Elite: Dangerous

 PC
User Score
6.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 1913 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,150 out of 1913
  2. Mixed: 209 out of 1913
  3. Negative: 554 out of 1913

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  1. Ekar
    Feb 26, 2015
    6
    I said to myself that I would give Elite a year (after release date) before judging it, as I understood that more features were to be coming or planned. I had told myself, and heard it said many times before, that its foundations were good and solid. After playing the game for about a month or so I'm not so sure that's really true, or it depends on what you mean by foundations. So let'sI said to myself that I would give Elite a year (after release date) before judging it, as I understood that more features were to be coming or planned. I had told myself, and heard it said many times before, that its foundations were good and solid. After playing the game for about a month or so I'm not so sure that's really true, or it depends on what you mean by foundations. So let's talk foundations.

    If you mean the flight experience- the moment to moment sense of being in a spaceship, then yes, that's all pretty solid and nice.

    If you mean the environment, the backdrop of stars which are all real systems that you can set off to and explore- that's also a very solid foundation. Who can scoff at a 1:1 scale virtual galaxy as playground? Stellar Forge is a stellar achievement, and should be the envy of any space sim looking to portray the actual vastness of space.

    These two things Elite does very well. But some of the other 'foundations' are not there yet, and may never really get there...

    For example, I originally assumed that the mysterious and long awaited 'background simulation' would actually model material flows throughout the galaxy- that factories would not be able to produce stuff without a specific number of specific raw materials present, that populations would starve if not enough food was produced or procured. That Terrain Enrichment Systems would actually enrich terrains. I imagined all kinds of interesting knock on effects which players could participate in and shape to however small degree. Sadly, this doesn't seem to be the case. Right now the economic aspect of Elite feels fractured, stale and isolated from the rest of the game. Trading simply feels like moving numbers from one place to another, but without meaning or effect. You get credits for doing so, but you haven't actually saved the day for the factory owner who's pulling his hair out because he can't get a hold of enough aluminium. The result is that trading becomes a minigame (in a series of minigames, none of which are really talking to each other), and barring a bit of fluctuation in prices, nothing really changes. Right now I'd say this is the primary reason for the game's hollow feeling. Missions should be tied to the real needs of each station, though since the economy isn't an actual thing, I guess this is impossible at this stage. Dynamic and unfolding universe this is not.

    This became more visible to me with the recent introduction of community goals, with an early goal being the production of a new space station for a certain faction. Nowhere in Elite, do factions actually build or do anything on their own, the developers themselves introduce new things into the game. So, there's no AI logic which says that it makes sense for a faction to build a station in system x, or that asteroid belt y is a good place to send workers to mine for metals, or anything else as far as I can see. We simply have the illusion of AI traffic going about some kind of business, but then they're zapped out of existence when the player leaves the immediate area. I get that... you can't create lives for every single NPC in the game. But it would be nice to know that any NPCs you do meet represent a logic operating within deeper levels of the game's background simulation and economy. At the moment any kind of encounter just feels random.

    Missions, another 'foundation' of the game, are very basically implemented right now but there is word from the devs that they are being overhauled. The way in which missions tie into USS's (unidentified signal sources) is quite horrible - for instance, you can drop into a completely random part of a system and meet an NPC player who is actually looking for you! I can't fathom the actual odds of that occuring. Other times, you just doddle along without any real direction, looking for a specific item you've been assigned to find, and after a certain amount of tries, you'll stumble across it in a USS. Random chance again. You're not using your brain or skills to achieve something, you're just waiting for the right number to come up. This kind of thing is clumsy and breaks immersion, it's simply not good gameplay. I'm really looking forward to improvements in this area- I'm sure they will come in time.

    I've highlighted two things which I feel are the most lacking currently. Certainly there are aspects of the game which are truly great, such as the sound design, atmosphere, and previously mentioned flight experience & environment. For me to keep playing and interested, I need to feel the 'glue' of the galaxy; a properly modeled economy, faction behaviours and actions which aren't just the whims of developers, more content for sure... that large stations interiors feel very samey on the inside kills any sense of actually going anywhere. I want to feel surprise as I enter a new station I've never been to. More variety will surely help.

    Consider this a 'beta' review. Let's see how things are a year out.    … Expand
  2. Wally_Allen
    Apr 27, 2015
    6
    Ok so let me start out by saying I am a fan of this game and have been playing since beta.... with that being said.... I'm very disappointed with the graphics... all the shudders and stutters and whatnot... then noticing after setting my graphics to what I want they would get changed without me doing anything all of a sudden my graphics a subpar and it looks like a first year xbox 360Ok so let me start out by saying I am a fan of this game and have been playing since beta.... with that being said.... I'm very disappointed with the graphics... all the shudders and stutters and whatnot... then noticing after setting my graphics to what I want they would get changed without me doing anything all of a sudden my graphics a subpar and it looks like a first year xbox 360 game.... the game is buggy and shouldn't be a full release yet ... it's not ready... I would say hold out for at least 6 months to a year before you get it .... it's no different than it was in straight beta ... though my computer ran it better when it was in
    "beta"....

    really tired of game companies releasing unfinished buggy games.... for now elite dangerous get's put away ... I'll wait till it's not a glorified alpha game...

    overall frontier has dropped the ball on this and pushed it's release way before they should have... very disappointed at this point....    … Expand
  3. Grobi
    Jun 5, 2015
    6
    Everyone who played the original game back in the 80's, should be right at home. It's the 21st Century version of "Elite." But newer, uninitiated players may find it strangely desolate and repetitive. A grand space simulation, aimed at the series' hardcore fans.
  4. bob_slump
    Jul 16, 2015
    6
    I got this when it was at beta. I saw snippets of people playing earlier games and it looked pretty cool. I also wanted it to play with the Rift. For that the resolution is too low with DK2 but it looked promising. Overall the game itself has some nice graphics but gameplay is as dull as anything. Travelling around is very tedious and combat mostly consists of chasing a tiny enemy ship around.
  5. MrSteakface
    Feb 10, 2016
    6
    I've put over 100 hours into this game. You'd think that a game I've played for that long would deserve a higher score. That'e because, to me, this game represents the perfect example of a love-hate relationship.

    The game world is HUGE, so expansive it can take weeks to cross it with some solid time investment. I personally love the exploration aspect of the game, and being able to    I've put over 100 hours into this game. You'd think that a game I've played for that long would deserve a higher score. That'e because, to me, this game represents the perfect example of a love-hate relationship.

    The game world is HUGE, so expansive it can take weeks to cross it with some solid time investment. I personally love the exploration aspect of the game, and being able to first discover stars and planets gives you a reason to venture far. The ships are great and fill many different roles. Some ships focus on specific roles, some can handle multiple roles, and some are just cool to have. Flight mechanics are very well done but can be difficult to master, providing progression in combat skill. Weapons and loadouts are diverse enough that you'll always be coming up with different ship builds, sometimes to the point of obsession. The visuals and sounds are beautiful, FD really has a great art team. Along with a slowly progressing story-line, the game will give you a reason to catch up on the galaxy's latest news even if you're taking a break.

    That was the love, well, most of it. We all know what must come next. Like others have said, the game can seem shallow and lacking, and can get repetitive very quickly. Missions don't make much sense as starting players will need to have some kind of ranking before accepting most of them. Players who are further advanced in the game may have many mission options, but most of them aren't worth the time investment. Grouping with others can be a hit or miss because of the way the games peer-to-peer online system works; sometimes you can drop into the same instance, sometimes you can't. It can be quite irritating when your friend is engaged in combat with someone else, and you can't come to their aid because of infrastructure limitations. FD's priorities put game breaking CTD (crash to desktop) bugs on the development back burner, releasing content patch after content patch while adding more bugs. The gaming experience would be much improved if FD would just take the time to fix them. The community is hit or miss when discussing these issues. Many members take it as their personal responsibility to defend FD's actions, for whatever reason, even if they are obviously causing issues within the game.

    In the end, I want to completely love this game. There are so many things this game does right, and it's unfortunate that they must be grouped with all the things the game does wrong. I will continue to play it, all the while staying hopeful for the possible grand slam that Star Citizen has worked itself up to be.    … Expand
  6. BayJay
    Oct 30, 2018
    6
    It is necessary to develop the game and add more content, but not the coloring of ships, "lasers" and "engines". While little is added (my opinion). But I play it
  7. rockodagamer
    Nov 17, 2022
    6
    This is a really good game, the graphics are good, the gameplay is good, even the vr is sh*t! Ok but no joke the game play is really good and i personally think the flight controls are really good, the only problem i have with the controls is that your not in control. The only problem i have with the game play is that it doesnt feel like it has a story. The graphics are amazing it looksThis is a really good game, the graphics are good, the gameplay is good, even the vr is sh*t! Ok but no joke the game play is really good and i personally think the flight controls are really good, the only problem i have with the controls is that your not in control. The only problem i have with the game play is that it doesnt feel like it has a story. The graphics are amazing it looks beautifull, the planets are generated extremely well and look hand made, the optimization is also amazing and i can run this on ultra settings on 4K with an rtx 3070.

    The VR is terrible, i dont even know why they added it because it is totally useless. You gotta use your keyboard to do everything, the controllers arent used for anything, you cant sit while your in the game because then youll just clip inside of your body, you dont really get motion sick TOO fast but its still pritty bad. This feature needs to be removed because it serves no purpose besides make you sick while you play. I personally think a 6 for this game is still high but i only gave it that because the world generation and optimization is good.    … Expand
  8. ShinsFortress
    Apr 4, 2015
    5
    Nice idea. Would have been happy with less tweaks on making it big and more on making it good. I've played almost all the space sims that there's been, and this one is not in the top 10.

    Okay, but not worth the £40 they're charging at the moment.
  9. Danceswithsheep
    Mar 17, 2015
    5
    I expected too much so I guess it's my fault I feel let down.

    I love the handling of the ships and it looks fantastic but there is this confused keep it real vibe that stops it being fun which for me can be summed up in three elements 1. The way it is set up for griefers in multiplayer and the reverse of the old school MMO trope where in this game the last touch, no matter how    I expected too much so I guess it's my fault I feel let down.

    I love the handling of the ships and it looks fantastic but there is this confused keep it real vibe that stops it being fun which for me can be summed up in three elements

    1. The way it is set up for griefers in multiplayer and the reverse of the old school MMO trope where in this game the last touch, no matter how slight, wins you all the bounty. So you play in Solo mode but are affected by the multiplayer happenings and everything is second hand because the multiplayers got there first.

    2. Because it's 'real' if you go too far there are no stations to land on so no jobs to do and every chance you will fall victim to problem number three

    3. If you lose your ship then you lose a lot of your time investment due to the flaky insurance system they have set up which is like the worst car or home insurance you could ever buy and where assets on other stations cannot be used to offset losses.

    In essence it seems to me they have forgotten this is a game, it's very punishing if you die and offers none of the save options a single player game might so it sucks fun from exploring where a mistake or bug can result in you losing all your personal progress. It's like it wants to be Eve but without the gameplay of that model.

    I was hoping for exciting surprises to be hidden randomly amongs the stars but nothing there, this is truly an empty Galaxy. Don't look for Sci-Fi fun and gaming here, this is pretty turgid (pun intended).    … Expand
  10. keksbruch
    Dec 16, 2014
    5
    Expected more. Rushed release. Really not much to do in the game, multiplayer doesn´t really deserve the name. The little that is there is still bugged.
  11. ShottyMonster
    Dec 16, 2014
    5
    I've been playing since premium beta (about 4-5 months).

    Flight mechanics: Great, responsive and adrenaline fueled. AI: Ok bordering on bad Universe Sim: Weak and shallow Trading: Good but currently broken Supercruise: Terrible and boring Combat: Fun but repetitive Sound design: A* Graphics: Very good but some odd decision made regarding supercruise HUD Overall: Fun for a    I've been playing since premium beta (about 4-5 months).

    Flight mechanics: Great, responsive and adrenaline fueled.
    AI: Ok bordering on bad
    Universe Sim: Weak and shallow
    Trading: Good but currently broken
    Supercruise: Terrible and boring
    Combat: Fun but repetitive
    Sound design: A*
    Graphics: Very good but some odd decision made regarding supercruise HUD

    Overall: Fun for a while but marred by terrible games design decisions ultimately resulting in a boring experience.    … Expand
  12. sneakyc4
    Mar 13, 2021
    5
    Having now spent over 500 hours and I can say Elite is not a game, it's a boring space / loading screen simulator.

    Graphics: 9/10 Sound Design : 10/10 (it's so good you forget about the laws of physics like you re not meant to hear sound in a vaccum) Cockpit Experience 9/10 sooooo immersive, even better in VR Flight model, dynamics 9/10 it's quite fun to fly and pew pew    Having now spent over 500 hours and I can say Elite is not a game, it's a boring space / loading screen simulator.

    Graphics: 9/10

    Sound Design : 10/10 (it's so good you forget about the laws of physics like you re not meant to hear sound in a vaccum)

    Cockpit Experience 9/10 sooooo immersive, even better in VR

    Flight model, dynamics 9/10 it's quite fun to fly and pew pew

    Network: 5/10 limited to wings of 4 lots of instancing issues, almost unplayable

    Gameplay : 2/10 (very limited and inconsistent, chaotic) This is the biggest problem of this title. The game is split in many activities ( that have little to no-overlap) and gets overall very basic, repetitive and dull.You will be jumping stars and looking a lot at a loading screen and you are meant to like it!

    MMO : 0 /10 all you can do is shoot others or drop/pickup cargo ... the money in game cannot be transfered. There are lots gameplay limitation that ruins the game (cannot carry upgrades around ...) pushing players to find loopholes to get around those ... leading the dev to create more nerf / constraints to block players to do what they want = no freedom = more salt = less fun. The only impact you can have is the label of the faction controling a system or a nametag on a planet for having discovered it first. This "thing" is soporific!

    Difficulty : 3/10 there s quite a bit to learn before you feel confortable flying around., you may feel like burning your joystick while you are learning... It's really difficult to not get bored too as all the end-game content is simply hidden away behind a soul-crushing repetitive grind that will make you regret to play this game.

    If you like space games, have friends to play with, and have a lot of imagination, then this game is for you : it will provide the world for your space adventures. But don't expect too much variety in missions and activities. The bare extra-ordinary content will be created by you and what you decide to do and will always revolve around doing the same missions or shooting others.

    Space travel is soooo slow and long, this game will require a lot of patience, a lot of time just looking at a loading screen.    … Expand
  13. rootz
    Jun 1, 2015
    5
    If you like to jump from system to system to copy of copy of copy with some other planet names and colors and you think you are exploring space than this is a nice game for you !
  14. tpapas1
    Dec 16, 2014
    5
    well at least its not x-rebirth :) for which we waited 3 yrs to have a playable non buggy experience. it seems like arma 3 . Bohemia needed an extra year to delivered a full game...

    Elite at its present state its extremelly promising but unfinished. Not worth the money they ask but still enjoyable. positives 1. I like the combat and exploration system. 2 graphics are great. 3 ship    well at least its not x-rebirth :) for which we waited 3 yrs to have a playable non buggy experience. it seems like arma 3 . Bohemia needed an extra year to delivered a full game...

    Elite at its present state its extremelly promising but unfinished. Not worth the money they ask but still enjoyable.

    positives
    1. I like the combat and exploration system.
    2 graphics are great.
    3 ship handling
    4. Rift + track ir support magnificent
    5. they convey nicely the feeling of the unknown- unexplored . especially within meteor fields

    sadly the disadvantages are many
    1. game is a shell = no real missions= you are paying for an always online beta version....NOT a full game
    2. while the need for always online it is not an MMO= no interaction with other players
    3. GAME SERVERS MOT STABLE, NOT POSSIBLE TO PLAY WHEN YOU WANT...
    4. bad support

    Come back in 1 year    … Expand
  15. Beardsmear
    Dec 16, 2014
    5
    ED has great potential. But I have to base my review on the released version and so far this is just a fraction of a complete game. This grindfest lacks a lot in every part that would provide long term motivation. This game lacks an offline mode which was promised beforehand but the multiplayer part does not have really, well "multiplay" so far.
  16. Dirtbox
    Dec 16, 2014
    5
    Looks beautiful and sounds incredible and it's a marvelous technical achievement with a lot of familiar favourites, but as it currently stands, there isn't a lot of game, and what there is is unforgiving to an extreme and what little content the game has to offer is artificially obscured behind titanic levels of grind. Making money, which is apparently central to progressing in the game,Looks beautiful and sounds incredible and it's a marvelous technical achievement with a lot of familiar favourites, but as it currently stands, there isn't a lot of game, and what there is is unforgiving to an extreme and what little content the game has to offer is artificially obscured behind titanic levels of grind. Making money, which is apparently central to progressing in the game, is incredibly hard when you're starting out and all your hard earned credits can be dashed with a single unfortunate incident.

    The social aspect of the always online universe is nil, you may see other commanders, but if you bought the game to play with friends then you're often out of luck, you will start life many, many light years from anyone you know and there is bizarrely no way to reach them.    … Expand
  17. grumphy
    Dec 27, 2014
    5
    Has potential but is currently severly lacking in actual content and information regarding how the different modules and weapons perform.
    Also has a fair share of bugs, weapons not working, ships suddenly exploding, unable to complete missions.
    Is currently more a less just a giant grindfest without much depth
  18. wipeout2014
    Dec 30, 2014
    5
    If you buy this game, watch out. It has an extremely nasty little feature in it.

    If your spacecraft gets destroyed and you don't have enough money on you at that very moment for insurance or a loan, your spacecraft doesn't respawn. It's gone forever. Since some spacecraft may take weeks or months of work to buy -- depending on how you play -- this perhaps the most brutal gameplay    If you buy this game, watch out. It has an extremely nasty little feature in it.

    If your spacecraft gets destroyed and you don't have enough money on you at that very moment for insurance or a loan, your spacecraft doesn't respawn. It's gone forever.

    Since some spacecraft may take weeks or months of work to buy -- depending on how you play -- this perhaps the most brutal gameplay mechanic I've seen in decades of playing videogames.

    Potentially all your work is gone for failing to watch one number on one page of one of the many ship displays.

    There's no warning when you are in danger of losing your ship. And that number's importance is never explained.

    I have to wonder what the hell the developers were thinking to make this even possible.

    Players naturally want to fly their new ships the moment they have scraped together enough money to buy them. And if they do, this insurance feature will punish any mistake mercilessly.

    It's a good game overall, a bit empty at the moment and there's much that can and will be added and improved.

    But whatever you do, be aware of this ridiculous insurance feature.    … Expand
  19. Skycrime
    Jan 1, 2015
    5
    I really wanted to like this game, but it just isn't ready. This is a beautiful single player game with a vast universe and no depth. Having been marketing as multiplayer, I find the lack of social features- even basic chat functions- to be massively disappointing. The universe here is dead. The systems have no character, nothing to set them apart. The ships and equipment don't, either,I really wanted to like this game, but it just isn't ready. This is a beautiful single player game with a vast universe and no depth. Having been marketing as multiplayer, I find the lack of social features- even basic chat functions- to be massively disappointing. The universe here is dead. The systems have no character, nothing to set them apart. The ships and equipment don't, either, while we're at it. The missions are repetitive, and players have no impact on the world. The AI is limited at best, and I'm having a really hard time figuring out why I should launch the game again. I want it to be great, I really do, and I'm hopeful that it will be. But as it is now, I just can't recommend it.… Expand
  20. GamestaUK
    Mar 5, 2015
    5
    This game is visually beautiful, but I still have a problem with it. It's nothing more than a remaster of the original. It doesn't work at the moment as it should, I will get back to it in a year and a half.
  21. Anthroban
    Feb 19, 2015
    5
    The graphics and sound are solid enough but the unforgivable sin of this game is that it is so very dull and boring. There is little in way of actual content - this doesn't mean the galaxy isn't enormous it means there are only about half a dozen things to do in it and they all get very old very fast.
  22. helioarc
    Jan 21, 2015
    5
    Half a score for half a game. Looks pretty at first, but lacks any depth. You'll be bored within an hour or two. Maybe one day it will be worth buying, but for now I'd steer clear.
  23. Stig
    Feb 22, 2015
    5
    I was excited. I played the original Elite in my youth and spent an embarrassing amount of time playing it. Typical teenage basement dweller.

    The first week it was fine, new ships to fly, new flight/combat mechanics, and some very frustrating bugs. I stuck with it ... and it got more and more frustrating ... and boring. Like Eve, it feels like work. Combat with NPCs is predictable,    I was excited. I played the original Elite in my youth and spent an embarrassing amount of time playing it. Typical teenage basement dweller.

    The first week it was fine, new ships to fly, new flight/combat mechanics, and some very frustrating bugs. I stuck with it ... and it got more and more frustrating ... and boring. Like Eve, it feels like work. Combat with NPCs is predictable, mining and trading is tedious, the odd time you get interdicted ... ugh.

    Time wasted aside, I really wish I could get a refund.    … Expand
  24. bojamajams
    Feb 23, 2015
    5
    Pretty shallow game play, multiplayer mechanics are very lacking with little to do with other players. All the different "professions" you could choose are repetitive and get stale pretty quickly.
    It takes some sophistry to try to argue there is more to the game than making credits and upgrading your ship and its modules. Pretty disappointing for a "released" game.
  25. Branko
    Apr 23, 2015
    5
    It's basically a modern remake of Elite. The multiplayer component is one of the most contrived ways of having multiplayer I have seen so far. It is essentially a single player game, and while graphics are good and flying in space is rather fun, the game is rather shallow and after some time amounts to a grindfest for the next ship.

    The crux of the matter is that there is no really    It's basically a modern remake of Elite. The multiplayer component is one of the most contrived ways of having multiplayer I have seen so far. It is essentially a single player game, and while graphics are good and flying in space is rather fun, the game is rather shallow and after some time amounts to a grindfest for the next ship.

    The crux of the matter is that there is no really meaningful multiplayer experience, and Elite is rather boring concept for a 2015 game - grind (trading being the most profitable but mind numbingly boring, combat being repetitive farming of easy to kill NPCs) to progress from ship A to ship B. This more or less summarizes the concept of the game. Once you get your ship as long as you have a bit of credits you cannot lose it. It's like Elite:Mostly Harmless And Rather Dull.

    On the upside graphics are lovely, and the feeling of space and flight are well done.    … Expand
  26. halfik
    Aug 8, 2015
    5
    There is a space for a good game. But only a space. Game is empty, and after couple weeks boring as hell. Braben don't give player any end game. World is totally random. Economic system is random. Battles are random. everything is random. There is no option for player based clans/factions or anythings.

    Only good things in game at the moment is how it looks, battle mechanics and things    There is a space for a good game. But only a space. Game is empty, and after couple weeks boring as hell. Braben don't give player any end game. World is totally random. Economic system is random. Battles are random. everything is random. There is no option for player based clans/factions or anythings.

    Only good things in game at the moment is how it looks, battle mechanics and things you can do for first 2-3 weeks of game-play.    … Expand
  27. BrownBoxer
    Jul 9, 2015
    5
    Great looking game with superior sound design.

    Not an actual MMO. Max 4 player groups with no content worth grouping for. Servers struggle hard with max players in area (32) rubberbanding and disappearing ships. Extremely bland repetitive missions. Decent flight model, nothing special (not like in trailer keep that in mind). Limited weapon loadout. Somewhat of a cheating    Great looking game with superior sound design.

    Not an actual MMO. Max 4 player groups with no content worth grouping for.

    Servers struggle hard with max players in area (32) rubberbanding and disappearing ships.

    Extremely bland repetitive missions.

    Decent flight model, nothing special (not like in trailer keep that in mind).

    Limited weapon loadout.

    Somewhat of a cheating problem but rarely effects you unless you PVP.

    PvP is a joke, most players will either log out before their ship nears destruction or boost away from you and warp out.

    ED has potential, I got my $60 out of it. I hope it evolves into something great without asking for more money.    … Expand
  28. Shunduild
    Nov 19, 2015
    5
    *Not ready for prime time: 'Multi-player' lack of features feels beta. I feel a little ripped off.
    *Learning curve: Playing an ice hockey game naked on dull skates and have to score goals to collect protective gear. There is a button for everything from skate speed to the temperature of the popcorn popper in concessions. Half the opposing players are NPCs and the others are adolescent    *Not ready for prime time: 'Multi-player' lack of features feels beta. I feel a little ripped off.
    *Learning curve: Playing an ice hockey game naked on dull skates and have to score goals to collect protective gear. There is a button for everything from skate speed to the temperature of the popcorn popper in concessions. Half the opposing players are NPCs and the others are adolescent serial murderers.
    Lastly, your team mates do not know how to skate and the goal is invisible.    … Expand
  29. ScottsPorage
    Jan 22, 2016
    5
    As an Alpha backer and avid fan of the originals, I have been extremely dissapointed with ED.

    Whilst visually and audibly stunning, it lacks immersion in a huge way. There is no continuity in the game, nothing you do has any effect on the galaxy, this creates a 'space invaders' effect, where you are just doing the same thing over and over for points (credits). There is no reason for    As an Alpha backer and avid fan of the originals, I have been extremely dissapointed with ED.

    Whilst visually and audibly stunning, it lacks immersion in a huge way.

    There is no continuity in the game, nothing you do has any effect on the galaxy, this creates a 'space invaders' effect, where you are just doing the same thing over and over for points (credits). There is no reason for me to login anymore as my brain requires much more stimulation that just shooting things.

    Trading is incredibly boring, the 'economy' is completley static, nothing ever changes, so those exciting trade routes that you would find in the original games just dont exist, the prices are very similar everywhere you go.

    Given a few years this game could become something great, but personally I feel that David Braben has lost the essence of the original games, some of the design decisions are just plain awful.

    He is making a game for the masses now, dumbed down and lacking any challenge, its such a sad thing to see happen to such a great game series.    … Expand
  30. Kapow626
    Feb 14, 2016
    5
    The Game still leaves a lot to be desired as the RNG nature of it and terrible instancing doesn't help, but if you get in with a good group/wing/player faction you will have fun :) I give it 5 out of 10 with potential to be 9 out of 10
  31. oneplayer
    Dec 3, 2020
    5
    The game is divided into 3 main activities.
    Exploration: Fly around scanning planets with this tool called the FSS. You can also fly closer to a planet and throw probes at it for even more money. This is fine for the first several hours but after that it is extremely repetitive and shows little to no depth in the gameplay. You use tools like "Road to Riches" to find valuable planets to    The game is divided into 3 main activities.
    Exploration: Fly around scanning planets with this tool called the FSS. You can also fly closer to a planet and throw probes at it for even more money. This is fine for the first several hours but after that it is extremely repetitive and shows little to no depth in the gameplay. You use tools like "Road to Riches" to find valuable planets to probe netting you 800-900k credits per scanned planet + 25% bonus if you hit efficiency in probing.

    Mining: Another type of activity to make money. Surface mining involves using lasers just on the surface and using limpets to grab the materials that are refined on the ship. Then you sell using tools like eddb to find the highest price. Core mining involves using a scanner to see which ones light up (as well as turn dark, and being the right shape). A lot of good tutorials on core mining and is easy if you have the credits to outfit a ship. You lay charges on fissures, blow them up, surface abrasion the surface deposit while limpets again grab minerals you then refine on the ship. Simple. But after doing this for several days, I cant see the point of grinding such monotonous gameplay.

    Combat: Played PVP in the Arena. Was OK, you unlock ships really quick and are given a variety of weapons and outfits to choose your play style. Once you have the credits from mining/exploration, you can outfit a ship for PVE. Using the many tools such as Coriolis to see all the options. Did missions hunting pirates. Fought in resource extraction sites. Decided to stop and ask myself what else by looking on Youtube. I saw nothing that called on me to continue playing. Hunting thargoids maybe?

    Engineering: Simple gather materials to "engineer" your ship components; simply means you can choose to upgrade specific things at the cost of some negative consequences. Overall your ship will be a lot stronger, faster, and can travel further. Getting this early especially a component that allows further travel (FSD) is key and simple. I used YouTube to farm a bunch of tier 5 materials easily.

    Side note: I used EDMC, EDEngineering, EDDB, INARA, several road to riches tools that all work the same, and YouTube. This game just lacks depth and fun gameplay. The new expansion Odyssey might add something worth spending money on.    … Expand
  32. Kavii90
    Jan 1, 2019
    5
    Played this game for two years since launch. Enjoyment was very high at first but fell slowly as game evolved into grindy mechanics, unbalanced gameplay, constant nerfs, full opposition policy against player-driven plots and broken game mechanics that never worked (like multi-crew). For a single player, there is little to do with BGS as everything is designed for large player numbers, butPlayed this game for two years since launch. Enjoyment was very high at first but fell slowly as game evolved into grindy mechanics, unbalanced gameplay, constant nerfs, full opposition policy against player-driven plots and broken game mechanics that never worked (like multi-crew). For a single player, there is little to do with BGS as everything is designed for large player numbers, but then for a big squadron there aren't proper mechanics and efficient net code to support complex operations. Still there's some fun on it, but not like the old times where people went open motivated to do things rather than fearful of losing their ship...… Expand
  33. Analyst77
    Feb 23, 2019
    5
    I am playing now for about 4 weeks, and I like the game. But there are drawbacks...
    tl,dr: Positive aspects are sadly countered by real bad design decisions...
    The positive points: + Game is complicated, but there are many external (player made) sites and documents and lots of YT tutorial videos. Frontier also packs several tutorials and videos - but with this alone you will not go far.    I am playing now for about 4 weeks, and I like the game. But there are drawbacks...
    tl,dr: Positive aspects are sadly countered by real bad design decisions...
    The positive points:
    + Game is complicated, but there are many external (player made) sites and documents and lots of YT tutorial videos. Frontier also packs several tutorials and videos - but with this alone you will not go far. But after mastering the basics it is a wonderful game, if you love complex games.
    + Graphics and sounds (with decent HW) are very good and immersive. (I use a monitor, so no VR, and a 5.1 Sound System)
    + Death will - if you do it right - always cost only 5% of the ships price you died with, and will bring you back in this ship at the next station. You can have more ships, so try to get killed in the cheapest ship :)
    + There are several things one can do, it is your choice: Exploration (and selling the data), Mining (and selling the ores), Trading and Fighting (Bounty Hunting, Pirating,...). There are missions of many types. This all seems quite repetitive and some players may not like it. I find it relaxing, if you select the right missions or things to do. I do mainly exploring, and have earned 100 millions in the short time I play, and own now 3 ships. But one should try to do different things in different places, this keeps it interesting. There are many things I did not yet try - but see below...
    + Community is rather nice (mostly) and very helpful, answers questions and is willing to help.

    So why only 5 points?
    The negative points:
    + There are two things in this game, where you can 'customize' your ship, i.i. make it stronger, faster, and so on. The first thing is the Guardian Story Line, where you can earn several modules which make your ship more powerful. The second thing are the 'Engineers', who also are able to modify your ship. But for some reason Frontier decided to hide these things behind massive, boring and repetitive grind!
    + Guardians: Modules have to be 'unlocked' (I came to hate this word) by visiting 'Guradian Sites' on planets, and playing sort of a mini game shooting at pillars, fighting robot sentries, and if successful earning diverse parts and a blueprint. With this 'Blueprint' you can - not build anything. No - you have to visit a 'Technology Broker', and there you learn that you also need 'Materials', in this case essentially things you can find by 'farming' the Guardian Sites. And I mean farming! There are very good instructions and videos how to do this. Including logging off mid game and log on immediately to do repeat the process. I call this an exploit, but Frontier does not care.
    +But at least every player needs to do this only once! After having 'unlocked' the modules you can simply buy them as often you want.
    + The Engineers are much worse. There are lots of them, some of them are easy to reach, others are harder. To 'unlock' (I did mention I hate this word?) an Engineer you need to bring her/him something. This is not so bad, mostly you can buy these things somewhere. After this you can start to modify, every Engineer has specialties and will modify certain modules (drives, armor, weapons,...). BUT: this requires materials, and to find those materials you have hours of boring, repetitive and senseless play before you. Also every module you modify starts at Level1, and goes through to a maximum at level 5. And every module has to start at Level 1. And every steps needs several tries. And every try needs the same materials. You cannot buy these materials - you have to 'find' them. There are lots of instructions and video how to find them. It is just boring grind. Needless to say that several players have no problem with this grind. But a player like me, who wants to PLAY, soon decides to do a MINIMUM of this, if even that. And as a consequence cannot compete against heavily modified ships. (Now even NPC ships seem to become 'engineered' and are hard to beat).
    + I have no idea why Frontier does not change this. The Guardian Sites may have been funny when they came out and players had to figure out what to do. The Engineers and materials may have been fun in the beginning. But now it is IMHO a game destroying grind. I have nothing against making it hard to earn these things. But I want to PLAY to earn them, not to grind with every engine abuse possible to find the materials...
    + There are a lot of small bugs in the game, which are barely recognized and (up to today) not fixed br Frontier. They were introduced by the 'Horizons' and 'Beyond' expansions. And nobody knows what comes next. Frontier is silent and fixes only exploits and very few bugs.
    Summary: I will continue to play, but I can see a point in the (near) future where all the grind destroys my motivation to try new things. Engineers are one main reason for this. If one could simply BUY the materials (expensive, hard to get, yes) the one could actually PLAY instead grind to get them.
    Read up a lot before buying!    … Expand
  34. jormungaund
    Jun 2, 2021
    5
    Fun for a while. But they you gain a few levels, and the AI enemies start cheating. Pulling off maneuvers that are literally impossible for a player to execute in the same ship. Nothing ruins a game worse than obviously cheating AI enemies.
  35. RPG_Fanatic
    Jun 20, 2023
    5
    playing on my PC now,because the devs stopped the support on consoles,so they deserve only a 5,plus the expansion has too many bugs.
    Fun,but...........
  36. Goosebump
    Dec 26, 2014
    4
    Had been looking forward to this very much. The reviews all sounded good and the videos looked great.

    Now that I've parted with my money and installed it, I couldn't be more disappointed with how utterly rubbish the new player experience is. The in game tutorials are rubbish - enormously disjointed and assume far too much. Rather than have in-game videos, you're flicked out of the    Had been looking forward to this very much. The reviews all sounded good and the videos looked great.

    Now that I've parted with my money and installed it, I couldn't be more disappointed with how utterly rubbish the new player experience is. The in game tutorials are rubbish - enormously disjointed and assume far too much. Rather than have in-game videos, you're flicked out of the game to YouTube to watch some video that again, assumes you know a heap of stuff as it proceeds to talk about "basics" that are not basic at all.

    There is obviously a solid game in here somewhere based on the number of positive reviews and if you have the patience to try and muddle through this minefield as a new player then you might find it. As it is, keep your money - at least until they fix the new player experience (or if you're already versed in such wildly mystifying "basics").    … Expand
  37. sclark13
    Sep 13, 2015
    4
    Played off and on since December 2014. The game added a few ships but is still incredibly unfocused at making any particular activity work as intended. There is no reason to play with people, and no reason to think one's (or a very large group's) actions make any kind of impact on the world. Ships have very little thought put into their design, with several ships just being shunned due toPlayed off and on since December 2014. The game added a few ships but is still incredibly unfocused at making any particular activity work as intended. There is no reason to play with people, and no reason to think one's (or a very large group's) actions make any kind of impact on the world. Ships have very little thought put into their design, with several ships just being shunned due to their lack of role.

    Co-op with wingmen is terrible and penalizes players. Exploring is really boring, especially when there are simulators like space engine that let you visit different planets and stellar phenomena without the **** tedium of managing ship resources. Exploration would be cool, but there is no high reward for it, no satisfaction from seeing one gas giant vs. another, etc.    … Expand
  38. Daisai
    Jan 7, 2015
    4
    If this game was released about 10 years ago it would have been decent with the lack of content, however in 2014/2015 a game which costs this much should have alot more content then it currently has.
    And even the little content that it does have does not work.
    If you are thinking about buying this game, ask yourself, are you willing to spend the money you normally spend on a finished    If this game was released about 10 years ago it would have been decent with the lack of content, however in 2014/2015 a game which costs this much should have alot more content then it currently has.
    And even the little content that it does have does not work.

    If you are thinking about buying this game, ask yourself, are you willing to spend the money you normally spend on a finished product on a product which is not even half done.

    Yes it has alot of star systems, however you can not do anything in more then 99% of these start systems.

    If you buy this product you are not buying a product, you are spending some money in the hope that 1 day the product might be up to a standard normal people/developers might call "ready to release".

    Don't get fooled when they say the scope of this game is huge, since this all depends on their future.
    If they decide to release this game on a console ( which i think they first intended ) the scope of this game gets alot smaller, since consoles are lesser platforms in terms of performance.
    Because at this moment already a playstation 4 has 2 year old hardware, after 1 or 2 years thats even older.
    So if they release this game on consoles they have to take this into account when they release new content.

    So all in all, think well before buying this game, i did and am not pleased with what i got.
    The game is far from finished or even in a state one would call beta, this game shows signs of not even beta testing at all.    … Expand
  39. Johnman
    Dec 16, 2014
    4
    Not a good game right now. Pretty graphics, great sound design, and barely any gameplay. You will exhaust all it's possibilities in one day.

    Multiplayer interaction is close to nil despite always online DRM.

    It's a game made for old people who hasn't played anything but Farmville since 1984. They consider it a "hardcore space sim". It's sad what a waste of potential this game is.
  40. BernardTheBeast
    Feb 2, 2020
    4
    Don't look at Elite Dangerous as a game. It isn't. Elite Dangerous is a piece of software that wants to be Flight Simulator, Trains Simulator, a space combat simulator, and an MMO, all in one. Does it succeed? In my opinion, no.

    Here's the good stuff you can look forward to: ► A space game where you can choose to play Solo, with a Private Group (friends only), or Open (open online    Don't look at Elite Dangerous as a game. It isn't. Elite Dangerous is a piece of software that wants to be Flight Simulator, Trains Simulator, a space combat simulator, and an MMO, all in one. Does it succeed? In my opinion, no.

    Here's the good stuff you can look forward to:

    ► A space game where you can choose to play Solo, with a Private Group (friends only), or Open (open online multiplayer with instanced maps holding a set number of players at a time). Options!
    ► A space game where you can choose between the space-game trifecta of Combatant/Trader/Explorer or incorporate all three into your play style. Options!
    ► A space game where you can customize the loadout of your spaceship with equipment ranging from a dozen different types of weapons, armors, internal components for offense, defense, bounty hunting, passenger carrying, cargo hauling, planet exploring, etcetera. Options!
    ► A space game where you can fly across a huge, seemingly limitless galaxy, where every dot on your Galaxy Map (and there's millions of them) represents a sector of space you can travel to and explore, possibly for the very first time that anyone has ever gone there...! Options!
    ► A space game with fairly solid graphics, a cool premise, a good simulato-yet-action-focused-yet-exploration-capable feel to it. Especially if you have a good flight control system/joystick, TrackIR, or VR, you'll probably want to buy this just to take advantage of your hardware.

    Here's the bad stuff you can look forward to:

    • Grinding. If you want ranks, money, or to simply explore, prepare to spend months grinding. To get satisfaction from traveling and doing what you want to do, it's going to require money and ranks, so you'll have to grind. This is where MMO syndrome comes in: the infamous "Engineers" system requires you to find components found RNG about the universe, which can take a long time. These Engineering goals are essential in making your ship perform with lower risk of dying due to unfair AI or players who have an Engineered ship and want you dead for some reason.

    • AI with no personality that mostly sends text messages to you (very little voice dialogue/radio chatter) and cheats in combat, their level of cheating determined by their difficulty (AI are immune to certain weapons, techniques and strategies, have accuracy/damage that is disconnected to their ship's actual loadout). The lowest ranked AI will fly stupidly in box patterns without fighting back, while the highest ranked AI will pull J-turns, flank you, shoot you perfectly with 360 degree turreted weapons, and take out your subsystems with flawless accuracy. Cheap.

    • No purpose or overall objective other than what you make for yourself. While there are more interesting missions other than "Kill/Trade/Explore", you might never experience them because you're too busy grinding to get a ship actually capable of doing those complex missions.

    Limited depth & bugs:
    • You can't land on planets unless you buy Horizons DLC; however, they're all slight variations of either a crater-marked orange moon, or a large, rugged and mountainous orange moon anyway

    • Using Multi-Crew, you can jump into the passenger seat of another player's spaceship! But you'll experience lag issues, sudden disconnects, game-crashing errors, and a whole bunch of other bugs. You also can't walk around the ship, or wave to your friend, or anything other than giving the pilot player an extra pip to their power distribution and maybe taking over one of their fighters or turrets.

    • You can land on space stations! But there's only about 6 different looking interiors in the game you'll see most often on average

    • You can buy any ship you want, but customizing the ship's appearance is real-money microtransaction based: $10 from the third-party Frontier store, and only applies to that specific class of ship. This game's out-of-game store is horrendously expensive, and feels like it's one step short of introducing lootboxes and XP boosters due to the excessive grind.

    I honestly like this game. But I literally don't have the time to play this game enough to gain enough money/ranks to do anything fun. I can't do combat/explore/trade for fear of my ship being destroyed and having to spend another 10 hours grinding for money. I can't participate in events because I haven't spent the 1,000 hours grinding to get an Engineered ship capable of not being destroyed. Everything I want to do relies upon grinding to get there, and the grinding itself gets very boring, very quickly.

    The satisfaction from playing with my X52 Joystick, TrackIR, or VR, is worth only an hour or two at most, because afterwards the game goes from 'game' to 'chore' to 'second job'.

    Do I recommend this game? Well, after doing the math, I have to say: "No, unless there's an incredible sale". This game is worth $30 at most, and that's counting cosmetic microtransactions.    … Expand
  41. NeoMorph
    Apr 7, 2015
    4
    This game isn't finished. It's still a beta in my mind.

    For example mining... what a load of twaddle. No mining scanners (so trying to find decent mineral loads suck), huge asteroids that run out of content after a couple of chips are removed (and you cannot tell which roids are empty AND each chip is only a small percentage of an actual sellable unit so if you have 99% of platinum you    This game isn't finished. It's still a beta in my mind.

    For example mining... what a load of twaddle. No mining scanners (so trying to find decent mineral loads suck), huge asteroids that run out of content after a couple of chips are removed (and you cannot tell which roids are empty AND each chip is only a small percentage of an actual sellable unit so if you have 99% of platinum you can't even sell it yet!!!), every time you remove a chip you have to chase it down with your ship and scoop it up and then return to the roid to chip off another - total pain in theass!, AI miners that jump in and start nicking ore from the asteroid that you are mining but if you shoot them YOU ARE FINED!!!!! Come on FFS... I loved mining in Eve Online... This however is total crap. Also the AI miners can suck the chips right into their craft but yours can't... Weird!

    The holographic displays are often washed out by the excessive glare... which is why holographic displays will never catch on. Look pretty but are poor replacement for a good LCD.

    The galaxy map is another good example of "looks pretty" but is actually frustrating... Stars that you are looking at fade out at the wrong moment so it gets hard to track routes. Also trying to find a station that sells items you want is annoying because it takes so long to load up system displays... also you can't select destinations from an in system display (say WHAT? Did they even think this through). There should be less of a load time than the galaxy view but it is the opposite. I think the 1984 version loaded quicker lol.

    For example I wanted to find a station that I could pay the fine for killing the claim stealing miner I killed... After I waited 60 seconds for a system display to pop up ( yeah, I waited 60 seconds and it STILL didn't appear) I said sod it and killed the game.

    I loved Elite back when it was released in 1984. This should have been much better but other than the nice graphics it seems less. Maybe once they finish the game it will be worth playing but at the moment it's grind central (and this is from a player that normally loves the grind).

    I really should have remembered that I said I would never buy another Braben game after First Encounters.    … Expand
  42. flexy123
    Jan 7, 2015
    4
    I played in the Beta, mind you, before Retail hit the shelves. In the Beta, I made a lot of money until I finally was able to get an Anaconda. I also got me a shiny new joystick, throttle, etc...etc....
    I have no desire to play this game (even if it's right there installed on my HD) since I "feel" I have already seen everything this game has to offer. You can only have "so much" fun    I played in the Beta, mind you, before Retail hit the shelves. In the Beta, I made a lot of money until I finally was able to get an Anaconda. I also got me a shiny new joystick, throttle, etc...etc....
    I have no desire to play this game (even if it's right there installed on my HD) since I "feel" I have already seen everything this game has to offer. You can only have "so much" fun spending some days, a week or two flying in a dark, empty space from A to B to make credits and to buy a new ship. How long do you think would such a "game" sustain motivation? Others are correct, this game has not one yota of what I'd expect from a new game which calls itself MMORPG, this is user interaction, communication, PvP, trade, building etc. This game has NOTHING of that. It is a game for 45+ year old nerds (like me) who buy an expensive PC rig and then "enjoy" flying in an empty, dead space from A to B with other 45+ year old nerds. In other words: It's incredibly boring. A game concept that was cool in 1983 can hardly sustain 30 years later. When I get into a game today I want to feel I play in a "living world" where I can meet and play with others, where adventures and challenges arise from playing with others, discovering new places etc...but ED entirely failed in this MM aspect of the game. Another HUGE turn-off for me is that the "simulation" aspect of this game is a mere illusion, and one done badly actually. You can not actually fly to other star systems, instead you "jump" from one "box" to another, the universe as such is therefore not really connected since you're only always in a tiny local "box" which you cannot escape unless you get into Hyperspace mode. If you are not hyperspacing you could target another system and you will NEVER reach it. I am aware that this is due to technical limitation and other games in essence do the same thing, but for me it's a huge turnoff to know that.
    And...PULEASSE stop it with stupid comments such as "good foundation" or "there will be cool expansions coming out". You don't enjoy a game because "there will be great things added in the future". You play a game NOW, not "in the future". And Frontier will have a hell of a bad time "adding" stuff to the game since this is the main mistake they made from the beginning: Rather than building upon a good foundation which deserves a name such as MMRPG..they merely *added* features, this is why anything *added* appears halfassed, such as multiplayer, communications, missions etc. If the game at its core is already built wrong (netcode....) you will have a hard time to make it better by "adding" stuff.    … Expand
  43. CoSm1c_gAm3r
    Apr 6, 2015
    4
    I am quite disappointed by "next" game from Elite universe. This game also suffer from casual targeted crowd.

    They made some idiotic design for lateral rotation that will make your teeth sparkle from grinding it while you try to rotate just to see for example station details or land on landing pad! I heard all excuses/explanations and all are totally retarded and all of them made me    I am quite disappointed by "next" game from Elite universe. This game also suffer from casual targeted crowd.

    They made some idiotic design for lateral rotation that will make your teeth sparkle from grinding it while you try to rotate just to see for example station details or land on landing pad!
    I heard all excuses/explanations and all are totally retarded and all of them made me laugh.
    Small ships and medium ships rotation rate is more than 1 minute to make 360 degree turn while in full stop. That is just plain retarded design. Nothing can excuse such idiotic design. NOTHING!

    Idiotic boost system that uses always the same amount of power but when you are at "TOP SPEED" then adding 1-10 m/s cost still the same amount of power from capacitors :D
    Also any boost would kill pilot because it creates so many G's that only robots and androids would deal with it without any problem. But cargo would turn into mashup so passengers would need to be frozen hard or something just to survive that trip with immortal player character that can be killed by ship explosion.

    About that. ships explode because ED future didn't deal with instability of explosives so if magic HP meter go down then ship is turning into big POFF! xD
    I can compare that to Star Citizen and I see that Chris Roberts used more common sense. In SC ships mainly are destroyed and if more damage is dealt or they crash into asteroid then it fell apart while in ED ship crashing into asteroid just bumps away then after a second it decides to go boom! How dumb is that!!! :D

    If you love details in design and value sense, logic, and basic believability then this game is not for you.
    I bought it when it was in beta and even if I don't like this game then I am not totally disappointed because there was very long period in gaming industry that space sim was ignored and SC with ED may change that so it was worth to support this game but it is not satisfying for my taste and my demands. To bad that it was touched by casuals demand as lots of modern games. Dumbed down just to earn money on not demanding players. Sad modern gaming reality.    … Expand
  44. C_M_K
    Dec 16, 2014
    4
    Currently Elite has a decent framework in place, but there's no real 'game' there -- you can literally experience all of the content in a few hours and it changes extremely little regardless of what system you go to or what ship you're flying.

    Pros: Very pretty (aside from the painfully dated and barely functional HUD). Amazing sound. A gazillion star systems to go 'explore'.    Currently Elite has a decent framework in place, but there's no real 'game' there -- you can literally experience all of the content in a few hours and it changes extremely little regardless of what system you go to or what ship you're flying.

    Pros:
    Very pretty (aside from the painfully dated and barely functional HUD).
    Amazing sound.
    A gazillion star systems to go 'explore'.

    Cons:
    Every single gameplay system -- trading, mining, pirating, bounty hunting -- is simplistic in the extreme, most are broken in one way or another, and frankly all of it has been done far better elsewhere.

    Eleventy gazillion systems to explore means little when the vast, vast bulk of them are basically identical.

    Multiplayer? What's that? The game's multiplayer features are so barebones as to essentially be nonexistent.

    Online only. This wouldn't be a con if the netcode (especially the perplexing decision to go with P2P architecture in an online-only game) wasn't so flaky, if there were actual multiplayer features that worked, or if there was, well, any meaningful reason whatsoever for it the game to be online, but the netcode is flaky as hell, there aren't meaningful (or even usable) multiplayer features, and there's no real reason for the game to need to be online-only other than as DRM.

    Basically Frontier has created a universe simulation that you, the player, have little to no effect on. It's a place where you can fly around and see the same systems, the same stations, and the same ships 400 billion times. Sadly they forgot to include any gameplay beyond the most barebones in there.

    At best the game is being pushed out the door six months too early, at worst Frontier has actually made the game they intended and they really do think that copying a thirty year old game with some new graphics will do well. Either way, best to avoid this one for a while and see if they eventually actually add some gameplay before it crashes and burns.    … Expand
  45. Phallex
    Aug 7, 2015
    4
    I'd love to love this game. Unfortunately, once you've gotten used to cruising around and looking at stars, docking, dogfights etc it just becomes really boring. There's not really anything to drive you in game. Finding your teammates is very hard to do properly, and even if you do manage to meet up within the hour, you're stuck with the same problem...what shall we do? Shoot some moreI'd love to love this game. Unfortunately, once you've gotten used to cruising around and looking at stars, docking, dogfights etc it just becomes really boring. There's not really anything to drive you in game. Finding your teammates is very hard to do properly, and even if you do manage to meet up within the hour, you're stuck with the same problem...what shall we do? Shoot some more AI...er....ok....??

    If you're looking for a new X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter type game, hold your breath for Valkyrie, just maybe they'll pull it off.. Elite is just a beautiful simulation showing how big space really is, even when you have a really fast ship.    … Expand
  46. Basiclife
    Dec 17, 2015
    4
    Promising Game, Idiotic Company

    The game has an awful lot of potential. Playing with the rift is truly f-ing awesome. When I first got hold of E:D I sunk a couple of hundred hours into it and then left it alone for a while to see what came along next. Apparently the answer is ... Nothing. You can buy a whole _new_ game which includes the base game (and some new features like landing    Promising Game, Idiotic Company

    The game has an awful lot of potential. Playing with the rift is truly f-ing awesome. When I first got hold of E:D I sunk a couple of hundred hours into it and then left it alone for a while to see what came along next.

    Apparently the answer is ... Nothing. You can buy a whole _new_ game which includes the base game (and some new features like landing on planets) but there's not much in the way of content (at least, not when compared to MMORPGs as the devs keep trying to do). The new game? More expensive than the original because it includes the base game. Which I already have.

    I don't mind the money, I object to the shady business practices, broken promises and (frankly) half-baked level of implementation for all existing features/content.

    But hey, why finish developing a game when you can add a few new features and charge the same all over again? Ok, they haven't _actually_ added most of the stuff you're paying for but they will. Honest!

    Looking at their track record for keeping promises to date, I'm not optimistic.

    In summary: Really good foundation to make a truly epic game, but it's being used to make a series of half-broken, incomplete, full-priced games, one every year to keep milking you.

    Oh and as an added bonus, you too can have 10 copies of the game in your Steam library to really clutter things up.    … Expand
  47. Xelluse
    Apr 20, 2016
    4
    4 and just cos of great Physics release.
    Gameplay interesting on start, but nothing special, boring and very repetitive in late game.
    Graphics not much better than in EVE. Very shiny, feels wet and looks like Korean MMO more, good for old space games. Nice light effects. Game is stable, but will overlock even good gaming PC. Maybe someone like it - design looks like in scifi movies    4 and just cos of great Physics release.
    Gameplay interesting on start, but nothing special, boring and very repetitive in late game.
    Graphics not much better than in EVE. Very shiny, feels wet and looks like Korean MMO more, good for old space games.
    Nice light effects.
    Game is stable, but will overlock even good gaming PC.
    Maybe someone like it - design looks like in scifi movies from 60s, not bad, but was expecting something realistic, especially for that high system requirements.
    I never played Elite before and after this game 100% will not do that in future, In my opinion game is good to purchase just on huge sales.    … Expand
  48. Pannon
    Dec 26, 2015
    4
    The gamer site reviews reflect the score, that has hopes and wishful thinking has attached to it.
    If you read them, note the date of the review. They reviewed the game not long after it was released and the game has (had) a huge potential to become something much bigger. The reviewers gave the high scores for high hopes. A year later, the game barely changed, beside a few additional    The gamer site reviews reflect the score, that has hopes and wishful thinking has attached to it.
    If you read them, note the date of the review. They reviewed the game not long after it was released and the game has (had) a huge potential to become something much bigger. The reviewers gave the high scores for high hopes. A year later, the game barely changed, beside a few additional features, which ultimately just gave the game more grind, instead of adding meaningful content.
    If you play it for a few hours you get the vibe, that you may have to do a lot of things to progress anywhere, and perhaps you get excited, just thinking about the endless possibilities and options and choices.
    Give it another 10 hours, and your entire gameplay consist of preparing to start to play the game and waiting for that moment, when you start really playing. Unfortunately, that moment never comes. What you do in your first hour, is what you will do for the rest of the time. Either trade back/forth between stations, which consist of taking off, traveling - loading screen -traveling - landing, or fighting endlessly spawning enemy ships, which change absolutely nothing, whether it comes factions or affiliations of various powers. All the other ships you may see as traffic is nothing else, but background filler. They serve no purpose or function, beside they are giving the illusion of "things happening". You can actually test this by trying to follow a ship, which will end up traveling somewhere infinitely, or landing at an non particular space station, and then taking off and doing over and over, without selling something or fighting.
    You can also test, that whether those ships you blow up makes any difference to their faction or base. They do nothing.
    Eventually, you will realise, that the entire universe is created for you, and outside of your visual radius, nothing really goes on, and everything ceases to exist as soon you leave. Unidentified signals sources pop up for you randomly, if you fly slow and their content isn't determined, until you stop to investigate by dropping out of hyperspace.
    Sound effects is great. That's why I'm giving it a 4. If nobody else, then it's the sound team, that perhaps did their best to make something.
    I see, a lot of people praising graphics. I don't see it that way. It's not hard to draw space and place objects floating in it.It's much harder to create Earth based fantasy worlds or actual locations with buildings, vegetation.
    I can't give more than 4, and if I would not consider the sound and music, this game is maybe a 2.    … Expand
  49. koyukon
    Mar 1, 2016
    4
    It looks amazing but it's just tedious to play. 99% of the time is spent traveling and what there is of gameplay is effectively meaningless mindless activities. I'd only return to it for the sake of planetary discovery but I always find myself quitting in deep space due to lack of reward. It seems that it is better to let others play it and follow their discoveries than to play it myself.It looks amazing but it's just tedious to play. 99% of the time is spent traveling and what there is of gameplay is effectively meaningless mindless activities. I'd only return to it for the sake of planetary discovery but I always find myself quitting in deep space due to lack of reward. It seems that it is better to let others play it and follow their discoveries than to play it myself. I really appreciate the touches of science and realism, but it just lacks a lot of content.… Expand
  50. MPCPRO
    Dec 16, 2014
    4
    Has potential, I enjoy the graphics and the great sound design but as many other people write there is a lack of gameplay elements. It feels really empty and it's really hard playing with other friends which forces people mostly to just solo out on their own. I hope with the future expansions the game might live up to its potential, but at the moment it is just an empty shell.
  51. Squareski
    Oct 2, 2015
    4
    I've given it 18 hours of my life. It's hard to describe. On one hand, it is quite addictive, in that, you're trying to build the funds for all those upgrades and bigger and better ships, and graphically it is very beautiful. On the other, however, the fun, just like the game, is mostly lost in a vast void of space. It has brief moments of excitement, glimpses of game play out of theI've given it 18 hours of my life. It's hard to describe. On one hand, it is quite addictive, in that, you're trying to build the funds for all those upgrades and bigger and better ships, and graphically it is very beautiful. On the other, however, the fun, just like the game, is mostly lost in a vast void of space. It has brief moments of excitement, glimpses of game play out of the corner of your eye...but sadly, it's mostly hours of doing nothing, despite trying not to. This is only part of the story...if you factor in the bizarre game mechanic of real time quest timers in solo mode, that expire while you're out of the game entirely, it just makes matters worse. Ensure you don't have kids, or work, or have a social life as you'll have to sink hours of uninterrupted time into the void that is Elite Dangerous.… Expand
  52. Veryance
    Mar 5, 2015
    4
    Just the latest entry in the fad of selling an incomplete game as the whole product. The game dumps you into the deep end, probably as a way to obfuscate the fact that at the end of the day, there really isn't much to do. The learning curve is needlessly steep; everything you want/need to do will have to be gleaned from the internet, because the game won't teach you, or even provide theJust the latest entry in the fad of selling an incomplete game as the whole product. The game dumps you into the deep end, probably as a way to obfuscate the fact that at the end of the day, there really isn't much to do. The learning curve is needlessly steep; everything you want/need to do will have to be gleaned from the internet, because the game won't teach you, or even provide the tools in-game to find your answers. After the first couple hours of daunting gameplay, you realize that the tip of the iceberg is actually just the whole iceberg. Balance some spreadsheets, blow up bad guys, repeat. Not to mention that Frontier cleaves to the classic tightlipped-developers-that-think-their-playerbase-is-retarded ideology, which essentially precludes any hope for this game to right the many many things it gets wrong.
    That being said, it's gorgeous to play, and the sounds are amazing, so if you don't want anything more from your game then to fly around in space aimlessly, then this is right up your alley.    … Expand
  53. LeoKol
    Dec 16, 2014
    4
    DISCLAIMER: This is an objective review. Everyone giving the game 10/10 is lying to themselves, and you. That said, if you own, or are looking to own, an Oculus Rift, then this game is a must buy. The game is beautiful. It makes for a perfect Oculus Rift title thanks to it's stunning visuals, immense sense of scale and beautiful audio.

    tl;dr - Current state of the game: Grind credits to    DISCLAIMER: This is an objective review. Everyone giving the game 10/10 is lying to themselves, and you. That said, if you own, or are looking to own, an Oculus Rift, then this game is a must buy. The game is beautiful. It makes for a perfect Oculus Rift title thanks to it's stunning visuals, immense sense of scale and beautiful audio.

    tl;dr - Current state of the game: Grind credits to buy bigger ships so that you can grind credits better. Graphics & Gameplay has been improved over the original Elite (1984), but content has stayed the same (unless you count the 400 billion empty, lifeless, procedural star systems).

    Elite Dangerous will be a great game in another year or two. I have little doubt of that. However, as of the writing of this review, Elite is almost entirely unplayable. The foundations for a great game are all there, but there's little to keep players interested.

    Mining, exploration, combat and trading are the only activities currently open to players. You can either do any of these activities on your own, or you can accept a generic mission and do them for an npc you'll never meet or interact with. With exception to combat, all these systems are basic and repetitive.

    While there is a dynamic economy in the game, trading is hardly complicated when compared to that of games like X3 or EVE. You buy low, and you sell high. The only excitement comes in the form of random pirate and police attacks. You can observe changes in the economy, but, unless you enjoy watching numbers go up and down, I doubt you'll find this exciting.

    Exploration involves flying to new systems and pointing yourself at 'undiscovered' celestial objects & stations. You won't be stumbling into any ship graveyards or sentient nebulae. There are no surprises here and, unless you're an astronomer looking to observe binary stars & black holes, you probably won't find this very exciting either.

    Mining is even simpler. You find asteroids and you shoot at them. Maybe you'll get attacked by a pirate, maybe you won't. Combat, on the other hand, feels great and intuitive. The game's audio and HUD are highly immersive and really shine in combat. Unfortunately you'll most often find yourself fighting against AI due to the whole 400 billion star systems thing.

    There is no concrete system that promotes team-play, and you'll probably make more money fighting NPC's rather than players. The games selection of ships is also rather limited when compared to other titles (and they all look like geometric shapes).

    The biggest problem with the game right now is the fact that there is no end-game. There's nothing to strive for. You may set personal goals, like visiting a distant system or getting a certain ship, but, at the heart of it, everything you do ends with you making credits in order to make credits better.

    The living world is entirely a novelty, and will almost never directly impact you. You may have to go to another system to buy cheap goods, or you might note the presence of more police ships, but this will never make a significant impact on the way you play the game. You will never feel like you're doing something important. There is a giant disconnect between the world of the NPC's and the world of the players.

    There is a giant intergalactic war being waged, but unless you force yourself to care it's really of no consequence to you. You can't interact with NPC's, so there's very little to connect you to the troubles of the poor populace of miners living on some rock. You might visit a planet with billions of inhabitants, but the space around it will feel just as empty and lifeless as the distant reaches of the galaxy.

    So, all of this leaves you to motivate yourself. Sure, you can try to join one of the galactic empires and lead them to victory, but what's the point? No NPC will thank you, unless it comes in the form of a giant wall of text available as a generic contract in a space station. You won't get a limited edition ship, nor will you get the joy of watching or participating in any giant cinematic battles. There's no sense of urgency or need to drive you forward.

    All you have to do, is to make credits so that you can get upgrades simply for the sake of getting upgrades. The foundations for a great game are all there, but to call this release ready is a joke. I highly advice new players stay away from Elite until more content is added. I've honestly had more fun playing the Star Citizen alpha than I have playing the release-candidate version of Elite.

    To put it into contrast, imagine an X3 with better graphics and combat. Now imagine that you can't control more than one ship. That NPC's don't have a voice and communicate through text. That there is no single player story. That all space stations serve only one purpose. That you never see any other ships unless you're in combat or docking. That you can't own space stations. That exploration only leads to you finding floating credits. And, well, the list goes on...    … Expand
  54. christhenoob
    Dec 20, 2014
    4
    I want to love this game. I really do. I've been a backer since alpha and was really sold on the vision that they had. Unfortunately, the game that was released is not the game I imagined it to be. If you were expecting an MMO, I hate to disappoint, but this is not an MMO in any sense of the word.

    Interacting with other players when not completely broken is almost impossible due to the    I want to love this game. I really do. I've been a backer since alpha and was really sold on the vision that they had. Unfortunately, the game that was released is not the game I imagined it to be. If you were expecting an MMO, I hate to disappoint, but this is not an MMO in any sense of the word.

    Interacting with other players when not completely broken is almost impossible due to the sheer size of the universe. Although huge, I've never played a game that has felt so empty. I imagined roaming the galaxy pirating and bounty-hunting other players in epic battles of wits, but I'm lucky if I even see another player. Not to mention the hours upon hours of tedious grinding it takes to be even remotely equipped to do so.

    Playing with your friends is just impossible in the current version not only because the game lacks even the most basic of social tools, but because the game punishes you for playing with other players. Bounties are only awarded to the person with the last kill, missions are given and rewarded individually, you can't even see your friends half the time, multiplayer is just a downright mess.

    Don't get me wrong, the game is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, and the sound design might be the best I've ever heard in a video game. But great visuals and audio does not a game make. It's just a shame that the game design is so horrid. There is no story to speak of. Every mission follows the same of several archetypes: "Kill this", "Deliver that", "Fetch this", etc. Missions are boring and feel as though there is no consequence, especially when you're offered the exact same mission seconds after turning it in.

    The actual gameplay is mind-numbingly grindy. Most MMOs get away with this because the grind is for a greater purpose, but in Elite the only reason to grind is so that you can grind some more. It kills what very little motivation I had to play the game in the first place. The combat is pretty good, but it's not enough to carry the game through.

    There is also so little in regards to depth it's absurd. There is an entire universe of systems, yet there is hardly any difference between the systems. The missions are the same, the factions are functionally the same, it's the same system over and over with a couple of variables tweaked along the way. Ships are "customizable" in that the more money you have the better your ship is. There are no side-grades to speak of except maybe weapons where really only 2 or 3 are actually viable.

    At the end of the day, the game is just disappointing. Modern graphics and stunning audio coupled with gameplay from the 80's. I think it's naive to say game design hasn't improved in the last 30 years, and it's a shame that this game decided that it didn't have to.    … Expand
  55. Viking84
    Dec 22, 2014
    4
    Elite looks great, combat is fun, and the full scale realistic universe is brilliant. Sadly, once you have learnt how to land, how to fly and how to fight, you start seeing the games limitations and realise you are simply repeating the same simple tasks over and over and over again. Besides combat nothing requires skill, only patience, and even the bountyhunting becomes a little on theElite looks great, combat is fun, and the full scale realistic universe is brilliant. Sadly, once you have learnt how to land, how to fly and how to fight, you start seeing the games limitations and realise you are simply repeating the same simple tasks over and over and over again. Besides combat nothing requires skill, only patience, and even the bountyhunting becomes a little on the easy side once you get the hang of it.

    First 10 hours of gameplay are worth 8/10 if you can be bothered googling how to do things, after that I'm afraid you have seen what there is to see unless you have an unusually vivid imagination. 4/10 from me, hopefully more content/depth will be added to this great framework in the next 6 months or it will have been a huge waste of time.    … Expand
  56. Gutenisse
    Dec 26, 2014
    4
    It's a copy of Elite II from 1993 with superb graphics. It's fun for a few hours, but then you start wondering why you keep playing it. There's no goal, other than making more and more money.

    The combat is pretty fun, for a few hours. Trading is fun, for even less hours. The only progress is buying a bigger or better ship, bigger or better guns, but why? To make more money, so you    It's a copy of Elite II from 1993 with superb graphics. It's fun for a few hours, but then you start wondering why you keep playing it. There's no goal, other than making more and more money.

    The combat is pretty fun, for a few hours. Trading is fun, for even less hours.

    The only progress is buying a bigger or better ship, bigger or better guns, but why? To make more money, so you can buy bigger and better ships. It's fun - for a few hours.

    After a few hours, it gets boring and I'm starting to remember why I stopped playing Elite II.    … Expand
  57. rockdacazbah
    Dec 26, 2014
    4
    Do not buy this game yet!!!!!!!! No gameplay! No content! nothing just a space trucker cred grind fest. It will hopefully get better but don,t hold your breath nothing that was promised is there just a bare boned demo. £40 wasted atm imho. Oh and if you do buy it ,don't put any negative threads on the forum as they are policed by over zealous, cantankerous, supercilious snarky fanboys thatDo not buy this game yet!!!!!!!! No gameplay! No content! nothing just a space trucker cred grind fest. It will hopefully get better but don,t hold your breath nothing that was promised is there just a bare boned demo. £40 wasted atm imho. Oh and if you do buy it ,don't put any negative threads on the forum as they are policed by over zealous, cantankerous, supercilious snarky fanboys that get upset if you do.… Expand
  58. Chaotic-Entropy
    Dec 29, 2014
    4
    With deep regret, for I am a lover of the genre, I cannot bring myself to recommend this game to a wider audience than extreme fans desperate for a fix and willing to accept anything. An outsider looking in will not see a sandbox (if you can call it that), at best the game is a sandcastle beach, where you are merely a bystander. At worst, the game is a barren desert, one which you areWith deep regret, for I am a lover of the genre, I cannot bring myself to recommend this game to a wider audience than extreme fans desperate for a fix and willing to accept anything. An outsider looking in will not see a sandbox (if you can call it that), at best the game is a sandcastle beach, where you are merely a bystander. At worst, the game is a barren desert, one which you are free to play in. It is an open world, but it is an empty world and one which players can play little to no real part except with ever watchful approval of Frontier.

    If you can somehow not tire of doing the same old repetitive missions or doing the old repetitive trading, mining or "exploration" then good for you. I however expect something more from a game of revolutionary scope than to just provide me the bare minimum of paltry amusements. Not to mention that it takes everything that is annoying about online games and removes all of the benefits, leaving just the always online, unpausible and constantly running mission timers. It provides no social features, little interaction with others without a lot of effort and has a game breaking approach to player conflict which rewards rage quitting and disconnecting by removing you from these difficult situations at your leisure. Just quit and reload and you're fine.

    At the same time, it provides a basic and simplistic singleplayer approach to a space game, all the travel, all of the grind, with little reward or acknowledgement. You will hear a lot of comments about using your imagination in the forums, to which I respond that I did not pay good money to a developer for a pretty backdrop for doing nothing but imagine.

    At the moment, it's release state is a framework of a game, with glaring issues and nonsensical design choices around every turn. This is a great shame as it has a lovely amount of potential, it's galaxy is mind boggling and gorgeous, it's combat is quite entertaining, if infrequent and unrewarding. The game engine is polished and stable, but without content and any semblance of immersion and interaction then there is no point. Nothing you do matters beyond what Frontier actively allows, it is not a malleable sandbox, it is reduced to a glorified Elite museum.    … Expand
  59. elfindreams
    Dec 29, 2014
    4
    As an alpha backer, I really wanted this to succeed. Regrettably, I am left with the feeling that while parts of the game are good overall it fails to deliver an enjoyable or compelling end product.

    The problem with this title lies in its emotional and storytelling execution. Even the most basic sandbox game must give the user enough context to emotionally engage the user and make    As an alpha backer, I really wanted this to succeed. Regrettably, I am left with the feeling that while parts of the game are good overall it fails to deliver an enjoyable or compelling end product.

    The problem with this title lies in its emotional and storytelling execution. Even the most basic sandbox game must give the user enough context to emotionally engage the user and make them desire to interact with your world.

    With E:D you (optionally) go through some mechanical tutorial missions and are then placed in a station with no context at all about the world you are in. Eventually you learn that there are factions but no real reason is ever provided for why you should care that there are factions. There is no emotional pull and zero context. If you were lucky enough to grow up with Elite in the UK you might know more about the universe based on novels and other media produced about it but if this is your first foray into the Elite universe, you are given no reason to want to do more than scratch the surface and then move onto a different game.

    The bulletin board system provides missions with zero real soul and context (I was offered a mission to free slaves but given no indication at all about where in the universe slavery might be found, where in the universe slavery is common, the ramification of slavery in the universe, etc and two missions to provide very basic goods again with no real context about where to find them... it turns out I was able to purchase both sets of goods in the very station offering the missions...)

    Now to be clear I have been a gamer for over 25 years and the type of gamer that spends hundreds of hours in most games I play... I don't just play games I fully mine them for all they are worth and I was left with the question in my mind of why should I bother.

    Even if you force yourself to continue despite any emotional investment (in my case because of the rather large monetary investment) you find a game where combat is enjoyable but so sparse as to be practically non existent and where every other activity (mining, trading, exploring) is undocumented, obtuse and tedious.

    This game may be a technical marvel of procedural generation but it lacks a soul. Maybe someday someone can transplant a soul into it but until then, please do yourself a favor and give this title a miss unless you are already emotionally invested in the Elite universe.    … Expand
  60. RadiantRadmila
    Mar 4, 2015
    4
    This can be a nice game. It isn't at the moment.

    Pros: + Huge universe + Nice atmosphere + Nice music + Potential Cons: - There is no MMO component at all - Chat with friends does not work - There are many hackers who exploit a game and ruin the experience for everyone - No grouping yet, can't play with friends, can't even meet in space - Missions are boring and dull - Game    This can be a nice game. It isn't at the moment.

    Pros:
    + Huge universe
    + Nice atmosphere
    + Nice music
    + Potential

    Cons:
    - There is no MMO component at all
    - Chat with friends does not work
    - There are many hackers who exploit a game and ruin the experience for everyone
    - No grouping yet, can't play with friends, can't even meet in space
    - Missions are boring and dull
    - Game is bugged and you will often blow up for no reason and go poor again
    - Game feels empty and it's not worth the money currently. Maybe it will change with time, but so far I've paid for promises, nothing more.
    - Servers often disconnect me in the middle of the flight.    … Expand
  61. ACRIET
    Jan 10, 2015
    4
    1000 credits, a spaceship and lightyears of space ahead!

    Enjoyable for a few hour's but then it gets boring. Nice graphics, sounds and some space-fights don't make a good game, unless they throw in a serious patch to lighten things up. No storyline at all other than some small quests for some small credits. So big buck trading it is and if you think you feel like searching for the    1000 credits, a spaceship and lightyears of space ahead!

    Enjoyable for a few hour's but then it gets boring. Nice graphics, sounds and some space-fights don't make a good game, unless they throw in a serious patch to lighten things up. No storyline at all other than some small quests for some small credits. So big buck trading it is and if you think you feel like searching for the ultimate buy/selling prices; you got a match in this game of endless empty boring space... My opinion: DO NOT BUY THIS GAME UNLESS YOU'RE IN A RETIREMENT HOME!!!!    … Expand
  62. RandyFandangle
    Mar 11, 2015
    4
    EDIT: Back after a month to update review, and it's going down from a 5 to a 4. Nothing new of any use, still empty and buggy. On the plus side, an XBOne version is on the way..... wish they'd stick some content in the PC version before trying to cash in with a feeble port. The 4 is still for potential, though I'm not holding out much hope any more at this stage. Disappointing in theEDIT: Back after a month to update review, and it's going down from a 5 to a 4. Nothing new of any use, still empty and buggy. On the plus side, an XBOne version is on the way..... wish they'd stick some content in the PC version before trying to cash in with a feeble port. The 4 is still for potential, though I'm not holding out much hope any more at this stage. Disappointing in the extreme.

    (Previous review)
    Giving this a grudging FIVE for now, as I've only been playing for a couple of weeks. I'll come back later and update after another week or so.
    What I can say is that NO WAY IS THIS WORTH 10/10 AS IT STANDS RIGHT NOW!
    There are just too many bugs, and mechanisms that don't work as they should. Well, I'm praying they aren't working as they should, cuz if this is how they have designed it then God help us.
    Had some fun, but it's hard to find sometimes. Frontier are gonna have to release some damn good stuff very soon or players are gonna bail.
    Hey, the 5 is for potential. Will have to see.    … Expand
  63. KnightEnvy
    Feb 13, 2015
    4
    If you get this game you will be WOW'd right off the bat. Combat is fun and works great with a joystick. Graphics are amazing.

    And that's about it. Most of the universe is without story or at least irrelevant to it. Only 1/2 the ships are available, and if I come across more than one or two players per hour you are in luck. Disappointed I paid $60 for this. Until the price    If you get this game you will be WOW'd right off the bat. Combat is fun and works great with a joystick. Graphics are amazing.

    And that's about it. Most of the universe is without story or at least irrelevant to it. Only 1/2 the ships are available, and if I come across more than one or two players per hour you are in luck.

    Disappointed I paid $60 for this. Until the price drops to about $20-$30 I would wait for Star Citizen.    … Expand
  64. Darious
    Feb 18, 2015
    4
    The truth is somewhere between the shill tens and the zeros.

    It's a pretty game, but also pretty empty of content. Your primary options are to grind as a miner, grind as a trader, grind in combat, or explore new systems - which, after the 10th or so system, gets to feel pretty ... grindy. But make NO mistake - it is beautiful. And first two week of playing was breathtaking. But as    The truth is somewhere between the shill tens and the zeros.

    It's a pretty game, but also pretty empty of content. Your primary options are to grind as a miner, grind as a trader, grind in combat, or explore new systems - which, after the 10th or so system, gets to feel pretty ... grindy.

    But make NO mistake - it is beautiful. And first two week of playing was breathtaking. But as time went on I'd gone from trading, to exploring and out of sheer boredom bounty hunting and finally to just flat out p-king.

    After about a month I find that I just don't bother to log in anymore.

    Maybe in a year or so it might be worth the bother, but not right now.    … Expand
  65. moblin
    Feb 18, 2015
    4
    While the game looks and sounds beautiful (even more so with an Oculus Rift), it does however lack gameplay depth for long term enjoyment. There's a lot of tedious grind to get anywhere (or to get the money to get anywhere), and if you don't keep changing what you do - trading, mining, exploring, bounty hunting, the game can get boring fast.

    There's also a feeling that the game isn't    While the game looks and sounds beautiful (even more so with an Oculus Rift), it does however lack gameplay depth for long term enjoyment. There's a lot of tedious grind to get anywhere (or to get the money to get anywhere), and if you don't keep changing what you do - trading, mining, exploring, bounty hunting, the game can get boring fast.

    There's also a feeling that the game isn't really cohesive, like there isn't an overall design that underpins everything. Your presence in the universe is meant to result in some small influence on how things unfold, but everything feels like its coming into being for the moment you are there, and then disappearing after you leave, like instances. It feels very much like a typical MMO but without any story.

    There are plenty of features in the pipeline that will expand the game - the new update promises to enhance multiplayer, but treat what exists now as early access / beta, or keep an eye on the updates before taking the plunge.    … Expand
  66. cmkao
    Feb 21, 2015
    4
    I got this due to the fact that I loved Elite II back in the day. It is OK.

    Lots of grinding - but then we had that in other Elite games, right? True, but here hours worth of credits can be lost by a random encounter with a pirate - and there is no reload option. If you spend hours (and I mean hours) of your free time grinding in the hope of getting a bigger ship and being able to do    I got this due to the fact that I loved Elite II back in the day. It is OK.

    Lots of grinding - but then we had that in other Elite games, right? True, but here hours worth of credits can be lost by a random encounter with a pirate - and there is no reload option.

    If you spend hours (and I mean hours) of your free time grinding in the hope of getting a bigger ship and being able to do a few more things, but then at the end of the day you are back where you started, you have to wonder if it was a good use of your precious time    … Expand
  67. Suckit
    Mar 29, 2015
    4
    However, the game falls very short in a number of areas that were frankly disappointing and frustrating. The game is a wreck when it comes to immersion! The 3 major factions Empire, Federation, and Alliance are simply text based descriptions. Other than a text based description of these, there's no 'literary characterization' of these factions. In the movie Jaws, the chick who dies at theHowever, the game falls very short in a number of areas that were frankly disappointing and frustrating. The game is a wreck when it comes to immersion! The 3 major factions Empire, Federation, and Alliance are simply text based descriptions. Other than a text based description of these, there's no 'literary characterization' of these factions. In the movie Jaws, the chick who dies at the beginning from the Shark? We probably don't even remember their name because no literary characterization was made with the person, as opposed to the main characters in the movie. If people establish a relationship with a character or get to know them, they care more. The factions are just lame text based descriptions of one another: No cinematics, no audio interactions from the AI from these factions, no personalization that makes a Federation player feel different from an Empire and so on... As far as I'm concerned, the 3 factions are simply the same thing that are simply rebranded with a different name, a few different ships, and a few differences in trade. 400billion star systems that are just recycled with various minor factions. It's just regurgitated art. Even in games like Privateer, you could interact with the AI and message them and see a visual of them. Hell, if you accidently shoot an ally ship in combat, there's no warning message like, 'Hey watch your fire man!" Instead, your status blandly changes to 'wanted' and then every friendly ship starts firing on you. Also where's the interaction with other players?
    BORING. The missions are formulaic, bland, and create problems for a player starting out. Combat strike missions assasinating a target usually consist of 150k credits but are almost always an anaconda, so...say a player wants to take these missions, even in an upgraded viper it's pretty much a death mission. Missions like kill bounty hunters, or strike traders, often have consequences of becoming wanted in the system and having all the system security after you, so there's no point to accepting these missions even though they appear, and sometimes they are offered by the controling system faction which makes no sense when they'll make you a wanted target. But, many of these missions consist of searching around the system going to random "unidenifiable signal source" points...randomly searching around for these to find either your strike target, your black box, your rebel plans, insert purplenerpleberry A. Advance in rank: Okay, you take a mission sponsored by the Empire which you do essentially for free to take 4 illegal cargo items be it slaves, or combat stabilizers, etc...doesn't really matter just insert item A, B, or C here. So, the next step is finding a station where you can buy this crap, and you have to go through the galaxy map and try to sort through gov't types as well as system economy to find that item. Combat stabilizers is in High Tech econ system, and then you need to find an anarchy, independent, or dictatorship gov't in order to have a chance at buying the illegal item. So you set out for the item with a limited timeframe and this system you want for the item could be 50ly away after spending 25minutes jumping from system to system and playing the Elite Dangerous waiting game, you get to the station and find that it's not sold at that station, doesn't have a commodity market, or they're out of the item. Furthermore, the 3d map grid system becomes annoying to use because of the scale of the systems and Z axis to try to find systems around you isn't always user intuitive, you could spend 15minutes simply looking around the nearby stars zooming and out moving around on the x, y, and z axis to find what you're looking for. But anyway, players complete this stuff looking for 'more' in the game only to find just rinse and repeat. So, essentially there's no motivation to continue playing the game because once you complete a mission you get simply a change in text showing you're now allied or friendly with Purplenurple A.
    There isn't enough variety in the types of weapons with pros and cons. Mainly consists of either beam, pulse, or burst phrases in whatever will fit onto your ships hardpoint that do damage against the shields, and then multicannons to do more damage against armor. We need more of a variety of combat visuals. The use of gimbal weapons in the game that 'autotrack' as opposed to non gimbal is pointless from a balance perspective. It is pretty much always advisable to go gimbal because you will hit 100% of the time and the damage from a non-gimbal isn't significant enough to justify use. Another oddity is that although there are classes of modules with grades, it appears that no matter what ship you buy, you can never fully equip it due to power restrictions...
    This game has an ' Indie feel' but is asking a triple-A price point at 60$...but (feels beta).    … Expand
  68. 2chill
    Apr 3, 2015
    4
    Frontier Developments have spread themselves too thinly with just the PC release. With impending Mac and console versions on the horizon I can see the already sketchy support for the PC version becoming diluted further.

    The game has improved since release, with there being almost weekly updates or patches. However, with each update the game's FPS takes a dramatic hit - especially if you    Frontier Developments have spread themselves too thinly with just the PC release. With impending Mac and console versions on the horizon I can see the already sketchy support for the PC version becoming diluted further.

    The game has improved since release, with there being almost weekly updates or patches. However, with each update the game's FPS takes a dramatic hit - especially if you are playing on a lower spec system.

    Stutter, stutter, stutter.... = unplayable.

    I really wanted this game to be the one I played for the next few years (like many of us did with the original back in the 80's). This is not going to be so, as after a couple of months I am already playing it less and less. Even with the inclusion of new content, Frontier Developments are far from filling the massive void they have created.    … Expand
  69. MadMaxx
    Apr 3, 2015
    4
    Beautiful game, horrible monotony. Awesome game to play for a week or two. Most users don't last much beyond that. I've played since December 2014, but I must admit I have to urge myself to log in, or even find a reason to log in and play. I've also brought many friends to the game who did not last more than one week.

    It seems even the old Star Wars Galaxies and older games had many    Beautiful game, horrible monotony. Awesome game to play for a week or two. Most users don't last much beyond that. I've played since December 2014, but I must admit I have to urge myself to log in, or even find a reason to log in and play. I've also brought many friends to the game who did not last more than one week.

    It seems even the old Star Wars Galaxies and older games had many more fun things to do. In this game, it's Trading, and Combat. Missions are broken to a large extent, and even if they worked fine, there is nothing to progress to other than a title. Content additions are very slow to be put into the game, and it ends up creating a continual revolving door of players.

    Things that were considered feature additions (multiplayer) should have been added back in beta, and the mission system should never have been released in this state. Even something as simple as adding more ships seems to take twice as long as any other 3D space sim I've ever played.

    In general, it's a fun game to play for a couple weeks between games, but that's about it.    … Expand
  70. joejean
    May 25, 2015
    4
    After buying the game, I was in heaven, I like to learn on my own, so I took off into space and started learning what I could. The mechanics of the game seemed great, it seemed they would work great for an MMO, supplying small space stations with trading revenues would make the station expand in size and the faction in control of it would start rising in the picking order of that system.After buying the game, I was in heaven, I like to learn on my own, so I took off into space and started learning what I could. The mechanics of the game seemed great, it seemed they would work great for an MMO, supplying small space stations with trading revenues would make the station expand in size and the faction in control of it would start rising in the picking order of that system. You would create guilds and nurture specific parts of space to grow them and be allowed to make missions for your guild members, creating a 3 tier economy between the NPCs, the game Powers (politicians) and the individuals (independent players).

    You could form groups of flying wings to secure or interdict certain parts of space, the interaction possibilities seemed endless, this add everything a great MMO should have. I was so hyped...

    So I played at steam release about 160 hours in 12 days, learning organically I would say, trying to avoid going on youtube for easy answers and so forth. But then, the wall hit me, I started looking at videos released by the game makers, most of witch we're 2 years old, promising the moon, the sun, the whole universe in fact (pun intended)... Well, I started seeing a trend, the maker (don't wanna name him, I feel dirty just thinking about him) was a smooth talker, savvy man, saying everything right, everything anyone wants to ear, then, at the end of each reply he would give he'd be like: "If this sounds good to you, then please, please go on kickstarter and back us up."

    This trend kept going and going, he then produced super high quality videos of his entire staff, each of them making a passionate plea about how great the future of the game is and how ships would be multicrewed and you could board them and then fight in first person mode to then take over the ownership of that vessel, those poor employees seemingly pouring their heart out, being so emotive and seemingly so priviledged to be part of such a great game endeavour.

    Then I read a blog written by said game maker, talking about how the new gaming industry is basically the new far west, comparing his business basically to a cowboy living in one of the hardest, dirtiest, lawless era of mankind, a time we're people killed for food, destroyed an entire native civilization for greed and so forth.

    At that point I understood what this guy's game was, he's a con artist, a smooth talker.

    He talked people into giving him over 3 million dollars, went corporate, ISOed on the stock market and is now ready to reap his rewards. From all the features he "talked" about, about only 10% made it in to release, which that's a wrong appellation, this is an ALPHA product, sold at AAA price.

    Worst thing I found tho, is that the MMO tag was applied WRONGLY on the steam client, fooling me into believing this game would have human interactions in it, when in fact, 10,000 players online could all be in SOLO individual instances, making this the biggest SINGLE PLAYER game ever made...

    In over 400 hours of play now, I came across about 12 people total in their so called OPEN PLAY...

    Add to that the total lack of directional content, you are suppose to read walls of text as if we are in 1984 still, even then most of the text content is fluff and mostly pointless, as a single player you have no influence on anything.

    Top this off with a fanboi community bent on attacking anyone making the slightest negative comment on the game, a fanboi community actually given FREE CONTENT and EXCLUSIVE features to edit their own community goals, allowing people who bother to go to the forums a huge edge on regular fools like me who bought the game in good faith, thinking this was a serious game maker, not a con artist led project to spruce up the corporation stock...

    This game will most likely see one more free patch (powerplay) and then it'll be 1 or 2 half done expansions for money, close the books, start the next title to release on steam next year, close the servers for E:D and ride the fame train with nice fancy videos and more smoke and mirror effects to reap the maximum out of the unexpecting steam crowd.

    All in all, there is fun to be had in the game if you like being a loner, never meet other players and basically be a space trucker... Go watch some videos on youtube, look at the guy talk, wouldn't he sell you a used car? See the glimmer in his eyes? That's the glimmer of greed...    … Expand
  71. cryon1cang3l
    Jun 11, 2015
    4
    Its a grind heavy game, even after patch 1.3.02 where PowerPlay was introduced.
    The multiplayer is limited, the game has a pesky peer2peer system (so the server will provide only background information to the client and all interaction happens between clients and it IS bad for an MMO).
    The game has a hard limit of 32 player per instance, but after 10-12 people its almost impossible to    Its a grind heavy game, even after patch 1.3.02 where PowerPlay was introduced.
    The multiplayer is limited, the game has a pesky peer2peer system (so the server will provide only background information to the client and all interaction happens between clients and it IS bad for an MMO).
    The game has a hard limit of 32 player per instance, but after 10-12 people its almost impossible to play in the instance.
    PvP is very limited and most people play this game solo.
    Balancing is poor. PvP works based on how many shield cells you can fit in your ship, not on how good you can fly.
    This game looks nice and will entertain you in the first hours, but the "lategame" is boring, there is nothing that you can do outside of grinding for even more credits and reputation/power.    … Expand
  72. Psyanide
    Aug 24, 2016
    4
    Despite having 400 billion systems Elite falls flat on it's face before even leaving the first. What might at first appear to be a fun space sim, with lush graphics and great sound effects Elite's gameplay soon plummets into a repetitive grind fest with little depth and plenty of built in time sinks designed by he developer to hold back your progress as much as possible.

    Despite what    Despite having 400 billion systems Elite falls flat on it's face before even leaving the first. What might at first appear to be a fun space sim, with lush graphics and great sound effects Elite's gameplay soon plummets into a repetitive grind fest with little depth and plenty of built in time sinks designed by he developer to hold back your progress as much as possible.

    Despite what some people will try to tell you, Elite's flight model is not Newtonian, all ships fly like Jets with a faster pitch than yaw even with flight assist off, a capped speed limit (instead of acceleration limited by mass) and a flawed ''flight assist off'' mode that despite adding a more Newtonian feel still seems to want to add friction where there shouldn't be.... at all in fact.

    Missions are repetitive even after the overhaul that was supposed to add more variation but in fact all it did was allow several of these repetitive missions to be chained together resulting in forcing you to play the repetitiveness out for longer than before.
    Exploration is just as repetitive and boring as trading with even less of a payout, which seems like an insult considering it takes longer than trading.
    Smuggling is a rinse and repeat process every time just involving rushing the docking bay while in silent running mode, there is no variation to these missions not the smuggling mechanic what so ever.

    Trade is about what you would expect, take X from A to B and then preferably Y from B to C or back to A. The markets don't change much and it's not like you can manufacture anything yourself to influence the market either, you're literally just stuck going from A to B.

    ''Populated'' space does not seem very populated at all, you cannot interact with NPC ships aside from shooting them, you cannot trade with other players, you cannot form corporations with other players in fact the whole social aspect of this online game is incredibly lacking.

    Now onto the overall development of Elite since it's early release from Beta back in 2014. First off when Elite was released you couldn't form a group (or a Wing in this case) until 2 MONTHS after release with the Wings update (imagine Wow, the Battlefield series or any other online online game that did that, it's shoddy development), then despite people being annoyed about the lack of depth in the game and the over abundance of repetitive gameplay Frontier released the Powerplay update that adds a PURE grindfest to fill a progress bar for your preferred political party to show your support only for that progress to be removed every week, so keeping your progression is impossible and it actively punishes you for taking a break.
    then, with the Horizons update Frontier gave us barren, lifeless planets to land on, with no variation of things to find. See that planet over there with lush greenery, a bountiful ocean and city lights visible from space? Well you can't land on those kind of planets, no you're only allowed on the barren boring ones because Frontiers team are too lazy to give you anything else other than barren planets.
    Then there is the 2.1 update, the most recent update as of writing this, which (now remember enough people have quite due to the amount of grinding in the game already) added a super grindy random number generation (or RNG for short) crafting system, meaning that you spend 5+ hours grinding resources to upgrade a module or weapon on your ship only to waste all that time because the game decided to give you a rubbish crafting outcome so now you have to go back and grind all those resources again just to try your luck yet again, and this can be something that you repeat 10 times before you even get a favourable crafting outcome let alone the outcome you were aiming for.

    With the 2016 Gamescom over we have been given details of the next 2.2 update which will add deplorable [that was actually a typo, I meant deployable, but I'm sure like most gameplay features in Elite they will be deplorable too) combat drones, hire able NPC crew (who, unlike you, will die perminently if your ship is destroyed wasting all the time and effort you put into levelling and training them up), passenger transporting (exactly the same as transporting cargo, nothing new here, although it will give a use to the Dolphin ship which has been in the game for a year without any use).

    All in all Elite is a rather mediocre space sim, both gameplay wise and development wise, who's only true claim to fame is that it has the biggest play area and the most fanatical fanboy community that can't accept any criticism.    … Expand
  73. gdog
    Dec 11, 2018
    4
    The game looks and sounds great, but after visiting a few systems and doing a few generic missions you realize you've seen it all before. What's the point of simulating an entire galaxy if it is effectively empty of stuff to do. Like a cheerleader this is beautiful but shallow.
  74. satinlight
    Nov 11, 2021
    4
    In 2021 Elite Dangerous is for you if:

    1) you have no job, no hobby and no life, willing to travel to almost every mission above 10 real-time min; 2) you like to grind, grind and more grind; 3) you can ignore annoying bugs, annoying rules, repetitive and boring gameplay; 4) you are ready to spend more time googling things than actually playing, because this game is THE MOST    In 2021 Elite Dangerous is for you if:

    1) you have no job, no hobby and no life, willing to travel to almost every mission above 10 real-time min;
    2) you like to grind, grind and more grind;
    3) you can ignore annoying bugs, annoying rules, repetitive and boring gameplay;
    4) you are ready to spend more time googling things than actually playing, because this game is THE MOST unintuitive and unnecessarily complicated one I've ever played with no useful tutorial whatsoever;
    5) you are ok with no goal in the game;
    6) you like meditative games;
    7) you like realistic cosmos and starships.

    Advice: just go play No Man's Sky instead.    … Expand
  75. CoreDave
    Dec 16, 2014
    3
    Sadly this game is a shadow of its potential. Harsh punishments, very grindy gameplay, enormous time commitment requirements, lack of meaningful impact on the galaxy, broken promises and most importantly being released far FAR to soon. Needed another 6 months to a year in development, offline mode, modding support and many of the missing or cut features to have been implemented to make itSadly this game is a shadow of its potential. Harsh punishments, very grindy gameplay, enormous time commitment requirements, lack of meaningful impact on the galaxy, broken promises and most importantly being released far FAR to soon. Needed another 6 months to a year in development, offline mode, modding support and many of the missing or cut features to have been implemented to make it a game worth playing. Once the initial shine wears off its going to start shedding players like a crazy.… Expand
  76. Glidej
    Dec 18, 2014
    3
    Single player canceled in late stages and will not be implemented. Game was released waaaay to early as it is not even close to being done. Wait a year or buy it for $20 or less.
  77. Blackcompany
    May 7, 2017
    3
    Amazing sound. Quality graphical presentation. A large universe. These are the pros of Elite: Dangerous. And they are the only ones.

    On the other hand, flying is amazing difficult. Too many minute facets of fine control to balance at once. Docking is a horrendous pain, as its all in real time with tiny station entrances and a game that makes no effort to help you find your assigned    Amazing sound. Quality graphical presentation. A large universe. These are the pros of Elite: Dangerous. And they are the only ones.

    On the other hand, flying is amazing difficult. Too many minute facets of fine control to balance at once. Docking is a horrendous pain, as its all in real time with tiny station entrances and a game that makes no effort to help you find your assigned dock.

    Activities are the same tired ones that appear in every space sim: trading, pirating, delivery jobs and bounty hunting.

    It must have been easy to refine and polish the existing space sim genre when making Elite. I say this because, judging by the design direction, the first thing they decided against in the beginning was any semblance of actual innovation at all.

    Not recommended.    … Expand
  78. Ayreos
    Dec 2, 2015
    3
    A game in which the sounds and the atmosphere of a space science fiction fantasy are lovingly crafted. Unfortunately, that's about the only positive thing i can say about the game. Annoying mechanics, strange design choices, a complete dearth of content(made, if possible, worse by the first "expansion" currently in beta, which simply broadened an already shallow, repetitive experience withA game in which the sounds and the atmosphere of a space science fiction fantasy are lovingly crafted. Unfortunately, that's about the only positive thing i can say about the game. Annoying mechanics, strange design choices, a complete dearth of content(made, if possible, worse by the first "expansion" currently in beta, which simply broadened an already shallow, repetitive experience with yet more shallow content. There are the makings of a fun experience below all the frustration, but it was impossible for me to get at it, and not for the lack of trying. Worst of all: don't hope to be able to play multiplayer comfortably with your friends! Just don't!… Expand
  79. 2fast4u34521
    Nov 13, 2015
    3
    Elite:Boring.

    After 2 weeks of playing it leaves me only bored. You cant earn money as fast as you should and everything looks the same. Its so sleepy...X3 is a much better game, even though it is old. Just think about the traveling in elite: this flying and flying and there is nothing to do. In X3 you can do many thinks just while traveling. Here its only waiting. OMFG I **** hate this    Elite:Boring.

    After 2 weeks of playing it leaves me only bored. You cant earn money as fast as you should and everything looks the same. Its so sleepy...X3 is a much better game, even though it is old. Just think about the traveling in elite: this flying and flying and there is nothing to do. In X3 you can do many thinks just while traveling. Here its only waiting. OMFG I **** hate this **** And I played it 2 weeks.    … Expand
  80. Mike101506
    Dec 19, 2014
    3
    I gave this a three because frankly, the game explains little to nothing in terms of how to play as a new player. I was very excited to play this but have yet figured out how to really do anything. Besides the training which was self explanatory I mindlessly rove around until I eventually run out of fuel. It looks great, the gameplay is incredibly slow and arduous. Until they come up withI gave this a three because frankly, the game explains little to nothing in terms of how to play as a new player. I was very excited to play this but have yet figured out how to really do anything. Besides the training which was self explanatory I mindlessly rove around until I eventually run out of fuel. It looks great, the gameplay is incredibly slow and arduous. Until they come up with more training missions to provide "how-to's" like accessing the bulletin boards/when dropping out of LTL how you scan and get to objectives, map plotting etc. it is not worth it. Also, if you purchase and want to return it...tough luck. No refund policy.… Expand
  81. Scorcher24
    Apr 14, 2017
    3
    The flying model is good, however, that is it. After you have done all the basic missions and activities, it is just the same things over and over until you lose interest. There is a story, however, that is only in form of blog entries and those can be read without actually owning the game. There is not a single non-repeatable mission in this game. Those missions do also not offer any sortThe flying model is good, however, that is it. After you have done all the basic missions and activities, it is just the same things over and over until you lose interest. There is a story, however, that is only in form of blog entries and those can be read without actually owning the game. There is not a single non-repeatable mission in this game. Those missions do also not offer any sort of meaning to the game world. Not even if you do faction wars. The borders move a bit, that is it. But nothing actually happens. The player cannot own anything but a ship. There is also no production, so mining is useless as a money maker since Bounty Hunting is the best earner in the game. The only purpose is when you have Engineers, which require you to mine thousands of tons of ore to unlock them. The sad part is, without Engineers (which are behind an extra 25€ paywall), you are going to have a bad time fighting, since the whole world is balanced towards the Season Pass.

    All in all, it is fun for a few hours and then it becomes rather stale. I'd rather play Eve or X3.    … Expand
  82. crnppscls
    Dec 20, 2014
    3
    i thought it was great when i first started playing it. I'm just glad i held off writing something about it for a couple of days.

    It is pretty and the sound design/effects are great. On top of that the feel of the ships encapsulates the sense of empathy that you feel as a pilot. They actually feel that they have mass and you do care about your hull. Ship handling feels solid. It    i thought it was great when i first started playing it. I'm just glad i held off writing something about it for a couple of days.

    It is pretty and the sound design/effects are great.
    On top of that the feel of the ships encapsulates the sense of empathy that you feel as a pilot. They actually feel that they have mass and you do care about your hull. Ship handling feels solid. It really, really had me for the first few hours.

    Gameplay is king however and this is where the title falls, not so much down but pretty much flat on it's face.

    It's about as dynamic as a siesta. Once when coming out of supercruise, i was switching between the game and candy crush and i saw another ship controlled by a player. Then he disappeared, i still don't know if it was real or a mirage brought on by my brain's insistency to go into standby. Cargo scooping for the nth time made me cry.
    The game is solely geared for you to accrew new ships, everything is done for money. There is a big grind to level. It wouldn't be a problem, if it wasn't so boring

    The always online thing is mind boggling. If there was any sort of multiplayer element in the game i would understand but there is none that i can see. Perhaps i'm missing something fundamental. Speaking of fundaments, you would think this sort of decision would be taken long before the game is released. It stinks frankly.

    I try to use adjectives that others don't for fear of plagiarism but if i was to sum up the game it would be 'the shell looks promising but not nearly enough GAME'

    A beige simulator of infinite groundhog day possibilities    … Expand
  83. Tick
    Jun 12, 2015
    3
    I'll start off with the 10/10 rating I give everything and work backwards to my score of a 4.

    The Interface is not mouse driven in menus. You have to use keyboard controls which is not intuitive seeing how you used the mouse to navigate the menus before the game launched. The interface has to be instinctual and natural to the majority of PC users. This means the Mouse. The interface is    I'll start off with the 10/10 rating I give everything and work backwards to my score of a 4.

    The Interface is not mouse driven in menus. You have to use keyboard controls which is not intuitive seeing how you used the mouse to navigate the menus before the game launched. The interface has to be instinctual and natural to the majority of PC users. This means the Mouse. The interface is a Vital component as it should be background and thoughtless. Just a smooth interraction to get through so you can play the game. It isn't... It's awkward. You cannot use your mouse in the various menus. When you are in the system map and click on a station you do not get options like "set destination" or anything. You have to use your keyboard as if you were playing an old 286 computer computer game. The galaxy map you can click on things and a pop-up menu does come up but it is so sensitive that trying to mouse over to the options closes it more often than successfully choosing an option. Interface -3

    Graphics are pretty good. They are by no means Amazing. I have settings on Ultra and run it on a 60hz 4k monitor. They never made me go "WOW" they were just pleasing. Score: +2

    the ships are kind blah. Just wedges that look kind of dated. Put up against the environmental graphics the ships look drab... Score: +0

    Controls: They are complicated. This is a steep learning curve. If you have just a mouse and keyboard you have to fool around with the controls for quite some time to get anything resembling intuitive controls to fly with. Score:-1

    Manual everything: Docking is a pain in the butt. Apparently after you play the game for a while you can buy a computer to automatically dock... but if you have played the game long enough you may just like manual docking and not want the computer to do it for you... I don't know why the auto-dock computer isn't a starting item and you can save ship resources by taking it out later on... It's easy to miss the spot you have to land on, you get warnings by the station to MOVE NOW OR YOU WILL BE SHOT, you accidentally press a button to deploy hard-points and your guns deploy. You were just fined. Score: -1

    Navigation: It's ok, you have to adjust the mouse sensitivity and dead-zones to improve this, and if you don't know what these are because you're new to games like this.. You're SOL. Some planets don't even show up on the system map because they are tethered to another planet.. Nothing explains this, you have to figure it out on your own. The ships seem sluggish, and you have to fool around with Pitch, Yaw and roll to get something you like, again if you are unfamiliar with what this means, you're again, SOL. Score -1

    Tutorials: Not very helpful at all. This game assumes you are experienced before you play. It assumes you're an existing backer. It assumes you've played the original game. It seems that without a HOTAS or Joystick set-up the game puts you at an initial disadvantage. Buying a new HID before you experience the game is asking a lot. New Player experience Score -2

    I tried going back to this game, and I couldn't... It's just so boring. I had to drop my score by another point. -1

    I really want space games on the PC to make a come-back. I didn't back the game, and I wanted to try it once it was released. I bought the game, and my experience has not been that positive at all. I showed the game to some friends. they were not that interested in picking it up after seeing how much micro-management is required at the start of the game. I can see micro-management of all the details giving efficiencies and advantages once you become more familiar with the game, but it seems that you have to deal with all this right out of the box and can earn money and buy stuff later to reduce the micromanagement..... Strange..... The community generally says "we want a complex game. So get out of here" I'm sure I'd want a more complex game as well, once I have sunk my teeth into it... but not right out of the box...

    I can't in good conscience recommend this game to anyone other than the initial backers.    … Expand
  84. Squicker
    Dec 16, 2014
    3
    I was really looking forward to this game, being a massive fan of the original game and having in fact reached Elite status 3 times on 3 separate platforms. However this game leaves me cold as it feels like a rushed xmas cash grab.

    Let me start with the good: It's beautiful and very relaxing. One definitely feels the vast emptiness of space in this game, and on the Oculus Rift it does    I was really looking forward to this game, being a massive fan of the original game and having in fact reached Elite status 3 times on 3 separate platforms. However this game leaves me cold as it feels like a rushed xmas cash grab.

    Let me start with the good: It's beautiful and very relaxing. One definitely feels the vast emptiness of space in this game, and on the Oculus Rift it does look superb.

    However you will be forever taking off that Oculus Rift because the UI is so old-hat. There are no journals or trading tools in the game, I have already given up on the Rift and moved to monitor so I can play, because the simple things we take for granted in a modern game are not there. It's as if the designers are stubbornly remaining in 1984 and they don't care how cumbersome it makes their game.

    Next, not only is space empty but grouping with friends is near impossible and when you do, the next work performance is a horrid glitchy mess. I have 80Mb/s fibre and this game runs like I am on a 14.4Kb dial-up modem. Again, 1984 is looming. Ships glitch in and out, space stations appear from nowhere, collision detection is horrible. I don't think the network code is finished, not by a long measure. I would like to play this game offline to eliminate these problems but because Frontier did a very neat bait and switch one month ago, I do not have this option. This is probably the single worst technical aspect of the game.

    Challenge: there is none. The game is incredibly simplistic and is just rinse and repeat gameplay. I am trading and there's a handful of commodities to trade and within my 8 hours today I have already made a small fortune. It's just too easy to pick a short haul route and rinse it. Easy but dull.

    Content: There is none. This a framework for a game. Perhaps with some content it will even be a reasonable game (apart from above problems) but right now you've seen and done it all in a day.

    Presentation: Really old-fashioned. The menus are clunky things straight out of 84 but with higher res fonts, there's no consistency on using controller vs mouse in various menus. The Oculus is coded for but you have to take it off. Seriously out-moded thinking here with no join up to other game elements. Really feels cheap and rushed.

    Flight model: Dumbed down and in my view overly simplistic. Very arcade-like and clearly this game is designed to port to consoles easily, in fact this could be a PC version of a console game, it's that simple. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but just be aware if you are looking for a deep space-sim like experience here, you will not get it. I think the game is obviously aimed more at a console crowd than old fans of Elite and that's where the money is. So a sound business decision maybe, but it hurts PC players.

    Overall this is a sad day for Elite fans who looked forward to a re-envisioning of their old classic game, there is no vision behind this release. It's just a series of clunky mini-games held together by the theme of space travel. For the amount of time and money spent on Elite Dangerous this really is a surprisingly weak release and I can only think that Frontier ran out of money to release the game in a clearly unfinished state. My advice is to wait a few months and pick this up in the sales when perhaps frontier have written some new content and crucially, fixed online multiplayer, because that is game breaking at this point in time.    … Expand
  85. TURJAN
    Aug 17, 2023
    3
    Second job simulator: The Game. There are 5 things you can do in this game.
    >You can be a space truck driver. Buy cheap in one station and sell it in another. Economy is very detailed but it becomes boring very quickly because every star system, space station and planet looks exactly the same.
    >You can be a space taxi driver. The same as above but people in place of copper. It becomes    Second job simulator: The Game. There are 5 things you can do in this game.
    >You can be a space truck driver. Buy cheap in one station and sell it in another. Economy is very detailed but it becomes boring very quickly because every star system, space station and planet looks exactly the same.
    >You can be a space taxi driver. The same as above but people in place of copper. It becomes boring very quickly because every star system, space station and planet looks exactly the same.
    >You can be a miner. Instead of buying minerals in stations just mine it yourself and sell it! It becomes boring very quickly because every star system, space station and planet looks exactly the same.
    >You can go exploring the space! Yeah, well... look above.
    >You can shoot some pirates, hunt aliens and bounty hunt. That one is actually pretty fun with a couple of friends, but its not profitable so you have to do one of the things from the list above to earn money. Also you need to upgrade your ship and that is whole another universe of grind.
    There are some story events but they are all aimed at end-game players so i never actually seen any of that.    … Expand
  86. bokor
    Dec 16, 2014
    3
    It's a sandbox all right. Do what you want: trade, explore, mine, bounty hunt - it's all the same. You go into super cruise (like warp speed) with a barely hidden load screen and fly from instance to instance where you'll run into no players. I've heard the argument that there's only a grind if you make it a grind - but those people are fooling themselves. There are HUGE money gapsIt's a sandbox all right. Do what you want: trade, explore, mine, bounty hunt - it's all the same. You go into super cruise (like warp speed) with a barely hidden load screen and fly from instance to instance where you'll run into no players. I've heard the argument that there's only a grind if you make it a grind - but those people are fooling themselves. There are HUGE money gaps in-between ships so you'll find yourself flying in small ships for hours and hours until you want to fling yourself off of a cliff.

    It's not all bad. The flight mechanics are GREAT - ships feel weighty and satisfying to fly. Open-world PVP is always great (just stay near popular systems to find players to fight.) The docking mini-game is fun, but tedious after hundreds of times.

    A vast ocean that's inches deep, Elite Dangerous isn't the game for everyone. I'm addicted, but I just space truck. I feel like Frontier rushed this game out to help pay for development. That's not a bad thing, but don't expect a full game just yet.

    I just can't recommend this game, despite the hundreds of hours I've already put into it.    … Expand
  87. Kaltern
    Dec 22, 2014
    3
    I'm not even playing it any more.

    I LOVED the original Elite, and I lived in Frontier, but this... this is just boring. Hell I get 100% more enjoyment out of Euro Truck than this, and that literally is going from one place to another. I think one of the main issues is the idea that players should have to manually do EVERYTHING. I mean, sure docking is fine, it's old school and you    I'm not even playing it any more.

    I LOVED the original Elite, and I lived in Frontier, but this... this is just boring. Hell I get 100% more enjoyment out of Euro Truck than this, and that literally is going from one place to another.

    I think one of the main issues is the idea that players should have to manually do EVERYTHING. I mean, sure docking is fine, it's old school and you have the option of a docking computer.

    But no autopilot when going from one station to another? Why? It's not as if you can click 'A' and then go make a coffee, cos you could be interdicted at any moment, but it sure as hell beats having to make sure you leave SuperCruise at precisely the right moment. It's a manual mechanic that wasn't even going to be IN the final game (it was added after alpha design discussions), so I don't know what was going to be in it's place.

    Combat is clunky and slow, the deliberate crippling of yaw movement sounded like a good idea at first, but in practice, it's a forced mechanic that just doesn't make the slightest bit of sense in space. Even with it's many many issues, SC's combat is so much better.

    Even the landing procedure is just odd... Ok, I get the reasoning behind there being no keybind for 'Request Docking Permission' - it will make macro-trading a lot more difficult - but it's not hard to overcome, and in the end is just an awkward way of yet again making manual control more prominent.

    Mining is pointless.

    This game is literally a timesink of the worst kind. If there was a bit more automation for travelling, then it might not be quite so bad. The laughable idea that your ship's navigation computer has absolutely no data on any other system except your starting one, and a couple of others (which I don't understand how or why), unless you purchase them from the map screen (not from Cartography, like you USED to be able to - another convoluted design change), makes no sense to me.

    And WHY you get money for 'discovering' stars and planets is beyond me, considering that data for this already exists to buy! Naturally, if you visit a truly unexplored system (which mathematically, you will, if you travel far enough), you SHOULD get paid oodles of credits, and would make exploring worthwhile - but exploring a system WHEN THERE ARE PLAYER SHIPS IN THE SAME AREA is utterly stupid.

    Elite is like an egg without a yolk, a sandwich without filling, beer without alcohol.

    And it's boring as hell.    … Expand
  88. Maiquer
    Jan 25, 2015
    3
    I loved the i-War series, and almost every other space game out there. I was a backer for Elite Dangerous, and had very high expectations. This is what I got: Flat, boring, repetitive gameplay. No content. They sold this as a MMO and the multiplayer mechanics are a joke. David Braben tried to make the same game as in 1.984, only with better graphics. The only positive aspect is the MilkyI loved the i-War series, and almost every other space game out there. I was a backer for Elite Dangerous, and had very high expectations. This is what I got: Flat, boring, repetitive gameplay. No content. They sold this as a MMO and the multiplayer mechanics are a joke. David Braben tried to make the same game as in 1.984, only with better graphics. The only positive aspect is the Milky Way simulation. Everything else is crap. I don't recommend this game to anyone. Biggest disappointment of 2014.… Expand
  89. chutoy
    Dec 16, 2014
    3
    A missed opportunity to build upon a great title from the past. In the mid 1980's everyone I knew who owned a BBC computer owned a copy of elite, it was a revolutionary title and I wasted weeks during the school holidays lost in space tangling with vipers and Thargoids.

    Frontier Developments have decided to use the same "Elite" name but not offer the same type of game-play, as with so    A missed opportunity to build upon a great title from the past. In the mid 1980's everyone I knew who owned a BBC computer owned a copy of elite, it was a revolutionary title and I wasted weeks during the school holidays lost in space tangling with vipers and Thargoids.

    Frontier Developments have decided to use the same "Elite" name but not offer the same type of game-play, as with so many other companies they appear to have been lured by the short term questionable rewards of on-line only, while encouraging players to spend money on micro transactions and expansions.

    It seems decisions are being made to maximise profits and that leaves questions open as to the long term future of a game that promises features, such as off-line play, only to cut them later with no warning.

    The original game was played on a BBC micro computer, this new version makes the BBC news website due to features being binned. This is the skeleton of an old great game, so many cut or lacking features and I feel sad that I was ever excited to see it being developed again.    … Expand
  90. Polar-eX
    Dec 25, 2014
    3
    To be very short about this game: its a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. Everything(!!) look exactly(!!) the same, multiplied by 400 billion star systems. Have fun!
  91. Matnik
    Dec 20, 2014
    3
    Short review - This game is unfinished, and suffers greatly as a result. I'm also going to have to go by my memory of a pre-release version, as I'm one of many people who've been unable to play since launch due to the sheer number of bugs.

    I was a huge fan of Elite 2 back in the day, but I'm not going to just fervently defend this game based on misty-eyed nostalgia. At best, this is a    Short review - This game is unfinished, and suffers greatly as a result. I'm also going to have to go by my memory of a pre-release version, as I'm one of many people who've been unable to play since launch due to the sheer number of bugs.

    I was a huge fan of Elite 2 back in the day, but I'm not going to just fervently defend this game based on misty-eyed nostalgia. At best, this is a tech demo. The graphics are great, the soundtrack beautiful. Space is modelled well, in that it is vast - and almost entirely empty.

    The launch trailer is nothing like the experience of the game. If anything, I'd say this is probably the most accurate portrayal of the likely future of life in space. Obtain ship. Obtain cargo contracts. Ship cargo from system to system. There is combat, yes, but it's more shoe-horned in than feeling an integral part of the game.

    And right now, that's it folks. You go to a starport, either buy a contract or a cargo mission (or if you spend the credits, find out the best trade routes) and go. Earn money. Once you've earned enough, go and buy a bigger ship. Continue until you have the biggest ship you can get and earn credits into all eternity.

    The ship designs are great - but you'll rarely see your own ship in game, as the whole game takes place from inside the cockpit. This is by design, but ultimately makes you feel like you're watching a TV programme about space, whilst fumbling around the menu system. The menus work very well, which is great as this is where you'll spend most of your time.

    But the bugs. Oh, the bugs. I can't even log in. The forums are full of angry customers and no sign of the support team. It reflects very poorly on the company and the future of this title.

    It could be great, but it feels like a race with the likes of Star Citizen and No Man's Sky, and Elite Dangerous is off the line early and half-dressed, with no warmup.    … Expand
  92. korsobar
    Jan 2, 2015
    3
    Like a beautiful hollow cake. It looks really good, but, just when you sink your teeth into it, everything collapses.

    Graphics, sound, ship handling are all good. The content is slim to non-existent, and many of the core features of gameplay are just a skeleton waiting for skin. For example: exploration sounds like it might be a really great option for those who are less interested    Like a beautiful hollow cake. It looks really good, but, just when you sink your teeth into it, everything collapses.

    Graphics, sound, ship handling are all good. The content is slim to non-existent, and many of the core features of gameplay are just a skeleton waiting for skin. For example: exploration sounds like it might be a really great option for those who are less interested in combat. Except you quickly find that exploration income is tiny, you get exactly zero feedback about which systems make more money, many systems and areas will disconnect you, the process of exploration is to jump into a system and hold a button or stare at a planet for several seconds, etc.

    Mining is even less involved: shoot lasers at a rock then crawl around actually scooping them. The only income that scales with your ship is trade, which involves simply comparing spreadsheets in identical looking stations until you find two items that allow a profit. Then you travel back and forth selling those. Hundreds of times. There is no reason to move once you have found a profitable route. At all.

    Even if you decide to grind out credits in the hope of better content later, you have to cope with the always online even for solo play problem. To be honest, I thought this was no problem at all for much of the beta and gamma phases. Then the servers went nutso yesterday, messing up peoples' accounts, balances, ships, modules, cargo and everything else. There are no support staff available and no one has talked about the issue on their official forums yet despite 24 hours elapsing. Hint to Frontier: if you want to run an always online mmo, someone has to be available to answer the red phone on holidays, too.

    On top of that, the game has started crashing to desktop and occasionally causing BSOD crashes for me as well. I have a top of the line gaming PC that I built myself. I have never had a BSOD from any other game. Support tickets go unanswered, everyone is out.

    If you complain about ANY issue on the official forums, be prepared to be met with a legion of defenders who will promptly inform you that -they- have no problems, you must be doing something wrong. If you prove their was a problem, they will defend the problem as a necessary feature of the game. If you point out how flawed it is, they will tell you that the game is not for you, go away.

    Elite: Dangerous proves that kickstarter and early access does nothing to solve the problem of games being pushed out the door too soon.

    Come back in a year or two and this game might be a real gem.    … Expand
  93. Bennrama
    Nov 9, 2015
    3
    Why anyone with any intelligence plays this game instead of say.... X3 is beyond me. The only possible reason would be for the multiplayer, but let's face it, elite: tedious has God awful multiplayer. It is reasonably engaging for the first 20 hours perhaps, which would be fine for a single player game that packed a lot of content into 20 hours and left you feeling like you've accomplishedWhy anyone with any intelligence plays this game instead of say.... X3 is beyond me. The only possible reason would be for the multiplayer, but let's face it, elite: tedious has God awful multiplayer. It is reasonably engaging for the first 20 hours perhaps, which would be fine for a single player game that packed a lot of content into 20 hours and left you feeling like you've accomplished something in that time (like the completion of a decent storyline, for example). Elite left me feeling like I'd wasted a bunch of hours learning the controls and quirks of a game that is in NO WAY ENJOYABLE..... The only way to conceivably enjoy this monster grind of pretty-looking repetition simulator, would be to play with friends. But Elite seems determined to make that as frustrating as possible.… Expand
  94. Joote
    Dec 16, 2014
    3
    Loved the first Elite, but don't like this one at all. The game is confusing and everything that should be simple is made as clunky as possible. You don't feel as if your playing a game, more like having a nightmare. Interdiction's are worse than a nightmare, I had 8 in one trade run and ended up getting destroyed.
    The game feels like a alpha were most of the functions are still bug    Loved the first Elite, but don't like this one at all. The game is confusing and everything that should be simple is made as clunky as possible. You don't feel as if your playing a game, more like having a nightmare. Interdiction's are worse than a nightmare, I had 8 in one trade run and ended up getting destroyed.
    The game feels like a alpha were most of the functions are still bug ridden, which is funny as the first beta I played was better than this release.
    First Elite was a great game, Elite dangerous is a horrible frustrating, badly designed game with some really stupid ideas implemented. It does look pretty when it's not jerking though. Bye bye Elite, a opportunity wasted.    … Expand
  95. Vaestmannaeyjar
    Dec 16, 2014
    3
    As it now stands, Elite Dangerous is a game shell. Flying is nice, graphics are very good. Everything else is borked. Trading is buggd to the teeth, mining is just a minigame where you pewpew at asteroids and have to manually fetch hundreds of asteroid bits. Exploration is just pushing a button and flybys on planets.
    Moreso, Frontier Developments have shown during beta that they aren't    As it now stands, Elite Dangerous is a game shell. Flying is nice, graphics are very good. Everything else is borked. Trading is buggd to the teeth, mining is just a minigame where you pewpew at asteroids and have to manually fetch hundreds of asteroid bits. Exploration is just pushing a button and flybys on planets.
    Moreso, Frontier Developments have shown during beta that they aren't fast to asnwer issues. Game will probably be a blast. In 3 years. Be back then.    … Expand
  96. mcuser
    Dec 16, 2014
    3
    Great graphics and sound, boring gameplay. Once you've done the few things there are to do a few times you realise how shallow and empty it is. Released a year too early.
  97. CptUndies
    Dec 16, 2014
    3
    tl;dr - A beautiful game which is not easy to learn, nor fun to play.

    I purchased Elite Dangerous at the beta stage and I was overwhelmingly disappointed. Having been a fan of the space sim genre since Wing Commander in the 90s, I had high hopes for this game. The game was obviously created to be best played on a $500+ throttle/joystick/pedals setup, not mouse/keyboard or even just a    tl;dr - A beautiful game which is not easy to learn, nor fun to play.

    I purchased Elite Dangerous at the beta stage and I was overwhelmingly disappointed. Having been a fan of the space sim genre since Wing Commander in the 90s, I had high hopes for this game. The game was obviously created to be best played on a $500+ throttle/joystick/pedals setup, not mouse/keyboard or even just a joystick. The flight model is based on aeroplanes and not what you'd actually expect a spaceship be.

    In addition, the game felt sterile and boring, and has a huge lack of built in help to learn. For me, removal of their promised ability to play offline even in single player was the final nail in its coffin.    … Expand
  98. Gunhed
    Dec 16, 2014
    3
    I can't recommend it to my friends in the current state.
    As a beta player there are too many things amiss.
    Trading system borked. High supply system/station don't have stuff and demanding system/stations are in high supply. That doesn't change if you purchase trading information. Everything in this game is so tidies and not rewarding. I don't want to have a game that feels like a job    I can't recommend it to my friends in the current state.
    As a beta player there are too many things amiss.
    Trading system borked. High supply system/station don't have stuff and demanding system/stations are in high supply. That doesn't change if you purchase trading information.
    Everything in this game is so tidies and not rewarding. I don't want to have a game that feels like a job without payment.    … Expand
  99. StockportJambo
    May 14, 2015
    3
    Backed this game at planet naming level (£750), as well as sunk another £200+ into it since then on merchandise, skins, and so on. I named my planet & space station after my late Dad. I was heavily involved in the Design Discussion Forum (DDF) all the way through. Needless to say, I wanted this game to be good.

    Unfortunately, once the initial "wow" factor of the huge galaxy wears off,    Backed this game at planet naming level (£750), as well as sunk another £200+ into it since then on merchandise, skins, and so on. I named my planet & space station after my late Dad. I was heavily involved in the Design Discussion Forum (DDF) all the way through. Needless to say, I wanted this game to be good.

    Unfortunately, once the initial "wow" factor of the huge galaxy wears off, you discover there's very little actual game there - and, worse, even less opportunity for you to create your *own* game. The systems are very similar, the stations are even more similar, the NPCs serve no purpose whatsoever, and the ill-advised & badly implemented "multiplayer" doesn't make up for the overriding feeling that the game is largely devoid of purpose. Everything feels "fake".

    It looks pretty in my Oculus Rift (bought for the game during alpha). It's a useful tech demo in that respect. The menu systems are terrible. Having to take your eyes off the action to fiddle with menu options to do some basic task is stupid. I'm not surprised that they're releasing a console version, as the "game that is designed for the PC from the ground up" (as promised during the Kickstarter) clearly wasn't.

    There is no pause button. Even if you only play solo (as I usually did) if you accept a (boring, fetch and carry) mission, you better finish it in that play session because the timers will count down on it even if you're not playing. Then you will lose rep. It would make sense if there was an actual effect on the system / faction if they didn't receive their 6t of Tea in time... but there isn't.

    It's incredibly grindy. There's nothing to do except grind for more cash to... buy a bigger ship... just so you can grind faster to... what? That doesn't count as "progression".

    There is a 1.3 update coming - codenamed "Power Play". With luck, that will address *some* of the deficiencies of this game for *some* people. No word on any further updates though... so I wouldn't hold your breath.

    However, the overriding feeling I have is one of profound disappointment & regret. I wish I hadn't spent so much money on it. I wish I hadn't named a space station as a memorial to my Dad as the game will now only exist for as long as Frontier continue to pay for the servers, thanks to their disgraceful last-minute bait'n'switch on offline mode. I am happy that some people are getting enjoyment from it, and it is clearly aimed at a demographic, but I am now acutely aware that this demographic does not include me... a huge fan of the originals and a high level Kickstarter backer.    … Expand
  100. cgavin1
    Dec 19, 2014
    3
    The problem is that you have all these horrifically shallow and borderline insulting your intelligence (requiring no thought, planning, offering no challenge etc) activities that make you credits. But there's nothing to spend them on except a bigger cargo hold to make more credits.

    That sort of monotonous grind is bloody terrible and we've all had more than enough of grind MMOS. Let    The problem is that you have all these horrifically shallow and borderline insulting your intelligence (requiring no thought, planning, offering no challenge etc) activities that make you credits. But there's nothing to spend them on except a bigger cargo hold to make more credits.

    That sort of monotonous grind is bloody terrible and we've all had more than enough of grind MMOS. Let alone faux ones! There's nothing to build. Nothing to own or conquer. Nothing to create and - critically - nobody to share the journey with. It's like being trapped in an entry level job on a zero hour contract. Few people can enjoy that sensation of enforced compartmentalisation and poverty of imagination in terms of game design.

    I find this particularly sad as one of the things Braben said was that he never wanted to play Spreadsheets In Space; which presumably was a jibe at EVE Online. And yet EVE offers seat of the pants adrenalin pumping PvP backed by real consequence, compelling socio-economic warfare that scales really well, politics, emergence etc.

    It isn't everyone's cup of tea and is dated, clunky and bordering on impenetrable to new players, but, to literally not try to bring any of those kernels of tried-and-tested over a decade compelling gameplay features in to a 'space sandbox' seems daft to me! For all their bluster and vision: a bunch of soulless statistics is all you amount to in this game. In terms of modern gaming it's an evolutionary dead end (p2p aka lobby multiplayer is dead as a dodo) that doesn't offer a satisfying, rewarding or structured experience. It will likely never be able to circumvent that gaping flaw in design sadly, because its an anachronistic rehash of a very old format, that is baffling by design and fundamentally anti-social; lacking in emergent gameplay, patently shallow and repetitive and therefore .. dull. No matter how much content they add, it will always be crippled by this and the rather awful multiplayer implementation.

    I have trouble understanding how nobody could have pointed this out at the brainstorming phase? It feels to me like they wanted to make a single player game with some multiplayer elements but ended up trying to make an always on MMO without any of the requisite MMO components. A truly unfortunate decision. The name of the game doesn't really serve to suggest anything but the digital equivalent of an ironic-beard either! Elite: Dangerous. Odd choice since the game as it stands contains literally no peril, risk, consequences or challenge and has the software equivalent of a hardwired gastric band.

    If they had just made a single player game in the style of the older releases, packed with things to do, places to see, an Elder Scrolls in Space if you will, I'd have bought it and not been too concerned about the multiplayer aspect being weak. But trying to make a multiplayer game without any actual credible multiplayer, including the social or competitive building blocks required to make any multiplayer sandbox game 'work', was just dumb bordering on insane. It also perhaps explains, in my mind, why Braben has never done a sequel to the Elite series before now - arguably nobody would back him/it without a clearer commercial vision. I seem to remember a quote from Ian Bell along those lines: Braben arguably does not understand 'fun' and how to package/juxtapose that with a commercially viable but artistically integral product.

    Moral? If you are going to make an MMO make a proper client/server MMO. If you are going to make a single player game, make a single player game. If you want to add on some limited multiplayer functionality then do so. Don't try to make an MMO with limited multiplayer functionality and no content. It won't end well.

    My advice to anyone is to hold off right now. Wait a year and maybe pick it up when it is finished. And even then be prepared to be disappointed with the heavily instanced region locked p2p multiplayer and the inevitable lack of compelling content. I'd also caution people not to invest or buy in to anything Frontier have offered as game design proposals or pledges as they have already back pedaled on much of what was originally proposed and seem to be distracted by external commercial and financial pressures.

    Overall I think this is a massive disappointment and very weak offering that fails to offer the basic ingredients most players of sandbox games expect: challenge, development, aspiration, mutability, depth and decent multiplayer. Frontier just seem to have been way too naive in their presumption that a tiny dev team who have never done this kind of game before and a tiny budget could produce the kind of AAA game they thought they could. Sadly Elite Dangerous falls way, way short ..    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

65
#65 Best PC Game of 2014
5
#5 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
2
#2 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 54 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 46 out of 54
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 54
  3. Negative: 0 out of 54
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jul 8, 2015
    80
    First minute the game takes your breath away and then it entertains you for another couple of hours to end up like a meditative tool for hard working individuals. What a waste and shame for a game in such beautiful environment. [Issue#253]
  2. Ragequit.gr
    May 11, 2015
    90
    Everyone who played the original game back in the 80's, should be right at home. It's the 21st Century version of "Elite." But newer, uninitiated players may find it strangely desolate and repetitive. A grand space simulation, aimed at the series' hardcore fans.
    Read full review
  3. Games.cz
    Apr 23, 2015
    80
    You can focus on the journey, not the destination – even when some "road work" signs will bother you for the time being in the reincarnated Elite. But their numbers are declining with every new update so a thirty-year-old vision becomes more and more complete.
    Read full review
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