FTL - Faster Than Light

Also worth noting this game was completed through Kickstarter funding.

I just downloaded this the other day, and it's pretty fantastic. The feeling of simultaneously attacking the other ship, combating invaders, and venting O2 to fight fires really is amazing. You don't get any closer to feeling like Kirk or Picard.

 

There's definitely a steep learning curve though. It's pretty punishing, and balancing your spending really takes a knack, there's so many different ways to go.

My brother's been bugging me to get this. Is there anything I need to worry-about systemwise? I just bought a new i7 laptop, but it doesn't have a dedicated graphics card.

It runs fairly well on my machine, which is 6 years old. I will say that it's a memory hog (at least it has been for me). I've got 2 GB of RAM, and when I get further along in the game, it slows down considerably. It's hardly unplayable, but it is a bit annoying.

 

I've made the final stage of the final boss twice, and I just can't quite get over the hump. I should have had him the last time, but the repair nodes I got were right between me and the boss, so I used them up on my way to him, then couldn't repair when I needed it.

 

I should be fine then; I've got 8 GB RAM. Thanks.

This game is crazy good.  The only real problem is earning more ships can be very complicated.

 

Otherwise, great.  Next Steam Sale, everyone should buy it!

Finally beat this thing (on Normal). I've come so close a bunch of times, but I finally broke through.

 

I was using the Type A Zoltan cruiser, and got lucky to find an Ion Bomb in an early shop. Between that, the Halberd Beam, and the Zoltan shield, the early sectors became an absolute cake walk. Amazing how this game really snowballs once you get a good start. I ended up with 7 crewmembers (5 Zoltan, 1 Engi, 1 Mantis, which is a great mix), the 2 above weapons, Burst Laser II (maybe the best weapon in the game), and the Pegasus Missile Launcher (which I hardly used), and maxed out in all the relevant systems (except for being 1 below max on engines). Between cloak 3, Zoltan Shield, shield 4 and a 50+% evade chance, I was able to dispatch the boss pretty quickly. The only real dicey part was in phase 2, where he releases a huge swarm of drones. My cloak refreshed just in time to save me from taking huge damage. Moral of the story: Ion Bomb is awesome.

 

As I type this, I realize that no one cares, but ya know what? I'm gonna post it anyway, cause I'm on a serious high from beating the game and just want to write about it :P. I love a game that gives a real sense of accomplishment from beating it, and you sure feel like you have to earn it with this one. Now, to go do it with a different ship :)

Guys, try this game.  Why wasn't this built into a AAA game like Mass Effect 3?!

I have yet to make it to the first exit.

Jacob, aim for your enemies weapons systems, and then disable shields.

This game is amazing. I'm having STARFLEET BATTLES flashbacks playing this.
 

I think I hit the ceiling as far as having seen most of the content.  Not the biggest game, but still very impulse. 
 

I'm still trying to get the crystal ship, which requires a crazy random sequence of events, but other than that I've got most of the stuff (I think I might be missing one other ship, but I can't remember)

I started playing this after I finished Hotline Miami and just got to the first exit and am loving it pretty good.

After about 8 years of retirement looks like I'm a gamer again.

I tried it, but it's one of a frustratingly large number of "retro" 2D games that require way more horsepower than they have any right to; it wouldn't run on my work computer or my laptop, which are the ideal environments for me to get into a Roguelike-style game. It'd stand a better chance on my old-ish gaming rig, but long sit-down play sessions are where I play stuff like Oblivion.

Oh FUCK YOU boarding parties.  Seriously, you cheap bastard sons of alien whores just need to fuck right off.
 

I'm basically min maxing those.  Just pause the game when you notice a crew member is getting low on health, and then send them off to the medbay while you send a fully healed crew member to replace them.  It's a delicate balancing act.  Of course if your med bay gets hit you're fucked.

I'm still fairly early in the game, I think in the third level, so I haven't been boarded by more than one enemy at a time yet but each time I have I've thrown two crew at it. It helped that I picked up an extra crewman when I rescued him from a crashed ship on a planet though, so I was rolling with four guys and could afford to outnumber The Hun while I kept at least two systems manned.

It also helped that one of the Mantis boarders decided to take his/her/its stand in my med bay so my men were being healed even as they threw down with the cretinous insectoid and snuffed out the threat quick smart.

Upgrading your doors is a great (and fairly cheap) way to combat boarding parties. Sometimes they're going to teleport right to a critical system and it won't help that much, but often it lets you kill off most of them due to O2 deprivation before they can even get to a place where they can do real damage.

Here's a good idea of how addictive FTL is:

 

Me: It's just a little before midnight. Guess a short run wouldn't hurt....

 

********

 

Me: 3:00 AM?! What the?! 

 

 

It's been awhile since a game has sucked me in like FTL has.  Highly recommended.

I just beat this sucker for the first time and now my neck and shoulders are all cramped up in knots.

Shit is TENSE!!!

But holy cow what a fun game.

Ridiculous how attached I became to my crew too. During the second stage against the Rebel Flag Ship I lost a mantis because I got so busy I failed to recognise that while he fixed a hull breach his health had dropped all the way to 1 by the time I noticed. He was the only man I lost and he gave his life for the ship. And it was all ... my ... fault ...

Tonight the victorious crew of The Honey Badger will take a moment in their quiet corner of the bar to pour one out for "Joel".