Recent reviews by Caffy

They are doing an honest effort fixing the gamebreaking issues. I think the game is heading towards a good direction.

I don't know much about the historical accuracy of the appearance. I just wanted to replace the ugly standard units for my favourite nation: The Mamluks.

The only issue is that if you turn into Egypt or Arabia, you will lose the unitpack and get the standard muslim units back. I don't know how I could ever get to the last units in this unit pack if by that time I will have plenty of time AND reason to reform into another country.

I started the game, fell in love with the graphical effects. I started doing some basic missions, they weren't exciting, but I loved the controls; One of the few games where I can use my X52 properly.

I gained enough money with the missions and bought and outfitted a small miner. After following a friend's recommendation I found a very rich mining location. No hostiles, lots of painite and other expensive ores.

I got enough money to be a bit more flexible now! So I decided let's try something else that could bring me profit. I bought and outfitted an explorer ship. I went to distant unexplored stars, I explored for hours, I explored nebulas that were surprisingly boring once you got in them, I scanned suns, planets moons, asteroids (which later turned out to be completely useless), and after hours of doing nothing but looking at stars, planets, moons and after looking up some coordinates: blackholes, I was getting tired of doing that, so I returned to civilized territory to sell my scans. I received two hundred thousand. Disappointing, maybe I just wasn't meant to become an explorer then.

I started realizing most ships are rather unappealing. (There are always doors between the engines which I don't get, you get a door under it, and often on the front landing gear too. Why a door on the back, that even has a welded railing on it?)
I bought a Viper which looked somewhat decent. I figured I might become a mercenary. After experimenting with weapons I found an okay combo, and could destroy the enemy if they were alone. After killing several, my rank was still at "Harmless" which I found rather insulting. But I found a mission that pays well, let's try that one! Rescue someone who was taken by Some Pirates. I search the star system and found the guy they were talking about. I shoot down the shields, I take the prisoner out of the ship then I shoot it down, and take the hostage in. I go back to the mission station and find out that I still cannot finish the mission. You need "Hostage (mission specific)" to complete the mission. The guy I found had -the exact same name- as the guy in the mission details. He also carried a hostage. Why are they not accepting it?! Only one logical thing to do now, I sold the hostage to slavery and tried to do some missions. Some succeeded, but none of them gave me a reliable income.

I tried trading too, but soon I realized that if you aren't trading with illegal goods, you aren't going to make a profit more than 5000 with the ships you can afford mid and early game.


I want to compare the game with X3TC or Freelancer. Missions were more reliable, giving a reliable amount. You did not have to go to random stations to get the bounties. You could trade and make good profit from the -cheapest- resources!




TL;DR
-Elite Dangerous wants to offer much. Fighting, trading, smuggling, but the missions aren't exciting or rewarding. The only early method to profit easily is mining on a good spot, which is boring.
-Space is less pretty then one would think after you get used to seeing the stars jump in your face.
-Ship designs are one of the ugliest I have ever seen
-Does not offer a lot of multiplayer options, even when I play with friends, it does not feel like it. It also doesn't feel like I'm playing with other real people, and every NPC you meet has a joke name, killing the immersion. You cannot even give money to your friends, only if you buy expensive items and drop them so they can sell it.

+Has good controls with the joystick, good sounds, good UI.

I really wanted to like it, but I can't. It 's not worth the money, not even when on discount. I haven't tried horizons, they say it makes it a lot better, but I don't think the core gameplay is supposed to be this empty.

Some say this game is overcomplicated. I don't think so. It takes a little time to get used to it, but after that, you can face the real challenge. The game is incredibly satisfying, allowing you to achieve great things with the smallest nations, if you really can play your cards right. It's a Grand Strategy in it's purest form.