Elite: Dangerous is here! Well, nearly. At the time of writing you can “pre-order” (or as a cynic may say you can buy your way into the beta) to have a bit of a play with things to see how the game is shaping up. When I first heard that David Braben was launching a Kickstarter to bring us a new version of Elite I was both excited and nervous. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. The premise was simple; to do exactly what Elite has always done but with modern hardware. No flashy bells and whistles that we really don’t need, just the same breathtaking core gameplay brought kicking and screaming into the 21st century. So, how is it shaping up so far?

Rather well, if my short time in the beta is anything to go by. All of the core components that we know and love from Elite, Frontier: Elite 2 and Fronter: First Encounters are there. Initially it can be quite overwhelming, being dropped into the middle of space in your ship with nothing in the way of a tutorial brings back a world of nostalgia for me. Games did indeed used to be harder; I’m not saying that this is a good thing but a steep learning curve was often something we used to accept in days gone by. Half of the fun of gaming was figuring out what you could and could not do, as technology improved and gaming became more mainstream we began to expect games to hold our hand and lead us from place to place. Not so in the current beta revision of Elite: Dangerous, although I imagine there will be a tutorial in place for launch.

Go where you want to go, do what you want to do. And the best part is, thanks to the new on-line mode you can now do this with other people. I applaud the team at Frontier Developments for sticking to their guns and quite literally bringing us the old games we grew up on, loved, and lost entire weekends of our lives to once again. “If it ain’t broke don’t fit it” springs to mind, and Elite was never broken to begin with. So what has changed? The first obvious thing is the graphics. Space is beautiful, full of planets, nebula, constellations, debris, all of which are brought to life with some superb lighting. The cockpit and HUD effects are sublime, you really feel like you are sat in your cosy little ship exploring the galaxy. Combat is beautifully realised, in true Star Trek fashion you can enjoy your consoles exploding, your cockpit splitting and everything shattering around you in gloriously rendered over-the-top detail. It’s worth getting yourself shot to bits a few times just to enjoy the spectacle, and it also serves as a nice visual guide, as the fight progresses you’re acutely aware of your ship falling apart around you.

One of the most spectacular features of the Elite series has always been the sense of real world physics that was applied to the ships as they travelled through space. This has been replicated to a large extent, although it has understandably been slightly simplified in a way that all players will appreciate. Generally speaking your on-board flight computer will provide a more “atmospheric” sense of flight, but this can be disabled with the push of a button allowing you to perform some Battlestar Galactica-esque manoeuvres in a fully realised Newtonian way. Using both of these methods of flight control give a great advantage in combat as you can flip from one to the other to surprise your opponent, be they player or NPC.

At the moment in the current beta release (1.06) only a small portion of the universe is realised and open for exploration, but obviously this is going to expand massively before launch. The only thing currently lacking is atmospheric flight, and because of this some of the systems can feel a little bit sparse. Fear not however, this is going to be one of the first things to be rectified in a post launch expansion. Frontier Developments are thinking and planning well ahead which is only good news for the consumer, they also plan to add the ability to get up from your pilots chair and explore your own ship in another future expansion, something of a first for the Elite universe. This will then logically be expanded further to include walking around on stations, and eventually planets.

It’s easy to get excited again when you hear everything that the developers have planned for the future of Elite: Dangerous, I only hope that the community stick with the game for the long term and give it a chance to fully mature. It promises to deliver a fully immersive and ever expanding universe that is a true sandbox; something we can take the time to properly explore and immerse ourselves in. There is competition on the horizon in the form of Star Citizen, and comparisons with the ever popular EVE Online are bound to be made my many. I have absolutely no doubts that if the game continues to receive support from players that it will develop into something mind-bogglingly stunning in the future.

That isn’t to say the game in its current state isn’t good, in fact it is a very enjoyable space simulator that teases a huge amount of space to explore when it finally launches. However it is offering nothing fundamentally new over previous Elite games other than an (admittedly stunning) lick of paint. In all fairness this is probably the most sensible place to start from for both the developers and the gamers. The former can start from a place they know well before venturing into uncharted territory, and the latter can re-acclimate themselves with a franchise that many already know and love dearly. Many people get upset at the notion of expansions and admittedly many publishers use them as a way to rake in extra profit by releasing content that should have been included with the game after it has launched, this I understand. However a game like Elite: Dangerous can use expansions to continually evolve the universe and player experience as time allows.

If Frontier Developments ensure that the game is solid and enjoyable with plenty to see and do on release, and follow up with regular expansion packs that bring us new features, ships, things to do, places to see and people to talk to then I can see Elite: Dangerous becoming a classic that will remain a staple on many people’s gaming systems for many years to come. We’ll keep an eye on Elite: Dangerous as beta progresses and bring you further previews as we get closer to launch which is currently scheduled for the end of 2014.

Addendum: Literally 24 hours before this article was scheduled to be released Frontier Developments released a brand new patch updating beta to 2.02. This has brought with it a huge number of tweaks and improvements. There are now a number of well constructed tutorial scenarios that take you through the basics of docking, navigation, and combat. It also includes exploration as something with goals that will reward credits, rather than just exploring for the sake of sightseeing the beautiful galaxy that has been created. The HUD and interface have been refined and streamlined so it all feels somewhat more intuitive, and the lighting has been tweaked to make space even more spectacular. If these patches continue refining Elite: Dangerous it is set to be a great game in fantastic shape when it launches.

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