When Elite: Dangerous came out almost exactly a year ago, I was blown away. I remember thinking that it was going to be hard to out-do such an immersive, beautiful game. But then I played it for another few weeks and I started to notice that I was doing the same stuff over and over again. Sure, I would travel from system to system, trading goods here and there, making more money, buying better stuff, upgrading my ship, fighting pirates and collecting bounties. But I began to feel like the whole experience was rather stale.
I wrote a fairly optimistic review at the time where I literally had stars in my eyes for this game. I felt the absence of things that I wanted it to have, but I was hopeful that these things were coming. And, in a way, they still might be. Eventually, this game might end up becoming the game that I really hope it could be. But there are other games (or rather, there is another game) out there that seems to be everything that I hoped Elite would be. I won’t mention that here, because I feel like that would be unfair of me, but I’m sure that anyone who follows these types of things will know exactly what I’m talking about. So, it’s really hard for me to remain hopeful and optimistic about Elite.
It’s really hard to explain. There’s the period of time when you’re playing Elite that everything feels magical and alive and amazing. But then, the more you play, you begin to realize that all those things that felt like that are paper thin facades that, once you realize the mechanics behind them, it loses its magic.
Then, Horizons was announced, and it was supposed to be amazing. Planetary landings! Finally! But for another $60? And on top of that, people who didn’t have the initial game could just pay the $60 for Horizons and have the base game plus the expansion together? That just seemed odd.
Not to mention that the expansion is listed as an Early Access title, since most of the content that is planned for it will be coming as the year progresses. These features that have not yet been added include multi-crewed ships (fly in the same ship with your friends), some form of crafting system that hasn’t been explained in too much detail, as far as I can tell, and a pilot avatar creation system, which I can only imagine is in preparation for the first-person style gameplay that will allow you to walk around within your ship, on stations, or on planets. But this first-person mechanic, along with the ability to land on planets with an atmosphere, will not be coming in this expansion. No, that’ll probably come, at the earliest, next year with another $60 expansion.
Ok, so I was miffed about the business model and a little frustrated at the fact that the game is essentially putting its players on an annual payment plan in order to enjoy all of the features that were initially promised as “core” features that the game would have. There are those who said they were always planned as paid expansions, but I feel like that point is arguable. I realize that there were always supposed to be paid expansions, but the price was never mentioned, and neither was the content. I guess I assumed that things that I had been led to believe were touted as “core” gameplay elements would be included in free updates and not in paid expansions. But that is, ultimately, not for me to decide.
So, as far as the new gameplay that is in the game goes? It’s cool. I have to admit. I got in and finally found an airless planet that I was able to approach. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. The transition is seamless and smooth and it really makes you feel like you’re coming really close to a really big ball of rock, which helps put some of the game’s scale into perspective, which is difficult, since when you’re in space a giant ball of rock or a giant ball of fire all end up looking pretty much the same size unless you pay really close attention to just how far away from them you are when they are filling your screen. Landing on them makes them a little more real, a little easier to comprehend. I’m sure that getting out and walking around (once that becomes a core feature of the game) will help us understand that even more, especially with the ships.
Scale is really the thing when it comes to Elite. The galaxy is massive. That’s really the appeal. There are so many places to go, so many systems to explore. But after you’ve seen a few hundred…they all begin to look similar. And if you’re an explorer at heart, you better get used to being alone, because out there in the black, the chances of running into another player and having any kind of interactions are going to be pretty low.
In the more populous systems, it is running into other players that can make the game interesting. You end up experiencing things that you wouldn’t have expected from the NPC’s. But the problem is that, for the most part, other players are just going about doing their own thing. Or maybe flying around with some friends. Sometimes, they’ll engage in some piracy or PvP action, but usually, we Commanders tend to just leave each other alone. Maybe say “hi” in passing.
I read something that kind of nailed down my frustration with Elite that I was unable to put into my own words. The game, at its core, is essentially a single-player game that had a multiplayer component added to it. Even though the genre begs to be a multiplayer experience.
The reason, I think, that the game feels like a multi-user single player game is that there is hardly any incentive for players to interact. Aside from forming a wing of players to fly as a group and the ability to actually communicate with them, there is literally nothing that you can do with another player that you can’t do with the lifeless, aimless, non-persistent AI.
I feel like the development of Elite and that other game that I mentioned, are coming at a very similar target in completely opposite directions. Elite built its world first and gave it to players and is now trying desperately to fill it with things to keep them entertained before they give up and go on to something else. That other game is building the things to fill the world with first, then building the world to put it all into. Neither project, at this point in time is finished, so it’s impossible to say which method is the correct one. Or maybe they’re both right. Or let’s hope not, maybe they’re both wrong. Only time will tell.
I have not given up all hope on Elite: Dangerous. As I read over what I have written above, I realize that it sounds as if I have. But there are things that this game does well. So, so very well. Few games have made me feel as free, as immersed, and as in awe of their scope as this one has. The ships are beautiful. The galaxy is wonderful and huge and truly open. The sound design, above all, is flawless. The simple act of floating in space and watching the beauty of the celestial bodies, or of successfully docking with a station, is unparalleled.
I feel as if there is such a massive potential for this game that, currently, is being squandered…as if it could offer something that would allow it to co-exist with that other game that I mentioned. They could stand shoulder to shoulder as two of the greatest space-sims ever created. Right now, however, I feel like Elite is stumbling. Adding more stuff without adding any more depth to the gameplay. Hopefully that changes. Because I want to love this game. Perhaps that’s why it is so frustrating to me that it isn’t what I had hoped for.
