Faster Than Light

Faster Than Light,  a 2D "dungeon crawler" in a sense. Think Battlestar Galactica, with no fleet. You got a ship, you have a crew, you go around on a map from place to place fighting ships and whatever else. Each time you land in a new area an event happens, whether that's finding nothing, a ship on fire you can lend a hand to, or an enemy. The objective is to make it through (what I can tell) 8 different sections controlled by a random faction, with randomly generated maps in each section. Going around gathering up scrap, weapons, fuel, or ammo, you try to make your way to the boss and beat the game. Sounds easy right? It's hard as fuck! I made it to the 6th section and bam! random encounter I couldn't get away from and dead. 

I fucking love this game. Once you figure out all the aspects to it... its a lot of fun. I probably spent a good 10 hours on it in one sitting. It's geniusly simple, yet extremely complicated. Sometimes you have to just suck it up and watch one of your units burn alive inside your ship, other times you'll just man handle the enemy with you ion cannon and drones. I guess here I'll get down to the nitty-gritty.

First, I should mention, you can pause at any time and issue orders to your ship or crew. This is a god-send most of the time since otherwise the action doesn't stop. So, you start out, jump to a new location, and encounter (maybe)! Assume its a pirate parading around... He attacks you, you charge up your lil lasers and your crappy missle and pound his weapon systems into submission. He can't attack, but he's probably sent repair teams to that location. So, at this point I'd go for the shields (if he has any), and in the process destroy him (hey, we just started). So, you jump around some more, collect scrap, upgrade your ship, exit the area, and so forth. Once you reach the 4th or 5th sections the enemy starts to get cloaks, ion cannons, big bad ass missles, etc etc etc. The same strats don't work anymore. Not to mention, you're also getting boarded by enemies that seem to be able to kick your head in.....ughhhh........ When you die, you just start over, and this will happen, a lot. It's still a ton of fun!

Another thing I like is resources are very limited. There have been times when I was just absent minded or ran out of scrap and ran out of fuel since I didn't buy more... You just wait there... turn after turn after turn sometimes, I think my record was 6 turns without a whisper... turn on emergency beacon... WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT! YES!!!! That's right, you run out of fuel and it's your "oh shit, come save me button." Remember, in an emergency, people pray on the weak... its a double edged sword, if you will. I've had guys send a transmission saying "oh yea, here's some fuel!" "FIRE ZE MISSLES!" Damnit.... It's a cutthroat world, but sometimes it pays off, getting supplies, new crew members, whatever!

What else.... oh! achievements! They have general achievements and ship based ones. They actually unlock new shit for you (cool feature!). It's not just how many times can I headshot you with a M16A4 or carry a gnome statue to a rocket at the end of the game... it's new ships and layouts (not sure the purpose yet, still working on that). 

I think my one beef with the game is the crew. They are smart enough to repair a room they are in, or manage your engines, but holy shit, they die when you look at them wrong. I guess it's two beefs in one.... during these random events, sometimes there are these giant spiders (I love saving people from giant spiders!) and every time I go to save people my guys fucking die! You'd think I'd learn stop helping people but that's just the kind of person I am. Whatever though, I know I'll be coming back for more when I get off work....

That's all! 

P.S. It's on steam for $9 I think... I don't know if its worth the 9... but its closer to fair than $60... 

Next up! Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (Probably...)