Props OP. Thanks for a considered review. It's a rare thing on these boards that something this long is worth reading....This is my personal review of Elite Dangerous Odyssey, and I make no apologies that it is unambiguously positive.
For me, Elite Dangerous has been revitalised and revolutionised by the addition of first-person gameplay to what was previously a vehicle-only experience, and I’ve had an absolute blast for the last few weeks since launch.
I’ve played Elite Dangerous since 2014 and have always enjoyed the austere sci-fi grittiness of its outrageously vast explorable universe, but I accept that some might find the experience somewhat remote. After all, ‘space’, as Douglas Adams accurately pointed out, ‘is big’, and viewing everything the Milky Way has to offer while eternally encased in your spaceship or amped-up moon buggy is something of a ‘goldfish bowl’ claustrophobic feel to it.
But, thanks to Odyssey, no longer.
The sheer relief and joy of being able to bounce across alien landscapes in search of weird plants and salvageable junk, or wander around isolated mining colonies and science facilities is something I continue to find quite breath-taking.
However, what really kicked my gameplay experience into a higher gear was how the pedestrian aspects of the immersive experience stitched together the previously disparate vehicular episodes. Suddenly I felt like I had a starring role in a sweeping space epic.
Let me tell you how I accidentally became a revolutionary.
A Changing Frontier
Although for the last couple of years I’d become something of a lapsed player, I’d occasionally log on to be reminded that I had moved many of my assets out to a remote, sparsely populated star system that was far from the established human ’bubble’ of civilisation. To move back would take a lot of time and in-game currency, neither of which I could justify.
This limited my gameplay options, but in theory I quite liked the idea of eking out an existence as part of a remote asteroid colony on the frontier. However, pre-Odyssey the actual gameplay experience to do so was not terribly engaging.
I suspect the location itself was just intended as a sort of waystation between The Bubble and the region that contained mysterious alien ruins and artefacts which was another few hundred light years further out.
The system, Pencil Sector EL-Y d5, was quite uncomplicated. It was a binary system with a half-a-dozen planets orbiting each star. There was a single orbital station – a wonderfully low-tech mined-out asteroid called New Growth – which was run by the Seven Stages Movement controlling faction. They apparently held all the power without real opposition, as indicated by their entirely stable and unchanging 99% system influence statistic.
There was only one other faction in the system, an unfortunately titled group called The Shunned. They were a non-entity; there was no way to really interact with them – their New Growth mission agent never had any missions and there were no other places to visit where they might engage in diplomacy. They were pretty much just targets to shoot in space among the landable but unremarkable planets.
An Experience Revolutionised
Then came Odyssey and suddenly the ‘Ellie Dee-five’ system came alive. As well as a number of tenuous atmosphere planets, twenty-five new planetary settlements were revealed, largely supporting the extraction and refinery industry, along with a few poly-tunnel agricultural settlements . All but a handful of these were governed by the controlling faction, but in the farthest reaches of the outer planets of the secondary binary star, The Shunned had established a foothold.
On visiting these new Shunned-controlled settlements, I soon discovered that interacting with their computer terminals gave access to missions exclusive to their faction. Odyssey had given character and voice to a faction that was previously a system footnote. So I inwardly pledged to support The Shunned and so began to undertake missions exclusively for them.
The first few missions I chose were fairly innocuous. I avoided anything too shady, just recovering materials from crash sites and collecting consignments from other settlements. Even then it was a joy, it felt as if I was a delivery man playing a small part in a functioning community. Lovely little touches like comments from passing civilians and overzealous security personnel gave texture to the local society, bringing it to life.
My efforts were soon rewarded with a small rise in The Shunned’s influence percentage. The whole experience made it easy to imagine an underlying narrative – that The Shunned weren’t (just) an anarchic pirate gang, but perhaps more of a desperate underclass of citizens discarded by the indifferent ‘Stager’ government.
Then unexpected events occurred which further fuelled my head-canon.
The Saga of The Shunned
Suddenly, all three of The Shunned’s settlements were offline. On investigation, I saw that their faction status indicated that they were now the target of terrorist attacks. Given the duality of the political landscape, there was only one real suspect: the Seven Stages Movement. This was compounded by the fact that Stager population’s happiness despicably changed from ‘happy’ to ‘elated’ at the exact same time – all while their neighbours suffered and burned!
It was time to escalate, to stand up for the oppressed and to strike back at the brutal state. I started to take on riskier, more ethically grey missions. I avoided murder, but wasn’t averse to some theft. Unfortunately, the Stager security had no such moral boundaries and my every act against the state was met with lethal response, critical injury and incarceration.
Crime and punishment in the 34th century, it transpires, redefines the concept of ‘the long arm of the law’. When apprehended, I was immediately transported to the nearest detention centre which, unsurprisingly given the barren emptiness of the region, was almost 200 light-years away. Frustratingly, even when released, I found myself unable to return to Ellie-Deefive as my ship had been effectively impounded at the scene.
The lack of facilities in the vicinity of the Pilgrim’s Ruin prison ship meant there was no way to arrange transport of my ship and the sheer distances involved meant that the Apex Interstellar taxi service just shrugged with disinterest at my requests.
Fortunately, Elite Dangerous is a multiplayer game, and as well as broadcasting my plight to the support team, I managed to flag down a lift from the generous CMDRs Tomasson (aka Burger) and CamelNumberOne. The rescue wasn’t entirely straightforward, and the peculiarities of witchspace travel (read: network issues) meant that the first attempt using CamelNumberOne’s massive fleet carrier left me stranded at point of origin while both by rescuers reached the destination without me. Fortunately, they had a backup plan.
On my eventual return to Pencil Sector EL-Y d5, my resolve stiffened and over the following weeks, my missioning activity became bolder and more illegal. I would occasionally be apprehended and require further rescue from the state-sponsored marooning (the Frontier support team were always quick and helpful), but I became a wanted felon whose bounty grew as The Shunned’s influence did.
Most Wanted
It quickly became clear that my actions could make a real difference in this system. After some further reading and advice from stream viewers and the Elite Dangerous Twitterati, I came to understand that if the influence gap was equalised, it would trigger a civil war and The Shunned could seize control of New Growth asteroid station. I was inspired – up the revolution, brother!
It also became apparent that more violent actions seemed to be having a greater impact on narrowing the influence gap between Seven Stages Movement and The Shunned. But those gains came at a heavy price: every action against the controlling faction eroded my current good standing with them and any illegal activities put an ever-increasing price on my head.
This trend would soon make me hunted in every corner of the system and eventually render me unwelcome at the station – the one place I could keep my selection of purpose-fitted ships. I would become trapped in a single ship for the entirety of my paramilitary operations.
After some initial experimentation (and further imprisonments) I made plans to take the plunge into morally justified criminality with a Cobra Mk.IV; it was tough, versatile, small enough to land on settlement pads, and laden with dumbfire missile launchers could clear out enemy ground forces quickly and rather spectacularly. I called it The Minotaur.
It wasn’t long before my name was appearing in the Most Wanted list in the daily bulletins as my bounty grew to tens, then hundreds of thousands of credits. I noticed at this time that I wasn’t alone on this list, which in previous months had often been empty. On the days that I checked, I found myself wondering who the others were, and what illicit activities they were getting into.
Particularly intimidating were the two top pilots, Cgore and Alex Rogan XIV, both of whom whose bounties were in the millions. It made me wary of flying in Open Play mode – the last thing I needed was to have my plans thwarted by some player-killing ubermensch pilot. Nonetheless I continued to do so, as I had been. Show no fear.
As I went about my one-man attempt to overthrow the government, ethically collapsing into bloodthirsty massacre and assassination missions, I was on the edge of my seat. Every spaceflight between mission waypoints was a tense cat-and-mouse experience, with now openly hostile system authority vessels and bounty hunters actively chasing me down. Although the Minotaur was a solid anti-personnel and ground mission ship, it didn’t stand a chance against the dedicated gunships roaming the space-lanes.
Then something amazing happened.
A CMDRGURU951 was watching my stream and saw my plight. He suggested that access to a fleet carrier would solve my problems and provide me with the means to access my other ships once again. It just so happened that one such fleet carrier that had been idling in system for a few weeks was his. He kindly invited me to make use of it, so I eagerly plotted a course for the OP New Growth from where, I learned to my surprise, he too had been working to overthrow the Seven Stages Movement.
Unfortunately, as I dropped out of supercruise and into approach range of the fleet carrier, I was set upon by some waiting Seven Stages Movement ships. They made short work of me. Fortunately, I respawned docked to Cmdr. Guru’s fleet carrier. Unfortunately, the hostile fighters had not finished with me and opened fire as my ship rested on the OP New Growth’s deck. I was protected by the megaship’s shields, but any attempt to take off would see me obliterated.
Cmdr. Guru expressed astonishment at this behaviour, stating that he had a significant bounty and notoriety but had never been effectively spawn-camped by NPC ships. I took it as a badge of honour and prepared to launch anyway. I couldn’t access the fleet carrier’s shipyard services as I’d hoped, so I was stuck with the ship I was in. This was going to be my Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid against the Bolivian army moment.
Cmdr. Guru wanted to watch my escape attempt first hand so asked me to wait for him to log in. Instancing issues hampered his attempts at first, so I suggested we form a team to encourage the matchmaking server to put us in the same instance. It was then that I learned his pilot name was not a variation of his Twitch and Twitter handle as I’d expected, but he was none other than the previously-mentioned ubermensch, Commander Alex Rogan XIV, whose bounty was approaching 20 million credits (for context, at its height, mine was little more than 300,000cr). I was in the presence – and a ‘house-guest’ of – one of the most accomplished and feared pilots in the sector.
He dropped into local space in a Federation corvette, one of the most indisputably efficient engines of destruction in the game, and engaged the quartet of angry but small system authority ships, which comprised two vipers and and two eagles. I feverishly hit the launch button and scrambled away from the fleet carrier as quickly as I could.
As I jumped into the relative safety of supercruise, I watched the team status indicator with horror as Alex Rogan XIV’s now shieldless vessel’s hull withered and disappeared. He’d thrown away his impressive bounty and his very expensive ship to let me escape in my paltry Cobra Mk.IV. It was a genuinely emotional moment – I had only just learned that we were brothers-in-arms and then he sacrificed himself to the cause.
Sniff.
The Accidental Warlord
It was clear that fighting for the cause of The Shunned was gaining momentum. My earlier rescuer, Cmdr Tomasson, had remained in the area and had been sending me updates on his progress in taking the fight to the Stagers.
My misgivings about other local wanted pilots had proven unfounded, Cmdr Guru/Alex Rogan had revealed that other regulars on the most wanted list, the amusingly named CMDRs Crunch Buttsteak and Pudgebrownie, were also part of his cabal of freedom fighters, Rekall Inc., whose higher purpose was no less than to seek out the mythical Raxxla.
Meanwhile, Interstellar audio jockeys Hutton Orbital Radio – who had already taken an interest in my activities (mostly out of idle amusement at the fact I kept getting imprisoned and marooned) – had started including news bulletins of my progress in their broadcasts and even interviewed me.
It is with great pride that I can confirm that on Monday, July 19th, our combined efforts finally tipped the balance of power into civil war, at which point the hitherto fluffy Hutton Orbital Radio folks bared their teeth and dispatched squadrons of trucker-pilots to join the conflict and install The Shunned as the new controlling faction.
The ground combat has been adrenaline pumping and frantic and, even though I’m not very good at it, I’ve felt invested and immersed. The gradual build-up and events documented here has given each battle experience much greater heft, making every gain much more meaningful and every loss more painful.
At time of writing, The Shunned are on the cusp of victory, having routed Seven Stages Movement forces for three consecutive days. I feel like with the help of Commanders from all corners, The Shunned have risen in vast numbers like the Fremen from the Arakis desert, and achieved far more than we could ever have hoped for. Tomorrow, I hope to livestream our victory and the seizing of New Growth asteroid base.
I salute everyone who helped to make such a great story happen and I’m grateful to everyone at Frontier who has made such a fantastic gaming and community experience possible. I understand there are kinks to iron out, but there are many reasons to be proud of this fantastic game.
Elite Dangerous Odyssey is a deep, complex and awe-inspiring science-fiction experience that offers an immersive, personal journey across a sweeping epic backdrop akin to Asimov’s Foundation or Herbert’s Dune. It is a breath-taking, obsession-triggering addition to the seminal and definitive space experience that is just beginning its odyssey.
I cannot wait to see where it takes us next.
[Originally published on Westhorpe.net]
How Odyssey Reignited My Passion for Elite Dangerous
- Thread starter Freebooted
- Start date
This may be a shock to you, but Elite isn't EVE and isn't trying to be.
You say disconnected and I laugh. The OP didn't make up anything, he engaged the available game play and then shared the story with us.
If you prefer EVE I say more power to ya, its still there chugging along. However it's a mistake to expect Elite to model themselves on EVE.
Rather than spreadsheet commander we have ships you actually fly and a vibrant galaxy to fly them in.
EVE has 0 laudable planets and a monthly subscription, skill based everything no player skill.
It was fun but they can keep it, I'm loving it here.
Most MMO adapt other MMO's successful content. EvE is the longest Space MMO on the market, it's foolish not to adapt their approach. Even a recently Successfull Korean company Pearl Abyss bought EvE Online to learn and build from their success closely so they can keep on maintianing their own home made MMO( Black Desert Online) for just as long.
You can see it in Odyssey, Frontier tried to do their own things, instead of taking experience from other successful FPS games and MMO's, and it costing them dearly now. Where they go from here, i have no idea, but judging by the lack of promised Road Map, neither do they.
Unless we see some progress in Update 6, and Dev Update 2 - we can pretty much write off Elite Dangerous as a game that Frontier will most like put on a maintenance mode soon - which judging by the lack of content in the last few years and the state Odyssey was release, we are already half way there.
Nope.
Copying someone else's content only works 8f you get their players too. Its exactly the wrong business decision. EVE had its niche and Elite has its.
What blows my mind is if you like Eve so much, why are you here?
Odyssey is a blast. A little polish and some additional content like missions focused on multicrew and its gold. I'm having a riot every day and I'm not alone.
People make a big deal over angry youtubers and their 5 minute hate or the summer slump of every summer but folks are really screaming about it this year. Its just not a threat to the game.
What's hilarious is people were in tue Eve boards way back in 2006 screaming about how eve was dying because of falcon or whatever other pet issue they wanted to scream about.
People have been screaming about the inevitable end of the world since literally before Aristotle was born.
The evidence is pretty conclusive. The overwhelming majority of people predicting doom and gloom are wrong.
If you aren't having fun, its cool if this isn't your bag but I'm having a blast and will continue to do so.
Eve has a active player base of around 300,000. Elite Dangerous active player base is around 500,000.
So why should Frontier copy a game that elite dangerous is already more successful? You copy something more successful than your game not something less successful.
In any case I would prefer they focus on copying No Man Sky than Eve if they were to copy anything. The only good thing about eve was their cgi short films and they seem to have mostly vanished since the Koreans took over. cost cutting I suspect.
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I really want to know what other games OP plays if this tepid experience is all that was needed to "reignite their passion."
With a minor modification, the true "burning question" for the forum!
At times it just feels that a poster is "not enjoying ED" and feels that anyone who may be needs to be discouraged.
Yeah, some posters just don't get that others are able to enjoy a game for longer than they...
The OP created a brilliant and epic adventure out of simple game mechanics. It's threads like these that inspire people like me to help the game as much as we can. I prefer @Freebooted 's attitude and point of view than of those with opinions like lead that try to sink the game down. Thank you, OP. I wish I'd known about your adventure while it was unfolding.
By ignoring the game fundemantal flaws and problems, you are not helping anyone, but your self to play this game a bit longer until you jump in to something else, much move developed and connected.
I'm not ignoring anything. I added my voice to the hundreds complaining about Odyssey's problems. I just don't blame the game with every breath I take. You probably don't see it, but you're helping neither the game nor yourself, cmdr.
That's because you failed to actually read what OP wrote:
There was nothing deep or complex about this gameplay he went through, most of which was just made up to paint a story but not the reality of the game.
Are you in the bubble or Colonia currently?
I choose to see the glass half-full. Do you even have a glass?
Does anyone need to help anyone else to play any game? That seems a little strange...
I guess you haven't ran into @yianniv in-game to know anything about him either, particularly when it comes to 'helping' anyone
Bubble. Odyssey launched as I reached Colonia so after unlocking 2 engineers I went back... you ? (I guess one of you is
)Both in the bubble currently! (I need more foot engineering for the Colonia account)Bubble. Odyssey launched as I reached Colonia so after unlocking 2 engineers I went back... you ? (I guess one of you is
I'd be honoured if you wish to team up for some surface installation mayhem!
The honour is mine, cmdr. But i'm currently relaxing by the sea in a resort near home. I'll be online in 6-7 hoursBoth in the bubble currently! (I need more foot engineering for the Colonia account)
I'd be honoured if you wish to team up for some surface installation mayhem!
I have a hourglass with a 10 year timer that is almost runing out, and a sudden realisation after Odyssey that Elite Dangerous is not were it could have been, and a fear fueld by lack of Road maps and the dodgy respons by CM's that 10 year times could end much faster than previously believed. And if we remain passive it will just fade in to black...
The hourglass is lying, there's no fixed finish line. Just wait a bit more...