This game is a pay to win cash grab. The match making is horrible. Training for new players is almost non existent in-game though there are many good youtubers (this is a worrying trend devs skimp on content and let 3rd party sources do their job). Not to mention the continuation of Russian bias with Wargaming. The only reason I give this trash a 1 star is due to the pretty well done, historically accurate, ship models.
I have ED on PC and XBOX. I bought ED for XBOX for my daughter but she immediately complained about the key bindings for the controller. The defaults are terrible! I can see why she was so frustrated. But the biggest problem with ED is are the time sinks that FDEV calls "missions". Spending 15 to 20 minutes in warp (supercruise) waiting for missions to spawn is NOT fun FDEV! Then once a mission signal source finally appears get ready for a paddling! Pirates with much better craft and weapons will obliterate your starter ship in seconds...totally unbalanced (my daughter shouldn't have been able to take the mission). FDEV biggest problem is Sandro Sammarco the lead game **** lead for such gems as Haze (2008) and Evil Genius (2004). FDEV fire Sandy!
I have only about 26 hours into my first play through but, so far, I'm very impressed! The lighting is spot on! I'm a recreational scuba diver and I've been in several different lighting and visibility conditions (from near zero visibilty to twilight with 100 feet of vis) so I've got to say the devs did an amazing job capturing the underwater environment. The marine life in this game ranges from very similar to Earth life to strikingly, horrifingly alien! Voice acting and the story (thus far) is very well done. I'm in awe that the devs made such a great quality product being that Unknown Worlds Entertainment is a small indie studio. A few minor bugs but I would highly recommend this game!
First off I have to apologize to all those players, if any, who might have bought the game on my recommendation. ED:H 2.3 turned out to be a total disaster. I was excited because I foolishly thought FDEV would further develop crew roles...nope! In fact, FDEV nerfed the payouts that crew member received for their work. This despite the fact that the head moron, I mean, "lead designer", Sandro Sammarco said that he wanted to keep the payout up for all players to "keep it fun"! Furthermore, there has been NO mention at all about further development of multicrew. Whelp here we are with 2.4.03 The Return...pretty boring. It appears that development on the story has nearly come to a stand still. I guess this isn't too surprising since Drew Wagner, a decent author and the lore master, has left. Missions are still a cobbled together mess, e.g. you could get a pirate massacre mission to destroy 40+ ships to complete within 36 hours (yeah good luck) but then pick a salvage mission for literally 4 items and get 6 DAYS to complete! Wow good job FDEV! This game is a massive waste of potential (and time). It could be epic! IF FDEV hired an actual competent lead designer (Sandro is the genius behind such titles as Haze and Evil Genius). What a shame!
Second review for **** of my previous criticisms still stand with the game. Though I did forget to mention reputation decay...yeah that breaks down over time now too post 1.3! But...recently I have gotten into exploration (headed to Sag A via the Perseus arm of the galaxy) and despite the enormous time sinks (the absolute worst for me is the detailed scan 15+ seconds to complete! All the time watching that silly "disco ball"...very tedious FD - please, please, give us a progression bar or time to completion or percent complete, for the surface scanner!) I'm absolutely loving exploring. I do love astronomy and "space" science in general. Definite prerequisite if you want to explore.
