Developer Subset Games today released its popular real-time strategy game FTL: Faster Than Light on the iPad, coming roughly a year after the title was released on Mac, PC, and Linux to much acclaim.

The game puts the player in the commanding role of a ship aligned with the Galactic Federation, tasked with getting vital data back to its headquarters. However, rebel ships are persistent in attacking the spacecraft, allowing players to engage in top down combat while maintaining and upgrading their ship with new weapons, crew members, and more.

ftl_faster_than_light1

The award winning PC spaceship simulation game from Subset Games comes to iPad!

Key Features:
- Give orders to your crew, manage ship power distribution and choose weapon targets in the heat of battle.
- Pause the game mid-combat to evaluate your strategy and give orders.
- Upgrade your ship and unlock new ones with the help of seven diverse alien races.
- Hundreds of text based encounters will force you to make tough decisions.
- Each play-through will feature different enemies, events, and results to your decisions. No two play-throughs will be quite the same.
- Permadeath means when you die, there’s no coming back. The constant threat of defeat adds importance and tension to every action.

The iPad version of the game also includes the FTL: Advanced Edition expansion, which offers new ship systems, events, weapons, drones, equipment, enemy types, levels and more in addition to user interface improvements.

Our sister site TouchArcade reviewed the game, regarding the iPad version of FTL as the “definitive version”, crediting the title's touch controls and regarding them as more intuitive compared to a traditional mouse and keyboard control scheme. Overall, the title was noted as the perfect “play while you do something else game” and given a five star rating. The full review is well worth checking out, as is a video walkthrough of FTL which can be seen below.


FTL: Faster Than Light for the iPad is available for $9.99 on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

GulGnu Avatar
141 months ago
This isn't the kind of game you should evaluate using video - it is really excellent imho.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Igantius Avatar
141 months ago
Wasn't this a kick starter game? I heard it disappointed a lot of people because it didn't come with the features that people were pledging for.

Not quite, the developers (two guys, IIRC) were working in the games industry and decided they wanted to work for themselves so they started working FTL, using their savings.

They were almost finished, but needed a bit more cash so went onto Kickstarter – going from memory, but I think this is right – the target was $10K, but people pledged over $200K. They were able to finish the game as planned, but were able to expand it slightly – I think there was a longer soundtrack and they got someone to wrote events for the game and had more than they were planned.

I wasn’t a pledger but I follow a lot of Kickstarter projects and can’t recall anyone being dissatisfied with the finished project. If anything, FTl is a perfect example of someone showing an accurate representation of what they want to do (particularly as the game wasn’t near far from being finished) and delivering on it. From the various gaming forum threads I’ve read and participated on, response has been very positive in the main.

As I say, I didn’t pledge on Kickstarter but when FTL I bought the game straight away (so full price) and will be buying the iPad version without hesitation. Although I only dip into now and then, I thought that it would be perfect with a touch interface and it’s a neat game.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Nunyabinez Avatar
141 months ago
It's a good game, I tried it and liked it, but didn't buy it - now with this update there's every incentive to fork over 10 bucks. I will buy it finally :)

Oh and for the love of all that is not spyware and stupid DRM, buy this game on GOG.com not Steam.

On GOG.com you get the Mac version as well as the PC version, just like on Steam, but without *any* strings attached. Steam is an unfortunate fact of modern PC/Mac gaming, but always check first on GOG.com for a game. :cool:

http://www.gog.com/game/faster_than_light

Not sure what you have against Steam. It is a wonderful service as far as I'm concerned. I play games with friends and Steam makes this very easy. I also have multiple machines that I game from and Steam syncs my game progress. Plus, during the Steam Summer sale I get mildly aged great games for a song. So, not sure how Steam's DRM is screwing me.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bflowers Avatar
141 months ago
I have this game via Steam. It is a really great, but constantly frustrating game. Expect to die a lot! Don't worry, you will just have fun doing it.

The great part about the desktop version is the healthy modding community. I've played the game in the StarTrek universe, and as a Firefly class ship from Serenity/Firefly.

The soundtrack alone is worth the $9.99, though I think you can actually download it for less via Steam.

----------

I had seen this game on the Mac App Store once and was mildly curious, but I don't really play games on my Mac. Coming to the iPad, that's a different story, so I wanted to watch that video but... boy is it painful. I'm not sure if the game looks really boring or if it's just him.

This game is really good. Try looking up several other people play it on the desktop version. Day 9 is pretty funny to watch, but is horrible at the game.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
shenfrey Avatar
141 months ago
Your getting confused with another Kickstarter game Star Command.
Ah that name rings a bell!

Apologies, my mistake.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
amarcus Avatar
141 months ago
Wasn't this a kick starter game? I heard it disappointed a lot of people because it didn't come with the features that people were pledging for.

Your getting confused with another Kickstarter game Star Command.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 18

Apple Expected to Release iOS 18.3 Next Week With These New Features

Thursday January 23, 2025 6:41 am PST by
iOS 18.3 should be released to the public next week, following beta testing since mid-December. While the software update is a relatively minor one, it still includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes for iPhones. Below, we recap everything new in iOS 18.3. Notification Summary Changes Examples of inaccurate Apple Intelligence notification summaries Apple Intelligence...
iOS 18

5 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.3

Friday January 24, 2025 1:55 am PST by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.3 next week, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a couple of neat new capabilities to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices, and bug fixes. While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.3 still introduces capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've...
Generic iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Beta Coming Soon With These New Features for Your iPhone

Friday January 24, 2025 8:16 am PST by
iOS 18.3 is expected to be widely released next week, and that means the first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner. Apple has previously implied that iOS 18.4 will be released in April, as that is when it promised to make Apple Intelligence available in even more languages. Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far. Apple Intelligence for Siri Siri ...
Apple Pay Walmart Feature

Walmart Stands Firm on Why It Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in the U.S.

Thursday January 23, 2025 7:32 am PST by
Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today. A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient...
apple tv 4k new orange

New Apple TV Launching This Year With These New Features

Wednesday January 22, 2025 6:01 pm PST by
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year. In this article, we recap rumored features and changes for the device. The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, which would be an upgrade over the current Apple TV's standard Wi-Fi 6 support. Wi-Fi 6E extends the...
iOS 18

Here Are Apple's Full Release Notes for iOS 18.3

Tuesday January 21, 2025 4:31 pm PST by
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what's new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes. The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for iPhone 16 models, it tweaks Notification summaries on all...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Horizontal Single Feature

Kuo: iPhone 17 Models Won't Have Smaller Dynamic Island

Friday January 24, 2025 9:09 am PST by
The upcoming iPhone 17 models that Apple plans to release this year will not feature a smaller Dynamic Island, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today. On social media, he said that he is expecting the size of the Dynamic Island to remain "largely unchanged" across the iPhone 17 lineup. His statement is contrary to prior rumors that we've heard about planned changes for the iPhone 17 models. ...
iPhone 16 Apple Store Levels

Gurman: Apple Stores Receiving 'Merchandise' Updates Next Week

Saturday January 25, 2025 5:07 pm PST by
Apple's retail stores will be rolling out "merchandise/floor marketing updates" next week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman did not explicitly say if the store updates are related to any upcoming product announcements, but he did mention that next week is around the time that Apple rolls out its annual Black Unity watch band for the Apple Watch. In each of the past four years, ...
apple power beats pro 2

Apple's First Product Announcement of 2025 is Imminent

Thursday January 23, 2025 2:48 pm PST by
It's also time for Apple's first product announcement of the year. Last year, Apple said it would be launching Powerbeats Pro 2 in 2025, and the wireless earbuds are expected to launch very soon. Powerbeats Pro 2 images found in iOS 18 code In his Power On newsletter last weekend, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the Powerbeats Pro 2 are "due imminently." In addition to Apple filing the...