2/5 Story
4/5 Gameplay
3/5 Graphics
3/5 Music
4/5 Replay Value

Overview:
FTL is simple, straightforward, and terrific. The story is a fairly basic space age theme. You control a ship, there are different races throughout the galaxy with a variety of technologies, weapons, strengths, weaknesses, etc... and of course the game features plenty of space battles. The wonderful thing about this game is the way it takes those same basic features we've seen before and does something different with them. You control the crew of your ship not just your ship. You specifically assign your crewmembers to the consoles for piloting, weapons, shields, etc... all of the important technologies of your ship. You have to battle fires, and hull breaches, boarders, weapon damage, and sometimes even mind control or hacking. FTL is unique in the way it handles the same old space battles we've all been playing since the first Star Trek and Star Wars games. It isn't just shoot until the enemy dies. You have to play smart, conserve resources, upgrade when possible but carefully.

Story:
I feel bad trying to give this game a rating on story because it is not really meant to have much of one and actually manages to convey details of the universe pretty well just by way of gameplay.

Gameplay:
This is the meat and bones of this game. Gameplay is nearly perfect. Battles are tactical, interesting, and fun. The game is difficult but not impossible and exploration although not flashy or exciting uses elements of randomness that really makes it feel like exploring. The random encounters possible in FTL also offer an element of choice. Do I defend the colony from pirates or accept the pirates bribe to leave quietly? None of the decisions carry the weight or long term consequence of games like Mass Effect, but than much of the charm of FTL is the simplicity.

Graphics:
This game uses very simple straightforward graphics for the races, ships, guns, etc... Enough to know exactly what you are looking at without getting distracted by flashy bits or confused with what actions are occuring because of too much complexity. The backgrounds, however, are gorgeous and very very well done.

Music:
This is always the hardest category for me. I am not an avid music fan myself hardly even listening to music at all. However, the game music was not overly repetive or annoying and it seemed to fit the game well so I have no complaints against it.

Replay Value:
Highly replayable. This game is simple to play, complex to master, quick, easily stopped and picked up again later, contains unlockable ships and achievements you want to work towards, and is just generally a perfect replay game.