Games of the Decade: FTL: Faster Than Light - home amongst the stars

Alright, confession time: I have never finished a runthrough of FTL.

FTL is probably my favourite game. I listen to the soundtrack every day, as I work, or unwind, or try to concentrate for just a minute. But the game? I can't finish it. In fact I'm not even getting close to finishing it, am I. The first run is just the beginning. There are all kinds of variations on your ship, that you unlock by beating that impossible final boss, that I've never used, or even really seen. But I don't care. FTL is not a game I play to finish, it's a game I play to feel at home.

For some reason, I feel incredibly calmed by the fact that space is infinitely, infinitely big and I, as a result, am infinitely, infinitely small. I know some people whose stomachs turn at the thought of that, and to be fair to them I completely understand why. It's not comforting, at least on the surface, to be told that you're insignificant, or that you don't matter, or that, I don't know, everything you've ever thought or said or done will be long, long forgotten soon enough, your hopes and dreams lost to time immemorial, your friends and family gone, your legacy dead, all things meaningless for infinitely longer than they ever had meaning. I do get why you wouldn't want to be reminded of that.

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