UPDATE

Phil tries to meet aliens in Elite.

I’m on a pilgrimage to the Maia system, jumping between stars in the hope of experiencing an alien encounter. It’s the Elite Dangerous equivalent of that rooftop party scene in Independence Day, where, faced with a powerful and unknowable force, some choose to rush towards the ship, folksy greeting placards raised high above their heads. Admit it, you smiled when they were obliterated.

My own encounter is less eventful, in that it doesn’t happen. There are lots of rumors about where to find the aliens and how to tempt them into intercepting your ship, but nobody really knows anything. That’s a cool place for Elite to be in. It’s a sim that has been extensively catalogued through wikis, forums and third party databases. UFOs bring a much needed sense of mystery.

Perception is important, because much of the action is—to be blunt—a bit tedious. It’s the pleasant, whiling-away-a-lazy-Sunday kind of tedious, but Elite’s more sedate activities are best tackled alongside a boxset of something bingeable. It’s not so much the moment-to-moment interactions that make it compulsive, as the overall fiction of you, alone, thriving in a hostile universe.

For me, the fiction is enhanced by the 2.2 update and the introduction of passengers. Most space stations now have a passenger lounge full of civilians. Some want transport, some are sightseeing, some want to study some galactic oddity thousands of light years away. Ultimately it’s a way of delivering new missions, and offering bigger rewards for players who want something more involved. While the conceit is hardly romantic—you’re space Uber—it makes Elite feel less clinical.

Previously, the only real characters were in other ships, and so being a pilot felt normal. Passengers create the sense of a life that isn’t always on the move. For the people on a space station, you represent a chance for adventure—because what you do is inherently adventurous. It’s a small but meaningful shift of perspective. Introducing something mundane highlights the ways in which your experience isn’t.

Passengers come with quirks. Secretive passengers don’t like it if your ship is scanned, criminal passengers can lead to your ship being attacked in systems where they’re wanted, and demanding passengers make extra requests along the way. It all adds extra wrinkles to the way you play. It’s not too demanding a process, but if your passengers become too unhappy they’ll jump ship, failing the mission.

As a mission type, passenger transport currently lacks variety, leading to repetition as you grind your way towards towards Elite’s nebulous endgame. Elite’s update process tends to favor new systems over fleshing out existing ones. Even now, 13 major updates after release, the basic mission system suffers from the same lack of variety.

If Elite lacks depth, it makes up for it in breadth. Returning for the first time since the launch of Horizons, I’m surprised by how much extra there is to do. Engineers, added in 2.1, make use of a new crafting system, letting you gamble materials for a chance of beneficial upgrades to your ship’s components. It’s not just an upgrade system, but one of discovery, as engineers only make themselves known after you prove your competence at specific activities. And in 2.2, a new Crew system brings ship-launched fighters—NPC pilots who can be deployed from your hanger, increasing the combat potential of solo players.

Elite Dangerous still feels like a work in progress. Often, that’s exciting—it means enhanced systems, new features, and, of course, aliens. It also means the flaws are, over a year after release, still readily apparent. Judging by recent events, Frontier is still committed to Elite’s continued expansion. That suggests great things for the game’s future, even if some limitations still rankle today.

Most space stations now have a passenger lounge full of civilians