FTL {Faster Than Light} Review

FTL which stands for Faster Than Light is a Space Sim that gives the player control of a ship and crew. The player is tasked with carrying vital information across the galaxy that could potentially win the war. All the while however the rebel fleet is right behind the player which means taking your time is out of the question.

Jumping from one sector to another is a choice taken by the player on the galaxy map. What isn't in the player's control is what happens when the player reaches the sector. Without warning the player could be set upon by pirates, rebels or drones but not all outcomes are hostile. The player could encounter a space station in need of assistance or a fleet in need of protection. Doing these tasks means that the player will receive goods like Salvage and Fuel that the player will need to carry on.

A mighty fine ship

What I have encountered on numerous occasions is a sector right next to a sun. A pirate who must be a thick as the metal his ship is made out of attacks the player while solar flares shoot out. The first few times I encountered this I died every time with my ship burning to nothing. After repetition I found that a crew member should work on the engines to recharge the FTL to allow the player to jump away as soon as possible just before another solar flare, imitating a scene from Battlestar Galactica.  Strategies like this will come to every player as they will need them to survive events like this.

Ship control is an important factor of the game and one that isn't hard to come to grips with. One of the three crew members must always be piloting the ship, the other two can be positioned at any of the ships systems that the player thinks are important.  My choices are usually weapons and shields but there are also sensors and engines as well. Fires are also a risk in this game as when the player is fired upon then certain places will catch fire and will need to be put out by the crew or the fire will spread. Personally I just opened up the airlocks and let the vacuum of space take out the fires, also works for boarding parties as well. 

"Fire!...Fire!...Abandon Ship!"

The game will sometimes throw situations at the player that require the player to use their crew, these are arguably the most dangerous and risky situations in the game.  This is because the player only has 3 crew members to start off with and as the player progresses their skills increase.One example would be the player coming across a derelict ship which gives the player the choice to send a crew member to explore the ship. Losing a crew member means that the player needs to find a new member and train them from scratch.

The resources I mentioned earlier are Salvage, Fuel and Missiles. The Salvage is used as currency and for repairs/upgrades to your ship. Salvage is given for any services that are performed or for ships that are destroyed which is the same for Fuel and Missiles.

Battles in the game are basic but very enjoyable. A diagram of the enemy ship appears on the screen and the player must select key systems for your ship to attack until the enemy is destroyed. Really this is where the player will certainly die as its a flip of the coin deal that the enemy ship will be twice as powerful as the player. 

"Did we hit it ? Did we hit anything ?"

Despite how simple the game looks and plays it can offer the player hours of enjoyment.  Yes you will die more times than you can count and you might not even reach the end of the game but that's not the point. This game literally offers players a different experience with every play through because there are a number of events, the sectors change with every restart and so does the galaxy map. Sometimes you won't leave the starting area but that's part of the appeal after all.

9/10

Aliens: Colonial Marines Review

"A game that fails at being a game"

Aliens otherwise known as Xenomorphs the creatures designed with women's reproductive organs in mind, and make those predators look like pansies. These are the main antagonists of Aliens Colonial Marines a game set roughly around seventeen weeks after the events of the film Aliens. There was a lot of hype leading up to the games release and it's widely known that's its a big let down and didn't reach the expectations of the gaming community. I bought the game with no expectations what so ever and while the game does have its bad points there are also a few goods things grounded into it. 

This man even says that he loves the Marine Corp
It wouldn't be Aliens if no one said that

The story is one of those good points as it does a nice job of revisiting the locations of the film and describing the events that take place after Aliens and Alien 3. It even quite nicely corrects one of the things that annoyed me about Alien 3 and does so in a believable manner. The game starts off with the crew of the Sephora receive a distress signal from Corporal Hicks at which point they load their pulse rifles, grab their smart guns and flamethrowers then proceed to barrel into the unknown. Boarding the Sulaco things get from bad to worse as the walking cliche's are faced with Xenomorphs and the friendly neighborhood Weyland Yutani Mercenary's.

Eventually the story shifts to the planet below where the cast of the game take refuge in Hadley's Hope the colony from Aliens. Here is where they set up their base of operations and go about being ultimate bad asses until the Aliens start coming out of the god damn walls. The player explores various places of the colony to perform a number of tasks as there are around three hundred Colonial Marines spread across the planet and we need to get into contact with them. The player discovers dark but not at all surprising secrets about the weyland Yutani Corporation  

By the end there are a fraction of Colonial Marines left on the planet compared to the amount at the beginning and they all converge on a base. The player fights the Alien Queen by throwing her off the ship like Indiana Jones did to that Nazi in the last crusade and they all live happily ever after, due to the unlikelihood of  a sequel that's a good a prediction as any. 

The plot overall is a very enjoyable part of the game as you feel like you are part of an 80s science fiction film. Something the bad graphics and dark environment help with oddly enough. 

As for the characters there are a varied range of Cliche'd character for the player to fight alongside, there's O'Neal the bad ass, Captain "I thank baby Jesus for everyday I'm in the Corp" Cruz, Bella the Bad ass, on second thought forget the varied range of Cliches. Nope there's only only one type of character I want in my Aliens game and that's a gun wielding bad ass, names are just given to them to distinguish one from the other if you can be bothered to read the names that is.   

A few other marines also make appearances but these are the equivalent of the red shirts from star trek. You might think the odds are in your favor but soon it will be just you as those marines are all killed off in a blink of an eye. 

The voice actors include Lance Henrikson and Michael Beihn
 

Moving onto level design which is another high point of the game the designers did a nice job of recreating Hadley's Hope from the film. The state that it was left in at the film's conclusion is pretty much the state of the place when you arrive, the moment you see it come into view images from the film flood into your mind. At the start of the fourth chapter the player spends all of his or her time in the location the marines barricaded themselves in during the film. Walking around further and it becomes even clearer how much attention they spent to detail and how much they have changed because of the Nuclear blast at the end of the film. 

There's even an opportunity to explore the Engineers ship as well. while nothing really happens in this sequence in the game other than the bland formula of an FPS game its a nice throwback to the Alien & Aliens films.

Now we reach the aspect of the game that makes it a let down, the game play. I can say that for the most part it's on par with what I expect from a First Person Shooter. The gun play was tolerable and bland like any Call Of Duty game and that was fine I can't expect variation on that. The sound bites used for the weapons were also very nice as well. The variation of weapons were fine but I would have preferred it if the player were limited to two or three along with the sidearm but instead the player carries an armory with him, no wonder he can't run for long periods. 

There are also points in the game where the general game play don't match. One such instance is when a APC starts shooting at you and you have to run around diving for cover until it retreats for some reason I can't fathom. Now the key part is "run" which means moving fast for as long as you need to, the game however has a time limit on how long you can run for. This isn't bad when it is done in a believable manner, making the limit one and a half minutes just isn't believable.  

There is a part of the game that was a mix of enjoyment and frustration. Upon entering a Power Loader the player enters a grudge match with a new variant of Xenomorph. While this is a good idea it lacks in execution as the AI is so dull they can't stop the regular Zenomorphs from killing you whilst in the rig.

Colonial Marines recruitment poster

Another issue with the game I found although this could be just me being unfamiliar with PC gaming is that the buttons were too close together. "F" fires the under slung grenade launcher, "V" is the default Melee button and "C" is crouch, they all form a triangle on the keyboard. More often than I like to admit I found myself crouching in the presence of an alien or blowing myself to kingdom come when trying to crouch behind cover. Eventually I just got annoyed and changed the controls but when done right the player shouldn't have to do that.  

There is also for some reason a leveling up system that is used on the single player campaign. With every Xenomorph or Mercenary that is killed the player earns XP and levels up earning an upgrade point, if these points were used to improve the character then I would be for it. Instead however they are used on the guns and not in a good way either, instead of improving accuracy, reload time etc they are used to purchase attachments. Nothing else changes in terms of game play other than me have a scope to zoom in on the horde of fuckers that want to rip me to shreds. 

As for the games AI the less sad about that the better in my opinion. All I will say about it is that I don't remember the part of the films where the Aliens ignored and ran past the Marines like two lovers having an argument. 
  


There are also variations of Xenomorphs but while this is a nice touch they are usually used in throw awway scenes and boss battles after which they are not seen again. 

My verdict on this game is that it would be better suited for an animated film. 

6.4/10

A walk through of this game is also available on my YouTube account and all parts will be uploaded soon.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified Review

This game for anyone who hasn't heard of it is a Third Person Shooter with Strategy Game elements thrown in. The player takes on the role of an agent called William Carter who gets caught in the middle of an alien invasion while transporting an object of interest. Soon after he escapes the surprise attack and is drafted into XCOM, a super secret group of the worlds best and brightest or at least it was in Enemy Unknown. In The Bureau the global scope is swapped for a map of America which is where the player will be able to see the state of the country and receive missions. In the field the player is part of a squad of three two of which take orders from him with the third being him. 

The Bureau is not a bad game by any means in fact it can be quite entertaining at points but it is a product of uncertainty. The game itself underwent three changes in its core design and it is surprising that a game as good as The Bureau was the end result. It does many things well like creating a vision of 1960s America tainted by glowing spires, bodies and Alien Invaders. It creates a believable albeit restricted world around the player for him to be immersed in. Part of this is the sense that you don't have much time before the end of humanity and its this feeling that pushes you onto the next mission. Its only after the game gets to its mid point did I start playing the missions with any interest for the story, The base that a majority of the game takes place in is also one of the best parts of the game in the beginning stages but it can get boring after a while. 

Restriction was the main problem I found with this game. In Enemy Unknown the player took command of a base and could decide on research projects, build equipment, train troops and so on. With The Bureau the Player could only really send agents out on a handful of missions along with helping out with a few odd jobs around the base. Few missions are available in the game for the player to send agents on but this is because agents level up fast and have a level cap of five. The criteria for the missions is a stat that governs the needed strength the do the missions which is counted up by the agents levels. I found this to be a quick fix for the missions as there's no criteria unique to a mission so any agent can go on any mission.

A small thing that annoyed me was that weapons could not be researched or upgraded. This doesn't really affect the game as the player can progress easily enough but it would make the game more enjoyable. 

I like killing aliens as much as the next guy which is why I would recommend this game for at least a single play through. I would also recommend that anyone who plays this game not set their expectations too high or too low. 

6/10