FTL: Faster Than Light

FTL: Advanced Edition is an incredibly replayable game, and each run gives me something memorable and rewarding – even the ones that end with my entire crew dead.

Building on the strong foundation of an existing game is an art in its own right, especially when the game in question is as intricately balanced and geared for difficulty as FTL. Subset Games has returned to its starship simulator with an eye towards small additions rather than rewriting the fundamentals.

Playing as the Mantis, for instance, you'll start off without weapons (but with a crew teleporter and a few drones instead). Boarding enemy ships to defeat them from within is a high risk and reward strategy—so very different from the vanilla "shoot and shield" playstyle—and the Mantis ship embraces it from square one. Unfortunately, I've never had a crack at it, and the path to unlocking it isn't simple or even apparent.

FTL: Faster Than Light proved to be a hit on the PC, with its massive replayability, intelligently-designed gameplay and minimalist interface, and those same qualities are what make it a success on iOS as well.

In the end, FTL: Advanced Edition is way more than we deserve for its price, which is zero dollars. Whether you’re overcharging the new time-based weapons to fire volleys of five lasers into the enemy hull, mind controlling them to kill one another, or silently suffocating all who dare to trespass aboard your vessel, you’re guaranteed to play this game in a way you’ve never done before.

Make no mistake, even on Easy FTL is no cakewalk. But that’s where the excitement has always been found. Can I make it one more sector this time? What happens if I try this weapon configuration? I spent close to twenty hours with the original on PC and several more on the iPad version.