As someone who has sunk a lot of hours into FTL over the past decade, I can tell you this game is a lot more than just an uninspired FTL clone with a grimdark make-over, though admittedly the devs could have put in more effort into the presentation. Thankfully there’s a demo so you don’t need to take my word for it.
A lot more emphasis on crew. They’re easier to acquire but also more fragile and prone to dying if you’re not careful.
Runs are still centered around defeating a final boss but the game is a lot more freeform/customizable and less punishing overall, at least on Torment 1 (compared to the “easiest” difficulty in FTL). You need to make your way to the final “ship” but there’s less pressure since you aren’t being hunted down by a pursuing fleet like in FTL.
This isn’t to say Void War “beats” FTL nor does it need to. It just has its own identity which I found refreshing as opposed to just playing another copy.