Publisher: Subset Games
Release: 2012
Platform: PC (played), iOS
Genre: Roguelike
Acknowledging that I didn’t even start to scratch the game’s surface and armed with (besides the experience of failing in several ways--“dying is funny”, one of the in-game random hot tips say) the knowledge that a new ship would be unlocked if I could at least reach level 5 I went for a confident “coward” run: sneak through the less-dangerous path towards the next less-dangerous sector, focusing on surviving enough to escape, escaping enough to repair at stores and that was it. Of course, as with everything in the game playing against the odds is the norm; so once I got a favorable chain of green (the theoretically more friendly) sectors I managed to open that can--alongside one of those 1.8% achievements, “I don’t need no stinkin’ upgrades!”, for reaching level 5 without any of them.
Another whole round of defeats ensued aboard The Torus (the Engi Cruiser), but many more things were learned in the process: the advantages of Ion devices (and lighter/faster weapons) and the reliability of drones were among them, but the most important one by far was becoming more aware of the biological/political environment around me. Being a human in the game (“common and uninteresting” according to the game’s lore) bears much resemblance to being one in real life: ditching anthropocentrism (or even more mundane selfishness for that matter) requires work and it’s not simply there by design.
So I started to actively seek a more diverse crew to learn about and play to their strengths/weaknesses. Using Engi as remote hackers (besides their everyday knack for fixing local wares) proved an invaluable way of avoiding blowing stuff up, for instance. I also learned to love the Zoltan for their natural energy flow--even making up for a power source within the room they’re deployed to in case of a lack of a proper resource to get the job done. The slow but impervious-to-fire Rockmen could be useful when fighting flames within the ship, for instance. But one of my gameplay sessions unexpectedly morphed into a proper piece of plot through a Mantis addition to my crew.
I’ve got the insect-like soldier as a tribute from a slave seller (I happened to shoot such ships down before, but that kills everyone in the ship--slaves included--so I figured I should try saving at least one living being this time) and (coincidentally or not) ran into a Zoltan peaceful ship right after. The Zoltan captain started a philosophical chat about being part of the Federation or being a rebel, and I went down that path alongside him. By the end of the exchange they offered me an augmentation (a kind of item that works as a passive buffer regardless of the ship’s available resources) called the Zoltan Shield--an “impenetrable shield” created by “an unexplained technology”--that was a game changer, allowing me to survive enough to repair the hull of my ship and advance further towards the next sector--which happened to be controlled by the (hostile) Mantis.
Still recovering from the unexpected “enlightenment” encounter, I ran into a ship described as having “dozens of layers of armor-plating added over what must have been a hundred year career” and led by the legendary thief KazaaakplethKilik. My crew freaks out, and everything derails badly after a clumsy attempt of contact by my Mantis soldier. I promptly decide to run, but even to do so we have to buy time for the FTL (“Faster Than Light”, which lends the game its name) module to charge before doing so; and trying to pull it off we started using our Ion equipment to slowly paralyze the enemy ship--without ever having a fight in mind, let alone a victory. The thing is, we get some early lucky strikes on, our miraculous Zoltan Shield holds up pretty well and our drones start making significant damage. By the time the FTL was charged we were more inclined to win the battle than to lose, so… we press on. And, absurdly, their ship starts to crumble before us. The game mumbles something about “a mystery” after his demise and I’m still incredulous about what just happened. I can’t even tell if it was the “right” thing to do or not, erasing such a huge part of the system’s history without having any previous knowledge of it or ever wanting to do so.
As we head into the next level, everything in pretty bad shape after the singular event, we’re massacred by a regular pirate ship. I know we can do nothing about it, so I simply watch the crew desperately trying to put the spreading fire down until we finally explode in slow fashion… with a lasting sense of having accomplished something.
(Disclaimer: this is the first time I write a post as a piece of chronicle in this blog; and also the first game I write something about without beating it first.)
