Why Elite Dangerous could become one of the most immersive games of all time

Let's get the awkward part out of the way, I'm not what people would call a hardcore gamer. Don't get me wrong, I love games but generally I'm carried in many by people who dedicate ridiculous hours into the same game because their free time permits it. My enjoyment of games stems from the fact that I look for a bit of escapism from the working day and only apply a healthy amount of time to them (which means different things to different people). Now take all of what I've said above on-board, because by the end of this article you'll be thinking that I have done the complete opposite in the case of Elite Dangerous.

To understand my obsession with Elite Dangerous now, we have to go back to my childhood when the family computer was an Amstrad CPC 464. I played games all the time as a kid, eventually the family computer became my computer and I didn't get another system until the Super Nintendo. One day I purchased a copy of Amstrad Action magazine with my pocket money because it had a free game on it, that free game was Elite and was voted best game on the CPC and given away with the 100th issue of Amstrad Action.

By my guess I had acquired Elite a good ten years after its initial release and the Amstrad CPC industry was in significant decline as gaming moved towards more PC and console areas. For a game released in 1984 to stand up like it has for that period of time says it all. All my friends were doing speed runs where they finished a title so many times they knew exactly what to expect and where to expect it on systems like the Super Nintendo, and here I was in 1994 sucked into a retro classic for ridiculous amount of hours. The notion of an open-world game with no physical ending and complete freedom to play how you wish was something completely unknown to me previously. No two gameplay experiences would ever be the same and all this content on one cassette tape, it was mind blowing.

The game left a significant legacy, often cited as one of the most influential games in history and the first combined open-world/open-ended game. When you think about the titles it influenced directly, particularly early MMORPGs, it would be hard to dispute such bold claims.

The two sequels, Frontier: Elite II and Frontier: First Encounters, both had good success and built upon the original Elite both in graphical and simulation terms. For example, Frontier: Elite II was on a much larger scale and included planetary landings.

Fast forward to 2012, there had been no official Elite series game since 1995 and Frontier were having difficulty obtaining sufficient funding to publish the next installment. The difference between 2012 and 1995 was that now crowdfunding had become a thing and was the catalyst to creating Elite: Dangerous. A Windows version came out first in 2014 followed by an expansion into Xbox's Game Preview program, which is the version I picked up. Yes, it was buggy as hell with frequent crashes and who could forget the Rainbow Borg Cube of Doom, but it was Game Preview so I'm not sure what people were expecting.

Despite these initial problems you could see the immense potential, a 1:1 scale universe including real-time rotation and orbiting of planets with the absolute freedom of its predecessors. Some of the "pew pew boom" generation dismissed the core product as a "space trucking simulator", for me it is part of its charm and one of MANY lifestyle options available to players. Yes there will be times, like in life, where you will find yourself having to do things you don't particularly want to do in order to do the things that you do want to do, however many games include this level of grinding and players should be somewhat used to it and in most cases embrace it.

For those players who required a pick up and play simple space combat option, there is an Arena (formerly CQC) mode separate to the game's ever evolving world. For the minority who didn't wish to encounter other players online, there is a Solo Play mode. My personal feeling is that this mode detracts from the full joy and unpredictability of Elite: Dangerous. Sure, in Open Play there are player controlled pilots who hunt other player controlled pilots to rob them or worse and I've found myself in these situations a number of times. Even in this scenario you have options, you can either fight, flee or give them what they want. You're assessing the situation and pitting your wits, skills and ship capabilities not against a machine but another sentient being. You care about risks and consequences, you realise that morality varies from pilot to pilot and the good guy doesn't always win. Indulge for long enough and you see that Elite: Dangerous is no ordinary form of escapism.

Elite: Dangerous received generally positive reviews on its full release but many felt the same as I did in the fact that it was a promising start but there was so much more to be done that can be done with sufficient resources.

The key to the longevity of any game is usually investment and updates in order to maintain a captive audience. While fixing issues/bugs from the early days Frontier worked on enhancements to the game's experience, resulting in the Horizons expansion. This expansion gave players more of what they asked for, more potential missions, planetary landings, ships that could launch small combat fighters, engineers that could customise ships to uniquely differentiate from stock models and the addition of co-op multicrew for ships over a certain size.

The game world itself is ever changing and is directly consequential of the involvement of all pilots. Political influences, factions and powerful figureheads all play a part in shaping the universe much like it does in real life. Community events run on a frequent basis to enable co-operation, interaction and in some cases opposition.

Should you wish to subscribe by email, you can also receive a game world newsletter (Galnet) to keep up with the latest changes and events. When you look on the Frontier forum online, you'll see how seriously some players take Elite: Dangerous' game world, adopting back stories and personas in their discussions.

Although Elite: Dangerous has already come a long way since initial release, there is still so much more to come. The PS4 version release occurred in June 2017 which was welcomed by Playstation gamers after the disappointment of No Man's Sky, this brings the potential for future cross platform gaming however there is always a lot of negotiating required to achieve this. The multiplayer options now give you the opportunity to truly feel part of a crew with your friends, providing you can find friends that are committed enough. The game's 'free look' function was implemented early in the game and with VR compatibility notably through Oculus Rift you cannot deny that Frontier's ambition is to create something that you can 100% immerse your senses into and forget your other life.

See you in the black, Commanders. 07 (that's a salute by the way, took me months to figure that out!)