With the launch of the “Odyssey” expansion, Elite Dangerous has taken on a new life as a next-generation space sim. It now feels truly unprecedented in scope, scale, and fidelity. Over the seven years since the game’s release Elite Dangerous has impressively continued to grow. The best part of it all is that “Odyssey” is just another step in the game’s ongoing evolution. It all comes together to make a space MMO that is a must-play for any fans of the genre. There is something to do for every type of player, whether they want just to build deadly ships, participate in dogfights, maximize a profitable trade route, team up with friends to explore the unknown galaxy, or whatever else.

Quotation forthcoming.

Odyssey paves the way for what will be the game in the near future, the latter looks promising. Elite Dangerous Odyssey remains in the race for the Space Sims.

A great base to build from for the future but in its current state it’s hard to recommend until Frontier gets in front of the performance issues and bugs that plague Odyssey right now.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey is an ambitious addition to the Elite formula that doesn’t quite hit the highs it should. It instead serves as a preview of what the game may be like in 6 or 12 months from now, and is hard to recommend as it currently is. Personally? I’d wait and see how Frontier Developments improves the game. Let’s face it, there’s still plenty to explore in Horizons.

Elite Dangerous: Odyssey is an unfinished expansion with some cool ideas in need of a lot of additional iteration and work. As it currently stands the Elite Dangerous PC community is beta testing Odyssey for the inevitable console launch, despite the expansion being advertised as a finished product. Unless they don't mind paying to play in a glorified beta, commanders should stick with Horizons until the dust settles.

There are so many other issues that Elite Dangerous: Odyssey suffers from that it would be difficult to catalog all of them, but the primary problems are so widespread that it's already evidence enough that the content needs serious repair. Some have compared Odyssey to the infamous launch of No Man's Sky back in 2016, and it's an apt comparison, albeit one that might be a little too generous. Elite Dangerous didn't deliver upon the many promises that were made, but, whereas No Man's Sky was still a serviceable space exploration game, there is essentially nothing in Odyssey that makes up for its many problems. Elite Dangerous fans shouldn't spend their money on Odyssey until Frontier Developments has made some serious improvements.