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

[Beondred]

First off, I would like to state that I'm not a space enthusiast/geek/nerd. I never cared to watch star trek but I do absolutely love the original star wars and the concept of such a life excites me.

With that said, this review is purely from a 30 year old well rounded gamer. I tend to play a variety of games that do not relate at all to one another and give every game I play an honest effort until an overall opinion is reached. I may get some heat for some of my harsh criticism of the game and Frontier, but I feel like my opinions might be shared by a lot of like-minded gamer's that really wanted to like this game.

The first day or so of playing was very confusing, This stage in a game is often the most fun as learning something new is one of the coolest parts of being a gamer. The lessons learned in the first couple of days were not exactly noob-like lessons of basic combat or how to make a basic bankroll. The missions were confusing and near impossible to find or complete resulting in fines, some bounties did not register, and nobody every says anything about requesting docking with a space station(until you learn the hard way). Many invisible rules to this game that someone with less tolerance then I would probably not put up with, It's not very noobie friendly at all- I actually liked this aspect but I'm a sicko for punishment.

Finding your way through the first few ships is the most fun I've had with the game, hunting bounties and cashing in 100k after an hours worth of work was pretty rewarding at first. Of coarse Once I got to my viper I wanted to find harder,higher bounties- they don't exist!?

So how do I move on up the line? Buy a spacetruck and fly back and forth for hours trading these socalled rare items that have low risk and high reward, and you can do it in solo play to completely avoid any player/pirate interactions. My mind is completely blown at the thought of gold miners and less skilled players just switching offline and doing it in their own protected bubble, AND THE MONEY COUNTS IN OPEN MODE!? WHAT?

After finding out this much of the game I had to go online to do some reading, I needed to know what was up with the things I had issues with and if they were being talked about and/or changed. I found the answers to be disturbing, "We just want more players to dip their toes into the game" So I moved onto my next gripe, the lack of group work: Drive slaving- not going to happen because they want to keep the game more difficult and/or make groups coordinate to be able to fast travel.... This directly butts up against the previous reply of wanting "people to dip their toes into ed", I understand how frustrating it would be to get intradicted by a group of 6 people when you are solo but to not have group travel and group pvp is madness.

My suggestions:
Add in more group play
Make missions easier to find/track- Make GROUP missions
60 LY on the galaxy map? what?
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
More ships and capital ships, encourage massive pvp battles
Live events- Bring those war ships in and start attacking random systems and or spaceports


Frontier as a company

I like the mission statement and their goals, I looked into the company more on glassdoor and such to get a feel for the atmosphere they have going on there. After reading about them, all faith I was holding onto has vanished. Their dev's are vastly underpaid and abused in many different ways. I simply cannot put even a dollar bet on this game ever turning out to be what we all think it should be. This game has no business being in a "released" state.


I'd love to hear more feedback from others that came here with no expectations and found this game to have little left to desire at this point, and what everyone's counter arguments might be. I'm sure I will still play from time to time and mostly hunt bounties but I had hoped this game would take up more of my time(In a good way).

Schindler

good points.

sorry for all the fan-boys attacking you

 

[Madam Pomfrey]

Aren't people seeing the issue here? Almost everyone answers "it will come", "is early, it just got released".

Well, it got RELEASED, they asked for 50 euro for this game, not 10, or 20. If it was 10, well, this game is amazing. If it was 20, well, it really depends from person to person. But for 50, we shouldn't have to read what features WILL come. We weren't asked to pay for EARLY ACCESS, or for a KS, we were asked a full price for a RELEASED game.

Oh, but look at all other AAA titles, how they release. I do look, and I don't buy them, actually I kind of stopped looking, I prefer to buy more "unknown titles", one of them being ED. Well, till now Frontier failed to impress me in multiple aspects. The state of the released game, the "speed" with which they answer to tickets. The lack of vision in designing mechanics for a game released in 2014.

I'm not as optimistic as others for the "Wings" expansion seeing how a lot of the game mechanics are against the player for no apparent reason but waste their time and make no sense even in the universe Elite is supposed to exist.

 

[Muthax]

That is why you always research before you buy something

 

[ScruffyBee]

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

Poor development decision after poor development decision....

And that would be in your opinion I hope because it is not in mine.
What credentials do you have to make that sort of statement.

 

[Drunk Si]

And that would be in your opinion I hope because it is not in mine.
What credentials do you have to make that sort of statement.

He probably saw the same handful of things repeated over and over again over the course of a couple of hours and drew his own conclusions. That's how I did it.

 

[Hemlock]

Time, being precious to me, forced me to stop shortly after your non-"spacenerd" declarative... for several reasons.

 

[ScruffyBee]

Then why would current and former employees feel the need to express their discontent with the management and the way the company runs projects, not to mention the comments on how they treat people. If they were happy they wouldn't be publicly writing about the problems behind the scenes.

I'm sure you would see that with any company you look at.

 

[halo jones 101]

Then why would current and former employees feel the need to express their discontent with the management and the way the company runs projects, not to mention the comments on how they treat people. If they were happy they wouldn't be publicly writing about the problems behind the scenes.

To make a fair and correct judgement about the way a company is supposedly run, from a few anonymous non contextualised comments, says more about the poster, than any company in question. The fact that some people posting on a game forum that reference's Frontiers trading records, finances and strategic vision is better left to specialist financial investor forums one would think... I doubt that the Financial Times worries about judging the efficacy of "the tactics of camping a spawn point, legitimate or not"...

Also at the Op. An a opinion is not strictly a review, and an individuals opinion is neither honest of dishonest... It is just a opinion.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Guildies it's always the Guildies saying the exact same thing.

And how exactly would you lead your hypothetical guild into battle against other hypothetical guilds in Elite?

 

[Muthax]

Guildies it's always the Guildies saying the exact same thing.

And how exactly would you lead your hypothetical guild into battle against other hypothetical guilds in Elite?

How dare you?! Me and my guild of 2000 will immediately quit if you don't take that back!

 

[Asp Explorer]

How dare you?! Me and my guild of 2000 will immediately quit if you don't take that back!

Can I haz ur stuffs?

 

[Schindler]

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.

All I used that for was to see what the potential is for the game through the company that made the game. Surely those reviews could be dubious but even with a grain of salt it does not look good.

 

[milligna]

I suppose you feel the same way about the bad reviews CIG gets?

 

[zcarlos]

i honestly think its a good game. Review over. well done me

 

[Rorgan]

Im really impressed by the amount of players defending this game, even more impressive that they can't say a single good reason why to like the game.
Its always the same "i loved the 1984 elite", "its not your game then why you play it", "you don't like science fiction" etc etc.. always the same boring answers.

I respect your opinions 1984 Elite fans, i played the hell out of all the series too and i loved them, i love science fiction, i love space games and i love and play all kind of simulators too, everything fits!
Still this game is meh, good sounds, nice graphics (if we can say that on a space game), decent simulation, really its gives all the immersion it needs and still they skipped the most important stuff (at least for me), the interesting, well designed and built content which keeps the player interesting and busy for ages.

I don't know what you guys looking for in a good game, but for me its always the content what matters first, everything else is second on the line, they can make the most shiny awesomeness world if there's nothing to do there!

Before you think i gave up on ED, no i'm not, but i really feel sad looking at it, even though i love it, i simply can't make myself start playing because lack of motivation.
Why should i play tell me, to go and explore the copy/paste star systems with great looking... but all the same planets/suns.

I should go bounty hunting maybe, yea ok the fighting part is enjoyable even against NPCs but there are so many combat related problems ruins the fun...
The weapons are terribly unbalanced, no reason to use anything else than gimballed pulse laser or multi-cannon, all the other weapons are terribly ineffective overall.
Often you don't even get bounty because of some weird bug happening!

And there's mining... ok i tried it for days, i not going to touch it again until they figure out some game mechanics actually enjoyable, that cargo scoop is hilarious and not just for mining, but also for pirates.
Yes also for pirate activities, its wasting of time... even if you manage to find valuable cargo and convince your target to drop it out (with guns or words) you will spend a half hour just collecting the loot.
Basically you can get more reward for your effort doing ANYTHING else and we talking about being a !pirate! the most dangerous and risky job of all!

Missions are boring with all the USS junk and hilariously unrewarding, they really ask me to fly into another system, SC all the way to some station then back for 5000 credit?
OK there are "kill that next anaconda" missions... all the same and horribly boring, flying around looking for the same crappy USS all the time then finally find that anaconda and kill it for 180k!
Yea you heard it right, 180k for killing the most dangerous and biggest ship of the game, !!!!!!!!180K!!!!!!!!!! i can make twice of that from one trip of completely safe trade run!

And here we finally got there... the trading!
All honestly, i trying to love it, i trying very hard but.... its just.... sooo simple and dumb.
Don't hate me too much for saying this, but even European Truck Simulator 2 beat this games trading mechanics!
What makes me even more disappointed about all of this, trading is WAAAAAY the most profitable activity you can do in the game, its like 5-10 times more rewarding than anything else even if you doing it with a pretty basic Cobra or Type-6!
Trading is completely safe, yes completely, you can go solo mode and the only danger you will face is your bad memory forgot to ask for docking premission... seriously!


OK rage off, sorry guys, the reason why im so much frustrated about ED because i wanted it to be great, FD had so great promises, good marketing, yet they failed to deliver even 10% of what they promised.
Looking on their trailers i was very excited, you can be a trader, a bounty hunter, a pirate YAY! ok you can be a trader, nothing else if you ever want to afford anything better than a Cobra...
You can't be anything, you will run out of contents in less than a week playing 2-3 hours a day, lets face it guys, even if you like the genre, the content is horrible and boring.

 

[Phero77]

Im really impressed by the amount of players defending this game, even more impressive that they can't say a single good reason why to like the game.
Its always the same "i loved the 1984 elite", "its not your game then why you play it", "you don't like science fiction" etc etc.. always the same boring answers.

I respect your opinions 1984 Elite fans, i played the hell out of all the series too and i loved them, i love science fiction, i love space games and i love and play all kind of simulators too, everything fits!
Still this game is meh, good sounds, nice graphics (if we can say that on a space game), decent simulation, really its gives all the immersion it needs and still they skipped the most important stuff (at least for me), the interesting, well designed and built content which keeps the player interesting and busy for ages.

I don't know what you guys looking for in a good game, but for me its always the content what matters first, everything else is second on the line, they can make the most shiny awesomeness world if there's nothing to do there!

Before you think i gave up on ED, no i'm not, but i really feel sad looking at it, even though i love it, i simply can't make myself start playing because lack of motivation.
Why should i play tell me, to go and explore the copy/paste star systems with great looking... but all the same planets/suns.

I should go bounty hunting maybe, yea ok the fighting part is enjoyable even against NPCs but there are so many combat related problems ruins the fun...
The weapons are terribly unbalanced, no reason to use anything else than gimballed pulse laser or multi-cannon, all the other weapons are terribly ineffective overall.
Often you don't even get bounty because of some weird bug happening!

And there's mining... ok i tried it for days, i not going to touch it again until they figure out some game mechanics actually enjoyable, that cargo scoop is hilarious and not just for mining, but also for pirates.
Yes also for pirate activities, its wasting of time... even if you manage to find valuable cargo and convince your target to drop it out (with guns or words) you will spend a half hour just collecting the loot.
Basically you can get more reward for your effort doing ANYTHING else and we talking about being a !pirate! the most dangerous and risky job of all!

Missions are boring with all the USS junk and hilariously unrewarding, they really ask me to fly into another system, SC all the way to some station then back for 5000 credit?
OK there are "kill that next anaconda" missions... all the same and horribly boring, flying around looking for the same crappy USS all the time then finally find that anaconda and kill it for 180k!
Yea you heard it right, 180k for killing the most dangerous and biggest ship of the game, !!!!!!!!180K!!!!!!!!!! i can make twice of that from one trip of completely safe trade run!

And here we finally got there... the trading!
All honestly, i trying to love it, i trying very hard but.... its just.... sooo simple and dumb.
Don't hate me too much for saying this, but even European Truck Simulator 2 beat this games trading mechanics!
What makes me even more disappointed about all of this, trading is WAAAAAY the most profitable activity you can do in the game, its like 5-10 times more rewarding than anything else even if you doing it with a pretty basic Cobra or Type-6!
Trading is completely safe, yes completely, you can go solo mode and the only danger you will face is your bad memory forgot to ask for docking premission... seriously!


OK rage off, sorry guys, the reason why im so much frustrated about ED because i wanted it to be great, FD had so great promises, good marketing, yet they failed to deliver even 10% of what they promised.
Looking on their trailers i was very excited, you can be a trader, a bounty hunter, a pirate YAY! ok you can be a trader, nothing else if you ever want to afford anything better than a Cobra...
You can't be anything, the very small amount of content you can find in ED is all boring, lets face it guys, even if you like the genre, the content is horrible and boring here.

I dont have write a freaking wall of text, to tell people that i like ED. I like Elite.. YES i played teh freaking game in the 80's, i like the universe.. im a sci-fi geek. And the game is new of course it lacks content, but its added over time..I like Trading, Bounty Hunting.. Explorting, hell i like wathicng witchspace while warping. Its the Whole SPACE THINGY i like, i like docking.. supercruise. Its the first game for years, that i really liked and im happy. They will adjust and mold it over time, but people nowahdays esp the Young ones.. want content NAUW i Want more, give me give me..ok 1 week im out crap game.. sheeesh. I find Eu trucker dumb and easy, i dont like trucks i like spaceship and the universe.

 

[Schindler]

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:



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.

I think what I look for is a constant challenge and learning something new every time I play. I don't need levels or grinds to keep myself interested, just scaling difficulties with higher rewards would be a nice challenge. Exploring as many of the similarly looking 400 billion systems does not really appeal to me and it seems to be what's left to do other then maybe mining rocks.

 

[schuesseled]

First off, I would like to state that I'm not a space enthusiast/geek/nerd. I never cared to watch star trek but I do absolutely love the original star wars and the concept of such a life excites me.

Then you need to watch star trek and any science fiction film / book that relates to space travel. Bah casual sci-fi jockey.

Some of your points have merits, open play does could warrant a bit more functionality, as does the game as a whole and there's plenty of room for improvement in content but it doesn't necessarily 'need' it.

Many gaming companies release game that are essentially copies of previous games they have made with barely 10 hours of content and charge £60. 50 hours of gameplay for £40, ain't terrible. And if you reach that point and you decide the game no longer holds any value to you, i'd say you got your moneys worth. If you reach that point and are left wanting more then perhaps not. But if you want more you'll keep playing, no?

I really wished this game had a semblance of story, there are avenues that could be taken for a story in a persistent online world without having to resort to a campaign mode offline mode extra, and I would like to see that explored.

 

[war4peace]

Think back. Remember the days when every game was different. When you learned controls by hitting every button on the keyboard. When you had no idea what you were about to experience when you got a new game, because there was no internet around to tell you what to expect, what to believe, what to make of it.

Do you realize you're basically saying that Elite Dangerous is 20 years behind any modern game?
I bought a game releasted in late 2014, not Prehistorik 2 (which, by the way, was more intuitive).

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.

So... Elite Dangreous is like a McDonalds and its players are like McDonalds customers? Hmm... this just might be true.

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.

Yeah, players are currently forced to stay in occupied space because that tiny slice of the galaxy is apparently the only one fielding stations. Go 200 LY any direction and you'll find nothing and even more nothing.
It's one of my biggest issues with the game at the moment. To my shame, I assumed there will be stations peppered around throughout the galaxy, maybe even alien ones which would at least let you dock and do some basic stuff. Sadly, that's not the case. Alternatively, it would have been awesome for players to be able to group together and build space stations (with lots of effort, obviously), then advertise them on the galactic network.
The game has obscene amounts of untapped potential, I grieve when I see that huge reservoir remains untouched. It's why I stopped playing Elite Dangerous. I very much dislike trucking. Missions are either bugged, vague or unrewarding. PvE is ok-ish until you realize you're doing the same thing over and over again with no variation. Exploration is very nice until you realize you need to get one of them expensive scanners... so back to trucking until then.

 

[Drunk Si]

And the game is new of course it lacks content

Still not sure I understand this argument