Got it for free during the event and 1st I`ll open with the bad, since it makes the game UNPLAYABLE until fixed by the user:

1. The controls.
Whoever designed the default control layout never played or planned on anyone to play this game with keyboard and mouse alone, nor have they ever played any other pc game with keyboard and mouse.
The process of setting the controls to your liking is very long and painfull, but in the end after you have spent atleast 30 mins in the controls section of the options menu between games you will be able to make your ship do whatever you want with incredible ease.

2. The bugs.
There are a lot of bugs I`ve experinced in the 10 hours I`ve spent in the game so far, most notably getting stuck on loading screen at the start of the battle, getting dcd for no reason a few times, going into infinite spin inside a wall (only once), and getting shot in the face but taking 0 dmg (again only once, the person shooting me was also warping around).

3. The interface.
In the menus you don`t get to name your loadouts, the edditing process requires way to many clicks and there is a LOT of wasted space.Looks like it is designed for a 7 inch tablet.
Not sure if intentional, but in the game only the target ahead button will target enemies, and while what happens around is pretty the main HUD is rly lacking when it comes to IFF and target retention.
On the other hand you have the compass and the radar, which give you ALL the information aside from your weps position, so you will be looking at that 80% of the time and missing on the amazing visuals.

4. Balance.
May be subjective since me and my friends just started this game, but so far we all agree out of the 4 ships only 2 are playable, since both the eagle and the sidewinder are just not agile enough to compete.
Speed is life, and if you cant use your weps it doesnt matter how much armor or shields you have.

5. Lack of content.
Needs more maps, more gamemodes and maybe maps/modes that allow more players.
Ship / wep / upgrade diversity is there, and the exsisting maps all feel pretty good, I just wish there were more.

The good:

1. Freedom!
The movement system is amazing! Directional thrusters are ridiculously powerfull and quick to react making the 3D battle trully 3D.
The stations and asteroids provide a very challanging route for any foe trying to catch up to you and the small corridors push the agility of the ships to the limit.
Even better, the ships are not only VERY agile but extremely resiliant as well, so crashing into a wall, asteroid or an opponent will do very little actual damage.

2. Progression.
Not much of it but its just enough to make me feel like I`m earning something each time I rank up.

3. Visuals.
Just look at it!

4. Optimisation.
Runs perfectly on gtx 460 and an FX4500, so if you have any relatively modern computer, chances are you can play this game.

5. Map design.
While I don`t really like the idea of power ups and would love to see a game mode without them, I cant deny they are very strategically placed and the balance of both sides seems good on each map.
Each and every map allows for wide variety of engagements as well, with wide open space and 0 cover to the wild chasing scene from the trailer up top and everything inbetween. So long as you pay attention to the flow of the battle you get to engage on your terms.

6.Easy to get into.
Once you are finished setting up your controlls, the ships behave very intuitively, the mouse controls the ship very accuratly and shooting a stealthed ship or performing all sorts of maneuvers becomes natural in a very short amount of time.

7. Hard mode.
If you get bored and think youve hit the skill ceiling just turn off flight assist from the options menu.
After you have turned it back on for good you will know the game can become a lot harder if you wish and despite the fact youll never turn it off ever again you know there is a challange waiting for you if you want it.

This is probably the first time I'm going to write a recommendation for a game since the one I deleted 3 years ago.

If you got this game from the weekend and wondering if this game is worth playing, yes it is. It's running fine on my PC with Intel HD 4600 OC'd to 1.4ghz. However there are things you need to know, do not use yaw but instead use roll and pitch and also turn off flight assist, you might also want to rebind your controls because the default is so horrible. One thing from what I've experienced is that most of the time you get matched up with people who are good at this game (the ones who bought this standalone before it went free) so it might take time for you and everyone including me to learn the game.

EDIT: fixed some typo errors

啊，写一篇母语评测吧。满屏全是英文...
就和国际友人们说的一样，注册确实挺麻烦的。
但是只要注册了账号之后，然后登陆上那个F开头的网站，在my account界面的左边竖栏点最下面那个什么什么key，在框框里面输入那个二十多个字符的key（就是一开始就给的那串），然后在游戏端log in的时候把邮箱里面收到的5个字母的key输入，然后点击确认键，就搞定啦。
ps.记得科学上网哦。

Warning YOU NEED A FRONTIER ACCOUNT TO ACTIVATE!
People are making such a fuss about having to make a frontier account because of the billling information, thats understandable but once you have done this the actual game is a blast! nice and easy contols and smooth gameplay. Only wish there were more players for more intense fights!

This needs to be free to play there is no one on. Otherwise it's great.

This is a metered recommendation, not a glowing one. Please read.



Flying the ship is fun, especially with a proper HOTAS. Even with a cheap one (Thrustmaster T-Flight), I felt in control and could pull off some decent maneuvers.


Playing the combat training missions are fun. I have yet to overcome the Incursion, but I will eventually.


Dogfighting is fun. Having the 'soft' lock-on - as long as they're in the center of your screen, the ship will do its best to auto-aim - means you can focus on staying mobile, a welcome improvement compared to Freespace 2, though I've only put in a few hours there.


Everything Frontier has built on top of that, however, is not fun.

The main culprit here is the TTK (Time To Kill): it's actually too fast. Your shields evaporate before you have a chance to respond. With just one person firing shots into your behind, you probably don't have time to duck behind an asteroid or other large object to break lock-on. With even a second enemy, you're dead in about five seconds. Mobility ends up meaning way less than I feel it should because of this.

The powerups, which I presume was an attempt to mix in Arena Shooter elements, are a mixed bag. The speed and weapons powerups are useless because weapons are already so strong. Shields are useful since they give you a reasonable amount of overshielding - really, the amount ships should have started with. Stealth might as well be invulnerability since they break lock-on trageting for a good 30 seconds. But in the matches I've played in so far, map control isn't that much of a factor, so whatever strategic value the powerups bring are minimized.

Generic progression systems. Unlock the ships! Now, unlock the actually useful weapons for the ships! Now, unlock decent perks! Blarg. If it was at least the Black Ops 1 style "here's some cash, buy what you think you'll need," I would like it. Then again, I say the same thing about every Call of Duty progression system.



I'm still recommending this because, well, it's less than ten bucks. Plus, I got it for free during some promotional thing. HOWEVER, don't expect this to replace your old school space sims quite yet, or even for the multiplayer to fully sate your shooter cravings. You get what you pay for, in this case.

Kind of dead right now, but really engaging and surprisingly deep space "sim."

Space Sim, COMBAT EDITION... Really enjoying it (although i dont know what i'm doing eheh).
The setup is stupid, i have to agree, for a TEMPORARY free game, having to give a address is a bummer.
But after that is just another account that you'll forgot it's password in a month or two.

So upvote this masterpiece and forget this details....

Do i recommend it?
IF YOU LIKE SPAAAAAAAAAACEEE Fights then JUST DO IT.

I'm in Elite: Dangerous since the alpha version and I added this to my library because I mostly play CQC (=arena) on my laptop and play the complete Elite: Dangerous game in my desktop pc when I'm home. So this was a great deal for me because I had the chance to uninstall the complete Elite: Dangerous on my laptop and it gained me ~10gb of free space :).

Given that I already have a Frontier account, it took virtually no time to play Elite: Dangerous Arena compared to the full Elite experience since all I did was to login and press play. I did absolutely nothing more than that.

All in all, ignore the pointless sh*tstorm and grab this while it's still FREE. This is like the best PvP spaceship simulator out there. Negative commenters must be a bit out of their minds I guess.

I got this game for free when they offered it, to use as a demo for the full game, mostly. I didn't really expect to enjoy it much, since I don't tend to like fast-paced competetive multiplayer games. However, after running through the tutorials several times and getting my controls set up how I like, the game is actually a lot of fun. I found that right out of the gate I was able to do well in multiplayer, even against higher-ranked players.

I don't know why there are so many negative reviews on this. I didn't have any of the problems most of them seem to complain about. Installing the game and setting up an account was pretty easy and painless. Getting into standard deathmatches doesn't take long, in my experience. Though my experience with team deathmatch was pretty poor, I wouldn't recommend that unless you have several friends to jump in there with; and I have yet to be able to find a game of capture the flag.

All in all, this is a really solid game, I think, and for the price it's probably worth it, if you want to get into dogfights in space. The maps can get old, but they have enough variety and interesting features to keep it entertaining even so. I do, however, very strongly recommend at least a joystick to play this game. Personally, I use a gamepad with my left hand and a joystick in my right and it works really well.