Here are my two cents about my ED experience after around 350 hours of gameplay. Don't worry, I'll make it quick:
I know, a game like ED can't be regarded as fully explored after a few hundred hours of playing it, actually a game like this can't be fully explored ever, which seems to be its main point. Yet, I'd say that most mechanics are now familiar to me and, unfortunately, the outcome is a bit disappointing. The gameplay aspect of gaining reputation to open up new systems and befriending factions/superpowers is repetitive (thus shallow) and when you have unlocked them, they mostly have nothing to offer - or just more of the same (thus hollow). People might ask why I put 300+ hours into an ultimately hollow/shallow game and the truth is that it takes a lot of (fun) time to learn the mechanics which in the end turn out to be facade, as they in most games disappointingly do, but here somehow even more so. But yes, learning, if that's your thing, is a huge part of the fun ED has to offer. Maybe even the biggest although I still hope there's more to come for me.
While ED does a lot of mistakes, like bugs (i.e. GalMap not working at times) or despicable game design (i.e. not saving engineers' perks in ship's system and more), it also does at least one thing right: it leaves stuff to the imagination. What I have learned is that most of ED's magic has to happen in one's head. Now, that sword its double-edged because sometimes less is more but sometimes more actually would be more. I guess it wouldn't have killed them to put a bit of video material or cut scenes and such into the game to make it a better visual and storytelling experience. Then again, the game comes up with those randomly experienced images of space itself which can't be planned. Or with little bread crumbs like site 94 which you have to work for to even find and/or have to be lucky/thorough to stumble upon. Those have been the most atmospheric experiences for me so far. And of course the everlasting hope to discover something nobody has discovered before. And I really hope the game has more of that up its sleeve. So my final thought is actually a question: does it? Because if not, it will lose me sooner than later.
Just a few thoughts from a (not so) fresh player. Feel free to share your opinions...
I know, a game like ED can't be regarded as fully explored after a few hundred hours of playing it, actually a game like this can't be fully explored ever, which seems to be its main point. Yet, I'd say that most mechanics are now familiar to me and, unfortunately, the outcome is a bit disappointing. The gameplay aspect of gaining reputation to open up new systems and befriending factions/superpowers is repetitive (thus shallow) and when you have unlocked them, they mostly have nothing to offer - or just more of the same (thus hollow). People might ask why I put 300+ hours into an ultimately hollow/shallow game and the truth is that it takes a lot of (fun) time to learn the mechanics which in the end turn out to be facade, as they in most games disappointingly do, but here somehow even more so. But yes, learning, if that's your thing, is a huge part of the fun ED has to offer. Maybe even the biggest although I still hope there's more to come for me.
While ED does a lot of mistakes, like bugs (i.e. GalMap not working at times) or despicable game design (i.e. not saving engineers' perks in ship's system and more), it also does at least one thing right: it leaves stuff to the imagination. What I have learned is that most of ED's magic has to happen in one's head. Now, that sword its double-edged because sometimes less is more but sometimes more actually would be more. I guess it wouldn't have killed them to put a bit of video material or cut scenes and such into the game to make it a better visual and storytelling experience. Then again, the game comes up with those randomly experienced images of space itself which can't be planned. Or with little bread crumbs like site 94 which you have to work for to even find and/or have to be lucky/thorough to stumble upon. Those have been the most atmospheric experiences for me so far. And of course the everlasting hope to discover something nobody has discovered before. And I really hope the game has more of that up its sleeve. So my final thought is actually a question: does it? Because if not, it will lose me sooner than later.
Just a few thoughts from a (not so) fresh player. Feel free to share your opinions...
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