The Steam Files #F.1: FTL: Faster Than Light

Developer/Publisher: Subset Games
Release Date: 14 Sep 2012 (Steam)

The artwork is beautiful for its simplicity

First of all, apologies for the long wait between posts, which were down to a chronic lack of usable free time and lack of motivation. But here I go again, hopefully I'll keep it running this time.

This time, I'll be taking a brief tour of FTL: Faster Than Light. It's an indie rogue-like set in space, which probably gives some idea of what you'll expect. Death is permanent in this game, you'll have to start from scratch if your ship blows up or you fail your mission, but unlocked ships will persist between games.

So you pick a ship, and a name if you wish but the defaults are normally fine, and set off on your way. The basic premise is that you're attempting to beat the Rebel fleet back to the Federation HQ, passing through friendly and not-so-friendly sectors on the way. The game is challenging and there's a constant drive to improve your ship through upgrades of existing systems using the Ship menu, buying new weapons from Stores, hiring or acquiring the different types of crewmembers, getting augmentations for ships, and adding new systems. There are different types of crewmembers for different purposes. As usual, humans are perceived as the jack-of-all trades, but you have crew types that fit broadly into Tank, DPS, Healer, Buff categories as well, with perks and flaws to balance them out. You start off with only having the choice of a human ship, but getting halfway through a campaign will automatically unlock the Engi ship for the next playthrough.

It only gets worse from here

The game itself is pretty punishing. You jump your ship from system to system until you get to the end, at which point you jump to the next sector. Along the way, you often encounter 'decision' scenarios, where you pick an option and either get a hostile encounter, a reward, a quest, or some other event occurs. In other cases, you'll simply chance upon an enemy anyway, and during hostile  encounters there's a chance an event will occur where the ship will either try to escape, offer a bribe (if connected to an event), or offer surrender. The other regular encounter are Stores, where you can buy missiles, fuel, and drones with scrap, the universal currency for purchasing goods and upgrades, as well as a random selection of weapon/drone systems, crew, augmentations, or ship systems. Stores are also the only places you can regularly repair hull damage. The ever-advancing Rebel fleet serves as a motivation to leave the sector, as they'll quickly destroy you if they catch up to you.

A poor decision leads to a hostile encounter

Hostile encounters can be fairly complex affairs, which is why the ability to pause (with spacebar) during battles is particularly useful. Ships are divided into hull segments, which can be independently targeted by individual weapons systems. Hull damage and system damage are also completely independent, and you'll be reliant on your crew (and in some cases, drones) to repair damaged systems and patch hull breaches. However, you can only repair hull damage outside of battle (which makes sense when you think about it) at a Store or during a random event. There are many types of weapons too, with a variety of interesting effects that should occasionally be experimented with. You also have shields to deal with as well, so I find that having a missile weapon is a near necessity in most cases, as they are the only class of weapon guaranteed to penetrate shields (but not to hit, natch).

You'll need to save at least some scrap for a trip to the Store

The upgrading system is interesting too, where pretty much everything revolves around having enough power for your systems as they become more advanced (except 'subsystems', which use no power). You also have the ability to man many systems with crewmembers in order to make them more efficient. It's beneficial to keep crew attached to the same station whenever possible, as they'll get more experience with it and as a result they'll make the system a lot more efficient. Upgrading is a total necessity as you reach the end-game however, which is where you'll be put up against the Rebel fleet for a final standoff.

O SHI-

This game has been out for quite a while now, but it's definitely worth purchasing if you fancy wasting a couple of hours every so often.

Get used to this screen. You'll be seeing it a lot.

The Steam Files #E.1: Endless Space

Developer/Publisher: Amplitude Studios
Release Date: 4 Jul 2012 (Steam)

 







As a brief aside, I'm going to attempt to make my reviews more brief. After all, the intention of this series was to get me to go through my Steam collection. If my reviews seem shorter than they should be from this point onwards, that may be why.

Endless Space is an indie Space 4X strategy game. It follows in a very similar vein to Galactic Civilizations with all that entails. The design is a mixture of basic and artistic. The UI is quite minimalist and basic, making it very clear to read and understand what's going on, but at the same time not necessarily making it 'beautiful'. However, a lot of effort has clearly gone into making the artwork, where it exists, look 'in-universe' and rather unique. There's not so much of a brushwork feel to it that you get in artwork for more fantasy-oriented games, but the images in many screens do have that feel of fantasy. Ships can be created and customised by players, but looks rely on the selection of the 'base' model, each of which have unique styles for each race.

The backstory is also similar to the GC series, with artifacts of the Endless (the equivalent of GC's Precursors and Arnor) appearing periodically, and their unique 'Dust' resource featuring as the game's currency. Much like GC2, the game is turn-based, and you can set up production on planets, move fleets, and engage in battles, as well as create your own ships from researched components, plus the obvious research via a 4-branched tree (2 of which will trigger victory scenarios) focusing on different 'types' of tech, then Diplomacy.
An interesting feature of Endless Space is that rather than using 'Governors' you can recruit from a limited pool of 'heroes' that require upkeep, but will level up with experience (gained over time when running a system or through combat XP as a fleet), which makes them both more skilled and more valuable. Fortunately you can't lose heroes in battle, which makes investing in them for fleets very useful.
Production in systems takes one of three forms, and you can only construct one thing at a time per system. You can build any ship you've designed (and for which you've acquired the necessary resources,  for more advanced designs), system wide improvements, that grant bonuses at the cost of monetary output, and planetary exploitation, which involves the improvement of ancient artifacts, survey of the planet's moon (if it has one), or selecting from one of the 4 or so available planetary exploitations, which improve food, industrial, monetary, or scientific output. You can only build one main exploitation per planet, and some provide better bonuses depending on the planet's type.

Travel is similar to Sword of the Stars in this game, with fleets following hyperspace links between planets. You can also traverse wormhole/warp links once a special technology is researched, but moving through these links behaves differently. Whilst using normal links consume movement points whilst travelling, these links use all movement points in one go.

Combat is again somewhat like SotS, but Endless Space allows you to play a variety of Battle Action cards, which fall into different categories that can cancel each other, giving combat bonuses on top of stats provided by your ships' equipment. You can rely on auto-resolve or battle manually. I haven't spent a lot of time with manual battles, but my recollection was that it was similar but less complex than SotS, but the auto-resolve is usually reasonably fair with it's battle outcomes.

This game began life in an interesting manner. Amplitude is a studio founded by a few industry veterans who were keen on getting more community involvement in the game and it's development. As a result, Endless Space appeared on Steam in fairly early development as a 'beta', and invited people to join their forums and give feedback and suggestions for the game, to which they've done a good job of listening to. This has become increasingly popular with many of the 'indie' companies and we're seeing better games as a result, in my opinion. The studio is, as far as I'm aware, gearing up for other titles, but are committed to supporting this game in the future.

For my final verdict, I would say that there's now a lot of choice for this genre of game. I still stand by the original Galactic Civilizations and one of the genres classics, but Endless Space does well to cut through a lot of the clutter that makes other games bloated, whilst still providing a fairly polished experience. If this game isn't in your collection, it would make a pretty good addition, especially with on-going dev support.

The Steam Files #D.1: Dishonored

Developer: Arkane Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Release Date: 12 October 2012 (Steam)

Dishonored was an interesting purchase for me. I'd ignored most of the hype and indeed most of the reviews (including PC Gamer's, sadly) which meant I wasn't as excited by the game as some were. I guess it was probably Totalbiscuit's WTF review and a little bit of impulse buying that lead me to pick this game up.

Whaling is big business in Dunwall.

So, Dishonored is a game set in a Victorianesque steampunk universe, with the vast majority of the action taking place in the capital city of Dunwall, which is also a major whaling city. You play as the character Corvo, a Freeman-esque mute protagonist charged with protecting the Empress. The prologue to the game is quite simple, establishing the watercolour art style and the Victorian Britain sides of steampunk with the large Victorian-style buildings and the guardsmen walking around in helmets resembling those of British police officers in a very dark blue uniform.
Aside from the art style it obviously also introduces the plot, which starts with the assassination of the Empress you are supposed to protect, along with the kidnapping of her daughter and heir. Without spoiling any more, it suffices to say that the player, who isn't responsible for the death, is captured and accused of her assassination.

You'll meet all the named characters in this section again. Except the Empress.

This leads on to a fairly straightforward tutorial segment that involves Corvo escaping from prison and eventually escaping through sewers and away by boat to meet up with a group of 'Loyalists' seeking to return the Empress' daughter to the throne. I'll leave it there in terms of the plot, as I don't want to spoil it for those that (still) haven't played it.

The tools at your disposal are quite interesting and varied. Your main weapon throughout the game will be a folding shortsword (although for parts of the game it'll be static, where you've been relieved of your fancy gear) with a variety of secondary weapons and abilities to choose from. The steampunk style is carried over quite realistically to the equipment, with the sword looking more intricate than necessary in particular. You'll also gain access to a pistol, which you'll only use when you're in trouble because of its shockingly bad range and being loud enough to attract any guard within a significant portion of whatever area you happen to be in. More usefully, you gain access to a crossbow with three types of ammunition. The absurdly rare sleeping bolt is your only ranged non-lethal attack in the game, and as far as I know the only way to non-lethally take down an alerted foe. The standard bolt is very accurate with a bit of drop over range, useful for causing distractions, smashing one of those strategically placed explosive whale oil canisters, or removing those annoying propaganda speakers from their tethers. I wouldn't use them against an enemy, because they do a lot less damage than a well aimed bullet if you miss their head (or they have a helmet). Finally, you have the incendiary bolt. I learned the other night playing the game that these bolts are actually quite handy for one purpose. Enemies that are on fire will tend to stop attacking you whilst they try to put themselves out. Which is helpful if you're perilously prancing along a ledge dodging grenades.

After the crossbow, you have a few other tools. The springrazor, for instance, is a proximity mine. It's also not especially satisfying to use compared to sneaking up on enemies and slitting their throats, but if you need to draw enemies away whilst you move, putting it next to a patrol path makes a very neat distraction. You also have the grenade, which is very powerful for more violent playthroughs, but obviously less easy to come across. As you may imagine these grenades can also be cooked to time the landing with the arrival of a large patrol, for instance. Finally (if recollection recalls), you have the rewire tool, by far one of the most useful and amusing tools in the game. Attaching one of these puppies to a security device will turn it against the enemy. This has the effect of disabling alarms, but more amusing makes Walls of Lights (like a pain-field, if that pain-field was insta-death), Arc Pylons (like Tesla coils, only significantly more pissed off), and Watchtowers (big rotating things with searchlights that'll fire explosive arrows at you using a repeater if it spots you.) against your enemies, leaving you intact. This works best when the enemy is blissfully unaware of the change of security, and often leads to much confusion, as there's no-one to blame!

So, leaving tools behind, Corvo is also granted access (via upgrades, no less) to supernatural abilities courtesy of 'The Outsider', a rather pagan/Wiccan-esque deity who appears in embodied form to the player (and by the Outsider's inference to others as well, although there's no real proof of that in the game). I won't go through the whole list, as there are quite a few, but all of these abilities can be acquired and upgraded by acquiring runes (usually hidden) throughout missions and have two levels.
The principle skill you'll be acquainted with is Blink, which is a short-range line-of-sight 'teleport'. The game itself suggests that it isn't actually a 'true' teleport but simply a means in which you travel fast enough to cross certain distances without interaction with such forces as gravity, and arrive almost instantaneously. This prevents what would otherwise be a rather game-breaking ability (not to mention technically difficult) to teleport through and behind solid objects, such as wire fences or open-back staircases. A few of the other abilities are quite fun, such as Devouring Swarm, which summons plague rats that attack the nearest unfortunate being. Possession is fun, especially when levelled up to control humans, but increases vulnerability when possessing critters, as you die if they die. Finally, Bend Time is always useful when used correctly. At the higher level you can stop time for longer, and no doubt you can use your new lease of time to amusingly implicate someone in their own murder.

So, overall this game is a massive hit for me, and I'm taking a more care-free approach this time to uncover the second ending (the first ending is given if you minimise casualties and help civilians). I did struggle at times with the limited non-lethal options available, which made some sections near impossible without murdering people. The only other downside is that the game is quite short, and didn't fully explore the depth of Dunwall's lore. Obviously that leaves room for expansion packs and DLC and possibly, but I hope doing it this way hasn't compromised the storyline in the long run, as the story behind Dunwall and the characters is part of the charm.

My final conclusion is that you should definitely buy this game, if you haven't already done so. Yes, that means right now.

PS: Images may be a tad bit lacking, but I realised that the longer I spent playing the game trying to get more screenshots, the less writing was getting done. I may add some at a later date.

PPS: Given that Arkane have claimed their protagonist's silent demeanour to be greater than that of the legendary Gordon Freeman, I feel somewhat obliged to examine that at a later date, so keep an eye out for that.