ELITE DANGEROUS
Exclusive PS4 Pro hands-on with the epic space sim
It’s our maiden voyage. The first one any journalist has made on PS4 Pro. And… we can’t park our spaceship. You see, Elite Dangerous prides itself on authenticity and complexity, and docking is never easy. But its learning curve is a fair price to pay for what this space exploration sim has to offer. As we experience throughout our exclusive hands-on, there’s a depth to Elite Dangerous that few other games can match.
We’re starting with a few tutorials that introduce us to piloting a Sidewinder, one of Elite’s smaller crafts. It’s hard not to find yourself gawping at the magnitude – and possibilities – of space. But there’s no time to waste with our jaws dangling open, as piloting is serious business here. Despite its PC roots, Frontier has cracked making Elite Dangerous intuitive on a DualShock. Setting our speed, navigating and jumping into FTL travel are all done with a few simple button presses, which means we’re soon cruising across the star fields with ease.
Once we’re au fait with the controls, it’s time to try fighting other adventurers. Don’t expect Battlefront’s arcadey instant gratification, though. Battles here are long, brutal, and require clever thinking. We drop into a combat scenario called “Supply Strike” and have to take down a Type-9 Heavy. dev talk “From our love of science, the galaxy is as real as we can make it. You’ll look up at the night sky in our own Solar system and you’ll recognise constellations, then see them change as you travel away from Earth. Visit real white dwarfs, neutron stars, even black holes that exist in our real night sky.” David Braben
This large freighter is a beast, with two Sidewinders escorting it on its journey. Fortunately, we have two AI partners who swoop in and help us take them out quickly, before we switch focus on our main target.
First, we need to take out its shields with our Beam Laser. To pack a little extra heft, we quickly assign more power to our weapons with a tap of the 6 button. Once they’re briefly disabled, we lock on and start pumping missiles at the bulky ship. A battle of attrition, we repeat this for ten minutes as we slowly whittle down its health. The concentration needed to haul it down makes watching it explode into scrap even more satisfying.
BATTLES ARE BRUTAL AND REQUIRE CLEVER THINKING.
ON THE HORIZONS
PlayStation players will be joining at an interesting time in Elite Dangerous’ life. Frontier is currently
halfway through the Horizons season – PS4 owners will get both the base game and expansion as one single package – which is adding tonnes of new stuff. There’s a character creator, Multicrew (where friends can team up and take on different roles on a ship), and the ability to land on and explore planets with Surface Recon Vehicles. These buggies demand just as much from you as the ships you fly. When we touch down on a planet to try it out, the gravity is so low, we immediately spin out of control.
And then there’s the ongoing story that takes place in real time, with Frontier continuing to tease the introduction of aliens. Do they come in peace? We’ll find out when Elite Dangerous lands this summer.