Convoy

Firstly, this does not "correct the flaws of FTL". FTLs challenge came from making tough decisions on a time limit. That's not a bug, it's a gameplay mechanic. I really want to like Convoy. It's similar in animation, style, and gameplay to FTL. It is chock full of snarky sci-fi and fantasy references. Little challenges and mini storylines abound. As where FTL was a frantic race, Convoy is a slow grind. You need to level up your escort vehicles to take on more challenges. FTL's maneuvering came from moving crew members. This time you maneuver escort vehicles to get better firing lanes, and to avoid obstacles. The sometimes harsh way you could lose a vehicle was awesome. The challenges and multiple options for each scenario made finding the same random encounter several times across multiple playthroughs bearable and made me pay attention. It starts off as a wide world to explore, peopled with random characters and fun adventures. But in the end, it's buggy, and crashes a lot. I constantly lose progress and achievements. For a game that relies on those things to unlock more playable vehicles that's a fatal flaw. It's fun, but then crashes. You finish a mini quest, and then the game forgets you did it. You get far and expect your new high score, only to find you only get two points because all other progress was erased. Maybe with a patch this game would be four or five stars. For now, not on sale, it's not worth the price.

There is a frequently-used term: the unpolished gem, and that´s exactly how I think about Convoy. As the review title says, it does many things right, only a very few "wrong", and the rest is mainly .. well, missing (yet?). The gameplay itself is pretty straightforward: Aquire spare parts for your stranded starship, no matter how. You wanna leave this barren rock floating through space ;) Storywise, this includes the (non-obligatory) good-Samaritan-behaviour for a reward, but you may also go YARR and simply shoot NPCs in the head, gaining loot. Your choice. So, you spend your time travelling through the wastelands, earning "money" (bolts), fuel and starship parts. In between, repair and upgrade your vehicles, buy/find some new stuff, make new friends or enemies and gradually prepare for lift-off. The text-based events are full of nice flavour (I´ve found references to Starcraft, Magic: The Gathering, Robocop, Monkey Island and - of course - Mad Max so far) and really add to the feeling of the game world. Combat is pretty hard (even on easy difficulty), but held rather simple, although you can make quite a difference by combining certain weapons and/or abilities. Things I liked: - The opportunity to explore freely. The world is limited in size, but you don´t have a time "limit" (as in FTL, where the enemy fleet is constantly chasing you). - Nerdy dialogue :P (see above) - Intentional frustration (to a certain degree). The game is hard, and even a fully-equipped and upgraded convoy may be shredded in an instant if you don´t pay attention. But, this makes it all the more satisfying if you come out victorious. Things I disliked: - The only thing I really miss is versatility, mainly in terms of quests and equipment. - Also, combat tactics is a bit .. flat, due to quite repetitive AI behaviour. I´m giving Convoy 4 stars because I had a really good time so far. Simple and straightforward funny game, with only some more content missing for being less repetitive.

Yes, this game is FTL-like. But it's not as good. The game play goes too many directions at once. The world map being open explore is okay, but it's all but devoid of features and encounters happen much like old Final Fantasy random encounters -- randomly with a few hot spots. The battles are where it truly pales compared to FTL, however. They're too frantic. Pausing and issuing orders is a feature, but by the time your trucks are done moving, the order is moot because the enemy has moved. Add on top of that that the battlefield randomly has "rocks" that destroy whatever is in its row when they come up and the calculating, make-do part of FTL-like games is gone, replaced by too much RNG, too much "action". Don't get me wrong -- the game isn't BAD. It's just not good enough when we have other near-perfect entries into the genre. It's good to get and play, but it's only a side attraction at this point.

This game is nothing like ftl at all. The both have quests. That's about where the similarities end. I won't go through comparing every feature of ftl because this isn't a comparison, but rather an honest review of convoy on its own merits. It's a much different game and can stand on it's own. In convoy your ship crashes on an unknown planet. You then run around in an MCV with some escort vehicles looking for four crucial parts to fix your ship and leave. The planet has four warring factions. The game is a rogue like rpg, the map is procedurally generated each time. There's an overworld jrpg style where you drive around and randomly encounter enemies on your way to do quests. Quests have some dialogue with some choices of responses that lead to different things. Sometimes it's combat, other times you talk your way out of stuff, it's also random sometimes. While one option like having a drink at a bar might turn out fine during one play through, if you encounter this next time you may end up poisoned. There are also shops scattered throughout. You burn fuel driving around so you have to refuel and repair combat damage at these shops in addition to finding new weapons and stuff. Combat is really cool, it's real time with you moving your escort vehicles around a grid to get in range of enemies. Some weapons use line of sight so you can block dmg to your MCV. Some weapons have special uses too. Enemies are somewhat varied depending on the faction. It's not super strategic though, really just focus fire the right guys. All this is really well done but the downside is lack of content. You can beat a playthrough in about 90 minutes, less if you skip side quests, and by the time you are on your third you will notice a lot of quests repeating. There aren't many vehicles or weapons to get either. If someone made a content mod or there was a new version I would gladly give this four stars, but I only got about 5 hours of enjoyment out of this title before hanging it up.