Elite Dangerous: Horizons is the long-awaited expansion to the base game which adds planetary landings. While planetary landings seem to be the highlight of the experience, there’s actually a lot more content here. Along with the surface landing vehicle, the expansion adds individuals called engineers. They can offer you new ways to customize your ship and modules. According to the developers, hidden on planet surfaces across the populated galaxy, each engineer has a unique personality and history, and they just might choose to help you for the right price. That’s not all though. Elite Dangerous: Horizons also brings game-changing loot which allows you to craft a truly unique ship. Smuggle materials to the engineers and earn their respect. This will allow you to unlock more powerful modules that will make you an unstoppable force in the galaxy.
The main purpose of the surface landing seems to be to increase the types of missions available. You have to scan the surface from your ship in order to find points of interest and then examine them. Some of the contracts you accept from bases involve finding missing pilots and bringing their escape pods back. However, there are a lot of other extraordinary areas to explore on any given planet. Some even have what appears to be basic alien life like bizarre plants and other biological structures. I just wish there was more of this and hopefully it’s a hint of what’s to come.
One of the biggest complaints I have with Elite: Dangerous in general is the accessibility. The game is notoriously challenging to learn and it will take you countless hours and dozens of in-depth YouTube videos to get the hang of. In order to master all the mechanics in the game, you’ll have to spend even more time. Driving your vehicle around the planet is easy because it basically handles like a car, what’s difficult is the actual approach. In order to land your ship on a planet you have to take into account the differences in gravity. If you botch the angle of entry you’ll take massive amounts of damage as you might hit the surface with too much force. Even entering a planet’s atmosphere forcefully damages your ship. I would be fine with this if I was the best Elite: Dangerous player out there but given my limited skill I have to spend thousands of hard-earned credits repairing my vessel. Elite: Dangerous really needs a casual mode which maybe gives you less credits and is only offline. This will improve the title’s accessibility and encourage more players to try the experience.
One of the biggest surprises was the fact that some points of interest on different planets are guarded by sentries. This can result in tense combat on a more frequent level than you would find just roaming the cosmos. It made Elite Dangerous: Horizons stand out because I looked forward to these encounters. Usually when I take on other ships it ends in disaster but this was the right dose of difficulty and action.
Summary
Overall, Elite Dangerous: Horizons is a great expansion which is meant to provide additional missions in a new setting. It is also meant to provide an easy way to mine resources. I just wish it wasn’t such a tease. I want to learn more about the mysterious artifacts and the alien life. The developers have been teasing alien creatures for months now and I thought that this would’ve been the big reveal. Unfortunately it wasn’t.
Right now Elite Dangerous: Horizons is a great start but it needs more mind-blowing content. For example, exiting your vehicle and taking on the sentries with a handheld weapon would’ve improved the experience. Additionally, like Star Citizen, I want areas which you can explore on foot. Why can’t I at least explore space stations and interact with other players like Destiny? Elite: Dangerous has so much potential, I just wish it was realized sooner.
Asher and Xian is a shared byline ICXM used for 18 articles co-authored between 2015–2017 covering game reviews, and Xbox news. See the individual contributor profiles for the writers behind these collaborations.