The space MMO Elite: Dangerous is currently receiving a lot of praise and attention from the international press and gaming community. Together with Star Citizen, it could revive the long-thought-dead genre of space simulation – this time as a game that certainly makes use of the means of an MMO. It’s truly high time we paid a visit to the game.
For a first foray into the world of Elite, we managed to enlist the YouTuber Shumbok, who specializes in quieter strategy and indie titles and is already neck-deep in the beta of Elite: Dangerous:
Good morning Commander, today I want to introduce you to a very special space flight simulation.
Elite: Dangerous is the fourth part of the Elite series, which originated in 1984 and thus founded a new genre. For the first time, economic simulation and space flight simulation were combined, making it one of the first “open-world” games with thousands of planets. Due to its great popularity, two more installments followed: Frontier: Elite 2, arguably the most successful part of the series, and the somewhat less popular Elite 3: First Encounters. The special features of the Elite games are their tendency towards realistic physics, very free action, a focus on the “Han Solo” feeling, and the constant sensation of impending death at your back.
19 years after the release of the last version, David Braben, one of the creators and developers of the series, launched the fourth installment of Elite: Dangerous through a successful Kickstarter campaign.
Elite: Dangerous has now reached its first beta phase after spending about four months in a premium beta. The biggest modernization, besides the graphics, is probably the ability to experience Elite: Dangerous in an open or private multiplayer mode upon request, which seamlessly ties into the single-player game. In open mode, it behaves similarly to an MMO, where many players are thrown into different space instances with automated matchmaking, where they can pass the time trading, robbing, chatting, and completing missions together. But be careful! Here too, the police, pirates, and bounty hunters are on your tail.
Furthermore, we can already admire the first faction battles, the trading system, piracy, currently 6 controllable ships, and 55 of the planned 400 billion star systems. You can find more information about the current state of the beta in this little showcase about Elite: Dangerous.
