Elite Dangerous has been around on PC for a while now but it’s the Xbox One’s turn to get a piece of the space action.
I say action, but your first encounter with Elite Dangerous will probably be similar to mine; mill around in space and practice docking numerous times before you get it right, then realise that you don’t have to actually wait five years to get to another nearby planet if you work out how to use hyperspace.
It wasn’t until at least a few hours in that I even met another player, but this is how Elite is supposed to be, it’s mostly a game of trading and ‘space trucking’ between stops until you get a decent ship and weapons to take on more dangerous tasks like bounty hunting or taking on pirates.
Even after you’ve tooled up, Elite can be ponderous, but in the best possible way. Â It’s a voyage of discovery with no hints or tips along the way, it demands a community of like-minded people and experts to guide you along on social media.
The journey, though, can be beautiful at times.  Not out in deep space, obviously, though the back void has a sort of beauty all of its own, but hang around the edge of planets or many of the different space stations and you’ll appreciate the work put into the asthetics, not to mention the sheer scale of star systems on offer all in crisp native 1080p/60fp.
I was initially concerned over how the many keyboard controls would work when mapped to a single Xbox One controller but Frontier have done wonders to make the transition as smooth as possible. Â Purists who’ve played this on PC may still balk at the idea of a controller-based Elite (the PC version supports them, however) but it does feel like a natural fit.
If you’ve got the patience for the space travel and the wait to upgrade to a ship which is a bit more practical then Elite Dangerous has loads to offer. It’s certainly a unique offering on Xbox One.
Elite: Dangerous
Pros
- Vast area to explore
- Open ended gameplay
- Trading, combat and piracy await
Cons
- Take a long time to get going
- can feel empty at times
- Could do with a better tutorial
