Elite: Dangerous (2014)

Status itamar Dec 12, 2025

I just couldn't get back in after starting and leaving it for so long I forgot how to play. Lacking a plot, it just couldn't get my attention again. Maybe I'll try it with VR for the experience

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Status killerstar Jul 9, 2022

Well, what a f*king waste of time. After a brief tutorial in which you learn how to fly, attack and navigate between systems, you are left loose to make a living as a space trucker. Except that you don't know anything and nothing is explained at all.

The mission board if full with mining missions; ok, then let's do some …

Well, what a f*king waste of time. After a brief tutorial in which you learn how to fly, attack and navigate between systems, you are left loose to make a living as a space trucker. Except that you don't know anything and nothing is explained at all.

The mission board if full with mining missions; ok, then let's do some mining. How do you do that? The pilot handbook is vague and unhelpful but I manage to get that you need to go to asteroids and blast them. I go and start to shoot and nothing happens. Back to the pilot handbook.. maybe I need to get a mining laser? Back to the station, get two mining lasers. The handbook also mentions a refinery, but it's under "optional" and I don't find one in any menu, so let's go. Again back to the asteroid field, try to shoot it with the lasers. No, you're in the wrong mode.. what? Ok, after fiddling with menus I somehow manage to get them working. Shoot. Yey! some debris I can catch, how do I do that? The handbook says it's automatic... oh I need to open the cargo scoop. How? Again fiddle with buttons and menus until I manage to open it. Shoot again, debris... nothing happens. Huh, perhaps I need to press A to lock onto the debris. Shoot, lock... "Refinery required". (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Look, the long stretches of travel I can take. They are not necessary and the "realism" argument is hilarious in a game with FTL, but fine. Complicated systems are also fine. But at least give me some semblance of tutorial that's actually useful. If you're going to throw a bunch of mining missions, then tutorialise them.

And the same goes for missions that require to travel beyond what my starter ship is able to travel. A game the size of the Milky Way my ass. I spent hours going back and forward between the same two systems hauling fish (no joke). Also, I had to use a third-party website to know where to buy fish. That was my first mission and I had to leave the game to complete it. I guess the galaxy map had that information? Who knows, the galaxy map is a mess of icons that are not explained.

I played for almost 4 hours and I did practically nothing of import and gained no insight in how to navigate this world.

Basically this game is an absolute disaster for beginners. Right from the start you're given the choice between two ships that look identical and have identical numbers but have different names and there's absolutely zero guidance of what they are. Again, I had to minimise the game and google something even before starting the game proper.

As for travelling, it sucks. Everything is automated so gameplay is limited to select destination, turn autopilot, wait to get there. You could fly manual, I guess, but then it's just point to destination, throttle up, wait to get near it and throttle down.

So yeah, kind of a disappointment. I was expecting a kind of Flight Simulator in space and got this boring mess of overcomplicated and underexplained nonsense.

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Status killerstar Nov 19, 2020

This one is big and free!. Apparently is a game within a galaxy modelled after our own Milky Way (although I've read that thanks to the new GAIA data, it's outdated.

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/elite-dangerous/home

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Status anarchistica Nov 19, 2020

This is free on the Epic games store this week:

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/elite-dangerous/home

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Status peterwooley Jan 14, 2019

I doubt I’ll make it very far in this game, but a spaceship in VR is so, so good. I’m still in the tutorials and truly scared of other players killing me as soon as I start the real game, but I’ll give it a shot.

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Elite: Dangerous (2014)

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