I've had this game for a while, recently got the Horizons "pass" and have about 17 total hours of play. Originally I was horrified to learn that I'd have to rebuy the whole game just to get access to landing on planets, but since then they've fixed it. I haven't gotten much into Horizons yet, besides landing on a few moons (although neither of my noob-ish ships have a hangar yet) and with all of this in mind, here's what I think of the game, thus far.

• Space. It's all about space and in Elite Dangerous space is probably the best I've seen in any game, ever. Not only that, but almost all of the actual rules of space apply here. Supercruising (warping) toward a station that orbits a planet? Better be prepared to slingshot out of that gravity well or you'll slam into an orbital body at impossible speeds. Getting a bit close to a star? That'll kill ya.
  
• The HUD. The ship HUD is pretty cool, and after an hour or so it's pretty easy to get used to. 17 hours in, I'm still sort of shaky with flight control but I'm much better at it than I was when I started. I'd like to see them make the HUD colorable outside of editing documents within the game directory.
  
• Music. The music is exactly what I'd expect out of a hard-scifi space game, and I wouldn't call any of it annoying or bad.
  
• ED absolutely stays true to the original source content. Don't know what I'm talking about? Look up Youtube videos of the classic and first iteration of Elite. If you ignore the painful 8 bit graphics, both Elite and Elite Dangerous are just about the same exact game.
  
• PVP. When I first bought ED PVP was completely situational, meaning you'd rarely ever see it, because the galaxy is just so large. But, as of writing this, they've recently added Arena mode, which is an easy jump in/jump out PVP mode where you use ships that are temporarily loaned to you. So if you die, you're not losing anything you've worked for. This mode is also a great way to get yourself situated with the flight system, even if all you do is die.
  
• Commanders! As of writing this, the commander update hasn't been released yet, but I am patiently awaiting it and am absolutely sure it'll be a plus. Once you have the ability to really create yourself within this universe, and walk around, have friends inside of your ship, I think it'll actually begin to challenge No Man's Sky (which has been said to have no real multiplayer aspect and no way to personally identify yourself within that particular universe).
  
• Missions, trading, bounty hunting, exploration. All of these aspects are present, and if you're a space sim fan, you'll feel right at home with access to these things. There's also asteroid mining and crafting (although I haven't had a chance to get into crafting just yet, unless refining ore counts lol)
  
• The game performs well, at least on my system, which is quad core AMD 4300+, 8 gigs of ram and an r7 250 2 gigs.

• A frequent issue with online space sims like this, is that it's hard to find content and participate in it (EVE Online has this problem as well). And since ED is technically still in development, there's a lot we don't yet have. Once we're able to walk around and stuff, I'd love to see the ability to craft by hand and gather minerals from the surface of a planet (like you would in a survival game, or No Man's Sky).
  
• Black holes currently don't act the way they should. Space distorts around them and your systems get kind of funky but you should absolutely not be able to escape it's pull once you've crossed the event horizon. And once reaching the singularity you should be destroyed in a speghetification sort of way. This means that flying directly through it is completely innacurate lol
  
• Navigating space can become a bit tedius at times, especially when you have a mission target that isn't readily made available to you in your target system. Rather, you have to muck around and find them yourself, which can take quite a while if you don't know what you're doing.
  
• Fuel is used pretty quickly, and kind of takes away from the ability of just being able to fly around in and enjoy space. I don't have a problem docking and fueling, or scooping from stars, but some time I'd like to set a destination and not make 8 pit stops on my way across a small fraction of the galaxy.

Would I recommend this game, especially now, after they've sort of fixed this whole "DLC" issue? Yes. Considering that this game will have nearly as much, or even more content than No Man's Sky by the end of the year, I'd absolutely call it a viable alternative to an always online space environment with no identity and no ability to enjoy space with your friends. Mostly, I just wish flight in general was slightly less cumbersome, but not by too much. The realism is nearly perfect.

I've had this game for a while, recently got the Horizons "pass" and have about 17 total hours of play. Originally I was horrified to learn that I'd have to rebuy the whole game just to get access to landing on planets, but since then they've fixed it. I haven't gotten much into Horizons yet, besides landing on a few moons (although neither of my noob-ish ships have a hangar yet) and with all of this in mind, here's what I think of the game, thus far. [h1]The good:[/h1] [list] [*]Space. It's all about space and in Elite Dangerous space is probably the best I've seen in any game, ever. Not only that, but almost all of the actual rules of space apply here. Supercruising (warping) toward a station that orbits a planet? Better be prepared to slingshot out of that gravity well or you'll slam into an orbital body at impossible speeds. Getting a bit close to a star? That'll kill ya. [*]The HUD. The ship HUD is pretty cool, and after an hour or so it's pretty easy to get used to. 17 hours in, I'm still sort of shaky with flight control but I'm much better at it than I was when I started. I'd like to see them make the HUD colorable outside of editing documents within the game directory. [*]Music. The music is exactly what I'd expect out of a hard-scifi space game, and I wouldn't call any of it annoying or bad. [*]ED absolutely stays true to the original source content. Don't know what I'm talking about? Look up Youtube videos of the classic and first iteration of Elite. If you ignore the painful 8 bit graphics, both Elite and Elite Dangerous are just about the same exact game. [*]PVP. When I first bought ED PVP was completely situational, meaning you'd rarely ever see it, because the galaxy is just [i]so[/i] large. But, as of writing this, they've recently added Arena mode, which is an easy jump in/jump out PVP mode where you use ships that are temporarily loaned to you. So if you die, you're not losing anything you've worked for. This mode is also a great way to get yourself situated with the flight system, even if all you do is die. [*]Commanders! As of writing this, the commander update hasn't been released yet, but I am patiently awaiting it and am absolutely sure it'll be a plus. Once you have the ability to really create yourself within this universe, and walk around, have friends inside of your ship, I think it'll actually begin to challenge No Man's Sky (which has been said to have no real multiplayer aspect and no way to personally identify yourself within that particular universe). [*]Missions, trading, bounty hunting, exploration. All of these aspects are present, and if you're a space sim fan, you'll feel right at home with access to these things. There's also asteroid mining and crafting (although I haven't had a chance to get into crafting just yet, unless refining ore counts lol) [*]The game performs well, at least on my system, which is quad core AMD 4300+, 8 gigs of ram and an r7 250 2 gigs. [/list] [h1]The Not-So-Good[/h1] [list] [*]A frequent issue with online space sims like this, is that it's hard to find content and participate in it (EVE Online has this problem as well). And since ED is technically still in development, there's a lot we don't yet have. Once we're able to walk around and stuff, I'd love to see the ability to craft by hand and gather minerals from the surface of a planet (like you would in a survival game, or No Man's Sky). [*]Black holes currently don't act the way they should. Space distorts around them and your systems get kind of funky but you should absolutely [i]not[/i] be able to escape it's pull once you've crossed the event horizon. And once reaching the singularity you should be destroyed in a speghetification sort of way. This means that flying directly through it is completely innacurate lol [*]Navigating space can become a bit tedius at times, especially when you have a mission target that isn't readily made available to you in your target system. Rather, you have to muck around and find them yourself, which can take quite a while if you don't know what you're doing. [*]Fuel is used pretty quickly, and kind of takes away from the ability of just being able to fly around in and enjoy space. I don't have a problem docking and fueling, or scooping from stars, but some time I'd like to set a destination and not make 8 pit stops on my way across a small fraction of the galaxy. [/list] Would I recommend this game, especially now, after they've sort of fixed this whole "DLC" issue? Yes. Considering that this game will have nearly as much, or even more content than No Man's Sky by the end of the year, I'd absolutely call it a viable alternative to an always online space environment with no identity and no ability to enjoy space with your friends. Mostly, I just wish flight in general was slightly less cumbersome, but not by too much. The realism is nearly perfect.