Game Review: FTL: Faster Than Light Advance Edition

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FTL: Faster Than Light is one of my all time favorite games. I discovered this game when I was browsing and searching for games (like I always do). Then when I looked through Humble Bundle store, the pixelated intergalactic spaceship battle got me hooked! FTL is an indie game made by Subset Games and was originally funded by Kickstarter back in 2012. The campaign was so good, that on the first day of launching it got 200% of the pledge funded! And the Kickstarter closed at over 2000% of the initial goal!! Now FTL is one of the most successful indie game all time. Furthermore, there is an iPad version for FTL that has the same features and gameplay like PC version.

 FTL is a spaceship simulation rogue-like game with an element of real-time strategy that makes it very engaging and make you sit on the edge of your seat every time. As a rogue-like, playing this game as a noob (newbie) will result in dying, heaps and heaps of horrible fiery deaths, and start again from scratch. But don't be discourage! by loosing and failing you can be better in the next game, the great random generation of the universe will provide different experience every time, so you can learn from your previous mistakes, well that's me at least.The story of FTL is simple yet intriguing, playing as a Galactic Federation captain, you have to navigate and manage customise spaceship, and defeat the Rebel Flagship (the boss).

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Navigating through beacons, players have to manage resources such as; fuel, scarps and missiles ammo. Each beacon are random, you can get a unique encounters like mini quests, pirate attack, puzzles and many more. Each encounter is unique and well-written, you will never know what's waiting for you each point and sector. Also, the choice you may lead to a disaster or a sweet reward. Once, I encountered a space "merchant" in one beacon, then it asked me to trade with it, however when I accept the offer, the so called merchant killed my captain. It was a TRAP! The random generation of even makes FTL very unpredictable and fascinating. The combat  consist of ship and crew management, and sometime hand-to-hand combat when the situation gets sticky. You can focus on destroying and disabling the enemy weapon system or just full on raw damage. Managing the crew member can be very hectic; you have to repair damaged hulls/systems, healing the crew, extinguishing fire,  and fight the intruders.

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There are numerous types of spaceship that can be use and costumise, the first spaceship is named Kestrel Cruiser. Other awesome types of spaceship can be discovered and unlocked by earning achievements and completing mini quests and defeating the final boss. Every ship is comprised of a number of different systems and subsystems, each performing a different task in and out of combat. There are also a ton of weapons to discover and experiment with. Ranging from disabling ion laser to burning missiles. Also, FTL has unique alien races that have different abilities such as repair rate doubled and combat damage doubled, they are; Human, Engi, Mantis, Rock, Slug, Zoltan, Crystal and Lanius. With different types of spaceships, alien races and weapons; the combination of unique games is endless. Furthermore, FTL supports modding, the mods provides more weapons, ships, unique events and even new story line.

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FTL: Advanced Edition is an incredibly replayable game, and each run gives me something memorable and rewarding – even the ones that end with my entire crew dead. Even though luck is one of the elements to win the game, the challenges make the game super fun!