Recent reviews by AMelonCucumber

ITS ALIVE!!!!! I HAVE WAITED 20 YEARS FOR TITANFALL TO BE BACK
This game has ruined FPS Arena shooters for me, nothing can compete. The balance between Titan and Pilot gameplay, the wallrunning, the needlessly over-the-top intro scene, epilogue... its all just *chefs kiss

The campaign is amazing too, play the campaign.

Note: this is a modified review, rewritten for clarity. The original is kept below for archiving purposes. This review is also for things you can do in the base game, and will not assume that you will also purchase Horizons. (note that Horizons just really adds more ways to grind)

Elite Dangerous is made for the kind of gamers that like immersion and grinding, lots and lots of grinding. If you are looking for high action space battles 24/7, turn around now. Personally while I found Elite Dangerous more fun, its a lot worse than the most grind heavy dungeon crawlers I can think of.

The Elite: Dangerous universe is a modern take on the old 1984 video game Elite. It tries to remain true by keeping the gameplay as a realistic space sim but leaves the universe feeling rather empty. To truly get into the game you have to go in with a create your own story RPG mindset; It helps to have read the books before hand. There isn't any definite story line in the game, but there are mysterious and smaller little drops of lore than help build a universe to become immersed in.

The Elite experience is buildt around immersion, VR is stunning, and even with a regular monitor it feels like you are a pilot with activities to match. Theres really no wrong way to play this game, but the mechanics lead you down a few different routes (or any combination of them).

Explorer - fly to a far out system, boop (scan a system), fly to another system, repeat, deliver map data. If you go far enough to unexpored zones you can have it so it says discovered by you as a little note.

Miner - Personally I've never played like this in depth, but the majority of the game play seems to be find asteroid, shoot it with lasers, scoop up debris, deliver to station, repeat.

Salvager - Also have very little experience with this style. Seems to be find the correct signal, scoop up scrap, deliver to station (sometimes dealing with what you are delivering is illegal and you need to sneak in), repeat.

Trader - Pick up stuff at one station, fly to another, deliver, repeat, sometimes other people (AI or players) will try pirating you, and sometimes you have to deal with illegal cargo.

Pirate - as you would expect, shoot down other players, steal their goods, sell them. Bounties get placed on your for a period doing so, and AI (usually other players too) will shoot on sight. Many pirates also like to blockade off certain stations from AI and other players.

Bounty Hunter - go to warp points by starts, shoot down ships with bounties, claim bounty rewards, repeat. Take up a bounty, locate the bounty in a system, take them out, claim bounty rewards, repeat. Go to conflict zone, pick a side, participate in a dogfight, claim bounty rewards, repeat.

The game doesnt really have more depth that this, dialogue is all text and usually repetative, what you do in a system doesnt really effect its economic state, and combat, while thrilling at times, can feel really unfair if you are under-equipped. It also is rather thin combat and doesnt offer much variation.

Finally, the Elite: Dangerous universe is built on a 1-to-1 scale model universe of the Milky Way Galaxy (procedurally generated ofc), so there tends to be a lot of empty space. With Supercruise you can travel between points quickly, but there are still points where you have to wait. Most stations are 2-5 minutes from warp in point of a system, but there are others further away. Theres quite a well known journey thats considered one of the requirements to have truly experienced Elite: Dangerous, and thats making a delivery to Hutton Orbital thats .22Ly from warp in. The game means that literally. (if you were to travel at 1c [the speed of light] you would have to leave the game on for .22 years to get to the station, thankfully you can move MUCH faster than that) Most ships should be able to make the journey in about 2 hours, but thats still two hours of sitting around not being allowed to do anything else in game (you can minimize the game, and browse the internet though) before you reach the staiton.

There are two things in this game you cant really do with the base game. First, CQC (close quarters combat) is a fast past, action arena gameplay experience. Or so I've heard because no-one really plays that game mode (which is a shame because it looks fun to me). Even if its included with the package, don't expect to be able to find a match. Horizons, the first season pass is the other. Originally Seasons were supposed to add content on a year-per-season basis, but Horizons has taken us 3 years to complete and the added content is... abysmal. Planetary Landings are usually empty rock based, procedurally generated planets. You can do many of the same things you can in space, but you are driving now, so nothing is new there. Other improvements with this DLC include customizable characters, two person crews (poorly implemented imo) and well... not that much more. Some mysterious aliens called Thargoids have been seen lurking about the galaxy, but they just do a scan of your ship and run away, no new real conent (though its still an experience running into one)

I adore the comcept of this game, the fundamentals for a great game are there, but its lacking the depth needed to be an intersting space sim. Furthermore, ever since the engineers update in Horizons combat balance has been out of wack and it will remain so for people that dont have the expansion (engineers adding weapon crafting). The world is empty and mechanical, with what you do affecting the universe in no noticable changes what so ever. Prices won't fluctuate, security levels wont rise or fall, economic booms dont seem to change, maybe 1 or 2 more AI ships can be seen at a station. Interaction with other players is limited. In fact, after you leave the starting and few surrounding systems, running into other players will be a rare occurance. It is an empty, cold void. Great for a simulator, not so much for a fun game.

With Season 3, the plan is to make quality of life improvements, but its still to be seen whether those will be significant, and when we will actually get them. It might be worth a look again then.

Original:

Elite Dangerous is made for the kind of game that likes immersion and grinding, lots and lots of grinding. But for anyone looking for high action space battles 24/7 turn around now. Theres a trip in game that we like to think every player should do at least once. You warp into a system, you sit back and you go to a station 2 hours out. 2 full real time hours where you dont do anything but wait, in fact you cant do anything but wait. you get there, you sell your stuff, you leave. reapeat at a station where its only a 5 minute wait next time. That is the elite experience.

I adore the concept of this game, and in fact its so close to being amazing. Combat balance has been awful since Horizons and unless you chalk up money for that expac and grind out your stuff for engineering, it will remain so. The world is empty and mechanical, what you do matters little to affect prices, economic booms, etc.

But right now the game is empty, its a grind fest that when finally completed rewards you with another grind fest which rewards you with another grind fest which then just eventually ends when you finally become: elite. This is my second most played game on Steam, and I'm embarrassed about my first, yet I just cant recommend it.