faster than light review
FTL: Faster than LightAt a time when certain projects funded through kickstarter.com are starting to clash with the reality principle, one would easily come to doubt the viability of the concept. FTL: Faster than Light is timely to restore faith in crowdfunding. Measured ambitions, a game design with little onions and the art of calling upon the imagination of the player, nourished by the SF culture, to compensate for a certain lack of means: Subset Games managed to use the funds raised with intelligence, and to fulfill the hopes of contributors.
When your Kickstarter project is funded up to 20 times its initial objective, there is something to have your head in the stars. But Justin Ma and Matthew Davis knew how to keep their feet on the ground to allow Faster than Light to take off smoothly and reach the firmament. This Rogue-like in space, which weighs only a few tens of megabytes and can be launched in windowed mode next to your Word page, offers to join the other end of the galaxy aboard your small ship to prevent the Federation from the imminent invasion of the Rebel fleet. But its great strength is to succeed in making its technical limitations and its basic pitch a fascinating suggestion tool: combining a universe of ultra-referenced space opera with addictive mechanisms inspired by paper role-playing games (we think of Alternity or even to the very good Space Alert board game), FTL represents the realization of a true geek fantasy.
Your journey from one end to the other of the galaxy will take you through eight different sectors, with the possibility of determining your path by opting for more or less hostile systems. Some are in the hands of the Federation, others are controlled by the Rebels, and still others are only unexplored nebulae, but they all contain their share of dangers, be it unfriendly encounters or environmental risks . Each system is made up of a network of beacons between which you move in favor of good space at light speed. You are free to visit all the points of interest, but you must reach the exit of the sector before being caught up by the Rebel fleet (whose progress is visible), while keeping an eye on your fuel gauge. At each stage, a small textual topo informs you of the situation: it is sometimes flat calm, but you are more often confronted with a random event which subjects you to a difficult choice. Rescue a civilian ship under the fire of a pirate, or give in to the blackmail of this attacker who is trying to bribe you so that you look away? To take, or not, the risk of landing at this orbital station in flames to extinguish the fire and benefit in return from his generosity? Is the distress signal you have just located a ambush stretched by the enemy or a drifting pilot likely to join your crew? FTL has a little side "Book of which You are the Hero", knowing that the most adventurous options are often the best paid, but that in case of defeat, you lose everything. The game indeed takes up the concept, so dear to Rogue-like, of permanent death.
Scraps represent the currency that allows you to upgrade your ship. Each of the main systems (shields, armament, engine ...) can be improved, as well as certain secondary devices (fire doors can be very useful). But it will then be necessary to think of boosting the power of your reactor to feed all these greedy systems. You will also come across more or less well-stocked merchants, likely to provide you with new equipment: teleportation room allowing to invade enemy vessels, various and varied drones increasing your offensive or defensive potential, long-range radar providing some information on what waiting for you, etc. Some of this equipment will already be fitted as standard to your building; because if you only have one choice at the start, you can unlock up to nine different types of ships by performing certain prowess. Each one is specialized, because based on the particularities of the race with which it is associated, which appreciably modifies the way to approach the fights. You will also have the possibility of recruiting up to eight representatives of diverse and varied races in order to constitute a crew as cosmopolitan as versatile. Assign them with care, since each species excels in a given role (repair, piloting, combat ...) and your men can gain experience and improve by accomplishing their tasks. Finally, note that the presence on board of specific equipment or a given species opens up new possibilities and additional dialogue options making it easier to resolve certain events.
The final boss being rather full-bodied (including in Easy mode), you will often be confronted with the following dilemma: "grinder" to the maximum to prepare you for the final confrontation, or else to go to the essential while avoiding any unnecessary danger. Because the law that prevails in FTL, it is undeniably that of Murphy. It is always when you are best prepared that you decide to take the risk that will cost you the game, knowing that a single grain of sand is likely to ruin all your efforts. Have you decided to ignore this minimal fire in the medical bay in order to mobilize the crew's efforts to resolve the fight in progress? This is the moment that the enemy will choose to land unexpectedly in your engine room, forcing you to fight on three fronts at the same time and causing you to regret not having chosen the defense drone offered by the last merchant met. This random variable, which is both the charm and the replay potential of Faster than Light, sometimes represents an element of frustration given the "permadeath"; but you will often die if you are sure you know what is wrong, and swear not to make the same mistake in the future. Each game over will send you back to a table of scores and statistics covering all of your games, which leads us to express a regret: the absence of a leaderboard, which would have allowed you to compare your scores and benefit from a referent motivating you to surpass yourself. As it stands, you will have to turn to the forums, where you will learn for the occasion that the community is working on a French translation with the endorsement of Subset Games. Anglophobes will appreciate!
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