Strategy space game FTL: Faster Than Light is out for iPad today, alongside a free expansion for both the PC and tablet versions of the game. It's a popular day for iPad releases, as Blizzard is also rolling out its battle card game Hearthstone on the Apple device.
The iPad edition of FTL requires an iPad 2 or higher, and will cost $10, the same price as the PC and Mac editions. The FTL: Advanced Edition expansion has been added to the computer version of FTL for free, and the iPad release is the Advanced Edition, which includes the original game.
The free expansion includes new systems and subsystems such as Clone Bay, Hacking, Mind Control and Backup Battery. They're also adding a new alien race, the Lanius, as well as a host of tweaks and improvements, such as clearer event notifications.
The final new feature is Hard Mode, which is clearly for insane people. FTL's Normal difficulty is extremely difficult and punishing, so I can't imagine the game being even harder.
FTL puts you in charge of a ship travelling through space, and you must face and manage several simultaneous challenges from fires, dogfights, and ship invasions from an overhead, real-time perspective. You can upgrade your vessel, choose where to travel, and manage battles with other ships by selecting weapons and targets, but if your ship is destroyed, it's game over--no loading saves.
FTL was developed by indie studio Subset Games and released September 14, 2012. It's available on Windows PC, Mac, Linux, and now iPad. Below is a trailer for the Advanced Edition, showing off some of the new features and additions.
