Faster Than Light

Introduction

Your initial impression of the game may lead you to think its archaic and simplistic. The older style graphics, simple backdrops, and midi like soundtrack all contribute to these sentiments. However, the simplistic nature of the game is quite deceiving as the game can be brutally difficult and requires a lot of strategy. Instead of detracting from the game, the difficulty and unforgiving nature of the game challenges the player and entices them to try, just one more time, over and over again.

Game Play

Faster Than Light has you control a Federation space ship as you run away from the rebel fleet with vital information for the Federation (reverse Star Wars anyone?)  During your travels, you have to manage power systems and upgrades to your spacecraft. Within each game, you go through eight sectors. The only sectors that remain constant are the initial sector (which is a Civilian Sector) and the last sector (which is always The Last Stand sector). The six sectors in between are randomly available from a pool of possible sectors. Each sector has a theme as to the type of enemy you will fight and certain random events only happen in certain sectors.

One may then think they can simply look up the “optimal” way to upgrade/manage their ship and the game would be easy. The developers managed to avoid this pitfall with the inclusion of random events. In one play-through, you may find a stranded individual on a planet that will join your crew if you invite them on your ship. In another, that stranded individual will go crazy and kill one of your crew members. Or in another case, you could find a lot of random weapons floating in space, in another, you can only seem to find pirates and hostile enemies. The randomization forces the player to change their strategy based off what's available, which only adds to the replay-ability. I will note, that sometimes, the randomization can get frustrating because one is unable to find anything useful. This may lead some players to despair, as there is seemingly no way to improve your chances of success (because if you die, you have to start over). This sentiment can be overcome with the inclusion of unlock-able ships and achievements. The ships can be unlocked through random events and selecting the correct choice, or reward for accomplishing certain achievements. Each ship also has 3 ship specific achievements that will unlock an alternate version of that ship.

Sound

The sound reminds of classic midi music from the SNES era. It’s not over the top, nor tries to draw attention to itself. I have always loved midi music and video game soundtracks in general. So I quickly found myself whistling tracks from the game. However, if one really doesn't like the music, they can just disable it and play their own music.   

Overall

If you want to get lost in a game that will challenge your wits and adaptability, look no further. For its price of 10 dollars, the amount of utility you can get per dollar is very high. The drive to try and unlock all the ships and get the alternative versions of the ships kept me playing long after I had beaten the game.