Rogue-like?

[EvilPigpen]

At the risk of feilding alot of abuse about ignorance, what is rogue-like. Do you earn money from fallen cargo and ship parts and sell them, is that like trading or what? Thanks

[Jarmustard]

A 'roguelike' is usually a turn based randomized dungeon crawler (similar to the old game 'rogue). FTL isn't a rogue-like but it has some similarities: It has permadeath, tons of randomization, character progression/growth (the ship itself), class selection (the different ships), and is absurdly difficult.

[Szczypior]

This game is hard, and death is permanent (unless you cheat but it's not the way this kind of games should be played). Also it's hard. It has two buttons at ship selection screen labeled as 'easy' and 'normal' which translates into english as 'hard' and 'extremely difficult' :)

This is not the type of games we can see today. It's really, really random. You can have outstanding ship which can wreck other ships at current sector with 1 blow but you can't be sure if in next encounter you won't be annihilated within seconds. That is what makes this game re-playable once you will finally finish it (and I doubt you will finish it anytime soon after buying it).

[Sentient_Toaster]

Also, it's a roguelike-like, not a roguelike ;) Look up, say, Nethack and Angband for true roguelikes.

Permadeath, difficulty setting where you're expected to lose pretty darn often, and the necessity of adaptation and learning (including sometimes realizing that the best course of action is *to run away*)...

[Ugly Horse]

Another important characteristic is the strategic depth.
While true roguelikes are turn based, in FTL you can pause at any time and queue up actions which means you have unlimited time to plan every small step (same as roguelikes). And you probably will need that extra time if you plan on beating the game!

[Pentregarth]

Originally posted by Jarmustard:

A 'roguelike' is usually a turn based randomized dungeon crawler (similar to the old game 'rogue). FTL isn't a rogue-like but it has some similarities: It has permadeath, tons of randomization, character progression/growth (the ship itself), class selection (the different ships), and is absurdly difficult.

You forgot "quite minimalistic graphics" in your summary ;-)
If you're not sure if this genre is for you, try out some of the free roguelikes around (I'd recommend dungeon crawl, but nethack or any of the others mentioned above do the trick just as well).
If you DO like it, give Binding of Isaac a try - same game concept, different take, particularily if you like biblical references bastardized in your games ^^