Elite is a fantastic game, if you enjoy the type of game that Elite is. This game is not for everyone. My suggestion for most new prospective players is to buy the basic Elite Dangerous game and give it a try. If you are still hooked after 10 hours or so, then buy the Horizons expansion.

At its core, Elite Dangerous is a single-player spaceship simulation game. Yes, there is action. Yes there is multiplayer. However you will not be jumping right into the action, you will need to learn a lot of controls, and you will not be running into other players constantly as in a typical MMO. In fact it is possible to play this game completely single player, and many players prefer to play it that way.

Elite simulates the entire Milky Way galaxy. Literally. There is a human "bubble" of hundreds of star systems, consisting of thousands of space stations and outposts to explore. There are three major "careers" to Elite Dangerous, and two minor careers. The major careers are trading, bounty hunting, and exploring. The minor careers are mining and piracy. During the game you can easily experience whichever of these careers most appeal to you whenever you wish. I've done all of them. The huge variety of activities in Elite will keep you busy for a LONG time.

In terms of core gameplay, you pick up missions from stations to deliver goods, destroy ships, hunt down pirates, take passengers to new locations, and more. Or you can ignore these missions and go bounty hunt, find trade routes, and explore on your own. You use the money earned from these activities to buy bigger ships and better modules to equip your ships with. With Horizons, you can then tweak and customize your ship modules to suit a wide variety of purposes.

On a scale of Arcade Game to Flight Simulator, Elite's target gauge is leaning more towards Flight Simulator. This is not a shoot 'em up arcade style game. There are dozens of controls. One of the strengths of Elite is that you can fly it with a game controller, a keyboard and mouse, or a joystick and throttle. I've done all three, and I personally love the joystick and throttle setup. Buying a HOTAS makes Elite an incredible experience. You can even go further with VR. If you want arcade-style action, this may not be the game for you.

The game is absolutely beautiful. The ship graphics, stations, planets, stars, etc are all gorgeous. Alien ruins, artifacts and ships are huge, mysterious and frightening. Music and sound design are also incredible.

Elite can be a game for relaxing. On exploration trips I will frequently watch Netflix or listen to podcasts or music while I go. I'll do the same while mining. For some players this marks these activities as boring. I can understand that, but to me it's a lot of fun. The good news is that these activities are almost completely optional, so you don't need to do them.
You might need to do a tiny bit of mining or exploring to unlock some engineer content.

Many people talk about the "grind" of Elite, so I feel like I should address it. If you start a new character in a MMO game, and set your sight on getting that character to level 100 (or whatever the maximum is) and work as hard and as fast as you can to reach that goal, without taking time to enjoy the activities to get you there, that MMO is going to feel like a "grind" to you, yes? Elite is the same way. If you set your sights on the end-game ships like the Anaconda, Cutter, and Corvette, and work as hard and as fast as you can to earn those ships, the game will feel like a grind to you, you will get bored, and you will probably dislike the game. The truth of the matter is that there is nothing you can do in an end-game ship that you cannot also do in a mid-game ship. This is not an MMO where the "goal" is to get to the "end game content". Some players treat it that way, and get frustrated by the journey.

That said, there are some progression issues with the game as it stands now. Early game you will find you can get out of your starting ship very early. You'll then be able to upgrade several times in a fairly short amount of time. After that, the game slows down quite a bit, and you'll find yourself in the middle tier for a while. Getting to the final Corvette and the Cutter DO require what I would term repetitive, grindy play unfortunately. This is simply because the ranks to unlock these ships require an unfair amount of mission completions to earn. Hopefully this will be addressed in the future.

Some players may find other types of activity in the game grindy, but for me, unlocking the Corvette was the only instance where I felt this. Your experience may vary.

One aspect of the game that will frustrate some players is the lack of in-game resources to perform in-game activities and get in-game information. There are many websites such as Inara and EDDB which are devoted to providing in-game information that players need, such as trade routes, engineer information, where certain ship modules can be purchased, etc. I acknowledge this is an issue, but the Elite community has rallied around the development of these websites to an impressive degree. If you find yourself playing a lot of Elite, you will find yourself using these third party websites quite frequently.

Some players will not like Elite. Some players will enjoy it but not get into it. Others will love it. I think for most players who are interested in space games, Elite will at the minimum be a good value. I have wasted a lot more money than $30 on games that turned out to be terrible. If you pick up Elite, even if you end up putting it down after 20-30 hours and don't really "get into it" you will likely still get your money's worth. For me personally, I've put hundreds of hours into it. I've purchased a HOTAS specifically to play it. I will put it down occasionally and come back to it after a month or two.

The game's developer is very connected with the community and frequently updates the game with significant changes. I expect I will still be playing Elite on-and-off literally for years to come.

Elite is a fantastic game, if you enjoy the type of game that Elite is. This game is not for everyone. My suggestion for most new prospective players is to buy the basic Elite Dangerous game and give it a try. If you are still hooked after 10 hours or so, then buy the Horizons expansion. At its core, Elite Dangerous is a single-player spaceship simulation game. Yes, there is action. Yes there is multiplayer. However you will not be jumping right into the action, you will need to learn a lot of controls, and you will not be running into other players constantly as in a typical MMO. In fact it is possible to play this game completely single player, and many players prefer to play it that way. Elite simulates the entire Milky Way galaxy. Literally. There is a human "bubble" of hundreds of star systems, consisting of thousands of space stations and outposts to explore. There are three major "careers" to Elite Dangerous, and two minor careers. The major careers are trading, bounty hunting, and exploring. The minor careers are mining and piracy. During the game you can easily experience whichever of these careers most appeal to you whenever you wish. I've done all of them. The huge variety of activities in Elite will keep you busy for a LONG time. In terms of core gameplay, you pick up missions from stations to deliver goods, destroy ships, hunt down pirates, take passengers to new locations, and more. Or you can ignore these missions and go bounty hunt, find trade routes, and explore on your own. You use the money earned from these activities to buy bigger ships and better modules to equip your ships with. With Horizons, you can then tweak and customize your ship modules to suit a wide variety of purposes. On a scale of Arcade Game to Flight Simulator, Elite's target gauge is leaning more towards Flight Simulator. This is not a shoot 'em up arcade style game. There are dozens of controls. One of the strengths of Elite is that you can fly it with a game controller, a keyboard and mouse, or a joystick and throttle. I've done all three, and I personally love the joystick and throttle setup. Buying a HOTAS makes Elite an incredible experience. You can even go further with VR. If you want arcade-style action, this may not be the game for you. The game is absolutely beautiful. The ship graphics, stations, planets, stars, etc are all gorgeous. Alien ruins, artifacts and ships are huge, mysterious and frightening. Music and sound design are also incredible. Elite can be a game for relaxing. On exploration trips I will frequently watch Netflix or listen to podcasts or music while I go. I'll do the same while mining. For some players this marks these activities as boring. I can understand that, but to me it's a lot of fun. The good news is that these activities are almost completely optional, so you don't need to do them. You might need to do a tiny bit of mining or exploring to unlock some engineer content. Many people talk about the "grind" of Elite, so I feel like I should address it. If you start a new character in a MMO game, and set your sight on getting that character to level 100 (or whatever the maximum is) and work as hard and as fast as you can to reach that goal, without taking time to enjoy the activities to get you there, that MMO is going to feel like a "grind" to you, yes? Elite is the same way. If you set your sights on the end-game ships like the Anaconda, Cutter, and Corvette, and work as hard and as fast as you can to earn those ships, the game will feel like a grind to you, you will get bored, and you will probably dislike the game. The truth of the matter is that there is nothing you can do in an end-game ship that you cannot also do in a mid-game ship. This is not an MMO where the "goal" is to get to the "end game content". Some players treat it that way, and get frustrated by the journey. That said, there are some progression issues with the game as it stands now. Early game you will find you can get out of your starting ship very early. You'll then be able to upgrade several times in a fairly short amount of time. After that, the game slows down quite a bit, and you'll find yourself in the middle tier for a while. Getting to the final Corvette and the Cutter DO require what I would term repetitive, grindy play unfortunately. This is simply because the ranks to unlock these ships require an unfair amount of mission completions to earn. Hopefully this will be addressed in the future. Some players may find other types of activity in the game grindy, but for me, unlocking the Corvette was the only instance where I felt this. Your experience may vary. One aspect of the game that will frustrate some players is the lack of in-game resources to perform in-game activities and get in-game information. There are many websites such as Inara and EDDB which are devoted to providing in-game information that players need, such as trade routes, engineer information, where certain ship modules can be purchased, etc. I acknowledge this is an issue, but the Elite community has rallied around the development of these websites to an impressive degree. If you find yourself playing a lot of Elite, you will find yourself using these third party websites quite frequently. Some players will not like Elite. Some players will enjoy it but not get into it. Others will love it. I think for most players who are interested in space games, Elite will at the minimum be a good value. I have wasted a lot more money than $30 on games that turned out to be terrible. If you pick up Elite, even if you end up putting it down after 20-30 hours and don't really "get into it" you will likely still get your money's worth. For me personally, I've put hundreds of hours into it. I've purchased a HOTAS specifically to play it. I will put it down occasionally and come back to it after a month or two. The game's developer is very connected with the community and frequently updates the game with significant changes. I expect I will still be playing Elite on-and-off literally for years to come.