This game was a much better version of FTL with a lot of fun features.

However the newest patch made the game almost unplayable due to supply issues. Wait till they fix this issue before buying.

This is essentially a clone of FTL, with sort of better graphics and some small changes, but this is the lesser game.

The graphics aren't really that much better because you are basically just staring at your ship the entire time, and sometimes an enemy ship, so it's a few decent models and that is it. The organisms moving around on the ship are nothing to write home about.

Compared to FTL, many things are the same, but FTL is more polished. In this case, less is more, because this game is very unbalanced feeling and the events/story are not very engaging.

The "open" map in this game I found to be another "less is more" lesson - I keep having to backtrack because of side quests or next quest waypoint, and it doesn't feel as good as a map where you are always moving forward and aren't penalized heavily by the poor food management in this game (and growing threat level).

The weapons don't feel a lot different from each other initially, it is basically do you want to do more damage to shields or systems/hull with a cooldown. But some weapons are just bad. There is a starting rocket launcher for an example that you can put different rockets into, which basically add recharge time and damage .... so 3 options as an example: +1 second recharge (on top of 10 second base), 10 damage. Or +2 second recharge for 15 damage. OR 60 second recharge for 30 damage. I wonder which one is better? Some basic math anybody? Burst isn't even a factor much with that big of differences. (0.9 dps / 1.25 dps / .4 dps after 70 seconds aka when the fight is over)

And the explanations of the systems are kind of poor .. a couple examples: the game shows days passed and say the threat level goes up per day, okay, so why do I need a place dedicated for days AND threat? Just show me the threat ... and strange things effect it, like gaining a prisoner with a freezing pod (which wasn't explained at all) and selling them to a market lessens threat. How does that lessen the bounty against me or whatever? No idea, but it does.

This feels like an early access game, but it is released, so who knows if it will get enough polish to compete with the older FTL game.

The balance is still terrible, with multiple recent runs I've had going completely smooth until I suddenly face a random enemy that's 10x harder than any other enemy I've faced. There is also an issue where space stations will just have extremely limited resources, so while you have plenty of money, the stations will not have food or fuel.

Outside of these issues, the game is actually very fun, I just wish they would take some time to really balance this game. Take a look at enemies and try to make the difficulty curve more linear instead of these extreme spikes that pop up every so often.

If you loved FTL, you'll love this.

Had a rough launch, but looks to be in a better place now.

I feel pretty conflicted about this game.
It looks nice, it gives you that "I want to play more FTL but with a new stuff" desire covered. Devs also expanded a lot of FTL mechanics like crew progression, weapon controls and scrap.

What I don't like about this game is food and fuel scarsity when there is no reliable way of getting it.
Note: I do not dislike food system cause it gives you additional reason for having AI crew.
What I really hate is situations when your crew have 3 days of food left and you got no food looted in your 3 jumps, plus it seems to be some sort of sector wide famine cause all stores are out of food as well.
You may have all the money and loot to trade in a world, too bad your crew can't eat them...
I really think that sores should always have food and fuel stocked so if player wants to risk by exploring sectors they can do that without running out of them while they still manage to get some money and loot.

I still will recommend this game since I really admire amount of work devs put in this game and they seem to keep updating it two years after initial release, so there are still hope for some bugs and mechanics to be fixed/optimized.

+++ Vibe, ships, environments
+++ Music
+++ FTL style
+++ Space atmosphere
+++ Variety of weapons, loadouts, upgrades
+++ Variety of ships, races, characters
+++ True Indie guys

FTL but better graphics.
Cool story and lots of replayability.
You will struggle at first but then you will get used to the reward/potential of each jump.
I highly recommend.

.

GG