the Rebel Flagship, in the final stage. FTL can be called a rogue-like game, because the games includes permanent death, so death means restarting from the beginning. As a result, unlike other role-playing games (RPGs) such as Fallout: 3 (FO3) or Elder Scrolls: Skyrim (Skyrim) the world is completely random. There is abusolutely nothing set in stone during an single playthrough, which is the act of finishing a game from start to finish. Each new playthrough will be completely different then the previous playthrough because of the randomness.

FTL offers a simple level of enjoyment other games cannot match. In FO3 or Skyrim the games try to keep testing your morality every second. This game does have random events, which are missions or occurrences that interrupt standard gameplay; the events of this game are black and white unlike in FO3 or Skyrim.

No good RPG game, a lite-version or otherwise, will be good without a set of quests to help you progress through the game. Unlike traditional RPG’s a good portion of quests in FTL generally give rewards in the post game, which is the game after the current playthrough, with new ships, and achievements. However, there are quests that aid the current playthrough with rewards such as new guns, but they are few and a far between.

The ship (left) is the player’s vessel and the ship (right) is a rebel spaceship. A clash of space ships locked in an battle for supremacy.

In FTL there is a simple range of customization beside the obvious, i.e. the wide variety of vessels. The player can name the starting crew and ship’s name, for a personal touch on the game. In the game itself there is a skill tree which the player spends scrap (i.e. money) to strengthen there ship. The scrap can also be used at stores to buy new equipment, fuel, missiles, and crew members.

The gameplay, may seem very repetitive doing the same thing over again and over again. However that is not the case, as each battle is slightly different. The playthrough themselves are not that long, a complete playthrough can take no more than an hour once you get well versed on the game play.

FTL is perhaps one of the most imaginative and fun games recently released. It is well worth the price of admission.