More Game Pass games! Today, I explore a modern classic. BACKGROUND:
I've since played a lot of rogue-likes since I first got into the genre with Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, but one of the few titles I've yet to play is FTL. Since the game wasn't on console, I always put off checking it out, but I rectify that today. PLOT: You're in command of a spaceship capable of faster-than-light travel. Your mission: get to the Galactic Federation headquarters to deliver information that will ensure a victory against the Rebellion. It's basic sci-fi space opera stuff, but the story is mostly just there to contextualize what you're doing in-game. FTL does a bit of world-building with its scenarios, but it's not really enough to establish a proper narrative. Most of the time, you fill in the gaps with your imagination, which is fun in itself (for me, anyway). PRESENTATION: The game has a retro aesthetic to it, with sprite-based pixel art and chiptune-esque music. The visuals are significantly detailed, however, and the music both has more ambient tracks (that give me serious Metroid vibes) and more upbeat battle themes. Other than that, there's not much to say. GAMEPLAY: FTL's gameplay is equal parts spaceship management simulator and rogue-like. The objective is to jump from sector to sector (which all contain waypoints that are completely randomized each time) while making sure your ship has all the resources it needs to survive any encounter and get to the end. Your ship has several rooms pertaining to a specific system (shields, weapons, engines, etc.), as well as a reactor that supplies power to everything. You'll spend most of the game managing your reactor, rerouting power to different systems depending on the situation. You can also have your crew move to each of the various rooms, which either give buffs to the given system or activate certain functions (e.g. having a pilot on navigation allows you to jump to the next waypoint). Every time you jump to a new waypoint, there's a chance of an event occurring. These can range from benign (nothing happens), good (you find resources or a shop), or bad (you get attacked by enemy ships). Some events present you with a choice (e.g. ignore or help a ship in distress), and those choices can either be beneficial or absolutely terrible for you. Others present you with a completely separate variable on top of an event (for example, being near a star means you get bombarded by solar flares every few seconds). There's no way to really predict what you get in these events, so you're pretty much at the mercy of random chance throughout most of the game. In terms of resources, you have fuel (which allows you to keep traveling through space), scrap (the currency used for both store transactions and ship upgrades), missiles (ammo for certain weapon types), and drone parts. Depending on your luck, you'll periodically get a bunch of these through events, or have the misfortune of having to spend a lot of these just to survive. Though it is possible to explore as many waypoints as you can in a given sector, it's not recommended. You're constantly being pursued by rebel fighters as you travel through space, and if you hang around long enough, you'll be dragged to a fight you probably can't win. Plus, every jump to a waypoint costs one fuel, and if you run out, it's game over. It's usually best to just plan out a critical path. Once you encounter a fight, the game turns into this real-time battle simulator where actions occur automatically based on a timer. Both you and the enemy will use your respective weapons to target one another, and if one of you loses all hull integrity, your ship explodes. There's a fair amount of strategy to combat, as you can target an enemy ship's specific system in an effort to disable it and gain an advantage (for instance, targeting enemy shields makes them more vulnerable). If you take some hits, you can send your crew to rooms in order to repair damaged systems (which won't be able to perform their designated function if left unattended), put out fires, and even fight intruders who attempt to board the ship. There are a myriad of ways you can die in a battle, and since this is a rogue-like, death means you have to start a completely new run. But if you get lucky and build yourself up enough, you can deal a similar manner of death to all who oppose you. The key word there, of course, is "lucky"; though you can do a lot of planning and survive most things with a good strategy, but RNG is a fickle thing, and your fortune (or misfortune) can easily change with a flick of a switch. Unlike more recent rogue-likes, skill or tactics isn't usually enough to see you through, and I see that being incredibly frustrating for some players. But if you excel in strategizing on the fly, you may find enjoyment in the game's random nature. You start out with only one ship unlocked, but as you play, you'll be able to unlock ships with different layouts, systems, and even crew members (all of which favor certain strategies or play styles). You can actually recruit crew members of various alien races, and each race has specific strengths and weaknesses (the Engi are particularly good at repairing, for example). There's also a sort of growth mechanic to your crew depending on what kinds of tasks you assign them to during the course of a run. In addition to selecting your ship, you can set your difficulty at the start of every run. Each setting influences enemy difficulty, the amount of currency you earn in events, and the score you earn (which doesn't really mean anything). This is a minor thing, but you can also rename your ship and crew members if you want. It doesn't do anything, but it's a neat little customization option that lets you have some fun with your runs. VERDICT: FTL is an engaging strategy rogue-like, mixing in real-time resource management with all the randomness that comes with the rogue-like genre. Though it can be rather unforgiving most of the time, I am glad to have finally played this game, and I enjoyed it enough to actually consider purchasing it for myself. If you're a fan of strategy and/or are a fan of rogue-likes, this game is definitely worth checking out. On the flip side, if you're not used to the merciless permadeath rules that apply to most rogue-likes, you may not enjoy this game as much. Here's FTL on Steam: FTL: Faster Than Light on Steam (steampowered.com) It's also on iOS, but only for iPad: FTL: Faster Than Light on the App Store (apple.com) - end -
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July 2024
Derryck
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