Faster Than light

Space Opera. The apex of everyday science fiction. I must say that I have a secret passion for the genre. Be it Gundam, Firefly or Farscape. I love the idea of human relations within deep space while living on a ship. Sadly this has never strictly transferred too well into video games...I can't fathom why as I see it was a goldmine of opportunity. There have been a couple of shining examples. Mass Effect captures the story, Infinite Space delves deep into space battles and ship building/management. Ultimately though, it's shaded in X4 space strategy games and space simulation games. Not that these are bad but I really want to manage all of the more literal things within the ship.

Faster Than Light, or FTL, is more or less just that. Taking many cues from the Roguelike genre it pits you in a bite-sized struggle to flee to the 8^th sector. This is one of the first kickstarter projects to actually come to fruition. Visually it's a little rough around the edges but the gameplay is solid.

You'll start out with a crew of 3 humans which can be assigned jobs around the ship. Man the weapons to boost their effectiveness. Have a pilot for dodging and warp space travel. Once they die, that's it for them. You can however recruit more crew as you travel space and the various species have different effects. Some can repair faster, some supply energy to the part they work on, some have immunity to fire and some are good at hand to hand combat.

Combat is the main aspect in the game and it will quickly have you powering down parts of the ship to draw power to others. For example. If you plan to play defensive, then you can power down your engines and put all of your power into your shields.

Providing the enemy doesn't fire too many missiles, they will have to break through your shield before they can even touch the ship. If they do however, maybe a fire will break out. This can quickly spread and cause damage to major parts of your ship. You can choose to open the airlocks and suck out the air, while also putting the fire out. This of course will mean that your crew will quickly suffocate but you can section off parts of the ship so they can keep some of their precious air. The same can be done if the enemy boards your ship. Upgrade your doors to blast doors and watch them lose their lives to the blackness of space.

Being a roguelike, FTL is very challenging. Do not expect to make it through the game with anything like ease but even in death, it's fun to command a ship and try something a little different.

FTL is a reasonably cheap game and it's probably worth your while if you are dying for your next deep space fix. It won't play against the big titles out there but it's another example how indie can surprise someone into how much innovation there is out there still or how overlooked a genre can be.