FTL: Faster Than Light PC
User Score
8.3 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 644 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 571 out of 644
  2. Mixed: 28 out of 644
  3. Negative: 45 out of 644

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  1. Canisrah
    Sep 16, 2012
    8
    I bought FTL on a whim when I saw that it involved space ship command with a tactical bent. My expectations were low - but when I got into it I was surprised to find myself really engaged and enjoying the experience. The visuals aren't that flash but the gameplay fires the imagination such that the visuals remain functional and incidental to the core experience. Different scenarios are presented to you as you warp into each new sector and you are required to make choices that influence where the game goes; a lot of these choices result in combat but it's refreshing to see that some do not. A lot of sci-fi games focus too much on combat but the whole star trek experience is just as much about managing crew and making decisions as it is firing the phasers. FTL is perhaps leaning toward too much combat, but it does make significant efforts to give you other things to do as well - and to good effect. The soundtrack is delightful and the sense that you are in command is palpable. On my last game it was me and Jean Luc (you can name crew members) and we made it alone to stage 4 (of 5) and had some amazing scraps and adventures along the way. We started we 3 crew members (you can recruit more along the way) but Beverly died after we were boarded and the oxygen levels in sick bay dropped to the point where she suffocated. We were really cut up about that but pressed on. It's a great little game - could perhaps have benefited from just a little more depth but as is it's heaps of fun and for the price... you can't lose. Highly recommended.… Expand
  2. lasix
    Oct 11, 2012
    7
    Enjoyable rogue-like set in space. In particular I liked the pressure build up by the imminent risk of being overrun by the bad guys chasing you. Battles are fast paced, but can (and should) be paused anytime though. Game mechanics are very well thought true, though each play through depends heavily on luck - as in any given rogue-like I guess.
  3. Boris
    Sep 18, 2012
    2
    This is an indie game, made by two fellas like you and me, and because of that, I'll try to be as constructive as possible in this review. My rating is 2, and it's OBVIOUS that this game would deserve more. So, why do I give it only two? Well, there are a couple of reasons. A bit more actually. As someone else pointed out, this game is interesting and provides a strong "sci-fi experience". This is for the bright side. I've backed this game on Kickstarter, and I've had the chance to play it before its release. According to steam, more than 18 hours. To be honest, I must have spent the first 15 hours almost in a row, right after downloading it. The rest corresponds to a few tries I gave it from this moment until now; to see if the flaws were corrected yet. In fact, once a wave of enthusiasm has passed, the game becomes really boring : its main problem is re-playability. The experience which feels great at start becomes repetitive really rapidly. Each play-through is really not different. And the game is quite difficult, you find yourself dying all the time (this is relative to the genre, I think), which doesn't help at all about that. Indeed, the difficulty lacks a normal mode : the easy mode is damn easy, and the so called "normal" mode is kinda hard. The second complaint I have is : things are WAY too random. The fact that you flee before an entire fleet means that you don't have the leisure to explore your surroundings. As a consequence, you either are lucky enough to find some weapons, a new crew member or some good stuff; or you have bad luck and your only outcome is usually to start a new game. I could throw dice instead, I would have pretty much the same feeling. And because of the "balance" of the game, you often don't have the choice but to upgrade your shields ASAP, and pray to find good weapons soon enough. So the "freedom" upon upgrade choices isn't really there, at least if you want to survive. Your skills are very rarely involved, it's only gambling. To such extent, that after a hundred of games or so, the only new things you have are a bunch of unlocked ships which don't modify game experience that much. Same goes for the music : it's really entertaining at first, pleasing and so. And after some time, you find yourself muting it, and listening to Internet radio or so. So, even if this game is made from good ideas and obviously a lot of work, it lacks a lot of polish to reach the intended replayability. I was hoping something really different and way more satisfying. I really hope I will have to rewrite this review because the developers corrected these mistakes. Until then, that's not worth buying, really.… Expand
  4. HerrJoebob
    Sep 16, 2012
    4
    This is a great roguelike, but not a fun game by any stretch. You win or lose by the flip of a coin you have no control over - you might run into a (literally) unbeatable enemy, you may or may not find the upgrades you need, etc. It is incredibly unfair and this is exactly what they were trying for - it's a great gambling sim and addictive as heck because of that. The music's nice and the graphics are decent. Once you get past the (again, intentional) unfairness, the biggest problem is that almost all combat is a tedious "click same keys over and over" thing. However, if you get boarded - and you will, a LOT if the coin flips go against you - it turns into intensive micromanagement with a UI that is not very responsive - not fun.… Expand
  5. Andrew_Paterson
    Dec 9, 2012
    4
    I want to like this game, I really, really do. But it's so frustrating that I'm not willing to take any more time to play it.

    Yes, it's a rogue like- and yes, rogue likes- are heavily dependent on randomness but FTL takes it to the extreme. I lost and lost and lost (and losing sees a restart from scratch - only the hardcore need apply); it's not even that there isn't a component of sk    ill. One does need to be skilled: managing your crew, sub-systems and power takes a lot of effort whilst also pinpointing attacks on the enemy.

    But chance and the increasing difficulty curve as you venture further across the universe outweigh the skill component solidly.

    Rather save money, get a dice, roll it till a six; then declare yourself a winner. It'll be far less aggravating all 'round.    … Expand
  6. bigsilverhotdog
    Sep 17, 2012
    1
    Beware the Rogue fanboys. This is a randomly generated rogue-ish statgrind with no saving your game (except upon "save & exit"), randomly generated encounters and therefore random overall difficulty, and permanent death. The game is entirely randomly generated ship-vs-ship combat and the combat itself is slow, generic, and tedious. This is the kind of game you can easily waste hours on, though only because of the carrot-stick statgrind aspect where you fight just one more battle to get just one more point so you can buy just one more upgrade, but not because the gameplay itself is actually fun... unless you consider statgrinding inherently fun. Statgrinding is basically the entire game. And dying in impossible encounters. Can't forget the classic dying in impossible encounters.… Expand
  7. Vistance
    Sep 22, 2012
    3
    The people writing the high reviews have played the game for maximum of 2-3 hours. FTL seems fun when you first start out, but as you repeat the game over and over and over and over and over and over again you realize the entire game is rubbish because your chances of winning a particular run are controlled very minimally by you. All you do is steer the ship and click on parts of enemy ships. I had a run where I had nothing but the starter guns all the way up to the 7th sector, I explored many beacons and found nothing. The game is rogue like but fails to provide even a reasonably fair amount of random chance. Other times the game will reward you with something amazing that you can't use at the most inopportune time - one run I was given what was claimed by the game to be an amazing laser - but I had no means at all to operate this gun on my ship as I found it in the 1st sector. On another run I did great, but could not find a weapon like that laser to save my life - and was shafted by random chance. This SOUNDS like it could be fun sometimes, but after you play the game over and over you get real sick of "oh look, no weapons, oh look no new crew members" and you end up eventually running out of fuel and scrap and dying helplessly or you somehow get far then are ill-equipped for the higher powered enemy ships and die extremely quickly. The game has terrible pacing and while the mechanics operate fine, some things like the AI leave a LOT to be desired. I don't know why people feel like they must love indie games no matter how good or bad they are - if you give them false praise you're only hurting them. The game could be improved with patching, but somehow I sincerely doubt the odds the game will ever see an update - the developers got our money and have so far shown no real interest in doing much else with the game based on statements they've publicly made. For a half-working title like this I would not pay the price it's going for, $10 is too steep for a broken indie game and as gamers we should demand better quality from indie studios if we ever want them to replace corporate studios that just create more franchise games.… Expand
  8. ZZZappy
    Sep 19, 2012
    10
    I write this review 45 hours later... Wait, what? 45 hours?!?

    This game sucked me in extremely fast. I didn't buy it until a friend started playing it, and after watching him, I had to try it myself. The game has a very high replay value, but that might be due to the game's quite short playthrough.

    To start, the game is brutal and unforgiving. Making mistakes will quickly lead to a g    ame over, and sometimes the RNG plays dirty by giving you time and time again the negative side of every random event. The enemies scale quickly, so you'll need to find a way to keep the pace. The first 10, maybe even 20 times you're going to lose. On easy.

    However, once you've got an understanding of how the game works, it's not as random and luck based as people make it out to be. Being tactical about your movements and not taking needless risks will take you consistently to the end of the game. Using resource management for your ship can save you tons of cash that you can use to upgrade other things or purchase more weapons at stores. Playing smart will almost always win, except for the very worst generated maps.

    No matter what type of gamer you are, I highly recommend this game. For $10, it's well worth the money.    … Expand
  9. Nesterhews
    Oct 12, 2012
    5
    A good simple and fun game.
    Not too much depth, but still fun! Yay
  10. AlanComek
    Jan 8, 2013
    9
    There isn't really anything bad I can say about this, really. The difficulty is insane, and there isn't much of a story there, but everything else in FTL is just so damn good that you don't really care. Also, the soundtrack is freakin' awesome. Seriously, get this game.
  11. Pandarve
    Sep 25, 2012
    6
    Faster Than Light is a real-time rogue-like game where you command a spaceship. I was initially very enthousiastic about the game but after having played for nearly 13 hours it is starting to become obvious to me that the outcome of this game is far too random and no matter how skilled you might be at this game, you can never recover from the strings of bad hands this game tends to deal out. The random encounters also have such devastating outcomes that you will at some point simply play it safe and always choose the same answer. Most unlockable ships are far too difficult to unlock as the requirements for them may or may not be present during your game because of the randomisation. The player makes is on the run from the a hostile fleet and has to make it to his own fleet where by jumping from star beacon to star beacon. Most beacons offer an rpg-like text-choice with varying results and a lot of them make the player end up in combat where he is asked to distribute power, crew and firepower in order to defeat an enemy ship that will be doing the same. There are a variety of weapons available to the player in different forms and although it depends largely on what you will run into and what you can afford with the scrap you obtain from encounters, you will be developing different strategies depending on your load-out. For example; you could have a ship that focuses on releasing attack and boarding drones in order to incapacitate the ship without actually having any (or much) firepower on your ship. Or perhaps you will turn your ship into one that is highly agile and comes with a lot device-disabling weapons so that you can tear the enemy apart with slow-firing heavy lasers. The graphics are nothing to write home about but they're not bad either, the interface is very helpful and the music and sounds suit the atmosphere. I would recommend FTL but not at its current price with its current gameplay… Expand
  12. RiceMuncher
    Sep 16, 2012
    9
    Your a StarShip Captain with direct control over everything.
    Which itself makes it an awesome indie RPG with addictive rogue-like elements. HUGE replayability - 1. There are 9 different ships, each with two different layouts for you to unlock), 2. Randomised events and results. Each choice you make, even though if it was the same choice in your last run , could end up differently for b    etter or worst
    3. A wide selection of weapons for different ships/playthroughs

    And you can name your own ship and crew. What more can i say?
    This is all for $9AUD for well over 20+hours of gameplay - and probably more!    … Expand
  13. Dravius
    Sep 20, 2012
    4
    The single biggest factor in this game is luck. As every encounter is completely random it removes any real sort of skill or challenge from the game, or a sense of achievement to more accurate. When you do 'finish' it you realise it wasn't because you did anything in particular, but because you happened upon the right encounters. The gameplay is fun, but the sheer amount of luck in the game completely detracts from it… Expand
  14. Jintoss
    Oct 10, 2012
    3
    A glorified waste of time which punishes any poor sap the longer he sticks around. Poorly designed, with all the addictiveness of a flash game. Steer well clear, you'll be glad you did.
  15. refdxf
    Sep 17, 2012
    10
    Amazing game, deep gameplay, plenty of replay value. Game breaks a good bit of new ground in strategy games, well worth the time and attention. avoid the subreddit and wikis however, more fun to discover things yourself.
  16. Slackerboy
    Oct 22, 2012
    3
    This game has so much potential it could be a ton of fun, but most games are ruined by simple bad luck. In order to win you MUST get the right weapon upgrades or you are doomed, but getting them is a matter of pure luck.

    This could be resolved by re-balancing the sectors and allowing people to explore more, or making weapon drops more common. Until this is fixed I would avoid the game u    nless you want to lose or win based on pure luck.… Expand
  17. baron_bacon
    Jan 10, 2013
    8
    FTL is an extraordinary little game. Though one sometimes struggles with a certain unfairness due to the randomly generated galaxies, it doesn't lack of motivational parts. Both micro- and macromanagement will be rewarded appropriately and the broad range of weapons and ships offers multiple ways of fighting your way through the universe.
    Playing it now for more than 10 hours, I've only s    een the boss once but I am always willing to give it another shot.… Expand
  18. Comradepinko
    Sep 17, 2012
    9
    If you like maddeningly difficult old school games then this one is for you. The graphics are primitive, but I feel like that just adds to the old school feel of the game. The game play is simple enough to pick up quickly, yet complicated enough to keep you thinking and coming back for more.

    The basic mechanics of shields, weapon systems, drones, and boarding parties make me feel like I    'm the captain of a Star Trek vessel in a way that previous Star Trek and other Sci-Fi games have failed to do so well.

    For an inexpensive indie game with such a small team the design is nearly perfect. Aside from having not quite enough different random encounters (expect to play through the same encounters over and over again) I don't think I have any complaints for this title. I hope a AAA studio decides to make something like FTL, or picks up these guys and makes FTL2.    … Expand
  19. AndrewBonieskie
    Sep 17, 2012
    10
    I absolutely adore this game. It gives anybody the chance to nerd out so much and is a perfect example of a community creating a game and making it near perfect. The ONLY thing I can fight bad about this game is that It doesnt give you enough to manage. Just four or five rooms while any extra crew just stands arounds. An amazing rogue-like strategy science fiction game. Even if you don't like these kind of games, at least try it because it redifines the genre. Perfect 10 out of 10.… Expand
  20. Audius
    Oct 5, 2012
    5
    The game is fun if you want to kill time for maybe an hour or two, but chances are you'll probably be pounding your head after a number of losses due to a few unfair combinations all the while dealing with micromanaging repairs on the ship and killing fires and killing invaders. While the game is extremely well polished in terms of controls and music, the game gets lost in sometimes terrible RNG and overcomplicated micromanagement that could've been simplified by rethinking the "crew" feature. Oh and by the way, each time you enter a zone, you have a fleet of elite rebels chasing you every step of the way, so you constantly feel like you're in a rush to move on to the next zone, which only gets progressively more difficult.

    I'm the kind of person who doesn't want to have to keep spamming pause to input commands, I want the game to flow. FTL just doesn't do that for me.    … Expand
  21. Tridus
    Sep 17, 2012
    9
    Brutally difficult. If you dislike game over screens, this is not the game for you. You will die, a lot. Sometimes it won't seem fair. Other times everything comes together just right and it's the greatest feeling in the world. The mechanics work really well here and if you like a challenge you owe it to yourself to pick this one up.
  22. meraka
    Sep 18, 2012
    5
    If you're a familiar with the board game Galaxy Trucker, this game is basically a single player version PC port. If you liked the board game you'll probably like this as well even though it can be equally frustrating. The graphics are a matter of taste, personally I like them. The music is nice as well but gets a bit repetitive after a while. The UI and controls are well done. Game mechanics are simple and easy to learn but allow for varied strategies and challenging fights. Unfortunately it's too random and you're too dependent on simply being lucky and getting enough resources or good events. There will be encounters where you simply have no chance of survival. Also it has very limited content so after only a few times playing you will have seen everything. Could have used a possibility for constructing your own ships or maybe coop-multiplayer (It'd be perfect for this).… Expand
  23. ExpFist
    Oct 27, 2012
    3
    Game is really fun when it works, but random crashes to desktop destroy this game as it is now. There is no ability to save, so when you crash to the desktop (random), then you've lost your game and need to restart. This has happened to me now two games in a row and I'm giving up. The ability to save games, or at least auto-save after every jump so you can resume after a crash would at least make this game playable while they work out the bugs.… Expand
  24. ObsidianEagle
    Sep 17, 2012
    9
    i've been hyped for FTL ever since I contributed to their Kickstarter. Now that it's here, I'm not dissapointed at all :)

    Graphics - Old school, but very clean. there aren't any options though, including resolution, which makes it look quite bad on stretched fullscreen. More customisation would be nice.

    Sound - AMAZING sound design. great effects and a very nice soundtrack, never fee    ls repetitive.

    Gameplay - WIN. Even though there really isn't much of a variety of gameplay, It is always fun, very repeatable and VERY hard. it will take you a long time to win the game just once, then so much more to unlock all the content available

    Overall - I HIGHLY reccomend it.    … Expand
  25. onyxxz
    Sep 18, 2012
    10
    This is a great little game that is impossible to lay down. I started off dying all the time but after a couple of tries I got the hang of it and a better understand of what to do. Now I find it impossible to stop playing and I quite frankly feel that this is one of the most original and fun game I have played in a while. Hands down 10/10.
  26. BatmanLover
    Dec 10, 2012
    0
    I know it is a roguelike, but even on those terms it is completely and impossibly stupid. This is not Dark Souls or Ninja Gaiden, where the difficulty comes from the intense challenge to learn how to play the game right. Here the difficulty comes from the programmers laughing at you while they slap unfair situations in your face. Almost every situation is decided by pure luck, especially when you have learned to multi-task. Avoid this game at all costs, it is frustrating and pointless since the good premise and slick production conceals a game that is not fun, entertaining, rewarding or actually challenging (having good luck is not a challenge) in any way.… Expand
  27. Mieteq
    Sep 18, 2012
    9
    Perfect combination of space warfare and roguelike. Easy to learn, hard to master, unforgiving and rage inducing. Awesome game mechanics, encounters and a lot of routes to take on.
  28. sweet
    Dec 8, 2012
    2
    People have far too romantic a view of games depending on the source, or having been an early supporter of the game pre-release are unwilling to look at it with a truly critical eye. As a marketing exercise it's been fantastically successful, but as a game it fails miserably. It is no better than a slot machine. Yes, there is some strategy and tactics involved that improve your odds, but they're so outweighed by random circumstance as to be virtually pointless, it's like buying two lottery tickets instead of one. It needs to be fixed and that won't happen as long as people are willing to put a smiley face on any old rubbish.… Expand
  29. Jetfire
    Sep 17, 2012
    8
    I bought the game on a whim and was very surprised by the level on design that went into a $10 game. It is very challenging and gives you a lot to explore and accomplish. You have multiple choices in equipping your ship and crew that greatly affect your abilities. I have 6 or 7 hours into it so far and still have only got to the final boss once. Not bad for the price of a movie ticket. Wish the easy mode was a little more generous with the scrap and weapons drops.… Expand
  30. VinVin1974
    Sep 20, 2012
    9
    Great game. Lots of fun. Can be repetitive, but only if you play without any breaks. Really challenging, but that's what keeps you coming back. My advice? If you feel that repetition wave coming on, go play something else for awhile. Guarantee you'll be biting at the bit wanting to play one more game though, which is why breaks help especially after a long play session.
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Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
84 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 41 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 41
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 41
  3. Negative: 0 out of 41
  1. PC Master (Greece)
    Feb 6, 2013
    85
    Kickstarter has accomplished its mission in this one, giving the opportunity to an original, non-mainstream title to go public and meet its well-deserved success. Especially for sci-fi fans, it’s a no-brainer; buy this game at once and live the life of a courageous pilot that only has one mission: survival. [November 2012]
  2. GameStar
    Nov 24, 2012
    77
    Quotation forthcoming.
    Read full review
  3. Hyper Magazine
    Nov 14, 2012
    90
    Even if it a lot of it comes down to dice rolling or coin flips, FTL leaves the player more than enough control to create a compelling, addictive experience.
See all critic reviews »