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✅ Fantastic flight model - Newtonian physics make piloting feel realistic and very rewarding once you learn it.
✅ A massive, 1:1 scale galaxy - You can explore for years and still find something new, and in-game discovery system lets you leave your mark on the game: if you visit a planet or a star that hasn't been discovered yet, when you sell that cartographic data the game will display that body as "First discovery: YourNameHere".
✅ Thargoid combat is some of the hardest PvE content - Requires skill, strategy, and a well-built ship, imagine Dark Souls but in space. If you are considering anti-xeno combat, look for an Anti-Xeno Initiative server on Discord.
✅ Ships feel unique - Each one handles differently, making progression satisfying.
✅ Fleet Carriers & player economy - You can run a trade empire if you’re willing to work for it.

❌ The grind is real - Getting engineered ships, credits, or permits can take a long time, it is literal hell at the beginning and that alone can make you quit the game.
❌ Unintuitive systems - The game rarely explains anything; you’ll need third-party tools like Inara for finding trade routes, or EDSY for ship building.
❌ Lack of real endgame content - If you’re not into self-made goals, the game can feel empty.
❌ Multiplayer is underdeveloped - Co-op play is limited to squads of 4 players.
❌ Odyssey expansion issues - Performance and content still feel lacking, and on-foot content is boring as ♥♥♥♥, and completely unrewarding.

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If you love the idea of piloting your own spaceship and don’t mind a steep learning curve, Elite: Dangerous is worth playing. But if you’re looking for a structured experience with clear goals, or don’t have the patience for the grind, you might find it frustrating.

Would I recommend it? Yes- but only if you know what you're getting into.

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This game is also often compared to No Man’s Sky, but the two couldn’t be more different. Yes, both are space exploration games at their core, but No Man’s Sky leans more towards an arcade-style, casual experience, while Elite: Dangerous is a detailed space sim with a heavy focus on realism, tactics, and skill-based piloting.

• No Man’s Sky is about base-building, planetary exploration, and easy-to-pick-up space travel with a more colorful, sci-fi aesthetic. You can jump in, do a quick mission, and log out without much hassle.
  
• Elite: Dangerous is about mastering the intricacies of spaceflight, trading, combat, and exploration in a more grounded, methodical way. It requires commitment and patience, with a steep learning curve and longer gameplay sessions.