Recent reviews by Chad VanGaalen

Elite isn't for everyone. But ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is it ever for me, and, I suspect, many people who have never heard of it / have stayed away from it until now.

Note: This entire review is based on playing in Open with a HOTAS.

I'm a 12 year veteran of EVE Online, the only game I've consistently played for such a period of time. And I jumped in to this game hoping for a fresh take on EVE that could capture my interest for another decade. I learned, probably 100 hours in, that Elite is very different from EVE (the depth, player economy [nearly non-existent] and PVP [massively different]) and that Frontier appears to have minimal interest in being anything like it. I was disappointed, but I pressed on. I'm glad I did.

Environment is, without a doubt, second to none. Frontier is a UK development studio, and it especially shows in the audio engineering department. Graphical environments (especially stations, but also the myriad of strange things you'll encounter) are exceptional.

Virtual reality is a solid choice for how to spend your time in this universe, but not required (I split my time between VR and a 34UW setup.) If you do throw on a VR headset - and a HOTAS, while you're at it - you'll be immersed in an absolutely breathtaking interstellar experience. Elite makes 99% of existing VR experiences feel gimmicky, cheap, and boring.

Combat is thrilling, even if it can get a bit repetitive at first. I say at first because once I started to divulge in to the mechanics of different combat approaches, I fell in love with it all over again. Dogfighting in space is very different than in the earth's air. There's a particular video made by a community member that explains this in depth, and it makes for a challenging experience. I'm looking forward to seeing the different ways that combat will expand in Elite over the next year, with rumours of FPS/space legs and other things on the horizon.

And PVP combat, when it does occur (not often enough, but it's a thing) is always a learning experience - something I've come to appreciate from EVE. If you're coming to this game specifically for PVP combat, you might not sink as many hours into it as I have. But there are places for you, such as heavily populated player systems with concentrated numbers of pirates and other such folk looking to ♥♥♥♥ your ♥♥♥♥ up. If you enjoy PVP of other varieties (faction influence, powerplay, etc.) - there's quite a few ways to engage yourself in that kind of content as well.

Depth is a topic I struggle with a bit with Elite. I was really disappointed to see how much of the in-game experience is dominated by NPC interaction. Players have very little impact on the market, which is mostly simulated. And combat in no way drives that economy.

But on the subject of simulation, this is, truly, a simulator. And that's an argument you can't make for something like EVE at all. The sound and feel of your engines coming alive after you've been exploring a planet on a rover. The anxiety induced when your ship's onboard computer starts calmly informing you that your shields are down and your systems are starting to overheat and malfunction - while laser fire rakes across your cockpit canopy.

There's something else Elite has that makes it incredibly special, and that is a technology Frontier calls Stellar Forge[elite-dangerous.fandom.com]. It is amazing. They have created a 1:1 mapping of all known stars in the Milky Way ("roughly 400 billion star systems"). Further, they update Stellar Forge with discoveries made by NASA and other parties. Sometimes the Forge has even predicted those discoveries ahead of time[www.polygon.com].

That makes this a truly worthy title for exploring our galaxy. Since most of us aren't going to live long enough to do it in person, here you go. This is it. And the player base supports this exceptionally well. All you have to do is read about Distant Worlds[www.polygon.com] to understand to what extent.

And that brings us to...

Community in Elite. Coming from EVE, I have some stark comparisons to draw between the two. There are two types of players in this game that I have encountered so far, excluding transients either just getting started/checking it out or who have only a few hours recorded.

1) Those who ♥♥♥♥♥ and moan on Steam reviews and on the Frontier forums about lack of content/updates/competitive edge to Star Citizen/solving all of the world's problems. These are people that a) the game is not designed for, b) lack any kind of creative imagination that this sandbox willingly caters to or c) haven't bought the game at all.

2) Those fully immersed in the game. And these pilots have surprised me in more ways than I could possibly write in to this Steam review. Again, I will draw a comparison to EVE. EVE's community makes it extremely unique, and it's comprised of an entire spectrum of personalities. These are the reasons I still play EVE after all this time. But EVE's community suffers from people who have become very bitter about the game, as well as people who are 17 years old and troll Reddit and post giant memes in local chat channels for hours on end.

Elite isn't like that at all. Every pilot I've had the pleasure of interacting with is mature, focused, immersed, and, most often, helpful. Even pilots that have killed me. It is incredibly refreshing, and as I age (I'm 31) I'm finding it to be much more my speed and worth my time.

Like EVE, Elite has a decent third-party API that allows players to craft applications to enhance the OOG experience. Inara[inara.cz] is a great example. Coriolis[coriolis.io], a ship fitting tool, is another favourite. These are things that, as an EVE player, I've come to require for something I'm going to completely immerse myself in, and are hugely appreciated by the people who play this game on the level that I do.

In summary, buy Elite, or don't. But don't judge it by the first few hours. Because like EVE, Elite is not something you figure out after a week of game time. It's something truly different, special, and beautiful, and I'm happy it exists.

Also - can't recommend a HOTAS enough. Even a cheap one. Playing this game with a mouse and keyboard is, well, pretty ♥♥♥♥. Steam controllers deserve honourable mention as well.

See you out there.