Elite Dangerous....

I've avoided Elite Dangerous over the years.... Mainly due to playing so many other space based games, single player and MMO. What I'd heard, read and seen on YouTube over that time didn't make me want to dive into it.

Biggest influence of all is a RL friend who was/is into it. The same guy who has 2000+ hours into Arma III(I've mentioned him before); and from his Steam listings is both a hardcore Sim/Sci-Fi gamer. So he knows a thing or two(just saying there's provenance to his views).

Anyway about 500 hours into the game(early 2018) he gave a pretty damning review of it. I can't say I was surprised(about the game) but it did kill all remaining interest in me to see the game for myself. He's since then nearly done another 300 hours of game-play. I know that sounds strange, to damn a game and keep playing it..... Yet I understand as I'm the exact same way with Eve Online and had stuck with WoW for far to long( Or is that the games devs); Both games contain their own unique forms of grind..... Each to their own; But the review he did on Elite Dangerous really hammered that home.

So why mention all this now...... The game was free on the Epic store last month and like all freebies, I claimed it. No harm in looking now. Free is free; And especially now with my new VR headset! Right?!

Wrong, what a mistake to make, the VR side .... nothing special about it at all... Even without it the look of the game is 'just' ok. I wasn't awed, maybe a little disappointed. Even with graphics settings at Ultra.

There's a lot of baseline game elements/mechanics to the game that are 'ok', there's noting special and nothing that hasn't been seen/done before. It's all very 'meh'. Then again I've only been in the game an hour. 

Reading other player reviews, especially the earlier years is a list of disappointment. Some corrected, some updated. Like players looking froward to multi crew ships, only when it's been delivered in game it's not what was expected. Ideas and expectations v's implemented reality issues. A lot of games have those issues, Elite Dangerous it seems, more so than most(imho).

After an hour in the game(really was all I could take) I was well ready to turn my back on it. I have better games to play in space and online. Perhaps best to describe this game as a very love it or loathe it game. I don't loath it but there's nothing here to make me want to love it either. 

Claiming the game for free and waiting a few weeks to actually play it should be an indicator of my level of interest(VR or not). I have other better sci-fi, space games to play. If you got this free and/or it's all you've got then of course it'll be the better option for that person.

I knew that just stepping into it I wasn't going to get sucked in; A concision decision to keep my distance. Long-term that distance (leaning towards negative)exposure may have biased my view. Yet it's the smaller things about the game that annoyed me more, piling up to a mass negative that had me uninstall it a day after installing it. Very true about that comment of the game being a mile wide and an inch deep. Where Star Citizen is aiming for perfection(and then some) while delivering little; Elite Dangerous delivers vastness but it's kinda empty, rougher, quirky and annoying(at least in my view).

I'm sure if your into it and have all the keyboard mappings down, that it can feel enjoyable in it's doing.

True combat in the game needs a HOTAS setup and quick reflexes.... Then it's a Battlestar Galactica viper-esque excitement. To get there is I believe a grind to far... And space is empty.... Plus doing it with a mouse and keyboard is sensitivity based quirkiness no matter what settings you put controls on. Annoyance on annoyance for me there.

That's not to say players can't get enjoyment out of it... Overall. See the sights. The Odyssey expansion next year will help with that(it wants to be Star Citizen) graphically anyway. Enjoy the community (if you can find one you like)etc.... Like other space games only done here in Elite Dangerous 'in it's style'. 

Players who are invested in the game(cash, time or both) stay invested with the game because they're invested with the game. Noting like gamers to double down. I know better than to get caught in another of those......no matter the flaws. I have to many of those  games already.

It's a game that does what others have done and for me here and now via it's style it's far from enough to motivate any gameplay.

In fact if anything, playing this game has made me want to get back to playing Freespace and Freespace 2 dog-fighting for some nostalgia! While I still have my original disks and saved games the Gog release for both games was still worth getting for 'modern' systems(Gog Freespace; Gog Freespace 2).