Elite Dangerous

Absolutely amazing in VR. Highly recommended. I can't quit playing it. This game is thought out extremely well.

You should play this game because it's a cool space game where you get to fly ships. It's awesome

It is more a slog through life than an actual game. If you don't buy the upgrade packs you can't have the same advantage as those who spend the money on the upgraded season packs or whatever. But they still have to slog through the game. Suckers!
Don't do it!

Elite Dangerous Review – A Beautiful, Brutal, Infinite Silence

There’s a moment in Elite Dangerous—after you've finally figured out how to leave the space station without smashing into the letterbox, and you've mapped your 19th control scheme to your mouse, keyboard, and a borrowed toaster—where you look out into the void and think: Oh. This is it. This is space.

Elite Dangerous isn’t here to hold your hand. In fact, it barely acknowledges your existence. It simply drops you into a galaxy—literally the size of our own—and says, “Figure it out, Commander.” No quest marker. No flashing neon “GO HERE.” Just you, your ship, and a whole lot of black.

It’s the most stunning existential crisis simulator you’ll ever play.

The beauty of it? You can figure it out. Slowly. Painfully. Triumphantly. You'll learn how to fuel scoop without overheating, how to dock without scraping your hull like an amateur, and maybe—just maybe—you'll learn to master the black.

What makes Elite special is its scope. Want to be a trader, smuggler, pirate, explorer, mercenary, miner, taxi driver, or full-time space hermit? Go for it. It’s not a game that tells you what to do—it’s a game that gives you the galaxy and dares you to find meaning in it.

But beware: it’s cold out there. Literally and emotionally. The grind is real. The learning curve is vertical. And if you're not the kind of person who finds joy in solitude and starlight, you might bounce right off it. But if you are that kind of person… well, welcome home, Commander.

10/10 would get stranded 40,000 light-years from civilization again.

I will say this is an exceptional game, its not perfect but most things arent, though from my point of view it offers an experience for both people who get hooked and go all in on a game, grinding for everything or those want a laid back experience

the good: great visuals but after odyssey i cant run high graphics anymore, the audio design is great (losing my cockpit for the first time was an experience), and now theyre adding content that i personally look forward to like new ships, when i first picked up the game in 2020ish there wasn't any news on it so seeing this line of updates is a welcome surprise. theres so much to learn and it becomes its own form of fun (subjective of course) but the community is very active and theres always some place online where active discussions and efforts are taking place, its a nice space to be around, combat is an engaging part of the game (though engineering grinding does get tiring) and the sheer amount of ships allow you to engage in many distinct combat styles. i personally like the evolving lore where every few weeks something comes up and significant events happen, the communities are vibrant and goals which require community participation actually react to what is achieved

however there are some glaring bads: you likely cant bruteforce grind over a relatively short period of time as the most efficient ways of doing it still requires some investment in one form of another, ie having a ship with decent jump range or one that can haul a decent amount of cargo to reduce repetitiveness, performance issues as mentioned have degraded for me so i hope optimisation is one of their focuses some day, some balancing issues which i know some have been addressed like engineering, but exploration with it's multitude of added risks since odyssey has yet to receive a rebalance (dying means you lose all of your gains even if you spent a significant amount of time grinding them) and it would be nice if FDev can somehow incorporate some of the several fanmade tools into the game, as it stands if you need information, you'll have to google it somewhere instead of looking for it within the game,

the game definitely offers a unique experience, i havent played other similar space games but i am fairly comfortable with Elite, i hope the roadmaps keep on coming and Fdev keep delivering good ones, im optimistic for the future but time will tell

With a total of 1,570 hours between xbox and pc as of this review, I can safely say this is the best space sim on the market IF you're fine with complex mechanics and like exploration. The game is rough or people brand new to space/flight sims. The flying is while kinda basic has a learning curve steep enough to be improvable even with high hours in the game. The way ships feel are unique, weapons feel varied and missions are very diverse.

Compared to other space games, it's the most humble game. SC is still in Alpha since it's release in 2017 and has made almost 1 billion dollars in revenue. Starfield is made by Bethesda and No Man's Sky has the reputation of it's release and isn't exactly comparable in gameplay.

ED only let's you explore the Milky Way, but Frontier understood since the first Elite game that space is huge. Our galaxy being 100k lightyears across. The explorable space in-game being 1:1 to our real thing but it would take several lifetimes to explore every single system in-game. Frontier made it work though, the "bubble" of human inhabited space being roughly 300 lightyears across with a few small exceptions.
NMS in comparison give you 256 galaxies to explore, which is way more than any player could chew on.
Star Citizen is only one system, while it let's you explore massively detailed colonized planets, unlike ED only letting you explore RNG'd moons, dwarf planets and planets that are unsettled it keeps the gameplay contained.

ED let's you play however you want, you'd heard it everywhere but it seriously let's you play and do whatever you want. You could go mining in a planetary ring, tired of mining? Go pirate the loot from a miner who's already done all the work.
You could be a trader, courier, transporter, supplier or search and rescue commodities.

The amount the game offers is immense. Even with 1k hours I've still discovered new things, new mechanics, new features. I haven't even reached the midpoint of progress.
The game provides alot to chew on while being small enough to be able to enjoy the fact it's a 25$ game with minimal microtransactions.

The game has it's issues, connectivity with players overseas, syncing issues in MP, training missions being not to helpful. Some rewards being underwhelming. These issues can be easily overlooked though if the rest sounds appealing.

The ability to explore any system you want, your actions actually affecting the world around you, save or destroy minor factions, cause wars, be a menace, be a saint, manipulate the market, destroy the market, benefit the market, go on a outside the bubble adventure, be a architect, be a biologist, be a hunter. It's your game and it truly feels like it.

If you like near never ending and complex mechanics with a beautiful set of visuals and natural sights this game is for you.
This game is also fully compatible with any flight sim setup you may have already set up with enough controls to bind to every button.

Came for the thrilling space dogfights, with jets roaring and cannons blasting.

Realize shield meta turns fights into a slugging match. AI cheats to be more manueverable and durable then you. only way to compete is to turn off flight assist, which turns you into a shopping cart with rockets strapped to it and all the wheels have been greased, meaning you cant maneuver anyway.

remember why I punched my parents TV as a kid when I played this game as a kid because it made me that angry.
Realize I had more fun writing this review then playing the game.

I used to play this game when it first came out and loved it, since then the game has become so much better.

one of the best vr experience you can have in a game that you has longevity to it also a great space sim best out there imo

I bought this game when it was on sale for 5 bucks and had no idea really what it was about . I enjoy space games so I thought I’ll give it a try for the price of a cup of bad coffee.

Currently put in 372 hours into this thing and loving it. Well what exactly is it? Its a flight simulator in space where you have the freedom to chose and customize like 43 different ships. Each flies differently and you can feel this. The devs did a fantastic job with how you feel in the cockpit. You also have the freedom to play how you want, do you want to be a bounty hunter? What about flying through an asteroid field hunting for that perfect one to detonate open so you can harvest those rare void opals? You can live outside the law plundering other pilots as a pirate or infiltrate on foot a planetary settlement to assassinate a target, upload malware into their data system, or just deliver a care package from a friend. You can become a space trucker hopping around stations to find the best deals or maybe you just wanna head out into the 400 billion uncharted star systems thats 1 for 1 scale to our own galaxy to place your mark while finding alien life. The choice is yours.

People will say its a grind and yea, it can be if you make it that way by trying to min max your time as for some reason our western gaming culture has centered around optimizing returns per hour so any game they play no longer becomes a game.

The on foot mechanics has improved much more since Odyssey release and frontier is doing a decent job bringing new content to a game they always have on a sale and thats like 10 years old.

If you wanna fly starships then this is the game for you.

Awesome game if you have the time and patience for the grind. Having the whole galaxy at your fingertips is nice but what isnt nice is that you have to grind for hours to actually be able to reach some parts of the galaxy.Still a pretty awesome game though. Definetly worth buying. Expect alot of bugs in odyssey though.

I love this game. And wait- you can land on moons and blow stuff up? yea im getting carpiel tunnel the 2nd time

Well, one of the best Space simulation game ever! But, if you expect story lines campaigns then this game is not for you.

Frontier broken it with their account linking. Now it's unplayable.

This game does not respect your time well. It's very grindy even with the various guides out there that help cut down on the grind. Then there's the recent stuff of using real world money to purchase the new ships. It's a real shame as there's quite a lot of cool and interesting stuff here, but the time investment to do stuff is too much for me to ever recommend this game to anyone. This setting aside the awful new player experience the game currently has at review.

Forget the nonsense about a steep learning curve. There's a whole commnuity and resources available to help. It will suck you in..... Try it.....

A game I've sunk more time into than my real life. I honestly can't recommend this game enough.
It can be very difficult to get into early on as it doesn't hold you'r hand and the universe is big, like really big. But once you've found your footing and figured out a few of the base mechanics then you'll truly enjoy this game.

Strong learning curve, but a fantastic looking game, and there are countless things you can keep yourself busy with. Strongly recommend to anyone who enjoys space simulations

Elite: Dangerous still holds it's own in the battle for the best space games to play. Explore a giant galaxy, mine, trade, fight, survey, search and rescue or just grind money to buy all the cool ships and try them out. Find engineers to improve your components the way you want to play, long range, super-charged, tough or quick, you choose and design your ships the way you want. For the price and the content, you cannot go wrong. I like to play this as an alternative to my other favorite space game which isn't a game yet. See you in the verse O7

Been gradually pushing more and more for micro transactions which when introduced was only cosmetics. Now it includes game play elements such as ships (and early access to ships)

Stop making launchers for shitty niche games... I have a steam account, use steamworks you fungal infection of a publisher.

Elite itself is good though.

At 35 hours played, I have changed from a down-vote to an up-vote. I am going to leave my old review below this. I went on twitch and interacted with an amazing community member who helped me get up and going again. This game has a steep learning cliff for new players. Getting a hotas really helped. Doing flight tutorials helped a lot also. Maybe a bug, but the game didn't offer me any flight tutorials to start with. It only offered the ground combat tutorial from the expansion.

--- Old Review Below---
6 hours "played" and I managed to get fined for loitering, blocking a launch pad, accidentally exposing my ship weapons to the wrong people, and got my ship destroyed by the station security for landing 3 meters outside the landing zone. Was unable to complete a single mission in 6 hours. Probably 5 hours of that was spent waiting on the ship to get somewhere. Hardly counts as playing a game. Terrible new player experience.

So I haven't played this game for a good 5-6 years, as it was always way too empty and lonely for me. Now I got disappointed by the development of Star Citizen and the unconvincing Starfield and thought I would give it a try again. Boy I haven't been disappointed! I can discover hundreds of million of star systems and planets like in NMS, but the graphics and the engine are simply more convincing. I can walk around on stations and planets like in Star Citizen or Starfield, but the sheer vastness is fantastic. If you go out of the standard bubbles of civilization, there is a good chance you will discover new planets and life forms, maybe even find your personal asteroid mining field. It feels to me like this is now the game I actually hoped for from NMS, Star Citizen and Starfield. The universe is also not empty anymore - NPCs and intelligent alien species are found everywhere. I decided that I will go on a mission of discovery and research - but honestly every style of play now finds it's niche in this game! Thank you to the devs for polishing it so much and giving me the VR experience I always dreamed of!

Including Xbox I have over 240 hours in this game and I still have no idea what I'm doing.

The flight sim system is really well made and fun once you get a hang of it but the 1:1 scale of the galaxy is way too big for it's own good combined with all the systems thrown at you at once it can be really easy to get lost or overwhelmed if you don't have the patience. For example I still have no idea what engineering does because frankly the game explains things poorly. Otherwise it is still a very relaxing game to just fly around and explore.

I would recommend only if you enjoy major time sinks.

utter misery. wonderful visuals and ship designs completely ruined by the fact the game is a press 'J' simulator where all you ever do is jump from system to system. I've heard the engineering grind has gotten less miserable recently but honestly you couldn't pay me to pick this game up again in spite of that.

It's great. Here's the thing: it's too big. It's a mile wide and an inch deep. The dev team has so many good ideas, but only rests on any one of them long enough to get something that technically works before moving on to the next thing. Odyssey was a disaster at launch, and even years later it's still a buggy, shallow mess.

I'd like to see the team add some much-needed polish to existing game mechanics. Despite all that, though, it's generally a good experience. The ships feel fast and powerful, combat is generally pretty satisfying (although engineering and the associated grind is basically mandatory), the visuals and audio design are awe-inspiring, and the way they incorporate player actions into storylines genuinely sets a high bar.

IF your in to this type of game, its awesome. The visual effects are beautiful and the sound's the ships make are amazing. Great way to burn through hours of your day. It does get very grindy as you get further in the game, and extreem grind if you want a carrier. but you play it your way. Don't forget your Limpets !

I've been playing Elite Dangerous off and on for nearly 10 years now, with most of my playtime spent on the console version, which was unfortunately abandoned by Frontier Developments. I was able to transfer my account over to the PC version when console support was dropped, but I’ll admit, I’m still a little salty about that. That being said, despite the frustrations, I’d still highly recommend this game—if you know what you're getting into.

Like many MMOs, Elite Dangerous is a grind. Progression can feel slow at times, and some activities can become repetitive, but it’s the kind of grind that’s rewarding for those who enjoy immersion and long-term goals. The beauty of the game lies in its vast, open universe, the depth of its mechanics, and the sheer scale of exploration available. There's really no other game on the market right now that scratches the same itch for a space simulation that is this expansive and this detailed.

Even more so with the Odyssey expansion, which allows players to walk around on planets and inside stations and complete missions on foot. It’s a huge step forward and adds a new layer of immersion, making the universe feel even more alive. There’s something uniquely satisfying about hopping out of your ship and exploring a planet or station on foot, something that was missing for years. However, I will admit that on foot content has its flaws.

While the game is far from perfect and still has its bugs (and some features that could use more attention, like anti-aliasing), the community is solid, and if you enjoy space sims, Elite Dangerous offers a truly unmatched experience in its genre. If you're looking for a game that rewards patience, exploration, and tactical gameplay, then Elite Dangerous will be a really rewarding experience for you.

so after 3000 hours into this game i can confidently say this is one of my favorite games. if you are able to beat the grind and get through the engineering grind. then have at it! if you like a high learning cliff. go at it the galaxy is 1-1 scale so good luck with the short jump ranges. my only gripe is a lack of furry cosmetics for the suits. 10-10 game.

It looks like a massive game with lots of content, I just can't get into it.

One of the tutorials, on mining, has a bug that doesn't let you complete it. That's insanely frustrating.

I got a mission and was trying to go to a destination but I don't seem to be getting any closer and I can't seem to activate the frameshift drive or whatever.

The controls don't seem hard or bad, but figuring out precisely what you need to do is a very, very big part of this game. It seems there are lots of tedious steps you have to take in precise order for every action.

It's almost like having a second job. One you don't get paid for.

Elite Dangerous is massive. Ridiculously massive. You start in a tin can with barely enough firepower to scare off a pigeon, but before you know it, you’re flying a million-credit spaceship, pretending you know what you’re doing. One moment, you’re cruising through a neon-lit station feeling like a legend, the next, you’re 65,000 light-years from home, out of fuel, whispering "Oh no." But that’s the beauty of it every tiny success feels huge because the game doesn’t care if you win or lose. It just exists, and you either get on with it or spend your days spinning in space like a lost sock in a washing machine.

And the freedom! Want to be a bounty hunter? Brilliant until some 14-year-old in a fully-engineered ship turns you into fireworks. Fancy exploring? Great, but hope you like staring at rocks for hours. Even space trucking has its moments nothing beats the thrill of successfully hauling 300 tons of cargo without getting jumped by pirates. After 289 hours, do I fully understand what I’m doing? Not really. But do I love it? Absolutely.

This is THE BEST space game, I really love it and having so much fun.

There's so much content and so much to do, that in 5 days I already played 47 hours...
The galaxy is so huge and beautiful that I can't describe it...
The physics of this game is incredible, I really love how you can control your ship, and how the distance is real (Light years, light seconds...), Planets are in real size and you can land on them as well, The stars that we know is real and you can travel to them (Sirius, Alpha Centauri, Betelgeuse (EVEN BLACKHOLE ON THE CENTRE OF OUR GALAXY (Sagittarius A)) etc...)
Yeah it can be kinda grindy but I'm sure that you will love exploring the galaxy and game itself.

closer to a sim then no mans sky, less features but definently better immersion for roleplay

So I was expecting to get into this game, have a horrible experience and ask for a refund within 2 hours. But I was pleasantly surprised.

Game offered me a preset of keybinds for the exact hotas I have and so far I had 0 issues with them.

Gameplay loop I still haven't fully figured out but flying simple missions and upgrading the ship has been fun so far.

This game beats out all the rest in the space sim genre. Fully recommend this game for anyone who's longing to live a thousand years in the future.

Worse game I have ever played. Its no longer designed for new players. The devs may have made a large game, but the learning curve is high only because they did not give new players a chance to find their way into this game. Older players exist in this game because they have been gradually adapted as it developed. But now its a complete mess if your just learning to play this game.

It could be that the devs make it hard to pressure you to buy in the in game items which would be the started ships.

The low price when its on sale is to lure you into the pay extra later.

Even if you watch you tubers and have many open wikis you will fail and get very frustrated.

Its like the devs intended to make you suffer if your into that kind of madness.

Even the space ship controls are a disaster. This game is nothing like No Man's Sky. The so called learning curves just destroys the game.

I can't recommend buying this game. The developer is very unprofessional, currently running a beta test of an upcoming "system colonisation" feature in the game's live environment. Yesterday there were lots of crashes and connection errors, and today I can't log in at all. Customer service tells me, "Due to an increase in the volume of support requests we're currently experiencing longer than expected response times."

Alright, it's been fun. I have played this game for a long while now, first on xbox back in 2016 and fell in love with it, I moved to PC when they added the on foot gameplay. I'm quadruple Elite on for the second time now. I've went to Colonia and the center, did a dive into the black, fought the bugs and defeated a Titan, I've spent hours upon hours mining just because I enjoyed the hunt, toppled pirate leaders and flushed the enemies from my Federal systems (Z. Hudsen will forever be my president). This game offers you a lot to do and you can do it all with your friends. Like i said it's been fun, but I'm done. You see things about an influx of players but its just an influx of people who want to grief whatever new content is coming to the game. The newest update is a perfect example, and those of you that play know what I'm talking about. I just cant bring myself personally to play this game anymore. Is it a fun game? Yes. But I'm tiered, the real community is tiered. I'm not saying you shouldn't play this game, this is honestly my favorite space sim. But its time, I've made peace with my last "frameshift drive charging", my last "honk", my last "The rumors were true...", and my last egg cracked. I'm retiring to my new station courtesy of the new update. Fly safe commanders, and don't forget your limpets <3 -o7-

Elite Dangerous is a very cool very in-depth space game that is very fun to play when it's working, unfortunately it is currently being "maintained" by the most incompetent group of people who ever lived and they break the game every 5 fucking minutes

**Buyer beware: If you buy this, link accounts, start the game, but don't actually play, it gets completely busted.**

I set up accounts late at night earlier this week, signed in through the launcher, adjusted gameplay settings, and said "I'll come back fresh tomorrow".

Nooopppeee. Didn't work. Circular, failed login loop, ended up re-purchasing through Frontier. To be fair, it was like $6 on steam sale, so I didn't care much.

But then it gets worse.

I came back to actually play tonight. I'm playing in SOLO MODE. And I get kicked out of the game because of server problems.

SOLO MODE. AND SERVER PROBLEMS.

Bad timing/coincidence on everything. Enough to make me say no thanks. Literally no options to pick region/zone/server, so I'm just SOL.

Was excited. Not anymore.

frontier servers are literally the worst ive ever experienced for connection consistency

Don't play this game.
Never give money the Frontier Development.
FDev can't erect a hard on. They screw up EVERYTHING they touch. I am not sure how they even get out of bed in the morning. The company will try and minitransaction you to death because they have no talent and are run by donkey high on drugs.

It is criminal how little attention this game gets, It is 10 years old and STILL is receiving constant free updates, I can only think of a handful of other games that have that level of dedication and support

The micro transactions are cosmetic based, and are reasonably priced if you're the type to buy them

The games claim to fame is its a "1-1" map of the milky way, literally billions of stars and planets you to explore. If you're a space nerd its fairly accurate to what we have identified stars to be, from mass to luminosity to behaviour. Complete with OBAFGKM stars, neutron stars, black holes etc. Various famous constellations and nebula can be visited, accurate (to a point) with what we'd expect the general scenery of space in those reigons to look like.

There are multiple major game systems you could sink your teeth into, exploration, alien space combat, human space combat, trading, power politics, ground combat, minning, colinization. etc.

The game can seem a little overwhelming at first as the aim is realistic space controls, and complex systems, the good news is you really can go at your own pace and get as into these systems as you want.

I cannot recommend this game enough, especially for the price its set at now.

It's highly difficult to get into and after nearly 4 hours of playing I still know a fraction of what there is to learn but it's really fun. Endless worlds to explore

One of my favorite space games. The graphics are beautiful, gameplay mechanics are fun enough to keep you playing, and while for me I found it a bit hard to get money at first, the more you play the more you really seem to understand the game and your options, and plus even when you earn your first say 200 million and unlock a great ship, there's still much ways to go in terms of improving it or just getting more in the game, it really keeps you going. Overall, 9/10

This is primarily a spaceship simulation. The major difference between this game and other space games, is that this one tries to be closer to "real". The learning curve is steep at first, but there are many sources (websites, 3rd party, etc) of help if you wish. I found that I really enjoyed sinking my teeth into it, learning and figuring out how to do things in game. The planets in this 1:1 representation of the Milky Way galaxy are generated using astronomy data, with a variety of alien flora, gravity, terrain, temps. You cannot yet land on planets with atmospheres (animals, forests, water, etc). They do give the ships faster than light travel, but they show travel times and distances for appreciation of the true scale of space. The primary income sources are trading, mining, exploration and combat. Ships should be outfitted according to their task. There are a large variety of missions. There are many user groups to help and enjoy the game with.

grindy. time consuming. for new players that is. a returning player with knowledge of the game can start from scratch and be a king in under a day, even making as much as several billion by weeks end with the correct info and strategy.... ie- ngalinn\mainani reputation grind is factually an incredible way to jump start your beginner funds as well as provide ranks in the imperial navy way early in game. using inara to provide comodities lists for mining missions (that you dont even need to mine. just buy and fill order, easy money right?). and even using silent running and heat sinks, and instant throttle zero during interdictinos to quietly cruise away from pirates before they can ever shoot you. happy day comanders O7 we salute u and await you in-game.

Steep learning curve. Game has more and more layers to it the deeper you look. May be addicting, but I don't think so. I can stop anytime I want to. I think.

If you wanna play Elite Dangerous and have a good time, you gotta chill out and just be in the universe. Don't go in with a goal; find one by accident, one that you enjoy pursuing. The vibes, the flight controls, and the epic moments are immaculate and so rewarding.

Don't seek someone else's happiness.

This game is terrible. Don't waste your time or money on it. Piloting a ship it no fun, counter intuitive, and the graphics are absolutely terrible. Eve looked better in 2004. I can't even get through the tutorial without hating everything about it.