Elite: Dangerous
Rating Summary
Based on 68 critic reviews
OpenCritic Rating
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Top Critic
A great game and, with time, potentially a classic. Much rests on Frontier's ability to build on these broad but somewhat shallow foundations.
Top Critic
Elite: Dangerous puts you in some amazing spaceships, but doesn't always give you a lot to do with them.
Top Critic
There's a lot of balancing to be done in the long term, then, and the big hurdle for new players will be getting up to speed without losing interest in those stodgy early hours. The mid-point, where everything coalesces, is so liberating, so brilliant in its scope and possibility, that it's hard to be too upset about these wrinkles. For all its frustrations, you'll spend much longer in the sweet spot than you spend getting there. Elite: Dangerous demands much, but repays your devotion many times over.
Top Critic
Whether you're soaking in the cosmos around you, banking large sums of credits from a well-planned trading haul, or surviving a harrowing encounter with space pirates in dazzling ship-to-ship combat, Elite Dangerous has plenty to keep me excited to come back. And when those long-haul sessions become too much, Arena mode is there to inject some much-needed action at a moment's notice.
Top Critic
A welcome return for the pioneering space adventure, but despite a solid start it will need a steady supply of new content and tweaks to reach elite status.
Top Critic
Massive, intimidating, and stunningly beautiful, Elite: Dangerous is one of the deepest, most rewarding open-world experiences you can have on Xbox One.
Top Critic
The pioneering space adventure makes an impressive landing on PlayStation 4, with more content than ever and the promise of even better things to come.
Top Critic
Despite a solid framework for an incredible game, right now the title can feel barren and lacking in variety
Top Critic
Although slow and complicated at times, Elite: Dangerous nevertheless provides a rewarding open-world experience on Xbox One.
Top Critic
My general sense is that this is only the beginning for Elite: Dangerous. The foundation is strong, the community is dedicated, and the development team is committed to building out the world for what appears to be a long time to come. Give it a year or two, and I expect Elite: Dangerous will have a huge amount of new content. As it is, Elite: Dangerous is still a fascinating and entertaining space combat sim with nearly unmatched scope, which more than makes up for its gigantic learning curve and lack of structured content. If you've spent the past decade pining for a new space combat sim, then you'll find a happy home in Elite: Dangerous. I'll see you there.
