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FTL: Faster Than Light

Freddie Schwartz
Staff Writer

In the giant world of video games, there are large corporate developers like EA and Capcom who have vast amounts of money to promote and develop games. Then you have small development teams who work for months on a limited budget to create a game that people will enjoy playing. FTL is one of those games and I absolutely love it!

FTL was developed by Subset Games and released on September 14. The game is essentially an intergalactic themed survival adventure game that also acts like a space ship simulation. The game’s style reminds me of those old games on the original Nintendo system; it’s pixilated and simple, but it looks perfect. The player is from the federation that is on a special mission to save the galaxy. You are given a few crew members to control and a ship to command. You fly to different sectors of the universe while battling ships from the rebellion, avoiding hazards like sun flares and asteroids, and upgrading your ship to be stronger.

What really makes this game great is that it is an honest challenge. Even if you’re on easy mode, the game randomly generates what happens. You could suddenly find yourself being attacked by a pirate space ship or find some extra loot that you can use to power-up your ship. Not only that, you have to maintain your ship carefully. The oxygen systems, the engine, the weaponry systems, and the shields can be knocked out by enemies which your crew has to repair in the middle of battle. Your crew can also die. If suddenly, a missile takes out part of the ship, you’ll have to get your crew member out of harm’s way or you lose them for good. You can find more crew members by rescuing them or buying them at stores. This is not an easy game.

What’s really good about this game is the layout. You can see in¬side your ship and properly control your crew and fire your weapons. This is not a complicated game; it’s very easy to pick up. After only playing this game for an hour or so, I got the hang of the controls right away. This makes this a great game for people who don’t have time for long, story driven games. The soundtrack is wonderful as it is soft but nails the space-theme. What really made me enjoy this game as well was the weapon variety. You have missiles, drones, lasers, and much more. As you continue playing, you get access to different space ship models to use in more adventures and each time you start a new game the layout is always different. You never know what’s next.

I really couldn’t find many things wrong with this game, but there could have been a better animation for traveling to different parts of the galaxy. There could have been more in the background rather than just random pictures of space. It was kind of let down that you can’t really design or customize your ship with things like colors or patterns. The ships are all presets.

This game is a great value and relatively cheap. It’s currently on Steam for $9.99 and they also sell their soundtrack for $3.99. FTL is fun, charming, and simple. My final verdict for FTL: Faster Than Light is an 8.3/10.

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