Developer: Subset Games
Publisher: Subset Games
Steam Deck Compatibility?: Playable
Rrp: £6.99 (Humblebundle, Steam) £7.19 (Advanced Edition on Gog.com)
Released: 14th September 2012
Available on: Humblebundle, Gog.com and Steam
Played Using: Mouse and keyboard
Approximate game length: 15 hours +
In space no one can something, something, yadda, yadda. I think we all know the quote. You know what you can do in space? Die. There are quite a few ways to do it, although apparently the most common is having your ship blow up.
FTL: Faster Than Light is a strategic roguelite set in space. You take control of a ship and its crew that is desperately trying to stay ahead of a hostile fleet that wants to destroy you before you can complete your mission. When it comes to roguelites few reach the level of success and penetration that FTL has.
Sadly at the time of writing FTL takes a while to load up (a little over a minute) when started. I tried this with both Gog.com and Steam versions and the result was same. Apparently this has something to do with a Windows update. Thankfully a quick web search shows a few ways to fix this that aren’t too difficult to implement especially with the Steam version (which reduced the time to about seven seconds).
You control the actions of each member of the crew, assigning where they work, where they move to and when they heal. Without your direct commands these crew members will diligently carry on doing whatever task they were last assigned even if they’re suffocating from a lack of oxegen. There are certain actions they will do without direction but they must occur within the room they are in, such as fighting intruders, putting out fires, repairing systems and fixing holes in the ship.
When you start the game for the first time only one ship with three crew members is available, with more unlocking as you play and complete special quests. Different layouts for the various ships can also be unlocked by completing certain tasks.
As I mentioned before, your ship is fleeing a vast, but fairly slow-moving, fleet. This gives you a little time to investigate the sector you’re in. Every new location will have an event that occurs, these can be quite wide ranging in their variety although ship to ship combat is very frequent. In some cases the augmentations and equipment your ship has and even the personel can open up new choices during events.
Each time you change location, or ‘jump’ as the game puts it, your ship consumes fuel. This fuel can be purchased from stores that you find on your journey, salvaged from wrecks you discover (or create) and also be given as a reward for completed missions that you can take on.
Scrap is the currency for everything in this game, be it upgrades to your ship or hiring new crew members. Upgrading the ship doesn’t require you to go to a store, although its at stores that you can purchase new weapons, crew and ship augmentations.
The combat in this game would be a chaotic affair if it wasn’t for the implementation of the pause button which gives you time to issue commands to your crew, pick targets and adjust where your ships energy goes.
If the hull points of your ship reach zero your ship explodes and ends your run. The hull can usually only be repaired at stores in exchange for scrap although there are some exceptions such as having a specific sort of droid on your ship or getting part of it repaired as a reward.
Warning: This game is really addictive. Even though I kept losing and having to walk away from it out of sheer frustration I just kept finding myself with a desire to return and try again and again and again. So I suppose that makes it a recommendation from me?
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Crying Suns
Darkest Dungeon
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