Take control of your own starship in a cutthroat galaxy. Elite Dangerous brings gaming’s original open world adventure into the modern generation with a connected galaxy, evolving narrative and the entirety of the Milky Way re-created at its full galactic proportions.
User reviews:
Recent:
Mixed (592 reviews) - 62% of the 592 user reviews in the last 30 days are positive.
Overall:
Mixed (16,109 reviews) - 65% of the 16,109 user reviews for this game are positive.
Release Date: 2 Apr, 2015

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Buy Elite: Dangerous

24,99€

Packages that include this game

Buy Elite Dangerous: Commander Deluxe Edition

Includes 3 items: Elite Dangerous, Elite Dangerous: Commander Pack, Elite Dangerous: Horizons Season Pass

 

Recent updates View all (32)

28 July

Update 2.1.05

Greetings commanders, we've pushed an update out this morning, here's the changes.


Stability Fixes
- Fixed Skimmer Group issue
- Fix a crash if we try to send a message to or about a player that is no longer in the game
- Fix crash during high res screen capture
- Fix crash in wing manager
- Fix for the pilot object never being destroyed
- Fix a number of unreleased effects that could potentially have caused small memory leaks
- Fix crash when calculating the tidal locking amount for a planet with exactly -180 axial tilt
- Fixes to protect against a fatal network error, and early detection of the disconnection with server
- Fixes a crash in the fairly rare case of a ship being killed or fleeing while waiting for a response to a docking request
- Fixes for cross-platform crashes reported from the Xbox client
- Improvements to memory management to tackle cases of fragmentation
- Fix a potential NaN in the vehicle system
- Added crash protection in outfitting when getting the inventory for a sub slot
- Fix crash when taking damage and when a contributing player doesn't exist anymore, likely due to quitting
- Fix a server crash if a CQC game ends at the same time the lobby is shut down
- Fix a crash if you disconnect while shooting someone while in CQC
- Fix a crash in CQC capture the flag if someone leaves the game at the same time that the flag is dropped
- Fix crash when disconnecting while taking damage in CQC
- Fix a transaction server error when transferring cargo on changing ships


General Tweaks & Fixes
- Added surface scan materials data to system map
- Added Federal supply stations to Merope
- Fix to allow TrackIR users to have the same headlook range as before the 2.1 patch when live
- Mouse cursor stuck on side of screen when in main menu fixed
- Station weapon strength increased to allow for players with engineer upgraded defences
- When dropping out after an interdiction make sure we don't drop out too close to a planet
- Added Saitek x56 control pre-set
- Fix occasional doubling up of first discovery names on the system map
- Fix for first discovery bonuses not being paid out when all members of a wing sell their exploration data
- Factions can no longer retreat if fewer than 3 factions would remain in that star system
- Fixed combat rank increases awarded from killing other Commanders
- If the game owner has changed before we close CharacterComponent (because we switched users for instance), then don't save the PlayerMisc config. Otherwise we'll save the old user's settings in the new user's save data
- Added latest batch of translations
- Various text fixes


Xbox One
- Updated New Logo and Idents
- Improvement to user settings when switching players
- Added a language override option to allow players to choose English over their default console language
- Reduce the frequency that the statistic events are sent to make them less spammy
- Don't allow the player to spam Create Commander requests - block new requests while another is active
- Don't refresh the XBL Inventory when unconstraining to avoid the client and server getting out of sync


CQC
- Matchmaker optimisations
- Removed the localisation from commander name in CQC as it is causing issues in the UI for long names


NPCs
- Removed boost from lowest NPC ranks
- Removed sub-system targetting
- Allow players a better chance of fleeing from NPC ships
- Rebalance for fixed scenario AI set up, specifically for Nav Beacons and RES sites
- Increase the threaten timer across the board for all AI. Pirates have slight higher since they are waiting for cargo to be dropped
- Set all AI ships in lawful space to have an interdiction rank range of 2 or less ranks below their own, and all AI ships in anarchy space to have an interdiction rank range of 3 or less ranks below their own
- Slightly reduced Anarchy interdictions, whilst keeping them more dangerous than lawful systems.


Engineers
- Wide ranging changes to drop rates and USSs: Change the rate and spread of drops from missions, wakes, ship scanning, USS collection, mining, data links and scannable wreckage
- Fixed blueprints being lost when using reputation to override the special modifier
- Make sure POI data points have the firmware rarity improvements mirrored across to them
- Rebalance POI data point drop quantities, including the rate and spread of drops
- Change the weighting on "Wrecks" USS
- Fix for being able to select an unselectable adjust option which appeared to give a free upgrade
- When collecting physical micro resources or retrieving data loot, add 3 to the inventory instead of 1. If your inventory can't fit 3, just add enough to fill the inventory
- Added locations to the descriptions of the commodities
- Material positions are now replicated correctly
- Balanced values for Materials amount and rarity spawned by PoI's to address difficulty of finding resources


Weapons
- Fix infinite ammo reloading on player ships
- Make the diminishing returns cap on external heat attacks more harsh, primarily making it very hard to cause significant hull damage with heat from thermal shock/cascade
- 20% reduction in heat applied by Thermal Cascade
- Fixed lens flare on class 4 burst laser


Missions
- Make permit missions have rank up tick box ticked
- When attempting to add a message to the inbox list in GUI, check if the mission manager knows about the mission. Don't show it if it doesn't
- Add a short wait time before the client re-requests a tutorial mission (60 seconds)
- Fix to allow Navy promotion missions to succeed if offered prematurely
- Fix to use the correct rank name in Navy promotion inbox messages
- Automatically clean up undeletable inbox messages for expired missions
- When attempting to add a message to the inbox list in gui, check if the mission manager knows about the mission. Don't show it if it doesn't
- Fix for Settlement Not Spawn Spawning Mission Required Skimmers


Scenarios/USSs/POIs
- Fixed various issues with capital ship scenarios
- Added new types of USS and new USS classifications
- Rebalance for fixed scenario AI set up, specifically for Nav Beacons and RES sites
- Separate Checkpoints/seeking weapons into a separate WarSupport scenario bucket and when generating war scenarios guarantee that at least one is always from the actual War bucket rather than support, to prevent warring systems being full of checkpoints but no actual combat zones people can participate in


Ships
- Diamondback Scout - cannot land on planet surface fixed


Render
- Make the render feature system more robust against GraphicsConfig.xml being broken


Powerplay
- Fix for "System Resistance" ships not having any weapons in Military Strike zones in powerplay systems
- Prevent depopulating systems, change the background sim to only allow Factions to retreat if there are at least 4 factions in that system
- Additional modifier to require a commodities market during Trade related CG's


Audio
- Fixed bug where planetary music suite didn't play when approaching from supercruise
- Reduced the timing interval on the probe to bring the total transmission down to just over 6 mins
- Small volume boost on flight controllers and radio chatter

48 comments Read more

1 July

Elite Dangerous: Horizons Update 2.1.04

Greetings Commanders, we have a small update coming for PC as well as the Xbox One players. Specifically to address a number of stability issues including some additional fixes.

Patch notes

Stability Fixes

  • Fixes for crashes when Hyperspace jumping
  • Fix for crash when entering Supercruise from a Conflict Zone
  • (Xbox) Fix for title entering unresponsive state after disconnecting the WAN Network cable
  • (Xbox) Fix for title crash from launch

General Fixes
  • (Xbox) Fix for loss of Horizons access after launching from Engineer Base
  • Fix for Docking Computer and NPC’s drifting off target landing pad
  • Various text updates

52 comments Read more

Reviews

“Capable of delivering some of the best stories about spaceships you've ever taken part in”
86% – PC Gamer

“Satisfying handling that sets a new standard for any cockpit-based genre.”
8/10 – Edge Magazine

“Shining Bright Like a Supernova”
95% – The Koalition

About This Game

Elite Dangerous is the definitive massively multiplayer space epic, bringing gaming’s original open world adventure to the modern generation with a connected galaxy, evolving narrative and the entirety of the Milky Way re-created at its full galactic proportions.

Starting with only a small starship and a few credits, players do whatever it takes to earn the skill, knowledge, wealth and power to survive in a futuristic cutthroat galaxy and to stand among the ranks of the iconic Elite. In an age of galactic superpowers and interstellar war, every player’s story influences the unique connected gaming experience and handcrafted evolving narrative. Governments fall, battles are lost and won, and humanity’s frontier is reshaped, all by players’ actions.

400 Billion Star Systems. Infinite Freedom. Blaze Your Own Trail.

A Galaxy Of Wonders
The 400 billion star systems of the Milky Way are the stage for Elite Dangerous' open-ended gameplay. The real stars, planets, moons, asteroid fields and black holes of our own galaxy are built to their true epic proportions in the largest designed playspace in videogame history.

A Unique Connected Game Experience
Governments fall, battles are lost and won, and humanity’s frontier is reshaped, all by players’ actions. In an age of galactic superpowers and interstellar war, every player’s personal story influences the connected galaxy and handcrafted evolving narrative.

Blaze Your Own Trail
Upgrade your ship and customize every component as you hunt, explore, fight, mine, smuggle, trade and survive in the cutthroat galaxy of the year 3301. Do whatever it takes to earn the skill, knowledge, wealth and power to stand among the ranks of the Elite.

Massively Multiplayer
Experience unpredictable encounters with players from around the world in Elite Dangerous’ vast massively multiplayer space. Experience the connected galaxy alone in Solo mode or with players across the world in Open Play, where every pilot you face could become a trusted ally or your deadliest enemy. You will need to register a free Elite Dangerous account with Frontier to play the game.

A Living Game
Elite Dangerous grows and expands with new features and content. Major updates react to the way players want to play and create new gameplay opportunities for the hundreds of thousands of players cooperating, competing and exploring together in the connected galaxy.

The Original Open World Adventure
Elite Dangerous is the third sequel to 1984's genre-defining Elite, bringing gaming’s original open world adventure into the modern generation with a connected galaxy, evolving narrative and the entire Milky Way re-created at its full galactic proportions.

System Requirements

Windows
Mac OS X
    Minimum:
    • OS: Windows 7, Windows 8
    • Processor: Quad Core CPU (4 x 2Ghz)
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia GTX 260 / ATI 4870HD
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 7 GB available space
    Recommended:
    • OS: Windows 7, Windows 8
    • Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K Quad Core CPU or better / AMD FX 4350 Quad Core CPU or better
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia GTX 770 / AMD Radeon R9 280X
    • DirectX: Version 11
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 7 GB available space
    • Additional Notes: Supports Oculus Rift and TrackIR
    Minimum:
    • OS: OS X Yosemite (version 10.10.3)
    • Processor: 2.3Ghz quad-core Intel Core i5 CPU
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia GT 650M 1GB (or equivalent)
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 8 GB available space
    Recommended:
    • OS: OS X Yosemite (version 10.10.3)
    • Processor: 3.4GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 CPU
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 775M (2GB video memory) / AMD Radeon R9 M290X (2GB video memory)
    • Network: Broadband Internet connection
    • Storage: 8 GB available space
Customer reviews
Customer Review system updated! Learn more
Recent:
Mixed (592 reviews)
Overall:
Mixed (16,109 reviews)
Recently Posted
RosePlayzSoccer
( 13.2 hrs on record )
Posted: 11 August
I bought this game and forgot my user and pass now I cannot play how the fudge do I fix this???????
Helpful? Yes No Funny
TriCkz
( 18.9 hrs on record )
Posted: 11 August
Really love this game , the graphics and sound are just perfect and also if you dont feel like grinding for hours to buy the best ship possible you can do a few missions pick yourself up a Cobra MKIII and go explore the milions of planets ( you can only land on some of them).

PROS:
-Excellent graphics
-Excellent Sound
-Millions of planets/galaxies to explore
-Lots of variety in ships
-Not very hardware demanding
-User friendly interface
-Full VR / Joystick support
-NO MICRO TRANSACTIONS

CONS:
- Not every planet can be landed on and the ones that can are all almost identical to eachother
- If you dont have a good ship with good weapons you will die .......ALOT
-Not a huge online community of players to play with
- Missions can be very repetitive
-If you want good ships you will have to grind ALOT for hours maybe even days
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Leon27
( 13.7 hrs on record )
Posted: 11 August
I actually thought this game was going to be good despite all the bad comments but after playing it (not for a very long time but enough for me to judge it) i saw that i wasted my money and my disk space
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Youdrongo
( 10.2 hrs on record )
Posted: 11 August
Waited 20 minutes to land at a station that kept giving me the same landing pod occupied by the same stuck NPC ship. Couldn't destroy the ship, racked up enough No Fire Zone violations to bankrupt me. 0/10 wish I could refund this ♥♥♥♥-tier game.
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Old Hickory
( 65.4 hrs on record )
Posted: 11 August
For something that strives so hard to detail space traveling technicalities and specifics, it seems to pick and choose the tidbits of reality that would only frustrate the hell out of you. It’s the little things that add up to a point of rage quitting, uninstalling tantrums. I wish I had footage of some of the more hilarious moments where I get so ♥♥♥♥♥♥ for not scanning a wanted npc before shooting him, or colliding into exiting npc’s through the tiny space station doors, or forgetting to request permission to dock within a specific boundary (not too far away, not too close), or even dumping cargo too close to a station. Hell, I couldn’t even believe the station let me undock without a power distributor once, and when you’re sitting on the Launchpad saying oops, it won’t just let you re-dock, instead it will put a dunce cap on your head and watch you pay the penalties in the most authoritative take on space exploration yet.

But wait, there’s more. You can also accidently receive enormous bounties on your head, tarnish your reputation, and even when you pay your fines, you’re still wanted for several Days depending on the infraction.

Then there’s the grind… Exploration is extremely simple and monotonous, it’s silver lining is the sheer appreciation one has for the detailed astronomy work. Mining is incredibly meticulous of all things and requires limpet drones and collectors and controllers and lasers and refineries and other types of drones which you have to manage and control and engage and collect… Combat is by far the most fun, however, the missions are so linear with few targets and tiny engagements that you grow to miss games like Starlancer. The most fun I ever have is hanging out in dangerous extraction sites with friends and shooting up the 1 wanted guy at a time…………

The difficulty of this game isn’t based on AI skills or even mission parameters. It’s based on how long you can stay awake at the wheel of a 14-hour car ride, albeit a beautiful one. This game has so much potential that it makes me pull my hair out. Frontier needs to find investors so they can acquire the power to produce more quality content more quickly, and drum up more sales for this game. The DLC pricing for aesthetics is negatively affecting their reviews and needs to be readdressed. The fact that these are paid aesthetics, highlights a transparent attempt to generate extra revenue. If the company is trying to find outlets for loyal customers, provide more meaningful in game content, and more customers will find a reason to purchase your season pass. Lastly, I find myself constantly using blogs, phone apps, and YouTube videos to learn about basic things in the game. The Game is packed with incredible features and plenty of different things to do but learning about those paths are nearly impossible without the use of a search engine. This game is a gem in so many ways, but it’s the little things building up that are driving customers away.
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Am I Winning Yet?
( 179.4 hrs on record )
Posted: 11 August
You will either absolutely love this game, or you will hate it, it just depends on what type of person you are.

If you like making your own story, this the game for you. Have dreams of being Han Solo or a space pirate? This game is for you. Just want to explore a universe? This game is for you. Want to fight a space (cold) war between two rival empires? Guess what. This game is for you.

The actions you make in this game actually influence the galaxy. You can cause security lockdowns, economic recessions, economic booms, or civil wars just by completing missions in systems. The universe is a living simulation held together by numbers cruncing in the background that is happening all the time. You can befriend different factions, or you can really tick them off, each has its own effects.

There are tons of ship types, trading, exploring, mining, combat, smuggling, and ones inbetween. You can customize and upgrade these ships however you want if you've got the credits.

If you like any of the following this game may not be for you: detailed quest descriptions, handholding, simple controls, little consequences for death, being rewarded immediately.

IMPORTANT
You are not meant to grind. All ships are different, just because one is more expensive doesn't necessarily make it better. Learn to play one tiny goal at a time, and enjoy the game.
This game work best when you have these two things: Imagination, Patience

If this sounds like a game you can sink your teeth into I encourage you to buy it, and I look forward to seeing you in game. XD 07 New Commanders
Helpful? Yes No Funny
French Roast Man!
( 7.3 hrs on record )
Posted: 11 August
My family member told me that i should buy this game, and i did, how ever during around 7 hours of gameplay, it was not a game that was fun, infact, it was hard to remember alot of the things i needed to do, includeing the freedom of locking into enemys, then in my last 2 hours, it became really confuseing for me to play, it looks like no man's sky is similar to this, but with the freedom of stop and go hyper drives.
Helpful? Yes No Funny
trade.tf | The US Air Force
( 45.5 hrs on record )
Posted: 11 August
A lot of grind. But still worth it.
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Mr Dazza
( 239.9 hrs on record )
Posted: 11 August
This game.. man. I don't really know if I can truly compare anything else to it as of now.

It gets a lot of ♥♥♥♥. And you can see this with the other reviews, and chances are, the bandwagon isn't going to like my review very much.

The main goal:

This game has many goals, and they are goals you set yourself. This game does not hold your hand. And if you just jump into the game without learning how to fly, or how to make money, or how to request landing at a station, you, like many others, will likely fly around your Sidewinder, and crash before closing the game and never opening it again.

My first goal was to obtain a Sol permit, so I could see my own planet and my own country (Shoutout to Glasgow Scotland, yer a shitehole but yer my shitehole). Then as I was doing this, I learned about all the things you can do, and then tried most things that were on offer. This is stuff like:
Mining
Bounty Hunting
Mission gathering
Smuggling
Trading
Exploration
And a few more that I've forgotten about.
There is a lot to do, that being said, it is a bit..

The Grind:
This game can be very grindy at times, especially if your goal is to obtain a faction ship (Like the Corvette, or the Cutter), and if you play the game like this, you will likely be disappointed in the end. I farmed a system named 17 Draconis for my Federation rep, and got my Corvette. And for the record, I hardly use it. My most used ship is an ASP Explorer, of which I am currently in, 20000LY away from Sol.
If you make it a grind, it will be an unforgiving one.

Final Thoughts:
Decided to end it here because I could end up typing into the thousands.

I really enjoy this game, and so far I've spent around.. £40 on it. £10 on the base, last Christmas, and £30 on the Horizons Expansion, which I've certainly had my moneys worth out of.
Some believe this game is only enjoyable to audiences of the 30-50 region, agewise, but I'm a living counter to that, being in the 16-24 range of players.
Its a game that I can't play for hours on end, but its one I always come back to. Anyone that asks me if they should get it gets a yes from me, that being said:

IT IS NOT A GAME FOR EVERYBODY.
WATCH SOME VIDEOS ON IT.

I cannot emphasise this enough.


tl;dr
Good game, watch vids of game, see if you like it, buy it.
Helpful? Yes No Funny
lindhoffen
( 199.8 hrs on record )
Posted: 11 August
Hands down the best space sim since the last Elite game in the early 90s.
Helpful? Yes No Funny
Most Helpful Reviews  In the past 30 days
254 of 321 people (79%) found this review helpful
22 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
174.0 hrs on record
Posted: 28 July
It's been two years and the game still offers uncompelling gameplay. The vastness of the milky way, great flight mechanics and immersive atmosphere can't make up for the absolutely amateur approximation to gameplay.

Let me describe my last 4 hours of gameplay:

Got a mission to destroy a bunch of drones at a planetary station.
I arrive, no drones are spawned. There's no indication of where should I find them.
I decide to fly around as there're random Points of Interests that spawn randomly on planets.
To find those, you gotta fly around until you spot a big blue circle, land, get your buggy out, start driving around.
Found nothing on the POIs where there should've been something.

This is already about 2 hours.

Finally found a POI, there's a bunch of pirate buggies driving around.
I decide to go and engage them, the one I pursue keeps getting farther away.
I get tired, I start pursuing the other buggy.
I engage it, it aggroes me, but doesn't even fire at me.
I get it down to 29% armor, suddenly I can't damage it anymore.
After a minute firing at it, it disappears into thin air.

I go back to my ship and I keep looking for POIs.

Finally found a POI with drones.
I destroy all of them. At last I feel I'm doing some progress.
My kills are not counting towards the mission.
Seems like destroying them from your ship doesn't work only IF it's a POI, so you must be in your buggy.

Why? Because inorganic gameplay restrictions is the best way to destroy the immersive atmosphere of the game. FDev likes that as inorganic mechanic restrictions is a very common gameplay pattern in E:D.

I keep looking for another POI. I find it. I get out on my buggy.
3 drones engage me, within 10 seconds, I'm destroyed by them (they were low level drones).
I quickly hit to rejoin my ship to have some sweet revenge.
My ship magically appears hundreds of miles above surface so I can't even vent out and get some revenge.
At this point, after literally 4 hours trying to do something, anything in-game, I quit to desktop.

Yes, this all happened in a span of 4 hours. I'm a patient man and I don't mind slow games.

---

I want to love this game so much. The atmosphere, visuals, audio and flight mechanics are so compelling. But at the same time, everything else is so badly designed, it feels like the military is conducting a social experiment to test the extent of human patience.

I reached my limit.

Given the popularity of the review, I wanted to correct a few mistakes and expand a bit:

There're two motivators in-game: money and exploring the unknown. The former is self-serving, you make money to get better ships and modules that *only* allows you to make more money. Reminds me of Fight Club's "We work jobs we hate to buy things we don't need".
The latter can be cool but extremely lacking: There's nothing to do out there. *Nothing.* No emerging quests, plots, mysteries, surveying is literally just about aiming towards a celestial body and wait till it gets automatically scanned.

Knowing if a celestial body is worth approaching to scan (some can be really far) is about “playing” a hidden weird mini-game that lives in the system view, so, you basically LISTEN TO AUDIO CUES, like, if it’s a water world you may hear bubbles, if it’s an earth-like planet you may hear birds chirping, or if it’s a rocky world, just wind.
This is not even explained in-game, you find about it on Reddit/Forums (see meta-gaming down there).
I honestly have no idea who thought this would be fun and not a hassle, and that it wouldn’t break immersion.

You do experience being in actual places in the Milky Way (amazing!), see some really cool vistas and some crazy systems. If you love astronomy like I do, lots of very interesting places exist in game. I love this side of the game and it’s my current motivator. I unfortunately can’t recommend based solely on this since I can get the same thing from Space Engine. There’s just not enough gameplay around exploration, the monetary reward is minimal and your personal progress is almost inexistent.

Other terrible things:
1. You can't survive without meta-gaming (look it up). Breaks immersion immensely for me, having to jump to Chrome to check vital game data the actual game doesn't provide you.
2. It's the first multiplayer sandbox that allows almost no emergent gameplay, how they managed to achieve this is amazing to me. Only emergent gameplay I've seen in TWO years: a player-run refuel 911 service (inaccessible through the game! see point 1.) and organization of expeditions into the vast unknown (this is actually really cool, but impossible to organize within the game).

I want so much to love this game, though. I can still dream they'll hire a talented game designer one day. Thanks for reading.

——

I’d like to expand even further on a few areas:

CQC/Arena, the game’s Deathmatch Mode, because if there’s one thing a slow-paced, contemplative highly atmospheric game can benefit from is a Doom-like Deathmatch mode. I can’t believe SCS Software didn’t add a Destruction Derby mode to Euro Truck Simulator. In any case, it can be fun but not as fun as any of the dozens of Swashbuckling Space games out there. So, what about rewards? None. It has no bearing on your in-game progression nor an impact on the game’s Universe. It’s so disconnected from the main game you access it from the game’s system main menu. Not as fun as actual Swashbuckling Space games, no tangible rewards, no motivation.

Then you have Powerplay which tries to be another motivator by letting you fight for political factions (cool!). The problem with this is that it's so disconnected from the game world that if you don't strictly participate, it might as well not be there. It has no impact on the game’s Universe. On top of that, you have little to no impact on what actually happens. So, you play something that doesn’t matter and you have very little impact on where it’s headed.

Finally, Community Goals. Every couple of weeks you get galaxy-wide goals to achieve certain things like repairing an important station on the far reaches of the galaxy, and helping establish a human presence on a remote area. And as usual, the premise is nothing short of amazing but the amateur execution kills it: These goals *can’t fail*, it doesn’t matter what players do, they can’t fail. Your actions don’t matter. You follow FDev’s script as an observer. So? What’s the point? Yep, you guessed: Money, so you can buy a better ship to make more money. We work inconsequential jobs to buy things we don’t need.

It’s hard for me to understand how such a great foundation, good and fun mechanics, one of the best game atmospheres ever conceived and an entire galaxy to exploit could produce such inane gameplay.

I love you, Elite. But I hate you.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny
139 of 185 people (75%) found this review helpful
8 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
470.9 hrs on record
Posted: 27 July
TLDR:
Game is very pretty, immersive, and can be fun too, but it is also shallow and full of massive amounts of grinding.

Sigh… where to begin.

I guess I could start by saying I both really love and utterly hate this game at the same time. This game is perhaps the best I have ever seen as far as its ability to pull you into the game, and make you feel like a real captain flying an actual space ship. The views can be spectacular. Combat is another thing that is quite well done, with a few exceptions I will talk about later. Trade is well… about what you would expect, typically rather dull, with occasional moments of terror when you get attacked and may lose millions in uninsured cargo, and your ship. Mining is similar to the trader experience, other than you mine asteroids to sell. Exploration is also a rather popular activity (Though I really do not see why myself, but to each their own). Smuggling is a mixed bag, particularly after the recent spate of nerfs. Piracy in many ways needs a lot of work. Planetary-based stuff is also a mixed bag. On the surface, this game sounds like a dream. The problems start to show once you try to go a little deeper.

So what exactly is wrong with this game then?


The first major problem with this game is that the grind is unbelievably bad. We are talking Free to Play levels of grind. Just layers, and layers, and layers of grind. Some of it is so bad, that you will probably want to quit the game forever. In this game, everything is a grind… money, pilot federation rank, military ranks, powerplay rating, and engineers.

The worst grind has to be the grind for military ranks. Expect anywhere from 250 to over 300 hours game time, doing nothing but the same faction missions, to max out on rank for just one faction (fed or emp). These times assume that you have researched grinding rank on the internet and are grinding efficiently; otherwise, the time will be much longer. The devs made it even worse recently due to the nerfs that prevented mission stacking. This grind is so unimaginably bad that you will desperately be looking for any possible game exploit that you can use to cut the time down. Part of what also makes this grind so awful, is that the only way you can earn rank is by doing missions for factions associated with the federation or empire, and that missions vary massively as to the amount of rank points they reward, which means you will be doing the same one or two mission types for those 250+ hours. The other lousy aspect of this is that the missions that tend to give you the most rank points, also tend not to pay very well (or cost you in the case of donation missions). You might just say, why bother with it then? Well if you want any of the military ships, like the cutter or the corvette, you’re going to be stuck doing this grind.

Engineers grind exists due to all the specialized resources you need to acquire, and the heavy duty problem RNG making you go find more of the same resources over and over and over and over due to **** RNG, supposedly this is going to be fixed in the next patch, but I remain skeptical given their history.

Powerplay is bad mainly because you lose half your merits each week, which means the grind with it never stops. While you can more or less skip the grind, be prepared to spend 100,000,000 credits to reach rating 5 with a faction, and half that each week to maintain it.

I do not have as much of a problem with the money and pilot federation ranks grind. Money is not super difficult to come by, though I think ship and part expenses need to be flattened some. Mission rewards are still all over the place reward wise. I also think the federation rank grind could be toned down a bit due to how massively it factors into potential earnings with missions.


Another big problem is that not all the information a pilot needs is not available in the game. If I want to find trade prices for systems, I need to use a website. If I want to find out where I can buy what ships or parts, I need to use a website. If I want good information on how the bloody heck powerplay works, or engineers, or any other details, I need to use a website. All of this breaks immersion in a game that tries really hard to create it (and otherwise succeeds). All of this information should be in game.


The final big problem is the game really is rather shallow and very repetitive. Combat roles don’t really change much over the course of the game, the tactics will be the same, you get more and bigger weapons, but even that doesn’t change things much other than make battles shorter. You will probably end up using the same weapons systems, because only a handful of them are considered very good. You generally won’t bother much with ammo weapons, as ammo means having to go back to a base or station reload. You will find missiles to be almost useless due to low ammo and damage, plus the excessive number of ways to jam them or shoot them down. Trading and mining is even worse, as the only thing that will change is the ship you fly, and the quantity/type of goods you trade in, and the pirates will still just try to kill you on sight (AI doesn’t believe in actual piracy, even though it likes to say words that suggest otherwise). Piracy though fun, doesn’t pay well at all for the risk and effort. Missions are also very shallow and repetitive. They frequently offer insulting pay rates, and the missions themselves are rather basic and often tedious, plus they still don’t pay as well as trading or bounty hunting. Exploration also suffers heavily from sameness, where the systems start to look all alike, planets and moons are often pointless to visit, landing and exploring is usually pointless as well, and all for the privilege of making a piddling amount of credits. In many ways, I think the grind exists to try to cover up the shallowness of the game.


This game can be recovered though, if the devs would listen to feedback and do something about it, as it has a hell of a lot of potential. The first thing that really needs to be realized is that this is not the 1980s any more. Gamers do not always have 500-1000 hours to sink into a game, or anywhere near that. Most of us have piles of other games we could be playing other than this one. So stop wasting our time with pointless grinding already. Sure players need to work at the game, but not to ridiculous levels. Increase the money potential in missions to make them worth doing, and tweak upwards the other sources of earning (trade, mining, piracy, exploration, combat). Heavily cut back the rank grind, and give us other ways to earn it, or give us special rank missions, that are harder than usual, but offer a ton of rank points (preferably military themed). I would also tone down the powerplay merit loss to ¼ per week. Try also to make the missions more interesting and diverse. The ships, systems, and weapons also are in need of a balance pass, ammo weapons need to be more useful to make up for the need to reload them frequently, or give us the ability to carry extra ammo via internal slots, make missiles worthwhile again by decreasing the effectiveness of anti-missile defenses, increasing the damage, and offering two types of warhead, EMP and high explosive (one damages shields, the other hull). All of these things would make this game so much better.

Until then, I have to give this game a thumbs down due to the insane amounts of grind, and general shallowness and repetitiveness.
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131 of 200 people (66%) found this review helpful
3 people found this review funny
Recommended
281.5 hrs on record
Posted: 21 July
So, after about 500 hours of playtime (I had 250+ hours on Horizons before it became DLC on steam) I think I can make a more educated review on what I think of Elite: Dangerous.

I started the game about a year ago, mindlessley flying around space with no real direction to go in. This notion can confuse some people as then, there was not a clear objective, it was just you're in space so go do something. The primary directive for me or drive was to generate income and work my way up towards bigger and better ships, and I believe this applies to a majority of players. Before the engineers update however, missions were considered bland and repetitivem, with the only real ways to make money being long distance smuggling or large ship trading. For me, I didn't know what to do, and promptly left the game for nearly a year. I then came back to elite dangerous about 3 months before horizons, having an urge to give it a go. I also had a friend with me which in my opinion made the experience much more enjoyable as you had another person to explore or bounty hunt with.

When planetary landing came out, me and my friend were playing all day from 10am to 2am for about a month or two. I think you have to simply enjoy the fun in flying to a planet, gliding down to the surface, deploying your SRV's and then surveying the brilliant terrain laid before you. Flying through canyons, landing in huge craters and taking hours to cross with your SRV. The game did a fantastic job of giving you a scope of just how big these planets are, and there are millions to explore, which to me was great.

However, after months of us playing and repeating the same act of landing on planets, doing the occasional planetary base mission, we became quite bored with the game. This is a huge defining point for a lot of players. "Endgame". This is the stage where you have a comfortable sum of money in your account, you have tried every mission and done your fair amount of bounty hunting. What drive is there now to continue playing the game. For me and my friend there was none, and we were thoroughly dissapointed in the engineers update for a number of reasons:
-We like many others did not like the random aspect to upgrades
-It adds more grind to the already grindy game
-It didn't feel like the wait was worth it
However recentley I have gone back to the engineers and I am having a much better time. Frontier have definitley made mission boards much better and more understandable. Missions pre-update seemed broken, when stacking 10 missions only increased the rep of a faction by 1%.
I believe that the engineers update tailors well for outfitting a smaller ship as you are able to collect materials much quicker and get to places a lot faster. Overall, I've had a brilliant time with this game, and I am thoroughly nostalgic towards the first time I landed on planets or explored a nebula. I really do hope frontier adds more content to planets but I think that engineers at it's core is a step in the right direction. For players who stop playing at end game, I have been there and have done so, however what kept me into the game was the brilliant feeling when exploring space and just marvelling at the brilliance of the graphics and sounds.
-Brilliant Graphics
-Upcoming DLC which will hopefully make the game a lot more rich with content
-Huge planets with amazing terrain that you can explore for hours
-An extremely large and expansive game space which can occupy your entire day.

I'm glad that I discovered Elite and continued playing it and that's why I'd give it a reccomendation to those who would give it time.
P.S. I know this review is all over the place, it's my first proper one kek
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60 of 83 people (72%) found this review helpful
Not Recommended
112.5 hrs on record
Posted: 31 July
I wanted to love this game. So wanted to love it.

The grind in this game would give the most hardened gold farmer an eye twitch. It's not just grind, it's grind with newly added RNG.

The flight mechanics are awesome. The combat is fun and engaging. The balancing is very successful for an asymetric environment. The environment is vast and attractive and beautifully rendered.

Look at the time invested though of the players who've reviewed this. 400-1,000 hours isn't uncommon and that's with people who are 50/50 on positive and negative reviews. This isn't a game, it's a job. You need to clock in and grind for many hours every single day to see any sliver of progress and that progress will be small. If you want a game that's a job, this is a great game for you.

The new updates to the AI ensure that no matter how good you are, most of the AI are probably as good or better with better ships and gear. Also, is your ship designed around bounty hunting or combat? You poor sorry ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥! To do the latest multi-hundred hour grind advancement process (Engineer update) you need cargo bays and good jump range, or you'll spend literally several hours just rock-hunting - and I mean that. Flying around, landing and looking for rocks to put in your space ship and fly back to this one guy, 45 minutes of load screens away. That's not hyperbole; you'll spend 45 minutes just watching loadscreens of flying distance and you'll do it often in little chunks.

You can't put anything anywhere except on a ship. You can't even, say, buy a gun and put it in the storage bay on your ship - no, if you want X gun on Y ship you need to fly Y ship to where you can buy X gun, sell the gun you have there and buy X gun.

There's so much to the design of the game that exists entirely for the point of wasting your time to slow down getting something done. It's staggering. Confusing even. The amount of intentional pointless inconvenience in this game would make you think it's incomplete and there's just a bunch of critical features missing until you realize.... no. No, it's intentional. If they force you to travel long distances in a slow ship and wander around looking for rocks (because in a universe full of countless trillions of people nobody sells the raw materials needed for this. No, no merchant would or can make a fortune on it, because then you wouldn't have to spend 100 hours looking for rocks! And that's engaging gameplay!) then they can say you're 'playing the game'.

The game isn't about fighting, or trading, or mining, or exploring. It could be. It should be. But it's not. It's about wasting time grinding doing things you don't want or enjoy so you can get a short burst of doing things you do. At which point a new update comes out, the goalpost for doing what you want and what's fun gets moved way out and you're given a whole new grind of doing things you don't to get there.

For some people that's fun. They want to spend 1,000 hours of watching empty space float by and trying to find rocks so they can spend 100 hours fighting, trading and exploring interesting things. Good on them.

The reviews on this game are mixed for a reason though. If you want a game and not a job, this probably isn't going to be your thing.
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89 of 135 people (66%) found this review helpful
5 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
412.7 hrs on record
Posted: 31 July
I used to love this game when I got it, and clocked over 400 hours on it. I've recommended it to a number of friends, and got a few of them similarly hooked.

I've since gone off it, going as far as boycotting it completely. I also feel guilty and embarrassed of recommending it.

Reason? Developers decided that any new "features" they add to the unfinished game that was barely in beta and is in the middle of development, are actually expansions... err... I mean "DLC" that you have to pay extra to "use". I cannot think of any words that can accurately describe this level of sham, and how many things are wrong with it. It's not about the money either. I would have been happy to pay double or tripple or whatever it was when I purchased the game - the game was worth it back then, providing there was a premise to improve and develop what they had further, but on principle, I feel like I have been scammed.

Since the developers decided that their "finished product" was the game at the stage it was at before you were told you had to "pay extra if you wanted to land on planets or continue to enjoy the additional developed content", I will review the game as it was prior to that point.

Which was pretty mediocre at best. Absolutely awesome flight mechanics, smooth gameplay and great graphics. That's about it. Universe was empty and bland. Yeah it was huge, but randomly generating systems gets very repeditive once you've hit system number 294 which looks exactly the same as the prevoius 293 before it (give or take a few planets). Combat was repeditive, Trading was unprofitable, and there was not a lot of weapon selection, or selection to do anything really (missions where once again, randomly generated and repeditive). Oh and there were only ever two types of stations - that's all you would have ever seen - either a station that looked like a D12 dice from D&D, or a station that resembled what would likely exist. The second was especially cool looking and realistic than the former, but there were only ever two types in the entire universe, which made arriving in a new system that you've never been to a very "meh" experience. Oh and two types of an outpost.

Now don't get me wrong, for a game in development, and with the premise to progress it further, what it had was worth supporting, worth playing, and worth getting into. It was awesome. For a finished product, which the developers decided it would have to suffice as through their 'selling model', it was a 2 / 10 game at best.

So yeah, screw you Frontier. This is especially painful and sad due to how much potential this game had (probably still has). Your 'progressive' model is part of the great disintegration of the gaming industry over the past decade. Instead of ressurecting a genre, you've gone and crapped all over it and it's fans.
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102 of 159 people (64%) found this review helpful
3 people found this review funny
Recommended
407.4 hrs on record
Posted: 26 July
My review

To the point: Both a popular and notorious game, a very diverse player base. People who love space. I'll skip all controversy over price of expansions, and assume some just want to know about the game.

The game offers many things, but don't expect the market-defined checklist of features required to keep everyone hooked. This gaming era is still dominated with what I'd call: a content confetti party. To be engaged in story, action, progression, reward and social interaction within minutes and all at once is not something you'll get in Elite: Dangerous.

Other than that?


What is Elite: Dangerous

Elite delivers space.

A reproduction of the Milky Way galaxy with as many different astronomical and planetary objects as the developers have managed to implement until today.
Stations with factions.
Ships with modules.
Things to shoot, things to scan, things to buy.
Those things spawn dynamically, it's not linear.

It will take longer than a few minutes or hours for you to reach your goals, if you're not stranger to that, you'll be fine.


Audio

I'll start with sound. Sound designers did an awesome job, you'll be identifying every ship and everything that happens in and around your ship to those sounds. Nothing seems out of place.


Graphics and the galaxy

Greatly optimised as of today, space, stations and planets are great looking. High framerate with most mainstream graphics cards of past generations with little loss in visual quality in low settings.

Overall design on human technology in Elite is very 'sober', there's a certain lack of station diversity but there's nothing crazy that seems out of place. Special effects in moderation, motion, detail and scales are those things that will make you feel immersed.

We are missing a few less common astronomical objects and phenomenons, black holes with accretion discs and planet atmospheres. But hey, patience.


Controls and handling

The game is a balance between arcade and simulation, so it's easy to handle but with range for more advanced piloting, with lowered realism to keep things fun and close.

All players report handling their ship and the user interface easily using mouse and keyboard, game controller (XBox One), joystick and keyboard or joystick and throttle (HOTAS). You can add voice command, head tracking and VR which Elite implements very well (mind the HUD readability glitch with the VIVE).


Learning curve and progress

Stat progress is generally slower in Elite, but technically you can do anything almost immediately.

But first: can you land manually? When the tutorial makes you aim, orient your ship and bring it down smoothly, you'll think this is a difficult simulation. Just go along with it, it's easy and fun in the end. You'll find out ship management and manoeuvring is very important.

Beyond that, the game doesn't exactly highlight for you what to do until you visit and check stations, if you Google the different professions you'll find many answers. Most common one "how to make money". It's part of your learning process to try and think further than money. If you do only one thing you get burned out by length and repetition but if you vary your experience, the game gets richer. Don't let credits dictate your path.


The ships

There are enough small, medium and large ships and modules, as well as module modifications to keep you busy. They are well designed on the outside and inside,

Don't think larger ships with more modules as superior in any given situation. You can still enjoy small ships as an experienced player. Although the game is full of ship specifications and stats, you will be flying, throttling, shooting, scanning, managing power, targeting, communicating and travelling.

Like for credits, don't let size dictate your path.


User interface

Very good holographic HUD in ship, easy to navigate with any controller. Many HUD elements, not much missing. The user interface in stations is OK for missions, trading market, module fitting. It's OK.

There are many stats, but also hidden stats like rank points and influence points in the game to avoid reminding you that it is just a game. Go along with it, or Google it if you need to know everything.


Story and persistent universe

Humans inhabiting star systems in a bubble of 1000 light years radius. You're a dot in the galaxy with events dripping slowly in the form of additions to the news feed, systems content, some oddities (unknown artefacts, barnacles) and community goals. Themes are sci-fi and mystery, think Babylon 5 perhaps.

I'll tell everyone: ready your Shadowplay recorder or equivalent, if you see something odd: record it and show the community. The players drive a huge part of that story.

There is no "solo story" individual to yours other than what you do. There is a background simulation computing faction changes based on our activities in their systems. It's small generic changes in a huge galaxy and you'll need help to leave a mark quickly. It can be underwhelming, so manage your expectations. But if it takes a special kind of mindset to enjoy exploring the galaxy and put your name on first discovered stars and planets permanently, then I guess those small changes aren't that small to everyone.


Multiplayer and future updates

The game allows both lone hermits and groups to find their way, but it's not what you'd expect from an MMO.

Frequency of player encounters is affected by the huge size of galaxy, but there are higher density regions and Community Goals will engage players in doing the same thing at the same place. Risk of piracy and ganking increases so beware or get away from those populated systems until you get a hang of it.

Teaming up is on players initiative. You have to talk in and out of game to find things to do together, and the in-game interface does little to engage players in flying together although the game mechanics are there, but we hope for more to keep the players busy together in future updates. There will be multi-crew, starfighter bay, character customisation, and unrevealed features that could push the game in the right direction. But you don't have to count on that.

There are interesting player groups and communities, tons of forum pages and lots of development and story discussions and player events. The game has flaws with regards to multiplayer, but the platform is rich enough to keep many players committed in different ways. The question is where you'll fit.


Bugs and exploits

There are some bugs. Instancing bugs and mission bugs. Some weekly server maintenance downtime. You can get past it.

There is a combat logging exploit (to disappear during combat) and a balancing issue where harming other players can be done without reasons or consequences. It's tough to get past if you are looking for fun and positive player interactions specifically.


Conclusion

I am careful with recommending Elite because I can't tell exactly what everyone is looking for in a game. And you too should be careful with everything you read, take everything with a grain of salt, and know what you like in games or what you want to experience next.

Elite succeeds at delivering space, graphics, sound, ship piloting, ship customisation, exploration, combat, immersion, VR implementation and community. Elite fails at checking boxes when it comes to solo story, multiplayer mechanics, highlighting what to do next and delivering high content per hour wherever players are. But I think all that makes up Elite is still engaging, interesting, exciting, there are players looking for those things, and others who don't.

Even at its current state, I welcome Elite very much in the space sim genre. You decide what you want in a game.
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56 of 84 people (67%) found this review helpful
2 people found this review funny
Not Recommended
55.4 hrs on record
Posted: 1 August
The game does look good and has some good features in it, the main problem I had is that it is just a repetitive grind, doing virtually the same thing, over and over again. If there was a story, I never found it. So many different factions I don't know who is who, so I had no reason to choose a side.

It isn't a bad game, just can't stand the constant grind.
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36 of 52 people (69%) found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
Not Recommended
94.9 hrs on record
Posted: 1 August
I used to have a very detailed long, and ironically positive review of this game earlier. That is now no longer. Immersion in this game is beyond anything I've ever seen in any game. It's spectacular. The sounds, absolutely stunning, the visuals equally good.

But the game deploys a progession system that would make even the most moneygrabbing MMORPGs tear up. Everything, and I mean literally everything takes hours of tedious grind and repeating boring quests that are designed thus to hide the fact that ED is below the surface just a really shallow game. To find your way to bigger ships does not mean more skill; it means you have more free time. And especially more patience with ever repeating and exceptionally boring quests. A non live, very static market that resolves around RNG elements(very poorly done, hasn't been changed ever since), a "power play" option that influences the game to no extent and feels very irrelevant(sectors do influence gameplay, faction controlled regions do not. They just mean you occasionally get pulled out of your jump to fight a certain ship that correlates with your "opposing faction". That's literally all there's to it besides some more boring grind missions that do not even reward you).

People have complained about this for a literal year now and the developers still continue adding more DLC refusing to actually review their fundamental mistakes in the earlier stages of development. I bought this game when I had ALOT of time on my hands, and the game is pretty much only playable if that's the case for you. Once you stop playing you'll end up with an immense feeling of "well that actually wasn't fun at all now was it". It's just work, it's not fun.

Don't buy this game
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42 of 69 people (61%) found this review helpful
Not Recommended
2.4 hrs on record
Posted: 1 August
I'll spare you repeating what others have already voiced a mutlitude of times the past few months about Elite:Dangerous. Just take a look at the waning ratings and decide for yourself.

I personally used to be a strong advocate of ED but the lack of progress, the overcharging by Frontier in regard to content and the aggressive attitude of sensoring criticism, has soured the whole experience to the point of ruining one of my most loved childhood games ever.

Don't get me wrong, the eye candy is there and I love it; but there is little else to do besides non-stop repeatable grind, impossible npc's, confusing power-playing and silly missions. This weekend I flew for over 3hrs on my Viper MkIV for just one!! mission around (used to be popular) Cubeo and for the first time I did not encounter a single player. A reflective fact of a dwindling and unhappy player base.

I don't know what Frontier is planning to do next but I, like most, have lost confidence in their delivering the promised content and certainly would not be buying anything else off them.

To new and willing players, I would recommend to buy ED only if there is a big sale on, for the experience. There are much better alternatives out there and I would personally wait for NMS or Star Citizen to fill in the itching gap. In the least RSI show good communication and respect to their player base, which in return makes me wanna spend more in supporting them (in addition to my 325 and Freelancer already)

And just in case, please note that I have a lot more hours invested in ED outside of steam, as I was an early adopter as well (GpT E:D). Very dissapointed.
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15 of 23 people (65%) found this review helpful
Not Recommended
449.6 hrs on record
Posted: 31 July
Let me say two things. Elite is really good at what it gets right, and there is nothing wrong with their expansion release scheme.

I don't recommend this game for a myriad of complex reasons. These run the gammot from UI to quality of life to balance issues. Basically for everything the game does well, it gets just as much if not more wrong. I'll pose my issues with the game as questions towards the developer. If even one of these sounds like a deal breaker, it's probably just the beginning for you.

Why do I have to go into config files to mess with half the options I want to despite how you're not afraid to add some advanced things to the in game menu?

Why is there no real electronic warfare in game? (Caveat on Horizons upgrades below).

Why is the insurance/rebuy costs of ships so cheap?

Why are some ships so hideously bad nobody would ever use them? The T7 transporter for example (No, it's not a stepping stone, it's a waste of money. Python does its job better and is in the same price range)

Why is the only true difference between fixed/gimballed/turreted weapons a minor power plant sink?

Why are there only like three mission types in game, with the most advanced of them being assasinate one target?

Why do you get full bounties on targets despite having a fleet of security helping you kill the target?

Why does a faction ask me for Rutile/Cobalt/some other mineral that they can easily purchase from the station they offer the mission from, and then proceed to pay me 200k credits for maybe 10k credits worth of rutile/cobalt/some other mineral?

Why can't I make my own route route across space, selecting the jumppoints as I wish? (I'm mainly an explorer and this is absolutely maddening)

Why can I store ships in a hangar, but not individual modules?

I have to ask again: Why can I store full sized, fully outfitted ships in any hangar I want, as many as I want, but can't store even one tiny weapon?

Why did powerplay happen? Who thought it was a good idea? In its current state it's like putting all this effort into putting a kiddy pool into a kiddy pool. Oh, the kiddy pool inside the kiddy pool has some special modules - the one interesting aspect of powerplay as it stands. Working for different factions within a space federation would be fun if there were any real tangible effects. A slight discount on a module isn't that.

It's not all bad:

There are other things I can complain about, but I think those questions sum up the big ones. So what does Elite do right, and why do I still play it even after all this? Because it's beautiful in visual and audio design. The ships are a pleasure to fly, despite there being next to no meat on the bones of the game. I play with friends, which probably makes the soulless experience that 90% of the game is tolerable. And while exploring I can ignore nearly all of the complaints I have with the rest of the game.

On Horizons:

I do not own Horizons, but I'm close friends and play with someone who does own it. Between what I know of his experience and the utter strangeness of the expansion's direction in general I'll go ahead and put my thoughts down. Though they aren't any better than the base game.

Planetary landing is rather barebones. There are a couple new missions related to ground bases and the like but there is not even as much variety as there is in space related missions. As it stands it's nothing much except a tool to take some screenshots - admittedly fantastic looking screenshots. But there are a handful of free space exploration programs where I can go to any planet I want and take screenshots just fine. Why would this even be mentioned as a selling point anywhere?

Engineers. Oh my god who huffed paint and thought their space sim needed rng gear upgrades is beyond me. In any real life scenario an engineer with the success rate of these methed up chimps they call engineers would mean they'd be fired, if not put on trial for the sheer randomness of their crap. Remember how I ♥♥♥♥♥ed about electronic warfare before? Well they kind of added it with engineers, but only as upgrades for already existing weapons systems. Your space laser now heats up their ship! whoop de doo. There are also ways to disrupt systems, woo again. Why there aren't completely seperate modules to do just these EW tasks with no damage attached seems very odd to me. Then again a lot of their design choices seem odd to me. The effectiveness of your upgrades is completely random on top of this. There's a range, sure, but you could be stuck with max penalties and minimum benefits for the same amount of work for reverse. It's bananas how they thought this would be a good system in a space sim. It belongs in diablo 3.

There's other stuff coming down the pipeline for Horizons. But in the developers usual style it's not adding to or building on the other things in the expansion. Horizons should have focused all effort on planetary landings, really fleshing them out and the like. But they give us systems that would be right at home in a facebook baby's first rpg. I'd say it's barely worth five dollars/euros/shekels, while my friends who have it would put it at a solid 15 dollars/euros/rupees of value at most.
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