Elite Dangerous
Take control of your own starship in a cutthroat galaxy. Elite Dangerous is the definitive massively multiplayer space epic.
Elite Dangerous is a space sim, space and open world game
developed and published by Frontier Developments.
Released on April 02nd 2015 is available only on Windows
in 6 languages: English, French, German, Russian, Spanish - Spain and Portuguese - Brazil.
It has received 97,289 reviews of which 75,100 were positive and 22,189 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.6 out of 10. 😊
The game is currently priced at 19.99€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Elite Dangerous into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Elite Dangerous through various videos and screenshots.
Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows 8/10 64-bit
- Processor: Quad Core CPU (4 x 2Ghz)
- Memory: 6 GB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GTX 470/AMD R7 240
- DirectX: Version 11
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 25 GB available space
- VR Support: SteamVR. Keyboard or gamepad required
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Let me tell you about one of my favorite games that I have played on and off for many years. 1) The game is visually stunning. Even the most desolate rocks out in the universe still look amazing, and the sky-box is down right mesmerizing, with every star in the sky actually moving positions in the sky as you move from start system to start system. 2) The game is massive, a complete 1:1 scale of the Milky Way Galaxy. If you ever wanted to travel to Sagittarius A and see the black hole at the center of the universe, you can do so; just expect to take a few hours of flight time to get there because it ain't close. (To set expectations though, black holes in the game are the one thing lacking visually and I hope one day they re design them) 3) The game has a lot to do. Want to be a bounty hunter? Go do it! Want to be a pirate? Go do it! You want to mine ore from asteroids and/or haul thousands of tons of materials or trade goods across the galaxy in a massive fleet carrier? Go do it! On top of all the above, we are getting the ability to colonize new star systems soon which will give the players the ability to build (pre-designed) space stations and star ports in currently unoccupied systems, bringing a whole new way to play the game in 2025; not to mention the possibility that a new alien conflict is likely to happen in the future after we start expanding outward so there is that to look forward to as well. If I have to give one caveat about the game, it's that the game has no structure. It is a sandbox game through and through, so if the idea of coming up with your own objectives in an open ended game doesn't sound like fun to you, you may want to stay away. Otherwise, if that all sounds great to you, welcome to the galaxy commander! o7
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Elite Dangerous is a frustrating grindfest, with the learning curve of an Apollo mission heading for the moon, ultimately pointless and demoralising at every turn. Playing this game is the closest simulation to having your fingernails torn out under torture that you can experience without stealing money from a drug cartel. Which is just how we like it.
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I hope I can provide a balanced review here because generally, I see negative reviews from people that don't fully understand it. First thing to note is that Elite Dangerous is much more of a hobby than a video game. It falls in the simulation category and whilst not quite as involved as some of the higher end flight sims, its definitely more for those of us that enjoy configuration and button pushing. It isn't actually as complex as it initially looks and the training missions get you in a good place to start enjoying the game. It has a 3-bar power management system like star wars squadrons and if you can cope with that you will be well on the way. If Squadrons was way too much for you, stop reading and save your money. It has different career paths that you can switch between, each a lot of fun in there own right: mining, trading, bounty hunting, piracy, exploration. The environment is a simulation of our galaxy and is MASSIVE . It does not have a plot/narrative but it does have an active, living & breathing economy and political system which you can influence. You often get smaller 'side-quests' missions with mini-stories but if narrative play is your thing, ED is not for you. Online community: no where near as toxic as some. I get frustrated with them because they clearly put new players off but most are super helpful in the usual forums. One guy in particular has helped me make literally billions, really quickly. Grind: This is really way easier now than it used to be which has sped up the rate at which you can 'level up' and take on more challenging missions with greater rewards but remember the game levels up with you. Remember though nothing is free, everything in life takes patience and work if you haven't got that fundamental life skill yet then ED is definitely not for you! You start with bugger all. Difficulty: I'm just going to say it - In PvE, this game is only ever as hard as challenging as you make it. It levels up really well. Online services like Inara make it very easy for you to start trading. You don't have to grind every last upgrade out of the game to enjoy it. You can enjoy it straight out of the box. That people have somehow managed to make the experience all about the grind says more about them than it does the game. That isn't the case with PvP, where you will come across very skilled people with incredible ships, some of whom might not have the best intentions. I will likely draw flak from the smaller but more 'hardcore' following, you know the sort - buy a game with lots of configuration options to satisfy the endless need to tweak and then constantly complain because nothing is good enough, yep ED has them too. Make tons of noise about features and then whinge about having to pay to get early access to new ships. Complain about the grind being too hard and then complain when its made more accessible to new users. A lot of the -ve reviews and noise in the forums is essentially the same old cavalry of gatekeeping neckbeards that you see in any kind of gaming community.
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What to say about Elite... Firstly, the game itself is incredible, in many ways. It's incredibly beautiful. Any screenshot of some of the most mundane stuff is absolutely amazing. The engine, though somewhat dated, is extremely complex, going down into detail to such things as how planetary atmosphere compositions scatter and bend light into different wavelengths, or how star systems that were randomly generated at the start of the game were made as realistically as we know. It helps that Frontier Developments actually enlisted the help of astrophysicists and the like to help design the engine; many members of that team are actually memorialized in the game one way or the other. Elite is incredibly massive. The game has been around since 2014 (2013 if you want to be technical). A decade later, and certainly not for lack of trying, less than a percent of the galaxy has been mapped. It is just so incredibly large, so diverse, that it may take the entire community many, many lifetimes, no exaggeration, to map even a full percent. The scale is, pun intended, truly astronomical, and goes a long way to showing you just how small we are. Elite is incredibly rich; the lore itself dates back to the original game from 1984, and reading the codex, you can even see the references about it all. The galaxy is very much alive, especially now that Frontier has gotten their heads back on it seems (more on that later), with events constantly happening and being driven by the playerbase. This is the community's story as a whole, for sure, but there's a whole few thousand years of history from before Elite:Dangerous came into being, so to speak, starting all the way from Yuri Gagarin launching to space. It's scattered across the sect of human-colonized space colloquially called the 'bubble' in the forms of data beacons, abandoned megaships, and more, all with their own story behind them. Elite is, however, incredibly, INCREDIBLY grindy. It has been made much easier with recent updates, but those updates were too long in coming and certainly saw a large portion of potential players and seasoned commanders leaving before they happened. Money isn't the grind, it's the materials required to upgrade your ship's modules, weapons, and more to be 'the best' at your chosen profession, be it bounty hunting, exploring, fighting for one of the galactic superpowers, fighting the alien invaders and defending humanity on what was, until recently, a losing war, or more. Again, made much easier now, but even if it was enough, it was still too late. Elite is incredibly frustrating. I say this as someone who experienced it personally; starting as a new player, expect to be ganked by seasoned veterans who have nothing better than to constantly kill fresh players because it's the only way they can level themselves up; anyone with half a brain would wipe them. Of course, in light of that, there are communities of players who dedicate themselves to hunting those same players down and clearing the way for those fresh players, and now you have solo play, where only you will be in your galaxy; you still share it with the rest of the playerbase, but you won't see them and they won't see you (NPCs can and will still try to take your cargo though, you aren't safe). Every now and then, a game bug will cause you to experience catastrophic damage to your ship, or a NPC pirate (or player) will interdict your cargo ship and kill you a few thousand kilometers (about 3 seconds' flight time) from your destination, but that's how it is. Brutal and frustrating. And you can't always rely on the security forces to help you out. The biggest gripe with Elite isn't the game, but the company running it. Frontier Developments, for the last few years, chose to virtually abandon what can be described as their flagship title to pursue other genres of games, some of which worked, most of which flopped. While I'm all for companies trying new things and broadening their horizons, that firstly shouldn't be done at the cost of a very well-loved, money-making franchise, and secondly, if those new things fall flat, don't try to keep pumping them up, especially when the hole causing the leak still exists. At the start of this year (2024), Fdev had a little sit down with their folks, shareholders, etc etc, and figured out that maybe, instead of trying things that still aren't working for them, they should focus on the things that have been. Granted, that introduced some new monetization into the game, but it isn't even close to pay-to-win, or even pay-to-progress-faster...maybe along the lines of pay-to-skip-a-bit-of-that-grind-I-mentioned-earlier. And of course, there's skins for your ships, space suits, and surface vehicles. Many customization for many things, but the currency can be earned, 400 ARX (the premium currency) every week, simply playing the game. No missions to do, just play the game your way, and you'll earn it. And if you're adverse to spending any money but want some sort of customization? Every now and then, for holidays, community events, etc, you can earn some stuff by completing a set of missions that might have you go on a bit of a goose chase, or complete 'x' objective in concert with the rest of the playerbase to unlock new tech with bonus skins for certain contribution tiers. Credit where credit is due, Fdev do seem to be trying, but myself and many other long-time commanders are remaining wary. Elite is certainly a game worth buying if you have time, and a lot of it. Expect to get addicted, if you enjoy space and science fiction, but that ebbs and flows. Find your niche in the game, and learn to love it, but don't be afraid to try out new things too. And there's always a group of players who can and will help you out, as long as you find the right ones.
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I was looking for a good and not repetitive space game. Tried No Mans Sky and Starfield. Put around 50hs on each and got really really tired of the same thing over and over, mainly NMS's "procedural worlds" that vary almost nothing one another, and SF's boring and limited worlds and repetitive story. Tried Elite: Dangerous and achieved 101hs now at the time of writing and still feeling I have a real varied space to explore and game mechanics to learn. This game feels real infinite and random wherever you go, and involves markets and politics as well. Like other said, this is not for everyone and it doesn't hold your hand at all. Lots of researching, reading, and absorbing required to get into this. It's been a great experience. I'm just so into it.
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 19 November 2024 00:12 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 20 January 2025 10:49 |
| Steam price | 22 January 2025 20:47 |
| Steam reviews | 21 January 2025 00:08 |
Online players
6,862
Developer
Frontier Developments
Publisher
Frontier Developments
Release
02 Apr 2015
Platforms
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