There are few games that have less respect for you and your time than Elite Dangerous.

Imagine a vast ocean, many times further across than the largest ocean on Earth, so large that to walk from one side to the other would take a thousand lifetimes. Now imagine that it's so shallow that even when you reach its deepest point, your ankles will still be dry.

Elite Dangerous offers you a colossal universe, so huge that nearly a decade after launch we've barely explored 0.05% of it. What is there to do in that universe? Well, as it turns out, not a whole hell of a lot.

The game is ludicrously disrespectful of your time. Even tasks as simple as flying from station to station are filled with busywork. Some functions are hidden in nested submenus. Some basic mechanics are not adequately explained by the tutorials. Some aspects of the game quite literally do not work the way they're meant to work. The user interface is sluggish and unresponsive, consisting mostly of menus that are sometimes slow to load, sometimes hitch, sometimes freeze. Making money and acquiring reputation is a tedious grind. The game is also exceptionally repetitive: expect to see similar station interiors, similar missions, similar planets, similar people and similar stretches of empty space over and over again.

Nearly a decade after launch, the game - despite having pretensions of being massively multiplayer - is missing some basic core functionality. Items, ships and money still cannot be traded between players (with the exception of just dumping things out the cargo hatch to give to a friend, which is usually even more time-inefficient than just grinding missions). In fact, having friends along for the ride can actually make the game more difficult than going it alone due to poor design choices. The game's weird and idiosyncratic justice system makes griefing very easy and revenge very difficult, but there's no real point to any of it anyway since the game can be played (and is in fact best enjoyed) in Solo mode where other players can't interact with you.

Features are added to the game unilaterally, without much thought to how they will impact existing elements of gameplay. In some cases, this results in game elements that compete or clash, while in other cases it results in isolated gameplay loops that don't have a noticeable impact on the rest of the game at all. New features are abandoned as quickly as they're added - faction warfare, planetary vehicles, on-foot combat were all delivered in a half-finished state and then neglected for years. The development team has acted with open contempt towards player feedback, often purposefully removing popular issue petitions.

Compare this with space games like No Man's Sky and X4: Foundations which had rocky, undercooked starts but were expanded upon again and again with years of hard, caring work by the developers and direct fan engagement. Compare it even to EVE Online - an equally bad game, but one which made every single one of Elite Dangerous' mistakes years in advance and from which Frontier Developments had so many opportunities to learn and do better.

There are better space games out there. There are better sci-fi vehicle games out there. There are better space FPSes out there. Elite Dangerous can't even do one of these well.

There are few games that have less respect for you and your time than Elite Dangerous. Imagine a vast ocean, many times further across than the largest ocean on Earth, so large that to walk from one side to the other would take a thousand lifetimes. Now imagine that it's so shallow that even when you reach its deepest point, your ankles will still be dry. Elite Dangerous offers you a colossal universe, so huge that nearly a decade after launch we've barely explored 0.05% of it. What is there to do in that universe? Well, as it turns out, not a whole hell of a lot. The game is ludicrously disrespectful of your time. Even tasks as simple as flying from station to station are filled with busywork. Some functions are hidden in nested submenus. Some basic mechanics are not adequately explained by the tutorials. Some aspects of the game quite literally do not work the way they're meant to work. The user interface is sluggish and unresponsive, consisting mostly of menus that are sometimes slow to load, sometimes hitch, sometimes freeze. Making money and acquiring reputation is a tedious grind. The game is also exceptionally repetitive: expect to see similar station interiors, similar missions, similar planets, similar people and similar stretches of empty space over and over again. Nearly a decade after launch, the game - despite having pretensions of being massively multiplayer - is missing some basic core functionality. Items, ships and money still cannot be traded between players (with the exception of just dumping things out the cargo hatch to give to a friend, which is usually even more time-inefficient than just grinding missions). In fact, having friends along for the ride can actually make the game more difficult than going it alone due to poor design choices. The game's weird and idiosyncratic justice system makes griefing very easy and revenge very difficult, but there's no real point to any of it anyway since the game can be played (and is in fact best enjoyed) in Solo mode where other players can't interact with you. Features are added to the game unilaterally, without much thought to how they will impact existing elements of gameplay. In some cases, this results in game elements that compete or clash, while in other cases it results in isolated gameplay loops that don't have a noticeable impact on the rest of the game at all. New features are abandoned as quickly as they're added - faction warfare, planetary vehicles, on-foot combat were all delivered in a half-finished state and then neglected for years. The development team has acted with open contempt towards player feedback, often purposefully removing popular issue petitions. Compare this with space games like No Man's Sky and X4: Foundations which had rocky, undercooked starts but were expanded upon again and again with years of hard, caring work by the developers and direct fan engagement. Compare it even to EVE Online - an equally bad game, but one which made every single one of Elite Dangerous' mistakes years in advance and from which Frontier Developments had so many opportunities to learn and do better. There are better space games out there. There are better sci-fi vehicle games out there. There are better space FPSes out there. Elite Dangerous can't even do one of these well.