Antichamber: Review

Ever wondered what it would be like to explore one of those impossible pictures? The type where the staircase always goes up, where doors are on every surface? Well Antichamber answers those questions whilst delivering a truly unique puzzle experience.

Right from the start, Antichamber throws out the traditional rules of level design. As you explore down each corridor, you’re never quite sure what you’ll find next. You could end looping back on yourself, finding a secret path or witness the level changing before your eyes. The game pushes the boundaries of what is possible with geometry; completely breaking traditional linear level design. An early example you encounter is a room full of cubes. Looking into the cube from each side shows you something different, which should be impossible, but isn’t in this world: and with a bit of searching you find one side of a cube turns out to be a path into an entirely different part of the game.

It may sound mind bending and it certainly looks it, yet its complex design is delivered in a simple way we all understand. You learn the game through play. Exploring areas teaches you the game mechanics, you learn how to overcome each obstacle and then use that knowledge to progress further when faced with more complex challenges.

The controls are kept simple. You can run, walk and interact with pictures found on the walls. The pictures often compliment the puzzles you just solved, showing how they can be a metaphor for an aspect of life. These moments can be quite thought provoking and left me wondering why the designer didn’t keep the original working title, “Hazard: The Journey of Life”.

Some complexity is added to the game as you progress; giving you more tools to approach problems that previously seemed unsolvable. As you travel, you come across some gun like objects. These allow you to manipulate coloured blocks if different ways and each adds new controls on top of the previous one. And with one simple instruction on the wall, the game has given you everything you need to get past the puzzle in front of you and carry on.

For me, playing Antichamber swung between a few emotions. I’d start off intrigued, discovering the crazy areas ahead of me, understanding where and how far I could progress. Then I’d switch to frustration as I’d fail to solve anything and get stuck. Finally, a few minutes later I’d have a moment of inspiration and break through the barriers in front of me with a real sense of triumph, and start the cycle all over again. In many ways, that’s a familiar description of any puzzle game. But I’d say Antichamber can often linger too long in frustration as it’s not an easy game and it doesn’t offer much in the way of hints.

Due to the game’s non-linear design; you will have to remember how the various paths you can travel connect to each other in weird ways. There is a map in the hub area that highlights where you currently are and the path you just travelled. Both useful pieces of information, but it doesn’t clearly show which bit connects to what, which means you’ll end up mousing over a lot of it to display the more detailed information. It does helpfully show branches off areas you’ve been through, so a glance at the map will show if you haven’t fully investigated an area or remind you that you may need to come back later.

Occasionally you will see some arrows appear in the game to give you a hint in what direction you’re meant to be travelling. You will need good peripheral vision to spot them though as they’re quite subtle. These helped me out on a couple occasions as I got lost on more than once, often finding bonus rooms that revealed how some of the game design worked, which was a nice touch, yet a little disappointing when I thought I was making real progress. A possible improvement would have been an easy mode that gave a more prominent guiding hand to steer you in the right direction.

Of course as a puzzle game, the difficulty is subjective. If your logic is in synch with the game, you could find it to be an easy game. I did end up having to consult a guide towards the end as I had decided the path I was meant to be following was a dead end. In fact it was the same puzzle twice in a row, I just had to repeat the solution as I didn’t realise the location I was in changed.

The clear positive of Antichamber is its design. There are all sorts of nice touches that make it such an interesting title. You can quick travel between any areas you’ve accessed simply by hitting the escape key. This takes you back to the hub room and you simply click on the chamber you want to go to. The hub room also contains all the game’s options on the wall. It seems a bit trivial; yet interacting with an options menu in a first-person view is a little novel.

The aesthetic choice is stimulating throwing a lot of vibrant and varied colour at you to break up the clinical white corridors. It’s used to highlight various puzzle elements adding consistency into the world. This is complimented by an ambient music soundtrack that includes various intriguing sound effects to emphasise certain puzzle elements.

This is definitely a game that was difficult to make a decision on. A big part of its appeal is the experience playing it, exploring and understanding the curiosities around you. But if you get stuck, then that’s taken away from you, leaving you looking for a solution. For myself, I got a lot of enjoyment from Antichamber and if you’re looking for a puzzle game, this should top your list after Portal and Portal 2. It’s incredible to think that this title was developed by one person, Alexander Bruce. He’s created what can be honestly described as a truly unique experience.

Hotline Miami: Review

From the second I started playing Hotline Miami, I was wondering if this was the most violent game I had ever played? Forgot your photo realism 3D graphics of modern consoles, this game portrays an incredible visceral experience with just some excellently animated 2D sprites.

But importantly it is violence with context; that being the story arc that takes you through various seedy locations in eighties Miami, searching for answers to questions. Who keeps calling you to carry out horrendous contract killings? Why are all the targets Russian mob hideouts? And even more importantly, is any of this real?

The gameplay is viewed from a top down perspective as you run round the enemy bases. Your goal on each level is simple, kill everyone. How you go about it is your business, but there’s plenty of points on offer for doing it with some style and flair. Reckless behaviour, slamming doors into people, weapon variety and kill streaks are all rewarded. These points go towards your rank at the end of each level and unlock new weapons and masks to use.

The combat happens at a blistering pace, making it very much a game of skill and reactions. If you burst into a room, you might only have half a second to act before the nearest guard has painted you entrails across the wall with his shotgun. You end up planning routes through the building, deciding how you’ll take down each enemy and when. And when it all goes wrong, you’re only a button press away from restarting and getting straight back into the action.

In the frantic combat, anything can become a weapon. Your fists will knock foes to the ground as well as anything you throw at them, leaving them open to brutal melee finishers. There are plenty of close combat weapons which will make short work off enemies, although if you’re spotted, you enter a deadly dance as you jostle for position before going for a lethal strike.

On top of that is an arsenal of guns, mostly pointed in your direction as you walk through the door. You can pick up any weapon you want, but the downside is guns are very noisy. A single shot will attract most of the goons hanging around on that floor, so you better have a plan ready for when your clip runs dry.

I ended up using doors as handy choke points, letting bullets fly and the first few who entered the room before throwing the empty gun at the next to knock him out. Then I’d charge at the door to send another flying, grab any spare weapon I could to deal with any more unwanted attention before rounding on those scrambling back to their feet. And all that would take about five seconds, so it’s a good job the controls are responsive.

The biggest problem I often ran into was several weapons lying on top of each other. On more than one occasion I thought I’d picked up a shotgun, only to find that I had baseball bat in my hands and was swatting at thin air before being riddled with bullet holes.

There a couple of tough enemies and boss battles which could do with a bit more on screen prompting from the game to make them less frustrating. Not far into the game, I started encountering some fast moving bouncers, it took me a couple of deaths to realise I needed a weapon to take them out as you can never hit them with your fists.

The masks and weapons you unlock add to the replay value, and it will take you more than one play-through to get everything. New weapons just add variety whereas the masks give you a perk. Each mask is a different animal, some of which are used in story sequences to represent different sides of the protagonist’s personality. I regularly used Don Juan, the horse mask as it made door strikes to opponents deadly; very handy for bursting into a room.

One of the stand-out features of Hotline Miami is its soundtrack. It’s an eclectic mix of synth music inspired by the eighties which sets the high tempo for the action, with a couple of slow tunes thrown in for the down time between missions.

Completing the main story will take around three hours, which is a good length for this budget indie title. There are some hidden secrets to find as well, so completionists will likely find an extra hour or so of entertainment. Hotline Miami is definitely a game that can be described as an experience. It’s high pace and content can be a bit draining, even for short periods of play. I’d still recommend it though, as it’s a game you can pick and up and put down easily thanks to its short missions. 

Scrolls: Review

Technically, Scrolls is still in a paid- for beta, however just like Path of Exile, the in-game store is already open and ready to take you money; to me, that makes it fair game for an early review.

Scrolls is the new title from Mojang, already well known for the ridiculous legal battle over the choice of name. It’s a paid for collectable card game (CCG) with some micro-transaction elements thrown in. That makes it quite an interesting choice for a second title as there are few, well known CCGs out there.

The game is played on a hex-grid, with each player trying to use their five rows to place units that can attack and defend idols, with victory being achieved by destroying three of your opponent’s idols whilst defending your own.

To do this, you unleash your scrolls which are essentially a hand of cards. You start with a hand of five a draw one at the start of each turn. You’re immediately presented with tricky choices as you have decide which scrolls to sacrifice for resources, and those you want to play. Each turn, one card can be sacrificed to immediately gain one resource, and increase your total resource pool that refreshes every turn. Alternatively you can discard a scroll to draw the next two.

It’s a nice and simple resource system that avoids the problems faced by other CCGs. Anyone who has played Magic will have had games where you drew no mana cards, and ended up losing through no fault of your own. However Scrolls still has a similar problem. Despite having a deck full of creatures to summon, I’ve played games where none of them where in my starting hand. It could do with a re-draw mechanic at the start of match to help get your game going.

Games are usually brief, lasting only a few minutes. This is partly down to how the game escalates, with more and more powerful scrolls being played each turn. But also due to the fact that it can be tricky make a comeback if your opponent gets the upper-hand. Your summoned creatures do the hard work of killing off your opponents units as well as taking out idols. So if you lose yours, it becomes an up-hill struggle to get back in the game without your units being taken out before they get to act.

Each creature’s power is represented by how much damage it will do, how many turns it waits between each attack and how much damage it can take. There are only a few scrolls that can heal units, so whittling down enemies is a possibility. As well as creatures, there’s the expected range of utility spells that can affect the game board and a selection of structures such as walls and catapults.

Your deck is made up of at least fifty scrolls, with a maximum limit of three copies of any single scroll. The maximum limit may seem a bit low, but it suits the minimum deck size and also means you don’t need to be incredibly lucky when opening scroll booster packs to get three copies of something you want.

When you first start the game, you get to pick from one of three pre-constructed decks. Each represents one of the resource types in the game and a different style of play. I enjoyed the first few games I played against the computer to learn the basics, but it quickly became clear that the deck I picked was incredibly weak. I was struggling to beat a medium difficulty AI and the deck was full of utility spells that I had almost no use for. Having checked out the other starter choices as well, they really do need a redesign before the game’s release to make them a bit more competitive; as new scrolls are still being added and the starter decks already feel out of date.

It didn’t take me long to add to my deck though. Having learned a few tricks, I jumped into the game’s challenge mode. These are duels with a slight twist, such as starting with units on the board or having a different victory objective to complete. Beating the first few earned me a hefty amount of gold that I quickly took to the shop and picked up several booster packs. There’s plenty of choice in the shop, as you can pick from buying just a single scroll, or a pack of ten that will guarantee giving you a rare drop.

The real money options are quite limited and this is definitely a welcome design choice considering you have to pay up-front for the game. Spending more cash will allow you to pick up some new avatar customisation options or another of the pre-constructed decks cheaply. But at the moment, there’s nothing to really spend your cash on. Everything in the shop can be earned by playing games and you earn gold at a good rate. Although I would say that the looser doesn’t really get enough gold from a match considering the time invested. You’re rewarded slightly for completing a game, but it’s not enough and you can clearly earn more by quitting and starting a new match if you’re losing.

It certainly doesn’t take long to find matches against other players. The user base is already large enough to mean that selecting quick match will almost immediately find your opponent. If you’re feeling more competitive, there’s also a ranked match option with player ratings so you can compare yourself against other players. Playing a human opponent is rewarded with almost double the gold of an AI player, so you’re definitely encouraged to duel other players. That being said, if you want a quick game, the AI will take almost instant turns. This is a lot better than some human opponents that enjoy using their full ninety seconds they have for every turn.

The deck builder has a good set of features and filters that let you quickly customise the scrolls you take into a match. You can easily mix scrolls of different types as well, as there are plenty of scrolls that are designed for mixed resource decks which adds to the variety.

So is Scrolls worth it? Well, when compared to its rivals it holds up well, but there is clear room for improvement. The game design is good and allows you to make some impressive strategic plays. Collecting new scrolls and building decks is as compelling and satisfying as any other CCG. Where it falls down is the poor design of the starting decks, and how difficult it can be to make a fighting comeback. You have to be prepared to invest a couple of hours to become competitive and that will put off a lot of new players. It also lacks any other game modes or types, whereas a title such as Magic: Duels ofthe Planeswalkers offers a lot more for around half the price. The trade-off being that the Magic titles never offer full deck customisation. As long as Mojang keeps working on the balance, it will be a fun and worthwhile title.

Game Dev Tycoon: Review

Well here’s something different which could have only come from the indie scene. Game Dev Tycoon transports you back to the early eightes via a Dolorean to just after the gaming crash. Your goal is to create the most successful game development studio the world has ever seen using your knowledge of the future.

And so you jump right in. Once you have your avatar’s snazzy jumper and company name sorted, you’re ready to develop your first game. Unsurprisingly the development process in the core gameplay. You pick from a selection of topics, genres, platforms and game engines and then cross your fingers that your game is going to be great, as for the most part, all the choices you make will be absolute guess work.

Each game you create goes through a three stage development process, where you have to decide how to allocate your time between key game features such as level design and AI. You also have to choose the extra features that are bolted on to your creation, each adding onto the cost of the development. All through the process, your team generates little bubbles of technology and design that give you some feedback on how your title will stack up against your previous releases. They also have the annoying habit of generating bugs that have to be patched out before release, costing you more precious time and funds.

Then you have to brace yourself, your new pride and joy is ready for release. It could make the difference between wild success and bankruptcy for your fledgling studio, and then the review scores come in. It’s a 7! That’ll do, it’ll keep the studion going a few more months. Who knew a Pirate simulation with a focus on dialogue combined with joystick, mouse and steering wheel support for the Gameboy would do so well!

And that is core problem with Game Dev Tycoon, it is part simulation and part rogue-like. All the calculations for review scores are hidden and you’re not given any feedback on what made one game a success and another a giant flop. Obviously, good genre topic combinations always seem to do well such as sci-fi / RPG and racing / simulation. So there is some consistency to the game, but as soon as you go into experimental territory, you can easily create a terrible title that causes you to lose a lot of money and haemorrhage fans. And fans become crucial to your success later in the game. Having a good fan base allows you to self-publish with a great deal of hype behind every release, guaranteeing reasonable sales.

In a way, that just reinforces the simulation side of the game. Taking risks is risky. And the choice is stark; you can live on the edge, trying to survive with a lean team aiming for indie success. Or expand with more staff, developing for large publishing deals to get your name out there. Taking no risks and becoming the mediocre developer that never surprises.

Between developing you have to carefully use your time researching new technology and topics, training staff and sending them on vacation. If you fall behind the curve, your games fall off the cutting edge and garner more average reviews. Sales take a hit and you’re unable to keep up with the increase in your staff salaries.

The ultimate goal is to succeed over thirty years, with the upcoming Xbox and Playstation being the last platform releases. The game gives you a heads up when you’re about to reach the end so you can push out one last title to try and achieve a new high score. It only took me two attempts to reach the end of the game, so the difficulty curve is low as long as you can remember what has and hasn’t worked well. You also have the option to keep playing past the end of the game for fun. In my second play-through I kept going an extra ten years too unlock all the research possibilities such as releasing your own digital distribution platform and console.

There’s a lot of charm in the presentation, however the soundtrack is lacking any variety. There’s one long tune on loop and that’s it. I’d highly recommend that you have a podcast or your own playlist to substitute for the music.

The replay-ability of Game Dev Tycoon is entirely limited by how much you enjoy uncertainty. The review scores are always a tense moment and achieving perfect tens will take a few goes. It entertained me for a few hours and as a small indie title, I wasn’t expecting much more. It would make a perfect portable title and hopefully developer Greenheart Games will be able to transition to those platforms in the future. For now, you can buy it direct from their website for Windows, Mac and Linux. It’s a little on the pricey side, so I’d recommend checking out the demo before buying.

Sanctum 2: Review

Of all the map mods that spawned from Warcraft 3, it’s the Tower Defence game mode that has seen the most variety in the titles that have come from it. I usually prefer those that stick close to the original formula, placing towers to make a gauntlet that waves of enemies have to brave in an attempt to beat you. A perfect formula for arm-chair generals who like to sit back, plan, and watch.

However Sanctum 2 mixes that up immediately. It’s a genre crossbreed of Tower Defence and FPS, so not only are you responsible for the strategic placements of towers, but you’re also relied on to take down the enemies; a hostile and varied alien race known as Lumes . Each genre takes it’s turn in the gameplay, every wave alternates between first placing your towers and then gunning down your foes.

The game is spread across sixteen levels linked via a story campaign. Sanctum 2 is set on a planet that has been colonised by humanity. You play as one of four core guardians tasked with protecting the colonists from the invading hordes of the Lumes. The story is told through a series of comic strips between levels and does a reasonable job of explaining why the characters need to keep moving from one location to another. But there is no link to the first title and no description of the planet you’re on or the history of the world. I had to read the backstory on a wiki; it’s not vital context to the story although it’s a silly omission.

The levels themselves represent a wide variety of Tower Defence game design. Some have plenty of space for construction, allowing you to build brilliant mazes. Others have a clear path for the Lumes to run down that you can’t obstruct in any way. On these maps your towers are very much relegated to a support role, firing from the side lines as you have to run around like a headless chicken trying to stop the Lumes at every turn.

In single player, I felt that the towers really didn’t play a big enough role in the gameplay. Even on maps where I was able to build a complicated maze to maximise their effectiveness, they lacked the hitting power to be really useful in the ten waves or so of enemies. You’re presented with a stats screen at the end of a level and almost every single one showed that I’d personally done around seventy five per cent of the damage and kills. Things improved somewhat when I switched to survival mode. Instead of a set amount of waves, the game keeps ramping up the difficulty until you lose. It was fun to reply my favourite levels to see how long I could last, and that longevity gave me a lot more resources to construct more towers and make them a bigger part of the gameplay.

I found a similar improvement in multiplayer as well. Each player gets their own pool of resources to face much larger waves of Lumes. This meant there was a much greater amount of towers playing their part in the game and with just two players, it reached a nice balance. Although trying to get a random person to agree with my plans for the maze was tricky.

The FPS side of the game is a solid experience in its own right. It clearly takes inspiration from Borderlands with floating low gravity jumps and a collection of crazy weaponry. The Lumes are quite varied enemies, all with a prominent weak-spot that can be hit for extra damage. Each of the four characters has their own signature weapon and a passive bonus such as double jump or extra health. You also get a choice of secondary weapon and there’s enough variety for you to pick something that complements your character’s build and play-style.

The AI of the Lumes is clever and consistent. I only noticed an enemy get stuck once trying to navigate the maze. They’re also capable of making a quick priority decision between either attacking you or going to destroy the core. If a group of them gangs up to hit you; you can very quickly be killed and have to wait an agonising ten seconds to re-spawn. It requires you to be aware of your surroundings so you can jump over your tower wall to safety.

There is one large problem with the enemies that I wish the developer Coffee Stain Studios would change, and that’s the boss enemies are too powerful. They make sense from a game mechanics point of view, there needs to be big threats that you have to deal with. Yet it’s stupid to see a boss enemy that is immune to towers soaking all their damage. Also, there are a couple that can destroy your towers. They are the most frustrating enemies every created. As soon as they put a hole in your maze you end up having to kill everything yourself. Then spend your time repairing everything before the next round. The levels they appear in I’ve only played to advance the story and to never return as they just break the gameplay.

Oddly a progression system has been shoe-horned in. It’s a simple system with level-ups granting access to more towers, secondary weapons and passive skills. It provides a little extra replay-ability and incentivises increasing the difficulty for extra experience. As it’s such a short levelling curve, I feel it would have made more sense to use a more traditional unlock system; linking progression to completing each level or beating specific challenges.

Also worth mentioning is the soundtrack which provides a fun selection of futuristic sounds. The music switches between relaxed, laid back tunes for your strategic planning and up tempo beats for fighting the Lumes.

Sanctum 2 doesn’t take long to complete on normal difficult and there’s an easy option for a more relaxed experience as well. The game really gets it’s playtime from replay-ability, which is unfortunately handicapped by certain levels really minimising the impact of towers or throwing the irritating boss enemies at you. That being said I’ve still enjoyed plenty of hours with Sanctum 2 already and as a budget title, it’s ultimately delivered on value for money.

Thomas Was Alone

When describing Thomas Was Alone, I feel that I should avoid tarring it with the ‘indie puzzle platformer’ brush; as those words alone could easily put someone off one of the best games in the genre. It seems like there’s a new title in this over saturated genre every other week, popping up in places like Steam’s Greenlight section. What makes Thomas Was Alone stand out from the crowd is that its genre merely describes its function, whilst its form offers so much more. Ostensibly, the game focuses on a curious character called Thomas, a red rectangle who’s about to have a very inquisitive adventure.

Dropped into a quadrilateral world, Thomas sets off to discover and observe everything he can. This driving force rather neatly sets up the structure of each level, as Thomas endeavours to reach the white doorway at the end. And of course has to overcome a series of ever more complicated puzzles to reach it.

The game’s story is excellently narrated by Danny Wallace, who won a BAFTA for his performance. The narration really brings to life the character of Thomas and the companions he will meet along the way. The first new face you bump into is Chris, a rather squat little brown square. And as soon as you meet him, his jealousy of Thomas’ fantastic jumping skills is revealed. Accordingly, the layout of the levels takes a twist, as now they have to work together to reach the goal. To begin with, this mostly consists of Thomas giving Chris a hand reaching the next ledge, and Chris having a good sulk about not feeling useful.

It seems a little silly to say, but the characters in Thomas Was Alone are more fleshed out than your average grizzled space marine; despite only being little coloured quadrilaterals on a journey. And it’s not just the excellent narration found in every level providing that definition. There are a number of smaller subtle touches that define Thomas and his friends. Simple elements such as each character having their own jumping sound effect.

As a puzzle plat-form game, it provides a good and varied mix of mechanics throughout. Each level is made up of a number hazards or difficult obstacles which you conquer using Thomas and company. The story does a good job of keeping things fresh, by providing you with different characters at different stages. So the game doesn’t rely on simply adding new tricks in a bid to try and keep the difficulty curve going up.

I never found myself getting particularly stuck on a level, although there are a few awkward time critical puzzles that can be a bit frustrating with the control scheme. It’s not complicated by any means; simply move left, right and jump. Where it falls down is how you select which character you are currently controlling. You can use the number keys to directly select a particular quadrilateral, or scroll through them using ‘q’ and ‘e’. This would be fine, but the characters you have on each level aren’t consistent. So it becomes difficult to remember the key bindings and select who you want, when you want them without constantly glancing at the bottom right of the UI. Crucially there a very few levels where you can actually get stuck, reducing the amount wearisome restarts.

Backing up the excellent story is an equally fantastic soundtrack. It provides in interesting mix of chip tunes and minimalist classical music, which compliments the events and tone of the story as you progress.

What really caught my attention as I was playing where the extracts from developer diaries that appear at the start of each chapter. These tell a second parallel story to the narration, a much more subtle tale about AI that adds an intriguing extra layer of context. However, for all the positive words I have to say about the story, it also provided my biggest disappointment by ending rather abruptly. It left me wondering what happened next to everyone Thomas had met on his three hour adventure. Not a long game by any means, but equally it won’t over stay its welcome. Worth a purchase for the story alone, and if you’re looking for a puzzle platformer as well; Thomas Was Alone will be the perfect title.

To Boldly Flee! Faster Than Light

Aaaaaahhh! There’s fire everywhere! Missiles are flying and engineering is tied up dealing with intruders; at least the shields are holding. The pilot is glaring at the console, counting down the seconds before the FTL drive can be engaged. This was poor choice of sector to jump to. The Rebel fleet had caught up with the brave crew of HMS Waffle. But there’s only one way out of the system, so flying through the jaws of the enemy was a necessary risk. At the last second, the engines are fired up flinging the ship into the next zone where new threats lurk.

Of course there’s danger everywhere in FTL. The Rebel fleet is always on your tail, chasing you through every sector. The intelligence your scout ship has collected is vital to the Federation cause. Your only chance of success is to beat the random pirates and aliens on the way to the Federation Fleet. Collecting salvage from the scraps of your enemies gives you currency to trade at friendly merchants. Buying upgrades is not only vital to your final goal, but is necessary to survive the journey.

 There’s plenty of choice available in ship systems, however the random nature of the game means you might not always find what you want. Weapon systems are divided into standard lasers and missiles, to exotic ion guns and beam weapons. Each has different power requirements and is affected by enemy shields in a different way. Arming yourself to the teeth with guns is not a wise strategy however as powering it all is expensive.

And there are plenty of other systems you’ll be relying on to keep your ship in one piece. Salvage can be spent on increasing the reactors power output. This allows you to boost shields and run auxiliary systems such as teleporters and cloaking devices. Sending an away team to board the enemy ship has become a favourite tactic of mine. Killing the enemy crew gives a nice bonus to the precious salvage you recover. That being said, I did lose a few brave souls to friendly fire accidents. Remembering to hold fire and teleport your party back is a good idea.

So how do all these weapons and system work in combat? Manning systems gains a little extra performance. Having an engineer working the engines and pilot in the cockpit gives you a chance to dodge attacks entirely. It also charges your FTL jump allowing you to make your escape if necessary. Shields can hold off light laser fire, but missiles, boarding parties and teleporting bombs can bypass them entirely to deal nasty interior damage. If a system is hit, it loses power and can even go offline until you move a crew member to repair it. Fires can break out and sustained fire can punch holes in the hull, causing precious oxygen to start leaking out. Thankfully space bar pauses the action so you can plan crew movement and reassign power. Land enough hits on your opponent and you’ll see them satisfyingly break up into little pieces.

Being a Roguelike game; I would have a normally strayed away from a title like FTL. The genre is famously defined by randomness, high difficulty and unfairness. Similar to arcade games of yesteryear. FTL changed my mind with some smart design choices. The game itself is fairly short. A good run will only take an hour or so to play. So dying part way through is not such a problem. There’s plenty of unlocks and achievements to strive for. There not just the standard, well done you’ve played the game achievements either. They actually challenge you to use a ship in particular manner and reward you with new ship layouts.

The aesthetic design of the game is clean and crisp. The sprites in the game are of a very high quality and are backed up by an excellent bit tune-esque soundtrack. The sound effects are also cleverly chosen to suit the atmosphere of the game, whilst providing clear feedback of what’s happening.

There’s plenty to discover on each journey. The random events are well designed and often given you tough choices to make. Some enemies are smart enough to beg for their life, offering you a bounty. Others fire up their engines to try and make an escape.  The environments such as nebulae give you a chance to delay Rebel pursuers. Asteroid belts, solar flares and ion storms also add twists to your combat plans.

Overall, FTL has just jumped its way onto my list of favourite games of the year. It provides a lot of entertainment for a very sensible price. There’s even an easy mode for people like myself who want to play with all the cool toys, rather than being turned into space dust on a regular basis. And FTL is one of the first Kickstarter game projects to see release. The small development team has really delivered for those who backed it.