Monday, August 3, 2015

FTL: Faster Than Light - Initial Thoughts

About the Game (From the Steam Store Page)

 In FTL you experience the atmosphere of running a spaceship trying to save the galaxy. It's a dangerous mission, with every encounter presenting a unique challenge with multiple solutions. What will you do if a heavy missile barrage shuts down your shields? Reroute all power to the engines in an attempt to escape, power up additional weapons to blow your enemy out of the sky, or take the fight to them with a boarding party? This "spaceship simulation roguelike-like" allows you to take your ship and crew on an adventure through a randomly generated galaxy filled with glory and bitter defeat.

Previous Playtime

5 hours

What Was I Thinking When I Bought This

If memory serves, this particular game predated the big splurge of Summer 2014 which started me down the path to unsustainable Steam Library growth, but in retrospect, it was a clear foreshadowing of what was to come. It was on sale for cheap, and all my friends were playing it, so I was like "what was the harm." No one ever attributes the avalanche to a single snowflake (except, perhaps, the last).

Expectations and Prior Experience

 I have actually played this game before, though not since the big update that took place awhile back. I remember at the time I found it fun, but frustrating. I liked controlling the spaceship and directing the crew, and the exploration aspects of the game really appealed to me, but I recall finding the time limit confining.

I was still pretty naive about PC games at the time. I did not quite understand the implications of the term "rogue-like." I realize now that the "you will die repeatedly, often through no real fault of your own" gameplay that dampened my enthusiasm the first time is actually a feature of the genre. I'm not sure that this knowledge will make me appreciate the game more, but it may help me approach it in a more constructive manner.

I'm not really worried about this game, though. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I think I really liked the sci-fi world of FTL, and being able to customize a cool ship, recruit a variety of alien allies, and fly around the galaxy just generally Captain-Kirk-ing it up is a strong incentive to put up with the inevitable cavalcade of unending grimness that is the roguelike genre.

1 comment:

  1. > I realize now that the "you will die repeatedly, often through no real fault of your own" gameplay that dampened my enthusiasm the first time is actually a feature of the genre.

    Expert players do win good roguelikes consistently, or at least with high probability (I am not sure about the exact numbers, but ~20 wins in a row in DCSS, every ship in hard mode in a row in FTL, I am quite sure the best players could win HyperRogue Hyperstone Quest consistently, etc.) If you don't win, it probably *is* your fault, but you might not see this if you are not an expert.

    It is not true that you start from the beginning after each game you lose. To win a roguelike you need to master it, and you are progressing on your road to mastery with every try.

    In some games, when you lose, you earn extra powers so that your next run will be easier -- roguelikers do not like this, because it basically means that the first runs without these powers are doomed, while in a roguelike, you are stopped only by your ability to learn.

    ReplyDelete