Come fly with me: my Elite: Dangerous review (long post w/images)

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

Last edited Thu Apr 9, 2015, 06:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Every other review I've read about Elite: Dangerous has made numerous references to the legacy the game has had since 1984. I promise I'll be quick: I played it on my Commodore 64 back then, then purchased it again on my Amiga 500 in '88. When I upgraded to an Amiga 1200, I snagged Frontier: Elite II. To say I'm a fan of the genre would be an understatement.

I've immersed myself in many other games inspired by Elite in my days. Everything from the original Wing Command series to X-Wing and even Freelancer, which was one of the games to come closest to the Elite experience I recalled from so long ago. For a very long time there was an absence of the space flight combat/trading games. EVE Online came closest, but wasn't quite there in terms of what I wanted to play. Now we seem to be in an arms race of games from Star Citizen to No Man's Sky, and to tell the truth I can't wait to play them all.

Right now, though, I have this baby:


Cobra Mk III. Built by Faulcon DeLacy. Ship design's well over 200 years old but she's one of the best ships out there. More on that in a few...

So what is it?

Elite: Dangerous is a sandbox. A very large sandbox, to be precise where you can trade commodities, run missions for various factions, hunt down bounties, become a pirate yourself, mine for resources to sell, or set out for the Great Darkness of the Galaxy and explore. In that respect, it's pretty much what Elite was. And while it's so much more, there are some things lacking (at this time).

You start on a random station somewhere in the colonized portion of the galaxy with a Sidewinder and 100 credits to your name. And then you're given a shove out the spacedock and told "Good luck, kid!" You can run a mission or two for a local faction that might need you to ferry a message or cargo to another station, or do some bounty hunting on your own. But in a Sidewinder, the free ship they give you at the start, you may want to stick with a few trade runs to get some cash, as you're flying a tin can, pretty much.

E : D is almost too open-ended, honestly. There's nothing holding you back from going anywhere you wish in the game (except to a planet's surface. Frontier is going to add the ability to do that and leave your ship later on) but space is rather empty at times. There's plenty of computer-controlled NPCs flying around, but I spent a month in a few systems and discovered I was pretty much the only human out there. It was only when I sold all my other ships and flew closer to the Sol system that I started running into those little hollow dots on my radar that signified human pilots.



(Really. They're in there (the hollow orange dots in the scanner at the bottom center). Just ignore all the cargo canisters (the white dots) floating in space.)

The game is also brutal, as all stations are unforgiving if you enter their docking bays without authorization. 30 seconds later they open fire if you can't exit in time, and if you're carrying contraband and the system security scans you, they tend to shoot on sight. And while there's rumblings of something big coming down the way story-wise, checking the GalNet boards will give you hints as to what's going on politically between the Federation and the Empire, the conflict zones that pop up and opportunity goals.

The engine itself is radiant to see, and the pictures here don't do it justice. Each ship is marvelously detailed, the stations themselves are huge, and there's a notable thrill when you engage another ship in combat. Speaking of combat...it's quite different than you'd expect, as Frontier has always enjoyed applying Newtonian physics to their games. Turning Flight Assistance off makes for some difficult flying, but there are times when it's useful to keep your ship flying in a single direction and turn around to shoot behind you.



The details, as I said, are marvelous, accompanied by some of the best sound effects I've heard in a game ever. The roar of your engines, the whining as you jump out of hyperspace (always close to the system's main star), the deceptively innocent "plink" sound as your foe's lasers start to whittle down your shields...it all adds up to an incredible experience. The game is ready for the Oculus Rift, too, so that peripheral can't come out soon enough for me.



A game unfinished

I will say flat out that if you're expecting a story to follow, this game may not be for you yet. Frontier has built a magnificent engine and created a 1:1 representation of the galaxy, but you have to make your own fun out here. As I mentioned above, there's not much, but there are hints of a larger conflict on the horizon. Frontier has been insanely steady in their updates to the game, adding community goals (help build a station or bring a bunch of explore data to someone) and you get rewards based on how much you contribute, the functionality to join a group of four as a "wing", and continuous balances.

The game currently can handle 32 human players in an "instance", so you'll have no more than 31 other people flying around with you in any small section of space. And once you purchase the game, there's nothing else you need to buy. The online store has in-game paint jobs you can purchase to apply (I am using the limited edition "Wireframe" paintjob that hails back to the original Elite game above) and the only other thing you'll need is an internet connection. The game does have "Solo" play, where you won't see any other human players, and you can play with just a group of friends as well, or dive straight into "Open Play" which could be considered "PvP" mode. Although I've not been attacked by a human yet.

The game is still $60, but you can purchase it on Steam now. (that boosted the number of people in the game, I've noticed). There's a Mac client that's currently in Beta development, and then E : D will also be released for X-Box One. (No word on a PS4 version yet).

As it is, Elite: Dangerous is already my main time sink, and I eagerly look to the future for the game.

See ya around the galaxy.

Commander Dain Callaway signing off.