Indie · September 14, 2012

FTL: Faster Than Light (2012)

trophy51 achievementsextension1 DLClocal_offer-75% current discountgroup1M–10M ownerstrending_up1.6k peak concurrentrecommend61.1k recommendations
FTL is now available in 9 languages! English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and Simplified Mandarin! ************************ The free expansion, FTL: Advanced Edition, is available now! Content additions include: new alien race, events, weapons, playable ships, drones, and more! Also adds additional musical tracks by Ben Prunty, and events by Tom Jubert and guest writer Chris Avellone. If you already own FTL it should update the new content automatically. Advanced Edition is included free for anyone who purchases the game from this point forward. ************************ In FTL you experience the atmosphere of running a spaceship trying to save the galaxy. It's a dangerous mission, with every encounter presenting a unique challenge with multiple solutions. What will you do if a heavy missile barrage shuts down your shields? Reroute all power to the engines in an attempt to escape, power up additional weapons to blow your enemy out of the sky, or take the fight to them with a boarding party? This 'spaceship simulation roguelike-like' allows you to take your ship and crew on an adventure through a randomly generated galaxy filled with glory and bitter defeat. Key Features: Complex Strategic Gameplay - Give orders to your crew, manage ship power distribution and choose weapon targets in the heat of battle. Play at Your Own Speed - Pause the game mid-combat to evaluate your strategy and give orders. Unique Lifeforms and Technology – Upgrade your ship and unlock new ones with the help of six diverse alien races. Be the Captain You Want - Hundreds of text based encounters will force you to make tough decisions. Randomized Galaxy - Each play-through will feature different enemies, events, and results to your decisions. No two play-throughs will be quite the same. No Second Chances! - Permadeath means when you die, there's no coming back. The constant threat of defeat adds importance and tension to every action.

Position in Indie

MetricThis titleGenre position
Review volume75.1k Steam reviewsTop 4% in Indie
Positive rating95% positiveGenre average: 87% — this title sits in top 23%
Metacritic84/100Genre average 77 — top 22% of Indie titles
Concurrent peak1.6k playersTop 6% in Indie by live player count
Engagement hours34 h averageTop 14% for session depth among Indie

Community Tag Signals

Tag weights reflect how many Steam users voted each descriptor — larger pills = stronger consensus.

  • Rogue-like · 3.0k
  • Space · 2.7k
  • Strategy · 2.3k
  • Sci-fi · 2.1k
  • Indie · 2.1k
  • Singleplayer · 1.8k
  • Perma Death · 1.6k
  • Difficult · 1.4k
  • Replay Value · 1.4k
  • Real-Time with Pause · 1.2k
  • Procedural Generation · 1.1k
  • Tactical · 1.1k
  • Space Sim · 1.1k
  • Top-Down · 1.1k
  • 2D · 1.1k

Localization Coverage

Interface / Subtitles (10)

  • English volume_up
  • French volume_up
  • Italian volume_up
  • German volume_up
  • Spanish - Spain volume_up
  • Polish volume_up
  • Portuguese - Brazil volume_up
  • Russian volume_up
  • Simplified Chinese volume_up
  • Japanese volume_up

Full audio (10)

  • English
  • French
  • Italian
  • German
  • Spanish - Spain
  • Polish
  • Portuguese - Brazil
  • Russian
  • Simplified Chinese
  • Japanese

Peer Indie titles

Comparable titles in the same genre and review-volume band — ranked by Steam positive percentage.

Reception Metrics

Steam community

95%Overwhelmingly Positive · 75.1k reviews

71.3k positive · 3.8k negative

Metacritic

84/100 critic aggregate

Open Metacritic page

Metacritic user score

8.4/10

Curator recommendations

61.1k

Peak concurrent players

1.6k

Indie releases from 2012

8 Indie titles launched in 2012 — top 6 by review volume.

Engagement Profile

All-time avg

34h

moderate (15–40 hours)

Median

11h

Typical completion time

2-week avg

4h

Current engagement

Achievements

51

Steam unlocks available

Features & Capabilities

Community

  • Steam Achievements
  • Steam Trading Cards
  • Remote Play on Phone
  • Remote Play on Tablet

Other

  • Single-player
  • Family Sharing

Release & Availability

Release dateSep 14, 2012
DeveloperSubset Games
Base price$2.49 -75%
DLC / Add-ons1 released
PlatformsWindows, macOS, Linux
Estimated owners1M–10M
External linksOfficial site · Metacritic page · Support · [email protected]

Editions & Packages

  • Buy FTL: Faster Than Light