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FTL focuses on the ship management activities required during capital ship space battles, leaving out the flashy visuals, scale, and exploration that typically accompany these kinds of games.
The combat is tense. The game offers a number of options for upgrades depending on play style. However, dominant strategies mean those "options" are merely dead ends on the road to discovering the right way to win.
Unfortunately, combat is not the only tense part of the game. The constant threat from the Rebel Fleet forces you to calculate your jumps through a sector to stay ahead of the ever-encroaching wall. This added stress hurts pacing, since there is never a moment to relax.
Managing power distribution among systems is not so much an issue of satisfying competing interests as it is an effort to repair damage. In combat, for instance, you power up your weapons. The only time to consider power again is if the weapons system is damaged and weapons go offline. That does not represent a meaningful choice.
Perhaps if you upgraded your systems to consume more power than your engines could supply, it would be an issue. However, the only use for systems is combat, so decisions would still be tactical calculations, not meaningful choices. Also, the game isn't long enough to build up systems that far anyway.
As an indie game, I would not expect the scope of a game like Bridge Commander. FTL is good for some casual action with addicting qualities (not necessarily a good thing), but does not have a deep or meaningful experience to take away. Well worth the $5 price tag (what I paid on sale), but that's about it.
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