The constant tension of adapting your tactics and micromanaging your ship’s crew and systems keeps FTL briskly paced and thoroughly compelling. But even this limitation forces you back out into the void, like a mother duck nudging her chicks into the water.

(In one run, my crew all perished before I realized the oxygen wasn’t on.) And I wish the economy was a bit more forgiving: although it’s relatively easy to happen upon a merchant in each sector, you often end up hoarding items you don’t need, since you can’t sell fuel, missiles, or drone parts at these locations. Similarly, the feedback when systems or crew have sustained critical damage or are unpowered isn’t always clear.

The crew avatars are so small that you sometimes end up inadvertently opening a door instead of sending your men to sickbay for lifesaving healing. Still, a few minor issues can detract from the experience. Since manning certain rooms boosts power, do you keep one man on shields? Or do you pull him off the console to help repel enemy boarders? Do you try to take down the enemy’s shields first, and then set his oxygen room on fire? Or do you beam over your heavies for some fun with sabotage? In each encounter, you have to decide how best to allocate your limited resources of power and crew members to deal with the situation. No matter which ship load-out you choose-there are several unlockable varieties-your systems are essentially the same: helm, engines, oxygen, weapons, med bay, shields, door control, scanners, and possibly drone control or crew teleporter rooms. Its simple yet elegant interplay of mechanics rewards both tactical thinking and twitch skill. But what separates FTL from the rest of the genre is that it constantly presents you with interesting choices. Yes, FTL is a roguelike, that punishing type of game where death is permanent and random chance kills you just as often as your own bad decisions. You’re often outmanned, outgunned and under-powered, with constant threats from pirates, aliens, and natural phenomena like solar flares and asteroids. Your mission is to deliver vital intelligence to the Federation, scavenging what resources you can while remaining one jump ahead of the implacably advancing Rebel fleet. Like the good ship Galactica, your spacecraft in FTL: Faster Than Light jumps from star to star, not necessarily knowing what’s at the other end: an enemy ship, a slaver trap, a free weapon. It turns out that’s a pretty accurate assessment. “It sets up the main tension of the show.” “Sure, right at the start of the series,” I said. “Where they have to make a faster-than-light jump every 33 minutes, or else they’ll get blown up by the Cylon fleet?”

“You remember that Battlestar Galactica episode called ‘33’?” he said. “So what’s this FTL game you guys have been raving about?” I asked my friend, attempting a more gentle phrasing of “what’s this thing you won’t shut up about?”

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