Review update.

Now 2500+ hours in-game and lost interest. I really want to keep my review a thumbs up for the hours of gameplay I've had and the fun we had in our faction group but I'm going thumbs down to add my vote of disappointment to the Devs.

PRO'S:-
Elite Dangerous is BIG. Every time I look around the galaxy map, it hurts my brain to comprehend the hundreds of billions of stars and you are free to fly to any single one. The scenery felt a little bit copy-pasta but with a terrain engine update in 2018, exploration variety has improved slightly with more POI’s being added with each expansion/storyline progression.

There's a good range of ships and massive customisation options with load-outs and modules, tuning ships for different roles such as Mining, PvE Bounty Hunting, Trading, Exploration, etc., etc.

There is some picturesque locations to be found but after a while, there's only so many brown dusty planets with nice sun rises you can view before it starts to look all the same.

CONS:-
Development has become a disappointment for the game. Features scrapped and constant delays. Dev's sometimes seem out of touch with the player base. They seem to have there own plan of how they want people to play their game rather than listen to player feedback and adapt the game to suite all.

The last year or so has only seen development on bug fixes, UI changes and small amounts of new content. FDev are too secretive with up coming content which is now creating more frustration than hype as this silence seems more like any player based issues are not being addressed.

Earning credits has become a grind and most in-game activities are currently dwarfed by mining profits making most other game activities near pointless if wanting to earn credits. (Finally being address late 2020)

PLAYER FACTIONS: We had our player faction added in-game permanently but technically isn't really our faction. We have no control over it and can only influence it like any other NPC faction, it just happens to have the same name as our Squadron. Also, our main issue were other player factions can influence your system 100% while in Private or Solo game-play which gave us no means defend our system through any PvP options. They just park in your space station, pick up your faction missions then instantly cancel them, making the people unhappy and drop your faction influence. Many groups & players have vented their frustration about this but repeated requests to block this abuse or reduce influence changes in private/solo play was ignored.

OVERALL:- [TL:DR]
The grandeur of the game has lost it's appeal, faith in player/dev communication has gone. Most aspects feel like a rinse & repeat mechanic now and the excitement of Elite has just been drained. I bought the Horizons DLC without hesitation but the troubles, bugs, promised content cancellation of Horizons and the release problem with Odyssey, etc. made me decide not to get the Odyssey 'DLC'. And with certain details around consolidating Horizons & Odyssey versions of the game (why so many builds of one game?) is looking to me like a pre-cursor to the game being playable online ONLY if you have the Odyssey update. Horizon players who don't want the DLC are probably going to be relegated to an off-line mode only.

Review update. Now 2500+ hours in-game and lost interest. I really want to keep my review a thumbs up for the hours of gameplay I've had and the fun we had in our faction group but I'm going thumbs down to add my vote of disappointment to the Devs. PRO'S:- Elite Dangerous is BIG. Every time I look around the galaxy map, it hurts my brain to comprehend the hundreds of billions of stars and you are free to fly to any single one. The scenery felt a little bit copy-pasta but with a terrain engine update in 2018, exploration variety has improved slightly with more POI’s being added with each expansion/storyline progression. There's a good range of ships and massive customisation options with load-outs and modules, tuning ships for different roles such as Mining, PvE Bounty Hunting, Trading, Exploration, etc., etc. There is some picturesque locations to be found but after a while, there's only so many brown dusty planets with nice sun rises you can view before it starts to look all the same. CONS:- Development has become a disappointment for the game. Features scrapped and constant delays. Dev's sometimes seem out of touch with the player base. They seem to have there own plan of how they want people to play their game rather than listen to player feedback and adapt the game to suite all. The last year or so has only seen development on bug fixes, UI changes and small amounts of new content. FDev are too secretive with up coming content which is now creating more frustration than hype as this silence seems more like any player based issues are not being addressed. Earning credits has become a grind and most in-game activities are currently dwarfed by mining profits making most other game activities near pointless if wanting to earn credits. (Finally being address late 2020) PLAYER FACTIONS: We had our player faction added in-game permanently but technically isn't really our faction. We have no control over it and can only influence it like any other NPC faction, it just happens to have the same name as our Squadron. Also, our main issue were other player factions can influence your system 100% while in Private or Solo game-play which gave us no means defend our system through any PvP options. They just park in your space station, pick up your faction missions then instantly cancel them, making the people unhappy and drop your faction influence. Many groups & players have vented their frustration about this but repeated requests to block this abuse or reduce influence changes in private/solo play was ignored. OVERALL:- [TL:DR] The grandeur of the game has lost it's appeal, faith in player/dev communication has gone. Most aspects feel like a rinse & repeat mechanic now and the excitement of Elite has just been drained. I bought the Horizons DLC without hesitation but the troubles, bugs, promised content cancellation of Horizons and the release problem with Odyssey, etc. made me decide not to get the Odyssey 'DLC'. And with certain details around consolidating Horizons & Odyssey versions of the game (why so many builds of one game?) is looking to me like a pre-cursor to the game being playable online ONLY if you have the Odyssey update. Horizon players who don't want the DLC are probably going to be relegated to an off-line mode only.