The Indie Challenge: FTL: Faster Than Light - Week 2

I'm not the sort person who is fond of Indie games. I like my big name titles, my polished graphics and my big budgets. I dislike titles that I can't add to Steam or that can't use the processing power I've lovingly paid out for in my gaming rig. I am, for lack of a better term, a gaming snob. For this reason, I have given myself The Indie Challenge.

Each week, I will be playing at least one lesser known Indie game. I may not have enough time to complete said game, but I will at least try it. I'm doing this to attempt to expand my gaming horizons and stop being so focused on a small selection of game types. There is a whole world of gaming out there ready and waiting for me to come across.

I'll be posting a weekly blog following this challenge and detailing the game I've been playing as well as the game I will be playing next week. If you want to follow along with me, I'll be posting a link to the game.

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For week 2, I challenged myself to play FTL: Faster Than Light, the spaceship simulator in which you control not only your ship, but your crew as well.

Starting off, I found FTL fairly novel. I loved the fact that you could lock certain sections of the ship off and deal with situations as they arose. For instance, stopping a fire in the engine room by either ordering your crew out of the room, locking the door and then opening the doors inbetween the airlock and the engine room thus removing the oxygen from the room, extinguishing the fire or have your crew put it out with fire extinguishers.

You also have control over the shields and the weapons and must direct the power accordingly using power nodes. If you are getting attacked by heavy weaponry, you may want to boost your shields whilst keeping your weapons light, slowly knocking down their defenses whilst keeping yours fresh and strong.

These sort of decisions allowed me to play FTL the way that I wanted to (incredibly defensively). I felt like Captain Kirk on the Enterprise (had I ever watched Star Trek), ordering around my crew and dealing with situations as they arose.

Sadly, FTL didn't keep my attention for any great length of time and it wasn't that long before I stopped playing and it fell by the way side. It's not that it's not a great game, it was just quite repetetive for me. I would like to give it another try but I think it would be more fun with friends. Sadly, there's no multiplayer.

If you would like to try your hand at space navigation and management in FTL: Faster Than Light, you can find it on Steam here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/212680/

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This week, I will be playing Reus, a real-time strategy game where you control elemental giants and help shape the world around you.

If you'd like to follow along with this challenge and play Reus as well, you can purchase it on Steam here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/222730/