This game... is odd. I have high hopes for it with all the excessive funds the project got, hopes that it will get polished and expanded. I keep comparing this game's randomness to something like Dungeon of Dredmor... and getting let down. There's a lot of good options in FLT, but they all feel stunted, like, everything is too simplistic for its own framework. There's only eight sectors, and with the rebels pushing you, you will literally speed through each one of them: I've tried laying about for the maximum amount of times and it's still surprisingly easy to get to the end.
For one, the combat is too simplistic. If all you ever do is aim at the weapons, then shields (with the occasional switch to drone controls), you'll be set for every battle, so long as you keep your shields up to par. And since each of the sectors "level," you can selectively prepare for the harder zones as you near the crossing from the easier encounters into the beefed encounters.
I've been playing most of the games on Normal and it's just not very challenging anymore. I actually just got to the final boss with the Engi ship, and with a three-shield, Defense Drone II, a Mark I Blaster, and the ion cannon, as well as maxed pilot, engineer, shield, and weapons, I had 30% evasion, +30% shields, and the drone kept most of the damage away. It's mostly luck based. If you've surveillance 2 and a bomb weapon, you could do much more havoc, and if you've a teleporter and a strong team, you can also sabatoge the ship pretty easily... at least for me. The rebel fighter had no drones whatsoever, only the main weapons--which if you can knock them off, they're as good as useless (oh how I wish fires would destroy the ship from within...). I suppose a breach could also be fatal if you can last long enough, as the weapons are unable to be repaired once they are unmanned--and a breach in there, as such, is unrepairable.
I'd really like to see just about everything expanded, especially the amount of sectors. For what genre the game is, it is surprisingly predictable once you get your strategies down. Winning is mostly a combination of getting lucky with resources, and being efficient in how you allocate them. As I said, you can breeze through almost an entire mission just by targeting two things, and avoiding hazardous sectors. Unless you've the luck or funds, being extremely offensive is almost the best defense for most encounters.
Different kinds of weapons would be cool too, instead of variances in the handful you already have. I guess the scope is limited because, like I said before, the entire game is kind of stunted. I mean, what about smoking out crews with lethal chem bombs, or flesh-eating nano-bots? How about fritzing or hacking enemy systems to cause disrupt their weapon lock-ons? Maybe a clot-bomb that stunts the weapon charge, making it slower to maneuver and fire? Something to combat cloaking? Maybe a slug that can turn the mind of an enemy into firing or sabotaging his own ship. And shipmate combat too! Maybe outfitting people with little gun buffs for extra damage or defense, or dealing with fires. The different races already have their cues, but it's not like there could be some additional layers of customization to give each experience just a little more individuality.
Even the backdrops, and ships, and weapons are pretty limited. There's only so many designs, and with a little bit of additional and randomized texture designs or machine layouts, it could have been a bit more interesting. The game skids hard on its gameplay for support--but I'd like a little more beefy tires to ride on, instead of the rims.
I just really hope the reception the devs got with the fundraising is enough--let alone the purchases themselves--to get some additional flavors into the game. It's pretty fun and addicting, but after two days of playing it, I kinda feel like I've seen everything to see. I've around ten or eleven games completed to death so far, two on Easy, the rest on Normal.
I've already unlocked the second ship, I guess I'm going to unlock the third one soon.
Xdqwerty
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OmDRetro:
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RedColoredStars:
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