FTL: Faster Than Light Is At Its Best When You’re Telling Stories
FTL: Faster Than Light is an indie space-faring roguelite that’s light on story and heavy on difficulty. You’re tasked with managing a small crew in an underequipped ship as they flee across the galaxy away from the advancing rebel threat. I never really understood why the federation were the weaklings and the rebels were the superior military force armed to the teeth, but as I said, light on story.
Developed by two-man team Subset Games, FTL is my most played game on Steam. I’m not going to write down how many hours, because it’s quite frankly embarrassing, but it’s a lot. It might seem weird that a game with very little narrative has such great replay value, but it’s the precise reason it does. FTL is at its best when you’re using it to tell your own stories, living out your Star Trek fantasies while flying throughout space.
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I’ve played it so many times that I know how I like to set up my stories now. I pick a ship, name the crew after me and my friends, and create little backstories for each of us. Will we be benevolent mind-reading slugs, helping all those we can? Or perhaps we’ll be rampaging Mantis warriors, teleporting aboard ships and stripping them of flesh and metal alike. Maybe himbo rock people, just bumbling along and doing whatever we please. Either way, once I lock in a backstory, that’s it, no deviating from my predetermined moral compass until the run in question comes to an end.
It may seem a bit rigid, but I try to force myself into problems as often as I can. It may be easier to avoid a fight or decide not to help another crew, but that’s boring. I don’t care about winning, I want to tell an interesting story, having to overcome
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