EDIT 7/3/2021: It seems that the pathetic moderators of the Steam Forums have gone an censored just about every form of negative criticism and issued a "Warning" for post they claim to be "Disrespectful" despite not a single instance of name calling, no personal attacks, flaming, etc. Censorship at its finest. Im done with Elite and FDev entirely. I've been monitoring the patch notes with my old squadron mates, and it makes things abundantly clear that this was never planned to be a full featured release, despite FDev claiming time and time again that this was a "finished" DLC and not a Season Pass like Horizons was meant to be.


Resuming original review below:
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Truthfully, I have a lot to say in regards to genuine criticism at this expansions utterly pathetic state... But if FDev themselves don't care enough to put forth a finished product after multiple years, then I don't care enough to put forth a finished review.

The UI is MULTIPLE step backwards - often missing critical information. No longer can you view what modules are on the ship while you are trying to select your ship, nor can you view anything other than its basic stats. This means you have to select the ship just to see whats on it. Same goes for the weapons and modules. It no longer shows your full stats on the individual components - no longer can you view at a glance which experimental or engineering mod is on it just by looking. You have to dive deep into the menus. I have no problem with "new" UI - but whomever is in charge of the UI/UX team needs to be replaced Immediately. There are so many obvious fundamental flaws here at play that even a child could point out.

The foot combat is OK at best, the AI is dumb and just stands in one spot while mag-dumping at you, maybe dodge left or right here and there, but other than that its just who can out-bullet-sponge who.

The Planetary Tech is a complete disaster and not even remotely close to what was advertised, or even what I personally saw in the Alpha. Alpha looked gorgeous - Live on the other hand looks like we took a trip back to the Source Engine even with everything maxed out. No longer do you have nice bumpy terrain. Everything is nice and glass-smooth. Atmosphere rendering works 50% of the time, and on the others where it doesn't it just looks awful.

More grindy than even Horizons for engineering materials, next to impossible to get anything outside of Restore missions where you don't have to worry about the AI "spotting" you from the other side of the base stealing that one little thing of circuits, nor do you have to worry about a genuine next-to-near-inaudible "stop!" command from the NPC to submit to a scan, resulting in your death, and being transported to the nearest detention facility without your ship, which means you have to use the god awful taxi service to get back to where you were.

In short, this is a genuinely pathetic display of FDev's "competence" at putting forth something worth paying for. I'm sick of the "it can be patched later" mentality by Steam's keyboard warriors. I paid money, its advertised as "finished", and it should work. Plain and simple. Don't buy this garbage.

EDIT 7/3/2021: It seems that the pathetic moderators of the Steam Forums have gone an censored just about every form of negative criticism and issued a "Warning" for post they claim to be "Disrespectful" despite not a single instance of name calling, no personal attacks, flaming, etc. Censorship at its finest. Im done with Elite and FDev entirely. I've been monitoring the patch notes with my old squadron mates, and it makes things abundantly clear that this was never planned to be a full featured release, despite FDev claiming time and time again that this was a "finished" DLC and not a Season Pass like Horizons was meant to be. Resuming original review below: -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Truthfully, I have a lot to say in regards to genuine criticism at this expansions utterly pathetic state... But if FDev themselves don't care enough to put forth a finished product after multiple years, then I don't care enough to put forth a finished review. The UI is MULTIPLE step backwards - often missing critical information. No longer can you view what modules are on the ship while you are trying to select your ship, nor can you view anything other than its basic stats. This means you have to select the ship just to see whats on it. Same goes for the weapons and modules. It no longer shows your full stats on the individual components - no longer can you view at a glance which experimental or engineering mod is on it just by looking. You have to dive deep into the menus. I have no problem with "new" UI - but whomever is in charge of the UI/UX team needs to be replaced Immediately. There are so many obvious fundamental flaws here at play that even a child could point out. The foot combat is OK at best, the AI is dumb and just stands in one spot while mag-dumping at you, maybe dodge left or right here and there, but other than that its just who can out-bullet-sponge who. The Planetary Tech is a complete disaster and not even remotely close to what was advertised, or even what I personally saw in the Alpha. Alpha looked gorgeous - Live on the other hand looks like we took a trip back to the Source Engine even with everything maxed out. No longer do you have nice bumpy terrain. Everything is nice and glass-smooth. Atmosphere rendering works 50% of the time, and on the others where it doesn't it just looks awful. More grindy than even Horizons for engineering materials, next to impossible to get anything outside of Restore missions where you don't have to worry about the AI "spotting" you from the other side of the base stealing that one little thing of circuits, nor do you have to worry about a genuine next-to-near-inaudible "stop!" command from the NPC to submit to a scan, resulting in your death, and being transported to the nearest detention facility without your ship, which means you have to use the god awful taxi service to get back to where you were. In short, this is a genuinely pathetic display of FDev's "competence" at putting forth something worth paying for. I'm sick of the "it can be patched later" mentality by Steam's keyboard warriors. I paid money, its advertised as "finished", and it should work. Plain and simple. Don't buy this garbage.