FTL: Faster Than Light

FTL or Faster Than Light, is another indie game on steam. Currently on sale for 4.99 from the original 9.99. FLT is the first game that Subset games has put up on Steam. If you haven't heard of Subset games before that's because they just started out with FTL as their flagship game. However the brains behind this game Mathew Davis and Justin Ma where some of the key designers behind Bioshock Two. (May not have been a good game, but looked beautiful)

 FTL is about a ship captain, his ship and his crew in their attempt to escape the Rebels and to try to take down the flagship of the Rebels to defend the Federation. The game play is very simple, once you understand what you are doing. First you pick the ship you want to play, originally you only get one. Next you pick which layout of the ship you want, originally you only get one. Now after this you are placed into a randomly generated part of the universe, which is split into several different systems. In these systems are randomly placed Mass Relays that have random occurrence in them. These random occurrences can be anything from absolutely nothing, to a trader, to a battle.

Now if you don't know what a Mass Relay is, you obviously haven't played Mass Effect and you therefore live in a cave somewhere in the Middle East ... hello Al Qaeda, a Mass Relay is a station, generally near a planet of a colony, that can be connected to any other Mass Relay that allows a ship to accurately move from location to location using their Faster Then Light engine, you know hyper drive or what ever old science fiction movies called it.

Now in doing certain things you can unlock other ship, achievements and other layouts for the ships. These ships each have something special that is different from the original ship. Now during the actual game you can fight other ships or try to help other ships to get some scrap metal. This scrap metal is used to  upgrade your ship or buy attachments or modifications for your ship. These mods and upgrades get wiped when you die or start over but if you can stay alive long enough you can get some pretty cool mods, like an arm that helps you get more scrap.

Now this may seem like a lot, but once you get into it, it is a very simple game with much to do. It's worth is sale price and definitely worth its original price. So if you got the money and a few minutes to a few hours to burn this game is fun and worth your time.