Elite: Dangerous Odyssey

 Now that's a name I haven't heard since...

I do love taking a look at all the cool new games and expansions which pop up during trade shows, even if I have no interest in the game's in question, as it serves me many purposes. On one hand it shows the direction of the industry, what the millions will be spending their hard-earned bucks on and finally, ever now and then, I get to see something that I haven't thought about in literal years. Something that was once very special to me and a staple of my daily living, and something which I find myself greatly missing in these days where it feels like not a single moment is given to itself. (Am I getting too abstract again?) Let me be clear, I saw Elite Dangerous and I forgot how that was, for a time, my cool down game for which I owe a lot.

I'm being serious when I say that Elite Dangerous did a lot for me, or perhaps what I've said is more a comment of what I made out of it, either way the game was exactly what I needed when I need it. (And I'm not exactly sure if I've mentioned it before) Quiet simply, Elite Dangerous proposes a world where the galaxy is largely inhabited by a galactic society of human factions, all trying to make their best of life in the stars. The players all co-inhabit this universe and take on whatever roll they so choose, whether that be life as a mercenary, pirate, legitimate trader, faction loyalist or anything in between. And though that sounds all very exciting, in reality this all played out a lot more like a simulator than you'd might think, meaning that for someone like me, a trader who occasionally partook in light smuggling, the game would literally consist of hours of journeying rather than bouts of intense action.

I suppose that with such a concept the game would have a vastly different meaning to folk on another life path when compared to my one, but I basically would cruise around like a deep space trucker, only I worked mostly freelance. Essentially my job would be to roll into a station and fill my cargo hold with whatever item could make me the best profit and jump from star system to star system to get there. Which meant transit times occupied by nothing than the brilliance of space broken up by shimmering stars and the odd time when I would have to scoop in a slingshot maneuverer in order to charge up my engines for particularly long trips. Then I would come across two close by stations who would each have a profitable trade for one another and than exploit that until I was done. It was a very lonely way to play the game, to the point where I rarely ran into any other players at all (and I was skilled enough to wholly scoot around, pirates) but man was it perfect.

First off, Elite has always been such a beautiful game, so taking this sight-seeing tour through the universe was a true visual treat. In fact, despite the many years between them, I'd go so far as to say that Elite Dangerous' Universe is more aesthetically pleasing to explore than No Man Sky's. (Elite's celestial bodies certainly do display considerably less aliasing) Secondly, the very idea of traversing the black empty of space is so tantalising to me in some unexplainable fashion. I just found no better peace than the nights I spent with one screen on drift and the other watching old comedies, it's the sort of peace that can really soothe an agitated soul.

That being said, it's been a very long time since I've been able to partake and enjoy the simple pleasure of trading in Elite due simply to the way that the game snuck away from me. First there was the Horizon update which came with a price tag and thus kicked me offline, robbing me of those rare interactions I enjoyed, and then small nicks here and there wore me off of the game. Now I haven't played in years, but I still remember my time fondly. The game as I know it may be vastly different, but I'm sure my relaxation incentive is still in there somewhere, and maybe this Odyssey update is a good place to restart that adventure... 

If there is one thing that rubs me wrong about almost every single Space Sim ever made, it's the way that they almost always make the player literally be a spaceship, rather a person flying a spaceship. Now don't get me wrong, I understand why that is. When it comes to exploring space most Sims want to focus on the ship driven space exploration and therefore anytime outside of the ship almost feels redundant, but as an RPG lover myself I personally live for the moments of quite redundancy. The times in between that only a handful of folk appreciate. For example, whenever you enter a space port and have to deal with customs guiding you to a landing pad and making that landing, rather than the game going into autopilot the second you enter the facility. It adds that touch of immersion that I feel would only be made more complete if I had the chance to then get out and do my business in my human body. 

Now I don't know if Odyssey is going to go quite that far (I hope it does) but I know that real on-the-ground content is coming to Elite Dangerous and that's actually quite a boon for little ol' me. (I may just get back into it.) Heck, from the look of things this game is even going to have on-the-ground combat scenarios which places it worlds above 'Star Citizen' who, of course, had to exorcise theirs for quality control reasons. Either way, having the chance to explore the world outside of our ships, visiting outposts and maybe getting into the odd fire fight- I'm not entirely certain on everything the DLC will be adding, but even that alone sounds amazing.

So in a way I suppose this marks yet another way in which every other space sim is slowly starting to reach the glass ceiling that 'Star Citizen' set out to break those 8 year past, meanwhile SC can't even get a single fully fledged game together. (Once Capital Ships with multiple seats start coming, Cloud Imperium is gonna be screwed) I know it sounds like such a small thing to get excited over, but for me and others who feel like I do it's like a revolution, that one dream we all thought would never come true. Now all I have to do is wait the 4 years it takes for them to develop working ship interiors and I'll have my perfect Space sim game. But I guess what's there is good enough for now...