FTL: Faster than Light

 iOS
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 78 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 59 out of 78
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 78
  3. Negative: 9 out of 78
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  1. saadrehman
    Apr 5, 2014
    10
    Amazing, Brutal, and most importantly, Fun, its is just like it PC counter-part but with a better and easier to use interface. Recommended to anyone how has a interest in Sci-fi or space or anything like that.
  2. eldaras
    Apr 10, 2014
    10
    Subset games did an amazing work at porting this game to iPad. The touch screen controls were carefully selected to make this game fun to play. Now I can get my FTL fix while commuting :).
  3. DemonSoul
    Apr 20, 2014
    10
    Really good game. Feels like Star Trek with the various races, crew members, different systems that we've all heard on the show (shields, transport, etc...) Combat and the ship are appropriately complex and very fun. Great difficulty and tension. The depth of the game is quite amazing. Each of the characters on the ships can level up in their correlating skills according to the amount ofReally good game. Feels like Star Trek with the various races, crew members, different systems that we've all heard on the show (shields, transport, etc...) Combat and the ship are appropriately complex and very fun. Great difficulty and tension. The depth of the game is quite amazing. Each of the characters on the ships can level up in their correlating skills according to the amount of time they spend in that area, kind of like dungeon siege. There are many strategies to upgrading your ship to survive. Having recently played another similar space game called “Out There” I would have to say the writing is pretty bad and relatively limited and quickly becomes repetitive after a few play throughs, whereas in Out There, there are far more unique scripts. The music by some dude named Ben Prunty is bit too disco and kind of disrupts the atmosphere. The guy is pretty lucky to have been a part of this project. However the amount of thought that went into the combat is clear and appreciated. If Out There’s writer and FTL’s creator got together a perfect gaming experience could be created on the level of the Grand Theft Auto series. While there is much room for improvement, in that respect, I give it a 10 because the excitement and tension of game through the combat and strategy of building your ship are unparalleled and I have not experienced something similar in another game. Very original and most successful Star Trek emulator in my opinion. Update: I played this non-stop for days and finally beat it on normal mode. Epic final battle, Felt very relieved and awesome to beat it, the most exciting space combat EVER, but for such a great battle there was not much of an ending, but that's almost a similar to complaint as above to say that the writing is very poor, and the narrative poorly told. In seeing the credits, I noticed the jobs were divided and the combat design by Justin Ma and Matthew Davis , are impeccably balanced and overwhelming fun, but the script writer, Tom Jubert needs to get help from the writer of Out There or be fired and hire that guy, b/c sometimes reading the events is nauseatingly repetitive and not very creative. The three endings I competed in Out There were phenomenally well told narrative-wise, and very satisfying to complete in comparison and even more difficult to achieve. However there is a lot of replayability since they have an easy and hard mode too, plus the iPad has these an option to enable advanced edition content, but not recommended until the game is beat once. I did not like the "achievements" they had. Having achievements that are nearly impossible to achieve is a very cheap way of trying to increase replayability b/c its a waste of anyone's time and that the developers think so lowly of their players to put such time wasting, brainless tasks is kind of sad, when they could have just improved their game by writing a better ending. But there are always players who try to get 100% completion in games like GTA. After beating the game once I did not have that strong of an urge to replay it with the different ships or even the "advance content" or "hard difficulty." Conversely, in "Out There" despite beating the game once I was immensely driven to ultimately beat all three endings to discover the narrative behind those endings.… Expand
  4. Doodahday66
    May 7, 2014
    8
    Its a great game. Really quite addictive, with lots of features to explore and unlock. Challenging too. Nice simple story that fits well with gameplay and complex gameplay that's easy to get used to. The only downside is that the graphics are a bit simplistic and that its a tad bit expensive. Also, permanent death is really annoying. Seriously, it just ruins any sense of achievement.
  5. yloquen
    May 6, 2014
    0
    A word of warning for people who have no idea what "roguelike" is. It means that dying in this game is permanent - you lose everything - your progress, your items, everything. While I understand the appeal of that to certain type of gamers, and maybe in the past would have endured, these days I don't have the time to invest to reach the level of expertise that will allow me to beat it. AndA word of warning for people who have no idea what "roguelike" is. It means that dying in this game is permanent - you lose everything - your progress, your items, everything. While I understand the appeal of that to certain type of gamers, and maybe in the past would have endured, these days I don't have the time to invest to reach the level of expertise that will allow me to beat it. And there is a simple solution that would have pleased everyone - at the beginning of a game allow the player to select if he wants permanent death. A game like Dungeons of Dreadomre does it - why should such a feature be forced upon a crowd with relatively short attention span (no offense - the mobile gaming crowd) ? ...… Expand
  6. masc
    Jul 5, 2014
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It is a great game until you reach the end-fight. I didn't had such a bad experience in a long time and really thought that game mechanics like the one used in this fight are long behind us. Why, I will explain but be aware that this contains a spoiler!

    SPOILER:
    After you've beaten the boss-ship and when it should just explode you get a message that in the last second they used their FTL drive to flee. After that you have too fight them again one jump point further. This is ridiculous!    … Expand
  7. Dusty_Hayes
    Jul 21, 2014
    9
    FTL is a Rogue-like Sci-Fi adventure places you in the Captains chair of a Star Ship managing both crew and ship systems while trying to survive the odds. The iOS port retains all the substance & style of the PC original and is just as fun addictive and brutal, while unlike the PC verison the iOS port can't be modded the iOS touch screen interface works much better that the PC's and beingFTL is a Rogue-like Sci-Fi adventure places you in the Captains chair of a Star Ship managing both crew and ship systems while trying to survive the odds. The iOS port retains all the substance & style of the PC original and is just as fun addictive and brutal, while unlike the PC verison the iOS port can't be modded the iOS touch screen interface works much better that the PC's and being on the iPad now makes the FTL experience mobile is a fair trade off still making this a worthy purchase on the Apple store.… Expand
  8. blackbird1
    Jul 23, 2014
    10
    One of the best Rogue Likes on Steam!
    Easy to play hard to MAster took me more than 60 hours to find out how i can kill the Flagship, but now i have 20 ships to unlock.... so 100 hours left :)
  9. fireman7992
    Feb 4, 2015
    10
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  10. xThomas
    Jan 6, 2015
    6
    It's a good game. But it's not great. Why? A good game gives you fun times, but you find yourself being bored often to reach the fun. A great game knows to keep you from ever being bored, or worse, feeling like you wasted your effort. That is FTL's problem.. You can't just charge ahead and expect to have a fighting chance. And every time you win or lose, you start over from scratch.
    Late    It's a good game. But it's not great. Why? A good game gives you fun times, but you find yourself being bored often to reach the fun. A great game knows to keep you from ever being bored, or worse, feeling like you wasted your effort. That is FTL's problem.. You can't just charge ahead and expect to have a fighting chance. And every time you win or lose, you start over from scratch.
    Late levels require grinding to stand a chance. Grinding is boring, especially in early on. When you have to grind through early sectors every game, it loses the fun. I have literally rushed to the end and lost my ship there because it could not damage enemy ships.

    I find sectors 6, 7 and 8 fun. But before I can fight in those sectors, I have to grind through five sectors.

    There is one additional glaring flaw in FTL: the method of unlocking ships. There is only one ship available at the start of the game, out of literally dozens.
    On a minor flaw, I find the lack of other modes disappointing, there is only the one campaign. The game could handle more missions.

    Basically, to summarize my review. FTL is fun, but only when you're not grinding. And keeping ships locked from paying customers is stupid.    … Expand
  11. Nel
    Nov 29, 2016
    7
    Great game on iPad takes some time to get used to, but it has a lot of depth, and is way more exciting than a most of the mobile games. The game doesn't try to push you to buy anything, so it's fun to play.
  12. Gnostici
    Oct 24, 2015
    10
    This game will teach you to enjoy losing, and will lead you to take unprecedented pride when you win. It might be called a micromanagement game with a lot of style, but that does not do the experience justice. If you've watched spacey scifi and dreamed of running a ship and managing her crew, then this is a great introduction to that concept.
  13. minix2poo
    Jul 1, 2016
    8
    1 of the best iOS games I've ever played!

    To be honest, this is also the first rogue like game I've ever liked.
    The game balance is sometimes pretty harsh, since it's still hard on easy mode to beat the game.
    But what would be a game without challenge?

    Since the game isn't costly at all, try it out if you have missed it.

Awards & Rankings

18
#18 Best iOS Game of 2014
22
#22 Most Discussed iOS Game of 2014
4
#4 Most Shared iOS Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 17
  3. Negative: 0 out of 17
  1. IGN Italia
    May 5, 2014
    78
    This is probably the best version of the game: touch controls are intuitive and precise, and Advanced Edition's content offers a hundreds of hours of challenging but rewarding gameplay.
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  2. Multiplayer.it
    Apr 22, 2014
    80
    FTL on iPad is the same great experience, with an excellent interface and all the content of the PC version.
    Read full review
  3. Vandal
    Apr 21, 2014
    98
    Everyone who enjoys sci-fi games should take this one into consideration, as long as they're aware that this is indeed a very deep and complex experience, but also outstanding and rewarding.
    Read full review
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