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

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Rudal
    May 30, 2016
    6
    great engine and amazing ground for a good game play but nothing to do
    game is boring after a couple of hours and does not reward you for playing
    you are forced to do trading if you want a new ship or upgrade the one you own cause combat and exploring does not give you enough credits
  2. eldumloido
    May 29, 2016
    0
    "Game" sucks and is only a way to sell the content as dlc. No way to buy complete edition. b
  3. sensai25
    May 25, 2016
    9
    So far i have played 1200 hours.

    I really enjoy it. I ainly play as an explorer but i am also a fighter (triple Elite and working on CQC - pvp ranking now). Ok th game is not perfect, but the team is responsive and they are planning to add more and more contect. So i plan to play a loooong more time. Flight model is fine to me, i really appreciated control and immersion, thanks to    So far i have played 1200 hours.

    I really enjoy it. I ainly play as an explorer but i am also a fighter (triple Elite and working on CQC - pvp ranking now).

    Ok th game is not perfect, but the team is responsive and they are planning to add more and more contect. So i plan to play a loooong more time.

    Flight model is fine to me, i really appreciated control and immersion, thanks to my trackIR dashboard are really amazing.

    The sound is also incredible.

    Graphics could be even better but it is not my principal criteria. So i deal with it, 2.1 patch bring some enhancements so with time, the game is going to be deeper and deeper.    … Expand
  4. Darkarrow
    Apr 28, 2016
    10
    I have spent so many hours in Elite 2 and Elite Dangerous is all I've ever dreamed back then. Vast galaxy, excellent realistic procedures and graphics with absolute freedom, certainly not boring, but rather rewarding. I feel like I am in a realistic living, although artificially created, world with endless possibilities where you can forge your own fate. I also love all theI have spent so many hours in Elite 2 and Elite Dangerous is all I've ever dreamed back then. Vast galaxy, excellent realistic procedures and graphics with absolute freedom, certainly not boring, but rather rewarding. I feel like I am in a realistic living, although artificially created, world with endless possibilities where you can forge your own fate. I also love all the holographic/voice human machine interfaces (HMI), which are beautifully crafted and absolutely intuitive. I think they might become a prototype for future HMIs which will be implemented in cars/aircraft/spaceships in the future.… Expand
  5. flyingmanticore
    Apr 22, 2016
    8
    I was a massive fan of Elite II : Frontier back on the Amiga. When I had a chance to purchase this cheaply on a steam sale, I jumped at the chance. Now, 8 months down the line, I feel I have cheated the game creators out of money as I have more than played the worth of the full price game and the Horizons expansion.

    There is a HUGE!!!!!!! galaxy to explore with over 400 billion star    I was a massive fan of Elite II : Frontier back on the Amiga. When I had a chance to purchase this cheaply on a steam sale, I jumped at the chance. Now, 8 months down the line, I feel I have cheated the game creators out of money as I have more than played the worth of the full price game and the Horizons expansion.

    There is a HUGE!!!!!!! galaxy to explore with over 400 billion star systems available. Each of those has potential for planets to land on, or space stations to trade with. There are asteroid fields to mine.....or if you feel really challenging, exploration of new uncharted systems to seek out. Although this game can suffer from some lack of content with so few ships to buy and customise, there is enough out there to keep you enthralled.

    There is a highly active community of players on various Facebook groups and on the official forums that can help make the game better. Teaming up with people to make wings to complete official missions for you chosen power on a weekly basis can be interesting.

    Depending on how you like to play, you have a choice of either playing in Solo mode(where you are the only human pilot i your gaming instance), Open(where anywhere up to 50 pilots could be in the same area as you at any time) or Private(where you are in a private group and only others from that group can play together). In open, you run the risk of other human pilots looking for a spot of piracy and killing you. But that makes it fun.

    In short, I have to say, this game is only for someone willing to invest hundreds of hours into it. This is no short drop in drop out type of game. You are either in or you are out. Currently I am out due to burn out from a 2 month long exploration trip. But I shall be back.    … Expand
  6. 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
  7. Ectsoplasm
    Apr 18, 2016
    8
    This game is so relaxing, beautiful - even when I run it on my laptop, and gameplay is great. The controls take some getting used to, though. But this game is an enormous open world where you can be a space trucker, space explorer, space pirate, or a space mercenary. It will take a long time to get from place to place, but that's why you should know before entering - this is a RELAXING andThis game is so relaxing, beautiful - even when I run it on my laptop, and gameplay is great. The controls take some getting used to, though. But this game is an enormous open world where you can be a space trucker, space explorer, space pirate, or a space mercenary. It will take a long time to get from place to place, but that's why you should know before entering - this is a RELAXING and CALM game. When the combat comes up, it actually feels like it matters when to kill a pirate.… Expand
  8. mikeytrw
    Apr 5, 2016
    8
    Despite absolutely loving this game, I rate this game as an '8', but that's because I recognise it's imperfections and sometimes it can be difficult to know what to do. It's still very much 'in progress' which is the most common complaint you will hear.

    However, if you are interested in sci fi space games and are at all considering VR, then this is an absolute must. It's simply stunning    Despite absolutely loving this game, I rate this game as an '8', but that's because I recognise it's imperfections and sometimes it can be difficult to know what to do. It's still very much 'in progress' which is the most common complaint you will hear.

    However, if you are interested in sci fi space games and are at all considering VR, then this is an absolute must. It's simply stunning and even after many hundreds of hours of gameplay I am stuck awestruck at the sights in Virtual Reality.

    This is a space simulator, space is big and empty. Remember that and you won't be disappointed.    … Expand
  9. poppyzzz
    Mar 25, 2016
    0
    First of all I would like to say I like this game what I don't like is them charging us more money for Horizons when the base game is still nowhere near complete. Currently life in ED revolves around grinding credits for a better ship and grinding ranks to be able to fly some of the bigger ships. Horizons was so poor I was debating asking for a refund I mean yes you can land on planets butFirst of all I would like to say I like this game what I don't like is them charging us more money for Horizons when the base game is still nowhere near complete. Currently life in ED revolves around grinding credits for a better ship and grinding ranks to be able to fly some of the bigger ships. Horizons was so poor I was debating asking for a refund I mean yes you can land on planets but that's it. You also can only land on planets with no atmosphere and they usually are just baron rocky places with nothing to do except drive across with your moon buggy.There are new surface missions but they pay so little it's not worth doing them,if the surface missions were interesting then fine but they are not they just plain boaring.I could go on here all day but I won't,my advice is wait until they have fixed the game or wait for Star Citizen.… Expand
  10. tagos
    Mar 7, 2016
    8
    I thought I had better put in a review of the game because of some of the absurd reviews and scores here. Scoring a game a 1 or 2 because it's a different game from what you want is pretty pathetic.

    If it is not a game YOU want to play, then don’t. And don’t say ‘there’s nothing to do.’ Say there’s nothing I want to do.’ There’s a difference. This is a sandbox game. It's not Mass    I thought I had better put in a review of the game because of some of the absurd reviews and scores here. Scoring a game a 1 or 2 because it's a different game from what you want is pretty pathetic.

    If it is not a game YOU want to play, then don’t. And don’t say ‘there’s nothing to do.’ Say there’s nothing I want to do.’

    There’s a difference.

    This is a sandbox game. It's not Mass Effect, it’s not EVE, it’s not one of the X games. It’s not Star Wars. It’s not an action RPG or combat simulator. It isn’t even – and pay attention here – it is not a PvP game. It has PvP elements in it for those that want that but it is not the central mechanic.

    It is a sandbox game and the sandbox is the whole galaxy. So don't complain that space is too big, solar systems are too big. Take it up with The Flying Spaghetti Monster.

    Space is BIG. It’s so big that on occasion your objective might be orbiting a planet that if you choose to take the mission without checking the location on the galactic map and then choose not to abandon it, you might spend an hour flying to it. By choice – your choice. I'm writing this while heading for a huge payout at a station 0.14 light years from the jump point. This is the first time I've chosen to do something like this.

    Solar systems really are big in reality and this is a simulation. Get over it. Most the time it takes a couple of minutes, during which time you can be looking out for distress calls and other optional events, watching the movement of other ships for potential ambushers or just appreciating the experience.

    This game says - here is a whole galaxy. It's filled with sights to see, things to get involved in. There are pirates, there are factions, there are empires, there are countless trading and mission opportunities, there are a lot of ships and an almost infinite number of ways to configure them to your taste.

    Go mine asteroids, go hunt bounties, go explore, go trade, go fight for an empire, go ally with a faction. Play in open world, a closed group with friends or on your own. Do whatever you want. Just don't ask me to hold your hand and lead you along the path to becoming emperor of the Galaxy. You’re just some guy among hundreds. You're not a superhero and the Galaxy does not revolve around you. In fact it doesn't care if you live or die.

    Basically this is a game for you to make of it what you will. What I like in particular is that anyone can play and have fun. You don't have to have the best ship, you don't have to be an ace combat pilot. You just have to be able to set yourself goals. Whether that is becoming a top ranked explorer, a rich trader, an Admiral or whatever.

    The flight model is easy to get to grips with but detailed enough to reward practice and imagination. The trade system works well, combat can be brilliant. Your brain is just as important as hand/eye coordination. More so. I’m nearly 60 and not great at combat. But that's no problem. I fly a ship configured to suit. I learn how to run from things I know I'm not good enough to fight.

    You visit the Steam and Frontier forums and there are always people moaning on about how there are too many interdictions. This is a prime example of being not willing to actually play the game as is.

    Listen up. You get interdicted all the time because you sit at the jump in point fiddling with your map while the vultures gather. You get interdicted all the time because you blithely fly in a straight line to your destination regardless of the knot of fighters ahead. You get interdicted all the time because you’ve gone somewhere too dangerous for you to handle. You get interdicted all the time because you haven't scanned the attacker and found it’s some pissant little Adder you can just blow away. And sometimes it's just bad luck. You made sure you had enough to cover the insurance rebuy before jumping into a pirate infested anarchy system, right?

    Basically Elite Dangerous with the Horizons pack that brings in planet landings and missions is a fine game if you want to be a small part of a big Galaxy. It's obviously not for everyone and it does have its irritations and downsides. It can and will improve as Frontier release more content.

    It's a solid 8/10 now. Ignore the reviews who are scoring it on not being the same as Streetfighter 2 or whatever. It’s Elite. It’s not trying to be anything else and it’s pretty good at being a worthy follow up to Elite and the Frontier games.    … Expand
  11. 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
  12. Delling
    Feb 15, 2016
    1
    You'll love this game... for the first month. The flight model is very good, combat is fun.
    Unforunately, the game is also very boring.
    Combat: space combat is fun; unfortunately, Frontier Developments found nothing better to propose you than go to the combat zone, pick your faction, start killings things. Over, and over, again. Oh, wait, there is also a twist, resource extration    You'll love this game... for the first month. The flight model is very good, combat is fun.
    Unforunately, the game is also very boring.

    Combat: space combat is fun; unfortunately, Frontier Developments found nothing better to propose you than go to the combat zone, pick your faction, start killings things. Over, and over, again. Oh, wait, there is also a twist, resource extration zones! It works this way: go to the resource extraction site, target a ship, if it's a miner leave him alone, if it's wanted shoot him. Over, and over, and over again.

    Trading: go to station 1. pick up stuff. go to station 2. sell stuff. buy stuff. go to station 1. sell stuff. buy stuff. What happens while you travel from station 1 to station 2? Nothing. You simply watch the very same hyperjump animation again, and again, and again. And forget any autopilot feature, the game designers want you to do something trivial roughly each 30 seconds to make sure your ship goes where it's supposed to go. An ancient chiniese torture, actually.

    Exploration: you point your ship towards an unexplored planet or star, wait a few seconds, and the planet is now explored. How exiting. Now you turn your ship's nose towards the next planet, wait roughly a minute to reach it, wait a few seconds, great, you've explored it too. Repeat until you start to sing that old Nirvana song "i hate myself i want to die".

    Long story short: you'll love it for the first weeks. Then you'll start to grow bored. You'll keep clinging to hope the devs will turn it into something interesting for another few weeks. Then you'll realize this game will be finished only when star citizen will be released: they just began to take your money earlier.    … Expand
  13. danstew
    Feb 15, 2016
    9
    Before I start, let me say this: I used to play the original Elite on a C64, back in the 80s. I remember those days well, and E:D has taken a lot from the original game.
    Let me start with the elephant in the room: "Miles wide, inches deep". Yes, compared to a lot of other games (whether it's other genres, or games that have had years to be built upon and deepened, like Eve), on first    Before I start, let me say this: I used to play the original Elite on a C64, back in the 80s. I remember those days well, and E:D has taken a lot from the original game.
    Let me start with the elephant in the room: "Miles wide, inches deep". Yes, compared to a lot of other games (whether it's other genres, or games that have had years to be built upon and deepened, like Eve), on first glance, there doesn't seem to be much you can do.
    However, I feel like that feeling comes up once you approach the game in today's fashion, as in "I want to get a better ship, grind with that, get an even better one etc until I have the most expensive one".
    I don't think this will work, and I feel it's obvious that that will lead to boredom eventually. Instead, it's up to YOU to decide what you like to do, and you can switch routes. It's not like an MMO, where you pick one class and spec and then you're mainly a healer or tank, or you focus on PVP or PVE.

    In E:D, you can do PvE, PvP, trade, bounty-hunt, mine, trade, explore. If you want to earn money as fast as possible, there are recommended methods to do so, but to me, the fun part is trying out and doing different activities.
    Right now, I have one ship which I do missions with or hunt down pirates, or dabble with some other things, and one ship which I do trade-routes with - long journeys which involve trading and can bring quite some profit.

    Some activites are more exciting, others are rather relaxed. Trade routes for example take some time and involve mostly navigating and travelling. However, when you're hijacked (interdicted) by a pirate with a cargo hold full of valuable stuff, and you need to decide whether you try to simply run and sell your stuff or try to fight, things get tense quickly, depending on your equipment.

    Look at the success of a game like Euro Truck Simulator... people do enjoy games like that, and it's ONE thing you can do in E:D.

    It's true, the game does not hold your hands, and I recommend to read some beginner guides or watch some videos. However, IMO, it's not as bad as people make it sound. There are tutorial missions, and before I even started the game, I did those a few times. They taught me the basics of navigating, flying, dogfights, docking etc. Will you be a master after that? No, it still takes practice, but after doing these, I was able to start a new game and start doing missions, some fighting, trading right away.

    I do recommend to use a joystick with this. It can be done with kbm, but to me, playing this with a joystick (possibly with a thruster added) is much more fun, and feels more immersive. There are suggested settings for different sticks, but a lot of players set them up to their own liking. Do the tutorials and get a feel for what you need, then assign buttons on your stick to those functions, so it feels natural to YOU.

    There also is a story happening... alien artefacts have appeared, and just last week, people accidentially found some barncale-looking alien things on a planet. The story is developing, and there is a good chance there will be contact with an alien race at some point... and we don't know whether it will be peaceful or a conflict.

    My point is: E:D has taken over some things from its ancestor... it's pretty old school, where there is a steep learning curve, no set path (meaning you pick what you wanna do, and you can change paths), you will prolly have to use your imagination to fill out the gaps and add more to the incrediby huge universe you can explore.

    To me, the game is incredibly immersive, it can be quite exciting, and at least to me, there was a nice mix of frustration (losing expensive cargo or being killed) and fistpump-moments, like beating a tough enemy or earning a pile of money from trading and getting a new ship.

    A lot has been said about the whole business model, with Horizons costing that much, instead of being an added DLC to the base-game for a lower prize. I am not getting into that, but let me say this: Playing E:D for two weeks convinced me to buy Horizons to have even more options in game, and I look forward to trying the new aspects of the game, looking forward to what will be added soon.

    As a fan of the original Elite, I was surprised how much this game feels like the original. It's very old school, I think that's why it polarizes so much. It can be tough, can require a lot of research or trial and error, it can't easily be judged by a single 1- or 2 hour play session.
    However, it is a ton of fun, with lots of things to try out, and I feel that I already got my money's worth out of this. I just upgraded to Horizons, and currently do trade routes (while having a movie play in the background, so it's a relaxed activity) to save up for a bigger trade hauler, so my current tradeship can be used as an explorer and planet-lander-ship next.
    looking forward a lot to more adventures and seeing how the whole alien-storyline develops.    … Expand
  14. 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
  15. cassius769
    Feb 11, 2016
    2
    Was big fun of Fronier. Now nothing changed apart graphics. It is either where you start qes to dock and if you go somewhere further away from starting point there is empty space. No one. I mean no human players. The sequence of docking is painful when you have to wait these long seconds watching a bit of metal tilting by 30 degrees.

    Boring to tears.
  16. 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
  17. Necron99
    Feb 4, 2016
    2
    This game falls short and by a long way, It looks great has amazing audio and pretty good flight mechanics, Sadly that where it ends! After that its just a truck sim in space with the odd bit of combat thrown in, To make things worse they the add a DLC that add planet landings to the game, This is adds nothing in the way of game-play just more shallow and empty game mechanics with nothingThis game falls short and by a long way, It looks great has amazing audio and pretty good flight mechanics, Sadly that where it ends! After that its just a truck sim in space with the odd bit of combat thrown in, To make things worse they the add a DLC that add planet landings to the game, This is adds nothing in the way of game-play just more shallow and empty game mechanics with nothing to do charged are a premium.… Expand
  18. 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
  19. siarl
    Jan 5, 2016
    10
    This game's like Marmite, its very British in origin - and you'll either love it or hate it. Its essentially a space exploration sandbox, that is constantly being refined and updated, although you dont have to explore, you can bounty hunt, or mine, or follow a career, or get involved in the in game politics. But essentially do not expect this game to lead you by the hand, it basicallyThis game's like Marmite, its very British in origin - and you'll either love it or hate it. Its essentially a space exploration sandbox, that is constantly being refined and updated, although you dont have to explore, you can bounty hunt, or mine, or follow a career, or get involved in the in game politics. But essentially do not expect this game to lead you by the hand, it basically dumps you out in space in a tin can and lets you work out the gameplay mechanics all on your own.… Expand
  20. bw7816253
    Jan 2, 2016
    0
    Frontier Developments' Elite: Dangerous is boring, empty, buggy and unfinished. This extremely poor excuse for a game does not deserve to carry the name Elite.
  21. BEKTOP
    Jan 1, 2016
    10
    3rd review update:

    Now it's been more than a year and I can see (with much certainty) where things are going with Elite Dangerous. It is still the best (by vast margin) space flight/combat simulation ever made in terms of it's flight model and amazing feeling of freedom of control over your ship and graphics and sounds. Addition of CQC (close quarter combat) brought that advantage up    3rd review update:

    Now it's been more than a year and I can see (with much certainty) where things are going with Elite Dangerous. It is still the best (by vast margin) space flight/combat simulation ever made in terms of it's flight model and amazing feeling of freedom of control over your ship and graphics and sounds.

    Addition of CQC (close quarter combat) brought that advantage up front and made best of it - CQC is the pinnacle of what I'm talking about here - it adds tactics to space combat (objects to take cover behind and inside, rock-paper-scissors weapon/defense choice (which can be changed during match by a number of custom made setups). Faster, nimbler smaller fighter ships.

    "Flight assist off" mode is still the best and only way to properly experience the joy and freedom of space flight (and don't listen to those who tell you to only use it situationally - when you need to turn around fast and such - simply always keep it turned off, then you'll get to feel it). If you start learning it from the beginning you'll just need a few weeks to master it and each step will give you lots of rewards and fun. Don't skip it. Really it's worth it.

    Now to problems:

    Combat vs NPCs in the main game is predictably bland and boring (as in every single computer game, so nothing to worry about). PVP in main game is unforgivably bland, too long and boring (compared to fun CQC fights it's even more pronounced) - by the very end of the year and months of countless complain threads devs finally pretended to address it, but only added some superficial changes - PVP is still in same state, now we just have a bit of freedom of choice on what modules to put on before engaging in bland, boring and too long fights. My previous review on combat was mostly based on fun duels I had before devs ruined PVP with SCBs (shield potions) and duels I had to specifically arrange, by asking people not to use SCBs - I was under impression that thing will get fixed in near future seeing how many players complained about it.

    Which takes me to one thing I've understood about Elite Dangerous development by now - if you see that something in the game is completely wrong - it will not be changed. Also there are things that gradually getting worse - graphics get toned down every single update and devs do not acknowledge it.

    And there's a lot of those things in the game. At the beginning whenever I saw a placeholder like exploration mechanics ; retarded missions (most of which are broken in one way or another) ; utterly broken background simulation (all those politics to take over systems, me being part of a small faction, economics simulation - it all either static or doesn't work or non existent) ; POI (signal sources) mechanics ; Super-Cruise flight mode.
    There's much more big and small placeholders in this game and when all of them are taken together - the only part of this game that doesn't feel less than half-baked is flight mechanics and CQC combat.

    So after a year this game is still a big promise and nothing changed, no game mechanics element was addressed (if only very superficially) to point where we can say it's not a placeholder thingie, but a strong and fun gameplay element.

    I won't pay Frontier for their another big promise - Horizons. I'm fed up with their promises already and I can dream on how this game could be if/when they fix it completely free - there's no point of paying for it.

    But what they made with flight model is something I like so much that I still play the game (CQC part). So still a 10 from me - if only for a small (but insanely important) part of this game.

    2nd review update:

    Why I'm still giving E:D a 10? - it offers the best space combat simulation (multiplayer and solo) ever made. Especially good are PVP duels or 4x4 fights and all configurations in between - like 3x1; 2x4. (if you want to properly feel it - use "no-assist" piloting mode where you can control all acceleration vectors your ship is capable of). It's easy enough to find a good match for your skill and fighting is so great that your hands will be shaking from excitement while you try to keep your opponent inside your reticle. It's never getting old. Don't forget that this game offers very good in-game voice communication - they apply same radio filter to voice they use in action movies and it adds a lot to game atmosphere.

    This game is a promise. Right now it only shows parts of game mechanics, but they are so good that can pass as a great game by themselves (some things are crude placeholders though, like missions, or mining, or exploration but devs are working on it).

    Galaxy is beautiful and vast, sounds are wonderful, flight simulation is great, especially docking and asteroid field fighting. You actually feel like you're piloting a spaceship.

    We are at the beginning of a battle on who will dominate colonized space there and peoples actions already have tangible effects on galaxy and game story developments    … Expand
  22. zombiechan
    Dec 30, 2015
    8
    It's a great game for you if you're just sitting around waiting for Star Citizen. I highly recommend this game if you have an Oculus Rift, it's perfect for that.
  23. zitrux
    Dec 27, 2015
    3
    frustrating game. ship controls is really akward and hard to master. Maybe game for some hardcore Space simulator fans but cant recommend for anyone else
  24. 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
  25. mossfoot
    Dec 23, 2015
    10
    This is the game I imagined back in 1984, updated in just about every way that matters. Horizons brings this even more in line with what Elite accomplished during Frontier and First Encounters and Season 2 looks like it'll be bringing even more awesome to the table
  26. parenter
    Dec 22, 2015
    10
    This game is worth $ 40 ... Star Citizen worth $ 45
    In this game the only thing you can do is go aa point b with the ship in a few types of missions and most are poorly explained and repetitive.
    If you buy a $ 50 expansion you can go to the planets and drive a car. And in the future they will put another expansion in which you can walk and play on ships of friends. All this already has    This game is worth $ 40 ... Star Citizen worth $ 45
    In this game the only thing you can do is go aa point b with the ship in a few types of missions and most are poorly explained and repetitive.
    If you buy a $ 50 expansion you can go to the planets and drive a car.
    And in the future they will put another expansion in which you can walk and play on ships of friends.
    All this already has Star Citizen, which it set about $ 45 and above will have a campaign. And remember that Star Citizen is an indie game funded by players.    … Expand
  27. eduardvictor
    Dec 20, 2015
    0
    It would be great if Frontier Developments toned down the completely pointless grind by about 90%.

    Grind is NOT fun in ANY game. There is a reason why only 3000 players are playing this on Steam, meanwhile FD is bragging that they sold over a million copies. I had a ton of fun in the Horizons Beta, because everything costs 10% of what it does on the live server. I actually felt    It would be great if Frontier Developments toned down the completely pointless grind by about 90%.

    Grind is NOT fun in ANY game.

    There is a reason why only 3000 players are playing this on Steam, meanwhile FD is bragging that they sold over a million copies.

    I had a ton of fun in the Horizons Beta, because everything costs 10% of what it does on the live server.

    I actually felt like I was progressing every time I killed someone, sold something, or did a mission.

    Meanwhile, on the live server, I barely scraped together enough money in 4 hours of play just to upgrade my Cobra Mk 3 to a Cobra Mk 4, and I can't equip jack **** on it because everything good costs over half a million for each part, sometimes over 1.5 million.

    At this rate, I will never get into that ship that costs 170 million+ and requires faction rep grind, unless I literally only play this game all day every day for the next 2 years straight.

    Grinding money for years to go through 10 different **** ships in order to get to an actually good one is not my idea of fun, if I wanted that, I'd still be playing Eve Online.

    I do enough grinding IRL, TYVM, when I get into a game, I expect to have fun.

    They should either make the rewards not be complete and utter **** for everything, or lower the prices to beta server levels (10% of live server prices), or double that, hell, even triple, but not **** 10 times more.

    Add to that the fact that it takes ages to get anywhere in this game, because of the much too slow supercruise, and you have a recipe for a game that no one but the most hardcore and unemployed people will want to / have time to play past 2 weeks at a time with 10 month breaks in between.

    Most frustrating, grindy and boring game I've ever played in 20 years, with the possible exception of Archeage.

    Absolutely FRUSTRATING to play, and less fun that Eve Online.

    The developers are making a game that THEY want to play, and they are completely IGNORING every single ♥♥♥♥ing piece of feedback that the community gives them to make this ♥♥♥♥ game more fun and less of a ♥♥♥♥ing chore to play.

    They are not increasing mission rewards or reducing prices, so you don't have to grind an arbitrary number of credits back for half a day in order to get your ship back.

    They are not fixing the completely BROKEN interdiction system, which makes it completely ♥♥♥♥ing impossible to avoid an interdiction every time you take a courier mission.

    Earlier today, I took a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ 6000 credit reward courier mission and got interdicted 4 times in a ♥♥♥♥ing row (IMPOSSIBLE TO AVOID) by a CLIPPER, in my COBRA MK IV, and lost it. There, 900000 worth of ship gone to ♥♥♥♥ in minutes.

    Uninstalled the game after that ♥♥♥♥.

    ♥♥♥♥ Frontier Developments for charging people crap tons of money for this ♥♥♥♥ game, I'd rather return to Eve, which I played from 2004 to 2014.

    Hell, X3 Albion prelude ♥♥♥♥♥ all over this game in terms of fun and properly done progression, this ♥♥♥♥ game is all flash no substance.

    In 2000 hours of playing X3 AP, i never felt frustrated or like i was wasting my ♥♥♥♥ing time grinding.

    I have over 500 hours in Elite Dangerous and a bunch more in Horizons, which did not register on my Steam account, because I played on the separate launcher that beta players get.

    Yeah, don't waste your money, this game is being handled by old farts who don't know a fun game if it ♥♥♥♥ed them in the face.    … Expand
  28. choppy
    Dec 20, 2015
    7
    Critics are right about the repetition and tedium, and supporters are right about it being the best space sim currently on the market. What both need to realize is that this is the ultimate Early Access game. In another few years, it will be a great game, but for now, it needs a huge "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" sign on everything, and it's definitely not worth paying $60 for unless you love theCritics are right about the repetition and tedium, and supporters are right about it being the best space sim currently on the market. What both need to realize is that this is the ultimate Early Access game. In another few years, it will be a great game, but for now, it needs a huge "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" sign on everything, and it's definitely not worth paying $60 for unless you love the concept of living through and supporting every baby step of development. I've played more than 200 hours, so enjoy it, but for most people I'd say save your money until this is a full game, in another three years or so.… Expand
  29. jclaiborne2007
    Dec 20, 2015
    0
    Woohoo! Not buying in on this game is a real win for me. Frontier loves to screw its backers. Please give us your money for an empty game and if we ever do make anything worth playing we will be sure that the backers pay 10x as much as a new player. Paying $100 dollars to fly around in an empty game, gee now that is a great deal!
  30. 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
Page:

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

All reviews »
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
See all critic reviews »