FTL: Faster Than Light
Posted: June 30th, 2012, 11:02
I've been on the FTL beta for a few weeks now, and I've held off putting down my opinion here because I wanted to get a proper grasp on the game. I've given up on that now, so here's my thoughts.
FTL is a roguelike at heart, set in space, where you upgrade your ship and manage your crew in order to progress across the galaxy while being chased by a rebel fleet. Thematically it's kind of like Star Trek, with crew filling positions and going on boarding parties, and power management between systems like shields and the various weapons. It doesn't feel as camp though, more the original Battlestar Galactica to me, for reasons I can't really place my finger on. That's mostly an aside though, as the meat of the game is in the gameplay mechanics, low-fi as it is visually. Before I digress to gameplay from the aesthetics though, I feel the need to state that the music is lovely. Atmospheric, ambient chip music which is tuneful without being intrusive.
The gameplay is a little abstract. There's no direct control over your ship, you control the crew within like an RTS, and you can manually change power levels and activate weapons. You'll never have enough power or capacity for everything, so you can either juggle weapons around depending on the situation, or be a little more creative like turning off your engines to boost weapon power, then briefly diverting power from your med-station and life support to power them whenever there's an incoming shot. Micromanagement seems fairly optional by my experience.
On the other end of the laser beam, you direct your weapons at the various rooms of the enemy ship, most of which will hold sub-systems to disable. Basic tactics are obvious, such as using shield penetrating missiles to disable the shield generator, then your lasers to fire on their weapons systems. More advanced weapons open up more tactical options, like setting fire to the rooms to burn out the crew, breaching their hull to suffocate the crew, or teleporting in a boarding party to murder the crew. There are also options that don't involve being mean to the enemy crew, like ion weapons which disable systems briefly and drones which can defend your ship or attack theirs.
Dead ships drop loot in the form of fuel, missiles, drones, ship upgrades, or scrap. This forms the compelling meta-game of upgrading your ship for the trials to come later, which scrap is currency for. Systems can be upgraded for greater capacity, and your reactor can be upgraded to produce more power to feed them, using scrap. It can also be used with traders to repair your ship, buy new weapons and modules, or replenish supplies of fuel and ammunition. Of course there's never enough, so budgeting is always a gamble. Since loot and sale items are random, your ship can develop along very different paths. I've had very successful ships which pounded the enemy with the brute horse of several powerful weapons, or which win through attrition using cloaking and heavy shields, or a powerful boarding party and teleporter. The fact that nobody on the official forums can agree on builds is a good sign.
Of course the random element which makes the game roguelike will inevitably be your downfall. It is possible to beat the game - people have done, and there's another ship to unlock if you do - but I've never managed it. Inevitably there'll be an enemy pops up which nullifies your win-button tactic and leaves you dead or as good as. This is where the game shines, telling the story of your demise. My brutal gunship? Boarded and the crew killed. My super-shielded tank? Missile spammed to death. My violent boarding tactic? Beaten at their own game by a vicious crew of insects. Make no mistake, this game is hard (although there is an easy mode).
My only criticism is that for a game you'll be replaying over and over, there's not enough variety or randomisation. The encounters are pulled from a reasonably large pool, but you learn what to expect from each - if you bring a stranded lunatic on board to join your crew he will always plant a bomb, so you learn to leave him stranded. A lot of the time this isn't too important as it's simply a pretence for putting you in combat, and the ships you fight are satisfyingly varied in configuration if not in hull (although there are probably a couple of dozen ship types). It would be nice if you had a similar variety to choose from, but as of yet I only have access to two of five, and the other three require some combination of rare encounters and tough challenge. There are empty spaces in the hangar though, so it's very likely more will come.
Weighing up the pros and cons I can only really count frustration among the latter, and in a game such as this frustration is par for the course. If you don't like losing, don't play roguelikes. Those of you who pledged on the Kickstarter won't be disappointed.
FTL is a roguelike at heart, set in space, where you upgrade your ship and manage your crew in order to progress across the galaxy while being chased by a rebel fleet. Thematically it's kind of like Star Trek, with crew filling positions and going on boarding parties, and power management between systems like shields and the various weapons. It doesn't feel as camp though, more the original Battlestar Galactica to me, for reasons I can't really place my finger on. That's mostly an aside though, as the meat of the game is in the gameplay mechanics, low-fi as it is visually. Before I digress to gameplay from the aesthetics though, I feel the need to state that the music is lovely. Atmospheric, ambient chip music which is tuneful without being intrusive.
The gameplay is a little abstract. There's no direct control over your ship, you control the crew within like an RTS, and you can manually change power levels and activate weapons. You'll never have enough power or capacity for everything, so you can either juggle weapons around depending on the situation, or be a little more creative like turning off your engines to boost weapon power, then briefly diverting power from your med-station and life support to power them whenever there's an incoming shot. Micromanagement seems fairly optional by my experience.
On the other end of the laser beam, you direct your weapons at the various rooms of the enemy ship, most of which will hold sub-systems to disable. Basic tactics are obvious, such as using shield penetrating missiles to disable the shield generator, then your lasers to fire on their weapons systems. More advanced weapons open up more tactical options, like setting fire to the rooms to burn out the crew, breaching their hull to suffocate the crew, or teleporting in a boarding party to murder the crew. There are also options that don't involve being mean to the enemy crew, like ion weapons which disable systems briefly and drones which can defend your ship or attack theirs.
Dead ships drop loot in the form of fuel, missiles, drones, ship upgrades, or scrap. This forms the compelling meta-game of upgrading your ship for the trials to come later, which scrap is currency for. Systems can be upgraded for greater capacity, and your reactor can be upgraded to produce more power to feed them, using scrap. It can also be used with traders to repair your ship, buy new weapons and modules, or replenish supplies of fuel and ammunition. Of course there's never enough, so budgeting is always a gamble. Since loot and sale items are random, your ship can develop along very different paths. I've had very successful ships which pounded the enemy with the brute horse of several powerful weapons, or which win through attrition using cloaking and heavy shields, or a powerful boarding party and teleporter. The fact that nobody on the official forums can agree on builds is a good sign.
Of course the random element which makes the game roguelike will inevitably be your downfall. It is possible to beat the game - people have done, and there's another ship to unlock if you do - but I've never managed it. Inevitably there'll be an enemy pops up which nullifies your win-button tactic and leaves you dead or as good as. This is where the game shines, telling the story of your demise. My brutal gunship? Boarded and the crew killed. My super-shielded tank? Missile spammed to death. My violent boarding tactic? Beaten at their own game by a vicious crew of insects. Make no mistake, this game is hard (although there is an easy mode).
My only criticism is that for a game you'll be replaying over and over, there's not enough variety or randomisation. The encounters are pulled from a reasonably large pool, but you learn what to expect from each - if you bring a stranded lunatic on board to join your crew he will always plant a bomb, so you learn to leave him stranded. A lot of the time this isn't too important as it's simply a pretence for putting you in combat, and the ships you fight are satisfyingly varied in configuration if not in hull (although there are probably a couple of dozen ship types). It would be nice if you had a similar variety to choose from, but as of yet I only have access to two of five, and the other three require some combination of rare encounters and tough challenge. There are empty spaces in the hangar though, so it's very likely more will come.
Weighing up the pros and cons I can only really count frustration among the latter, and in a game such as this frustration is par for the course. If you don't like losing, don't play roguelikes. Those of you who pledged on the Kickstarter won't be disappointed.
