Elite Dangerous - 2022 Review

[KathyMiller]

Good morning/afternoon/evening commanders!

I have one last article to share with you guys, and that’s whether Elite: Dangerous is still considered good in 2022. Obviously, I think it is. Most of us do! This article consists of a review of the game and the mechanics, as well as providing a few little ideas for any new players who might’ve come across it.

Would you recommend Elite to a friend? Are there any gripes you have that I didn’t manage to cover? Or is there something I didn’t give it credit for?

I’d love to hear your thoughts as I close off my brief journalism sprint. I’d love to try some more in the future, so who knows? I might return with a few more hot takes. Thank you all for being so kind!

<3

 

[Bottom Hat]

Liked for the fact that it has text and no need to watch the video, although I realize I'm missing your summary

 

[KathyMiller]

Liked for the fact that it has text and no need to watch the video, although I realize I'm missing your summary

There‘s no video from me in there! They’re just examples of gameplay etc. But good to know for the future!

 

[Bottom Hat]

There‘s no video from me in there! They’re just examples of gameplay etc. But good to know for the future!

Oh I'm not being rude buddy, it was definitely a compliment!

 

[d8veh]

This is my honest opinion for what it's worth:

It all seemed a bit milk toast to me. It was OK for anybody that knows nothing about the game, just to give them a taste of what it is, which is probably what it's for. I didn't disagree with anything in it. It's probably me, but I didn't find it inspiring - to make me want to play.

BTW, I just looked at some of that website's (Gamers Decide) other stuff. The first one I looked at I thought was pretty poor. The various articles are written by different people, so this one is no reflection on OP (KathyMiller). It's clearly not written by anybody that has any length of combat experience. I know it's for beginners, and everybody has their own opinion and favourites, but where's the Vulture? I wouldn't recommend a Viper for beginners because of its hardpoint placements. I'd take a DBS over the Viper any day:

[Top 5] Elite Dangerous Best Combat Ships (2020 Edition)

[Top 5] Elite Dangerous Best Combat Ships (2020 Edition)

www.gamersdecide.com

 

[Pigletslastand]

Good morning/afternoon/evening commanders!

I have one last article to share with you guys, and that’s whether Elite: Dangerous is still considered good in 2022. Obviously, I think it is. Most of us do! This article consists of a review of the game and the mechanics, as well as providing a few little ideas for any new players who might’ve come across it.

Would you recommend Elite to a friend? Are there any gripes you have that I didn’t manage to cover? Or is there something I didn’t give it credit for?

I’d love to hear your thoughts as I close off my brief journalism sprint. I’d love to try some more in the future, so who knows? I might return with a few more hot takes. Thank you all for being so kind!

<3

Who commissioned you to write that piece? It writes like a paid advert for Elite Dangerous. If you want to guage real player sentiment there are many articles here for you to choose from. Alas I'd love to give you my take on the whole situation but... actually I wouldn't, it would take too long, be too frustrating and not chime well with your flawlessly written article.

Great to have a journalist in here though. Bit of digging will reward you with all the information you need to know. You'll more than likely get dirty in the process though. Hope you've brought your work overalls.

 

[Ryox]

Nice article! Only one thing I'm a little bit disappointed about. I read the chapter 'Elite Dangerous: Combat' but you didn't mention that Odyssey is also a great on-foot FPS

 

[KathyMiller]

Who commissioned you to write that piece? It writes like a paid advert for Elite Dangerous. If you want to guage real player sentiment there are many articles here for you to choose from. Alas I'd love to give you my take on the whole situation but... actually I wouldn't, it would take too long, be too frustrating and not chime well with your flawlessly written article.

Great to have a journalist in here though. Bit of digging will reward you with all the information you need to know. You'll more than likely get dirty in the process though. Hope you've brought your work overalls.

I’m a freelancer. Nobody from FDev hired me to write the piece. The articles are my true opinion on the game, but I have jazzed them up to make for a more entertaining read. If I had a reason to dislike Elite, I would have absolutely no issues stating it. For transparency’s sake, I got Odyssey in August, but only started playing it in about November when they fixed the FPS issues, so I don’t have experience with the disastrous launch. I love Elite, and I don’t have any personal issues with it apart from the engineer grind. Which is what I’m doing right now on both of my accounts

 

[KathyMiller]

This is my honest opinion for what it's worth:

It all seemed a bit milk toast to me. It was OK for anybody that knows nothing about the game, just to give them a taste of what it is, which is probably what it's for. I didn't disagree with anything in it. It's probably me, but I didn't find it inspiring - to make me want to play.

BTW, I just looked at some of their other stuff. The first one I looked at I thought was pretty poor. Clearly not written by anybody that has any length of combat experience. I know it's for beginners, and everybody has their own opinion. Where's the Vulture? I wouldn't recommend a Viper for beginners because of its hardpoint placements. I'd take a DBS over the Viper any day:

[Top 5] Elite Dangerous Best Combat Ships (2020 Edition)

[Top 5] Elite Dangerous Best Combat Ships (2020 Edition)

www.gamersdecide.com

Hey dude! This isn’t my article. This was written in 2020. My articles were all written this year. I did have an article about combat ships, which did feature the Vulture. I got real confused there for a sec.

 

[BigBANGtheory [VR]]

Would you recommend Elite to a friend? Are there any gripes you have that I didn’t manage to cover? Or is there something I didn’t give it credit for?

I would have done in 2015/16 but in 2022? No not in its current state.

Do the graphics really hold up in 2022 with recommend GPU spec of "Nvidia GTX 770 / AMD Radeon R9 280X" compared to what Microsoft Flight Simulator or Cyberpunk 2077 I'm not too sure about that maybe quote what your reference point is, its definitely better than Minecraft.

The big topic that was glossed over was where you started quite rightly on "Elite lacks a meaningful story to serve to the player. Instead, Elite relies on players engaging in the roleplay aspect of the game, leading to the creation of backstories and careers for your character." Right so in other words Elite relies on you the player filling in for glaringly absent content in the game who mechanics are based principally on meaningless actions designed as gameplay loops used repetitively to flesh out the game. The crux of your enjoyment and entertainment is therefore heavily based on whether you are in fact ok with the 'mile-wide inch deep' criticism that hasn't really been addressed for 8yrs since its release.

Complete Freedom? : Not when engaging with engineers, community or ranked locked goals that's simply not true all you can do is pick which order you do stuff and maybe exchange a few things
Endless Planets to Explore? : Yes true, but why what actually is there to discover. You could spend years studying a bucket of sand with all its unique granules, rather you than me tbh. You did mention that but why still have this as a Pro... it a major con imho

I enjoyed Elite when it came out, but I'm sorry to say its stagnated.

Have you tried Odyssey in VR? You should give it a go, tell us how you get on.

Basically if I cut to the chase you've placed a very positive angle on a game that has issues which might not subjectively impact you or you are willing to overlook.

 

[Trollymctrollerson]

To answer your questions.
No I don't typically recommend it to friends.
It's by far the game I have played the most but there have been significant stretches of time where I didn't play, preceeded by significant amounts of times where I would log in, look at my ships, sigh and log back out. The repetitive nature of it can be draining. PVP is the only interesting thing left to me.
I don't recommend it because anyone who plays games for PVP will be disappointed with this one for the instancing and connection gremlins.
I also don't recommend it to anyone because the materials collection process for engineering is sure to disappoint anyone who tries it.
Your article, in my heavily jaded and biased opinion makes exploring sound much cooler than it is. It's more barren than the Sahara desert out there. Icy bodies and rocky planets are more abundant than grains of sand. Nobody I know gives a flying Flick about screenshots of a video game, so again I don't recommend to anyone that they buy elite to explore.
Lastly, I do think it's a good game in 2022. I wish it were better but it's a human creation designed by employees at a profit driven corporation.
Fly dangerous o7

 

[AngryAntz]

First off... I like BH appriciate is when a poster takes the time to provide a written thread rather than just dump a YT vid and think I am going to waste any part of my life watching it.

Whilst most of my friends don't play the type of games I like (except the ones I have here of course). I would, if asked, recommend EDO to a friend, but I would also point out some of the issues.

I have enjoyed playing EDO (even with the issues) since it came out, so yeah would recommend it to any friends that were into this type of game (and if I had any)

 

[Far Beyond Driven]

Good morning/afternoon/evening commanders!

I have one last article to share with you guys, and that’s whether Elite: Dangerous is still considered good in 2022. Obviously, I think it is. Most of us do! This article consists of a review of the game and the mechanics, as well as providing a few little ideas for any new players who might’ve come across it.

Would you recommend Elite to a friend? Are there any gripes you have that I didn’t manage to cover? Or is there something I didn’t give it credit for?

I’d love to hear your thoughts as I close off my brief journalism sprint. I’d love to try some more in the future, so who knows? I might return with a few more hot takes. Thank you all for being so kind!

<3

My response to your post:
I think ED is worth playing for a very small subset of people who have the wherewithal to deal with the learning curve, frustration and the need to utilize outside resources to learn. Unfortunately trying to bring some real life friends in who humored me and tried for a couple days and then never played again. I think many people who just fire up a straightforward game and play won't make it.

With that said, for that special subset of people who do find Elite, I think they will potentially find one of the greatest and engrossing games they have ever played. But the weight of the potential of where it could go weighs upon you and dampens it somewhat. Elite at times has been both my favorite and most hated game I have ever played. But at its core it's an amazing foundation something truly special. It really has something for everyone (Who falls into the subset) and creates mini communities of fandom for each flavor it provides that alone surpass other games entire communities.

I am often bitter and critical of development and Frontier, but at its core I also cannot deny they created one of the best games I ever played and it's only the weight of its infinite potential and the disappointment of not seeing it go where maybe it could go or be as quick and as smooth of a journey as one would like it to be. At the end of the day, maybe a couple hundred bucks over seven years for almost 3k hours? I'll take that return on entertainment anyday.

My feed back on the article:
The article you have written I think is a decent if slightly generic overview that feels like it comes from someone who hasn't really played very much of the game personally. I got a good laugh out of the FDL being humbled "Ships and their load-outs are a crucial part of becoming an efficient hunter, from starting with the Cobra MkIII, to moving to use the mid-range Fer-De-Lance, to buying the world-destroying Federal Corvette.".

I agree entirely with your verdict at the end and I think it was a pretty good quick overview of the game and fair. At this point any press and word of mouth for Elite and Frontier can only be a good thing as they say the only thing worse than being talked about, is well not being talked about. I think its important to stress the imagination involved with Elite and that without it the experience can be maybe bland for some more accustomed to cinematic "hollywood blockbuster" gameplay. You did a good job of mentioning that where maybe others might not and I appreciate that you represented it well.

 

[zimms]

Good article, especially for people who haven't been playing Elite for years anyway. It covers a lot of ground.

I noticed it's a tiny bit out of date when it mentions we get monthly dev updates with the next one coming in January.

 

[d8veh]

Hey dude! This isn’t my article. This was written in 2020. My articles were all written this year. I did have an article about combat ships, which did feature the Vulture. I got real confused there for a sec.

Sorry Kathy, I didn't me to imply that. By "their" I meant the "Gamers Decide website. I would have named you if I had meant yours. I've edited my post now to make it clearer. Please accept my appology for clumsy writing. I'm not very good at that sort of thing. I'm a pragmatic engineer, not a diplomat, politician or journalist.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Welcome to the cesspit that is the ED forum, @KathyMiller , here you will get responses by so many who "love the game" yet hate everything about it, and by posting a positive comment on any part of the game will be met with disapproval, or worse.

Great work in making a commentary on your own experience of the game, there are plenty of us who also enjoy the game for what it is, not what it might be.

Would I recommend the game to a friend? Yes, but would also explain how much 'uphill' it is learning the basics.

 

[Zak Gordon]

New player here (as of 2022), so i perhaps have a different goggle-lens compared to many of the voices you will get around here

As a new player i found your article rather good, better than most of the others i have read, and mostly because you make it perfectly clear that bringing a good imagination to the game gets the best out of the sandbox Frontier have created. That is not a knock against the game either, just a 'rule' that has always applied to Elite and is actually one of it's main strengths vs many other games that have copied it (in one way or another).

Now my inexperience with this version of Elite (EDH) so far means i have not tried a number of the things you mention (like Engineers etc), but i find the overall description of these tasks in your article helpful to point me in the direction of finding out more. As a Solo only player i play less to grind and power-play and more to construct a life within the incredible galactic scale representation Frontier have created as backdrop for the game, and this is very much a continuation of my traditional Elite journey.

So overall i found it a really good broad-brush article, and actually perfectly aimed for any new comers to the game especially. Nice one, do write more

The only thing that confused me a little was this paragraph:

"In the base game of Elite: Dangerous, players can explore landable planets with your SRV, a moon buggy that drops from the bottom of your ship. If the player has Odyssey installed, planets undergo a revamp, leading to the atmospheres colouring the skies with blues, greens, and reds."

Just to mention that i'm not sure if you meant to say, "in the base game Elite: Dangerous Horizons", rather than just Elite: Dangerous? As from the launcher players can still choose to play the three versions (base ED, EDH or the newest EDO versions), and i think ED did not have SRV planet landings? I could be wrong on that, sort of newbie etc

 

[KathyMiller]

I got a good laugh out of the FDL being humbled "Ships and their load-outs are a crucial part of becoming an efficient hunter, from starting with the Cobra MkIII, to moving to use the mid-range Fer-De-Lance, to buying the world-destroying Federal Corvette."

FDL is probably mid tier towards beginners! I don’t want to frame it as OMG SUPER COOL OP COMBAT ship, have them buy it, and then not understand what makes the FDL such a great choice. Personally, I stick to the Corvette in PvE encounters, and I don’t do PvP, so I’m not afraid to admit I may have been biased when ranking them!

Sorry Kathy, I didn't me to imply that. By "their" I meant the "Gamers Decide website. I would have named you if I had meant yours.

No worries at all, I understand!

Welcome to the cesspit that is the ED forum, @KathyMiller , here you will get responses by so many who "love the game" yet hate everything about it, and by posting a positive comment on any part of the game will be met with disapproval, or worse.

It happens frequently, even with other games etc. Journos are often accused of being paid shills, and it’s just a fact of life right now! Thank you for your kind words, Mr Rat Catcher.

Just to mention that i'm not sure if you meant to say, "in the base game Elite: Dangerous Horizons", rather than just Elite: Dangerous? As from the launcher players can still choose to play the three versions (base ED, EDH or the newest EDO versions), and i think ED did not have SRV planet landings? I could be wrong on that, sort of newbie etc

You’re 100% correct - that was a slip up on my end. Thank you for pointing it out!

 

[Rat Catcher]

Just to mention that i'm not sure if you meant to say, "in the base game Elite: Dangerous Horizons", rather than just Elite: Dangerous? As from the launcher players can still choose to play the three versions (base ED, EDH or the newest EDO versions), and i think ED did not have SRV planet landings? I could be wrong on that, sort of newbie etc

Since Horizons was given free to all who hadn't already purchased it, it is now considered to be the 'base game' by Frontier.
Having the original ED in the menu is very useful still, particularly when one's SRV becomes stuck on some scenery and cannot be freed - launching the OG version puts one's ship safely in space once more, and rescues the SRV as a side effect.

Glad you are having fun, it is uphill for a while, then becomes both easier and more engaging as you progress.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Thank you for your kind words, Mr Rat Catcher.

No, my thanks go to you, for taking my words at face value, as well as for the contribution to ED in general.

I'm very fortunate to be playing with a small group, all of us in EDO, who are having a great time just playing together. Nothing organised, but suitably diverse to keep all of us returning for more.