Disclaimer: Detailed 7 minutes reading review.


For a game told to be large full of systems and planets what-not, an "intro" is insufficient and tutorial should've been mandatory and integrated with your entrance. You end up with pop-ups instead when first trying a few stuff ontly to partially help the first hour of gameplay.

Also it lacks details to properly guide you through the many aspects of unit interface you'll be using on your first 5 to 10th hour. A somewhat better tutorial can be found as a different game mode, but you will often rely in user-content guide as confusion still reigns.

Odyssey If you buy the game with the DLC content, your intro will be on foot. Both the mission and flight tutorial is one bad joke. You're not that strong nor agile enough after that---the equipment is all gone after that, and ground AI is far more devastating. Read the review for it by clicking here.


1- Controls were obviously made with a gamepad in mind, (a game born in computers) and if you use a keyboard you're screwed. It is a travesty you're whipped with until you accept it.

2- After intro you spawn in a station and nothing else is given; what first mission to be taken, what to worry with, to shop or to go look for, etc.

3- The game is launched never prompting you which language you want first.

4- Game won't look very good even on ultra. I had to turn off AMD Fidelity until it got a little better (I had to reboot each time to prevent more bugs). When adjusting, graphics were still so weird I realize now that it isn't a visual bomb anymore. Perhaps I arrived too late for the party?


Insane manual descent and route alignment. By default, a crazy thing crawls your skull; planet descent. When you need to FTL jump or supercruise, no matter if you "lock" the destination, often there is no automatic alignment system. The "assistance" after toggling it is relative, and to descend into a planet, manual labor is required to adjust (it feels unnecessary.) There is no proper automation for these features. Galaxy Map acts up on how exhaustive it can get to be. This is where Star Citizen gets it right; route plot and planet descent.

You're told to forget all dog-fighters to continue. I have never seen a ship control so damn confusing---specially when using mouse for orientation. I guess they were trying something more realistic or whatever, since Roll and Pitch are more efficient for actual turning than Yaw. You're left to Yaw with the other hand with A and D on the keyboard---it took a lot of time for me to adjust and I mean it----you're not handling a fighter jet, this is sci-fi.


AI pretends to be smart but its the scripts that makes most of the dirty work. When you start, no matter the lack of first steps entry try to the universe, you will be fulminated by enemies during dogfights in a few seconds. This slowly turns into a message; an insect crawling through your ears whispering "grind for 10 hours more or buy new ships with Arx."


Very unintuitive. Even the galaxy map is not traditional movement. All the interface, shorts, menus, are all a middle-finger to whoever's looking. The interface is like an unnecessary new OS you need to learn together with the whole game. Once you do learn it, then you can try to have fun with the game but you're left to wonder.

"Who the fakk did it this way and why?"


☆ Large disposition of missions and category of missions. Decent Sci-fi epic vibrations offers great escapism overall.

☆ Faction system is an impressive construct. Dozens of leaders, hierarchical powers, you even get to pick a side in "Power Play." The BGS (background simulation) is very organic.

☆ The market system is complex if you take time to understand it. The best I've seen in sci-fi.


☆ Immersive large universe and features begging to be explored. Some solar systems remains to this date unexplored for years. Add that to the BGS and fun is quite immersive.

☆ This is a weird pro; There is no microtransaction for direct pay-to-win, but indirectly it is. You can buy ships---but they can be heavily farmed in-game (its intense grind).

☆ Not everyone likes "Newtonian Lite" physics but I do. Realistic enough to feel weighty, but not much it's tedious.


✸ You open the launcher, it asks to confirm Steam each time. It got virtual cache bugs.

✸ Manual surface approach in the year 3300. In real life, fossil propeled rockets can auto land.

✸ Entering and exiting vehicles takes loading screens, though its black-screened.

✸ Graphics and modelling are atrocious. Some ships like Adder are vomit inducing.

✸ Stations and NPCs are often repetitive and limited.

✸ Wasted opportunity: There is only 3rd person perspective for screenshots. Cameras won't save positions.

✸ Planet surface is often ugly and with poor variety of landscapes.

✸ Lacks more attention to details and QOA density. Example; you don't start in quarters, there is no ship interior, no small tasks or side activities, etc.

✸ Needs integrated tutorial and more intuitive controls ASAP.

✸ Needs to unleash PC gaming full potential now that consoles have been ditched.

✸ Server connection issues are rampant in some regions and star systems.


✸ Limit of 400 Ark currency farmeable peer week. Another game acting as a non-paid job you must always check-in.

✸ Systems are designed to abide: temporary missions runs a real-world clock. Unfinished missions got heavy penalties.

✸ Aggressive on the approach of everything. Even salty rewards to get you addicted.

✸ A lot of real-life time and focus will be required to travel around and properly outfit a ship. Due the nature of the early gameplay, I'd say same effort as a real job.

✸ Real money can be used to buy ships. Might happen after you give due unfair encounters.


Extreme steep learning curve. The game provides minimal hand-holding at the start (possibly intentionally) and its complex systems of flight controls, navigation, trading, combat, engineering, powerplay, etc. Require extreme time and reliance in unnoficial user content (YouTube, wikis, community sites like Inara and EDDB).

Lack of Direction. As a true "sandbox" game, Elite doesn't have a strong narrative or questline to guide new players. You're dropped into a vast galaxy with a basic ship and told "go do stuff." This can be overwhelming for players used to more structured experiences.

Pace. Elite Dangerous is a slow-burn game to the extreme and progression can be a long grind like no other in the genre.


To preserve my sanity I had to step down for a time. I did what I could after learning but slow results smells like the game wants to force me to stay while whipping my back. Community is full of angry trolls insulting different opinions, it shows how this game can be a bit unhealthy.

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