Apply strategy to your spaceship to survive
FTL: Faster Than Light is a roguelike real-time strategy video game that allows you to experience a unique spaceship adventure. Developed and published by Subset Games in 2012, FLT: Faster Than Light features this enjoyably-complex strategy gameplay, as you work to keep your ship in tip-top shape to be able to survive any encounters you’ll find. Here, you get to save the galaxy as you travel through the vast regions of space to deliver important information and escape the rebel fleet after it.
To infinity and beyond
When it comes to spaceship simulators, you’ll probably expect something that shows the action in the first-person perspective. Not in FTL, though—this title showcases everything in roguelike top-down style, letting you lord over the various mechanics like the god in charge of your spaceship’s fate. This is where the strategy in FTL: Faster Than Light comes to play, however, as you have great control over the littlest of aspects on your ship and crew.
You get to see the various important inner chambers of your spaceship and the crew NPCs working inside them. As their captain, it’s your job to micro-manage all necessary duties to ensure your survival against the enemies hunting you down. From giving orders for any ship maintenance to directly choosing where to fire lasers at an enemy ship, you’ll be making full use of the game’s Pause button in order to squeeze your way out of these real-time sticky situations.
You’re the captain now
FTL: Faster Than Light isn’t all just about the hellish but fun micromanagement action. Your spaceship has to go through eight sectors, which are always unique due to their procedurally-generated events. You can encounter other ships in trouble, space stations you can stock up at, potential crewmembers wanting to get hired, and the rebel ships out to stop your journey. Some of these are text-based events that will require you to make tough decisions because of the game’s high risk-to-reward nature.
After all, unlike most games, FTL’s default state is permadeath—meaning you can’t reload a previous save and you have to start all over again, which really makes the game much more challenging in all its micromanagement glory. The tension this creates, however, makes every single playthrough much more uniquely well-thought-out. Also, aside from this, the fact that the easy controls don’t make the gameplay easier means that FTL’s replayability is pretty high since you need to keep mastering the game mechanics in order to advance further into space.
The final frontier
FTL: Faster Than Light is considered a classic in space roguelike strategy games and there’s a good reason for that. Randomly generated encounters in the vast space regions, consisting of unique lifeforms and technology, really make for an exciting—if not drama-filled—space adventure. The graphics of the game aren’t too impressive but the overall interface is perfect for its type of gameplay. Plus, FTL: Advanced Edition, which is its free expansion full of new content, updates to your game automatically. This title is a great recommendation for strategy fans.
