Elite: Dangerous

GENRE: Buy to play Online Space MMO
PLATFORM: Windows
DEVELOPER: Frontier Developments

OVERVIEW

Elite: Dangerous is a pay to play space simulator MMO that resurrects the much loved Elite franchise after almost 20 years since their previous title and 30 years since the original Elite game. In this new battle among the stars allow players to choose from a variety of different roles as captains of their own ships from traders, bounty hunters, Pirates and more they can align themselves with three superpowers that now control entire galaxies.

KEY FEATURES

- Newest game from the Elite franchise
- Dynamic Galactic events that affect everyone
- Space combat with fully customizable ships
- Choose your role: Bounty Hunter, Pirate, Trader and more

GAMEPLAY

In this complete sandbox culture players will start out life with but a few credits to their name and the most basic of starships and from there it is down to them what they do with their life and what path they take in this galaxy teaming with anarchy, intrigue and war. Pilots will be able to travel across the stars seeking out new wonders, make trade between the various systems to earn profit, take on multiplayer missions to bring in some extra credits or partake in free from all group raiding to try and topple entire planetary economies and have a knock-on effect that will ripple throughout the galaxy.

With a proposed 100 billion star systems players will be able to play however they want to, making friends, allies and enemies and working towards upgrading their own ship and huge hulking cargo trade ships to fast and fleet fighter ship’s, ideal for an opportunistic pirate. In the course of their adventure players will slowly increase their pilot rating in the hopes of one day becoming “Elite ”.

DYNAMIC GALAXY

The players within the game being able to actively react to events that dynamically occur within the game means that they will directly be able to change and define the shape of the Galaxy at large. For example a planets deciding to build a new space station will put contracts for players to bring resources to the construction site and over time it will slowly build up, once finally finished there will be an opening ceremony (though not witnessed by the players) and dignitaries, VIPs and the president himself may wish to attend. Once again more mission contracts will be sent out for players to transport these NPC’s to the location, however rival factions may also put out assassination attempts on these characters and so the player carrying them suddenly becomes a target themselves!

Similarly it planets that may be undergoing a planetary wide famine after crop failure may task players to bring in large quantity of crops, with the players can do and may even take advantage of the planet and sell their wares at a much higher markup. Nearby rival systems may see this planet struggling, more so if it has had to curtail its military funding and sell off ships to purchase food, and try to take advantage by performing a blockade and the forced annex of the planet into their system. Players will real to choose sides and depending upon the result of the scenario will have lasting effects on both the planets outcome and the reputation of the player between both factions.

COMBAT

Both PVE and PVP will be accessible in the game with various rule sets available as players create their own servers and choose the groups of players they wish to give access to their system, allowing more hard-core PVP modes or more cooperative PVE focused gameplay. One of the reasons for this is to avoid player griefing, however there are more softer approaches such as NPC policing and bounty systems to try and avoid negative gameplay. Players will also be able to play the game in a single player off-line mode that has no relevance to the perpetual online game.

Players will have various hard points on their ship that they can equip with various weapons and missiles for going up against their enemies in full 360 manoeuvrable combat. Ships will damage over time, losing parts of their whole and even cargo that other players can pick up, even derelict ships can be full looted although be careful as what may appear to be a derelict abandoned ship may in fact be an ambush waiting to happen!

Most interestingly is that as combat continues to go on of a longer periods of time players ships will give off heat signals that can be seen from further and further away will no doubt begin to attract more interested parties into the fray.

TO THE FUTURE

The game will continually roll out new content and features such as the already planned future expansion features of planetary landings where players will be able to disembark from their ships and explore space stations, planets and even enemy vessels. Small updates will be free whereas larger expansions must be purchased and less players have bought an expansion pass or are one of the initial Kickstarter crowdfunding backers (of an appropriate backing level).

SYSTEM REQUIREMENT

O/S: Windows
CPU: Quad Core
RAM: 2GB
Video: DC10 Hardware GPU with 1GB Video RAM
DirectX Version: 11