An Honest Review From a well-rounded gamer(non-spacenerd)

[Tommyknocker]

Quality over quantity every single time

I agree. What we have with this version is solid, a few bugs, but quite solid none the less. As time goes by I have faith that the devs will round out the things that make this iteration of the genre unique.

As for the underpaid developers, most if not all developers don't get into programming games for the money, they get into it for the love of the game (genre). And by the way the devs communicate their wishes for the future I can feel the love here!

 

[Gelbrock]

This game won't be around for any of you unless drastic changes are made to appeal to the masses.

YAWN.... thats just your opinion.... you have no clue.

Another player who wants the game to change from what it has been for 30 years just to suit them. Without realizing the huge amount of money the original Elite players have put in and are willing to put into the game to keep the game going.

I have put in $5000 so far, happy to pay more, plenty of others have put in a lot more. Once you understand this you can stop 'worrying' about the game and its future.

The game is not for you, have you rant, move onto the next game.

 

[psyantologist]

Yes yes doom and gloom, the typical gamers have been spouting this at us for quite some time. Its yet to be true. Its a niche market, Frontier knows its a niche market, they planned on it being a niche market, and so far its gotten great reviews and is exceeding their sales expectations, to the point they are adding more development staff. There is definitely going to be continual development and added content, but I don't at any point see them attempting to appeal to the masses. Id rather see the Elite franchise die and mourn its loss than just be another typical game.

I concur.

 

[Ogil]

While I may need a few more years of smuggling food cartridges before I may call myself "well rounded" I already think that anything that carries "honest" in its title smells at least a bit fishy. You wouldn't go buying a new ship from "Honest Earl", would you?

But being honest (!) I believe that most people are aware of this game being far from feature complete. That much was known at release and has always been communicated by the devs. Improved group content is targeted with the Wings-update, more ships are in the making. I think the game in its current state is a great basis to build on and will be fleshed out over time without having to leave its roots behind and appeal to the masses that want more of the same again and again.

 

[Kris]

I think it was just not your game. Different tastes.

For me positives greatly outweight flaws. I even love supercruise. Matter of tastes. There are some flaws, and i hope (and belive) Frontier will work to get them better. They have already said that Wings will come soon, and that they are updating Missions system.

Sales have been good - latest report is over £14 mil. Good sign for the future.

 

[Phaaded]

This game lacks any real creativity and imagination in the content department... Which is rather heartbreaking.

Poor development decision after poor development decision....

 

[ste]

I'm not really a sci fi space fan. I didnt rate star trek, but I quite liked the new ones, I thought star wars is ok, but dont like the new ones. Interested to see how the new new ones shape up. I'm not into astronomy, but I like the fact elite is accurate, is it? for what its worth to me it might as well be completely made up.

I'm not really a fan of space games either, except elite. I'm not a fan of any others Ive played.

Learning curve? I jumped straight in. Not sure the issues, you want to dock? naturally I just asked to make sure it was ok first. And what else? take off, land, fly.

Frontier as a company, there isnt many better. If only more devs showed the same passion these guys do instead of it just being about milking people of the most amount of money for the least amount of work which is the feeling I get from almost everyone else out there. Passionless products designed from top to bottom with only profit in mind.

The game is a long term project with features upgrades and content being added along the way. But its never going to be Call of Duty in space.

 

[lefty1117]

Interesting ... two pages of replies and not a single comment about his comments regarding FD as a company.

That is an interesting take by the OP, the first time I've seen someone comment about the actual company as part of their game review. I can't say I believe any of it, especially considering places like Glassdoor are known as places for former or disgruntled employees to vent. If it's true I have to imagine that will get out in the news, the way it did about EA.

The game has a lot of breadth but not quite enough depth yet. I still have a lot of hope for it, I think these guys and gals are genuinely enthusiastic about the game and, budget permitting, will do everything they can to deliver on the DDAs while incorporating player feedback. We've seen it happen before in the beta stages. Supercruise itself is the result of player feedback. So though I am critical in a number of threads, I'm also quite hopeful and I can't deny the fun I have with what has already been released. People like me complain about the game because we see that it can be SO MUCH MORE and we just want to see it happen.

 

[Phaaded]

If this is an "honest" review, are all others lies? What exactly makes this an "honest" review versus any other review out there?

Uhhhhh..... You need to change your perspective. Calling his review honest implies nothing about any other review. It's simply a descriptor.

 

[Dabba]

That is an interesting take by the OP, the first time I've seen someone comment about the actual company as part of their game review. I can't say I believe any of it, especially considering places like Glassdoor are known as places for former or disgruntled employees to vent. If it's true I have to imagine that will get out in the news, the way it did about EA.

This is probably why its not being commented on. We don't actually know anything about what is going on behind close doors, and Im not about to make assumptions or take on faith something posted anonymously on an internet site which we all know to be dubious. If anything I took it as a discredit to the OP just trying to take a cheap shot at the developer to validate his opinion on the game.

I mean weren't we just all talking about how the dev staff took 2 weeks off for Christmas just a few weeks after release? That hardly sounds like a company that doesn't value its employees.

 

[milligna]

Uhhhhh..... You need to change your perspective. Calling his review honest implies nothing about any other review. It's simply a descriptor.

I think he's right. Anytime someone feels the need to preface a thought by saying "honestly" or "quite frankly," I feel like I'm about to be fed a line of bull. Usually by a politician or salesman. What, were they not honest before? Are they usually telling lies but now it's time to be honest?

Sets off my sensors every time!

Saying CIG has it right is also similarly ludicrous. Not a big space sim or sci fi guy but keeps up with an unfinished game like Star Citizen enough to declare it better? Uh huh. Sure.

 

[Phaaded]

Go then? Why does everyone feel the need to write out a huge novel when they're leaving. I can understand if you were a pillar of the community but you're certainly not, so just walk to the damn exit. Imagine if someone stood up on a table and rattled off a speech about their innermost desires and feelings before leaving a local McDonald's. Hopefully that person would be told to shut the hell up and leave.

Douchebaggery at its finest. Well done fine sir.

 

[Sergio Smegolia]

Wings should be a valuable for grouping. So that will be taken care of soon. And of course most on here know full well the flaws with the game as it stands and expect improvements/more content. we just don't want it to change from its core gameplay

Appeal to the masses? Please for the love of God no. Many of these other games do that and that's the reason I don't play them.

 

[Ydiss]

My suggestions:
Add in more group play

Coming shortly with the Wings update.

Make missions easier to find/track- Make GROUP missions

Easier to track/find? I'm not sure how much easier having all the details you need to know located on your transactions panel it can get. I agree that it's a tad opaque to work out where to go to begin with (USS points), but this isn't a huge logic leap for an experienced gamer. More an issue for new gamers.

Group missions, I agree. And hopefully Wings will allow this to occur. It's actually in the design document discussion for the game.

60 LY on the galaxy map? what?

Not sure what you mean by this. Jump routing is up to 100LY currently though.

For a typical gamer this game gets insanely boring after about 50 hrs played, if you wanted people to not get what they paid for you did well frontier

I'm a typical gamer. I've played dozens of different types of games. FPS, RPG, MMORPG, Sandbox, GTA, puzzle, Point and click.... the list goes on.

So I'm qualified as a "typical gamer" yet I daren't guess how many hours I have put into this game and I'm finding it incredible fun, still. It'll get even better as it gets developed, too.

More ships and capital ships, encourage massive pvp battles

15 more ships to come.

Er, massive PVP battles might happen but it's unlikely. This isn't about massive PVP.

Live events- Bring those war ships in and start attacking random systems and or spaceports

We have events already. They're a tad static currently but the devs have a lot planned for the way things will work in future.

Aliens? It'll come.

In short, your review isn't much different to many I've read from players, not reviewers, who don't really "get" ED. It's OK. It's not supposed to be mainstream. Not everyone needs to get it.

 

[TannakaObi]

This game is more Star Trek than Star Wars.

Star Wars is serial-level fantasy that happens to take place in space sometimes. It's fun and I love it, too, but when you started out saying, 'I like Star Wars...', I immediately thought, 'oh this guy is not going to have a good time'.
lol.

Not sure I agree with this, Star Wars was more politics across a galaxy and star trek was about exploration. Elite is both, I loved Star Wars when I was a kid, Star Treck not so much but I had stages in my teens. Neither are like Elite though because each are about characters, relations and the effects they have on the galaxy, elite offers no such comparison.

Whenever I read a comment such as:

So how do I move on up the line? Buy a space truck and fly back and forth for hours trading these so called rare items that have low risk and high reward, and you can do it in solo play to completely avoid any player/pirate interactions.

I switch off and tend to ignore the review. Elite Dangerous is not a carrot on a stick game. If you play it as so, don't scratch your head wondering why you don't like it. There is no line to move up, at least not in material value. If all you want to do is pew pew until you get the next ding, and new item then move on already. Elite is not like that, and thank the divines too, I'm sick of such games.

 

[Sen Ti]

I consider myself to be a well-rounded gamer. There are many games not to my taste. E is my type of game: Space, Trading, PVP choice, Forum Support, and Immersion. I don't consider my opinion a review but it could be. There are many Military, Fantasy, and Futuristic games with little trading, forced PVP, vitriolic forums, and little immersion. I'm sticking with E.

Sen

 

[Rall Mekin]

If this is an "honest" review, are all others lies? What exactly makes this an "honest" review versus any other review out there?

He means he isn't holding back for the sake of anyone's feelings, most likely.

Some of his points I can see and agree on--I imagine most of those features will eventually make it into the game.

Regarding the bounty hunting profession: I've gotten to dabble in it, but even I can see there's going to be a cliff at about 150-200k per mission, and after the last "hunting pirates" mission, I have a feeling it would get grinding trying to find Mr. Elite Anaconda to kill. However, I still enjoy that part of the game and find it highly satisfying (its way more satisfying than PVE ever tried to be in EVE).

One problem elite is going to have with mass system conquest and a player base is the massive scope of the game--I mean, this game is huge. 400 bilion + star systems... 400 BILLION. If we had every actual human being strapped in a chair for an hour playing, we'd never be able to keep up all this space. Just go to the middle of nowhere and build an empire... They'll never even likely find you! Realistically conquering a star system is going to be a masssive, and I don't know how feasible getting that many people into one place to fight over one of 400 billion + star systems is going to be...

However, this also means, with a few tools, this game could be immensely creative and powerful, and I have a feeling it will be when the devs are through with it. I'm curious to see where it goes, honestly. I expect a lot of the fighter-pilots to stay in occupied space for a while to come, and I expect that there will be plenty of in game events to shape the landscape. I do hope we get to see capitals (even multi-player manned capitals) in the future.

 

[corsa180]

I come from a simulation background (flight sims and racing sims) and therefore, this "game" hits all the right buttons for me. Hardcore flight sims (X-Plane, FSX) and racing sims (rFactor 2, Assetto Corsa, etc.)are also very niche, and considered incredible boring by most gamers, or those expecting a "game". But for a small group of us, these are more fun than anything else out there.

Like others have said, different strokes and all that.

 

[JimmySav]

Complaining about group flying seems a little pointless seeing as frontier have just said that's the next major update to the game. OK it's not in from the start, but there are certainly ways to do co-op play as it stands. Me and a friend have dinner and it was very rewarding.

 

[Sandwich247]

This isn't going to be a popular opinion but I feel that you raised a good few points. The most money I have ever made from bounty hunting as about 120k. The most money I have made from hauling rares is 700k.

They really need to either: Nerf rares AGAIN or make the other stuff more rewarding.

I like the second option better.

As for your other things, it's not unreasonable that you stumbled upon this game and just sort of bought it. I do that sometimes. You then played it and said you had troubles with some things. I didn't after playing all of the tutorials so I'm not sure why you did.

This game isn't for everyone, Eurotruck simulator 2 for example is kind of like this, I would argue but there are some things that could be made better.