Elite Dangerous is a difficult game to recommend, primarily because it only achieves the bare minimum for what you can call a "game"...

Lemme put the cards on the table here: Elite dangerous is very much a game I WANT to like, but even after 10 years it feels more like a glorified tech demo. Everything in this game looks, sounds and handles beautifully and realistically. there is no game out there that so realistically simulates just how vast and empty space is, and how spaceships could look and handle 1300 years in the future.

The customization of ships in this game is incredibly deep, and it rarely feels like any weapon or module for your ship is a direct upgrade, since even different tiered modules of the same type have different use cases. A tiered modules are usually the most powerful, but also expensive. B tier is the most sturdy, but also have the highest weight. C tier is the most bang for your buck. And D tier is the inverse of B: lighter weight, but more fragile. same thing with weapons: fixed weapons need to be aimed by the pilot, but have the highest base damage. Gimballed and turret weapons have lower damage but can shoot in a wider cone. the game is full of these trade-offs.

There are various activities in the game that you can outfit your ship for, like hauling cargo, mining, bounty hunting, piracy, exploration, xeno-hunting etc. and you're never locked into or required to do any of them (unless you wish to hunt for certain ranks or side-grades for your modules and weapons).

But here comes the stinger: what are all these systems and activities used for? Well they are used to earn credits that can be used on buying new ships, modules and weapons. Sounds fair enough, right? Yes, but that is pretty much the only thing you can use credits on. the "Game" is just one long ass grind, to get enough credits to upgrade your ship so it can become slightly better at the thing you were already doing! That's it, that's the entire game-play loop. Once you have the biggest ship and the best modules and weapons, there is basically nothing to work towards any more.

There is only really two things to do in this end-game: the first thing is to grind for an additional 100 hours to get your hands on a carrier, that also needs its modules bought separately and has maintenance/upkeep that needs to be paid for. Requiring you to log in once a day and grind credits for a few hours. And if you want to move it, it requires 500 tons of a specific commodity that can either be bought or mined, in both cases requiring you to find where it can be bought/mined first.

The second thing is Xeno-hunting. Unlike human NPC's (and other players in some cases), the aliens in this game are a real threat, that will tear even your biggest ship apart in less time than it takes for you to say "Oh ♥♥♥♥!". So these bastards require that you have a specially designed ship with specialized weapons, and for you to have fully mastered maneuvering your ship, if you want to even stand a chance at defeating them. (They are hands down the best part about the game tbh, mainly cause unlike every other activity being rather mind-numbing, fighting the aliens is a genuine challenge).

Do I recommend Elite Dangerous? Depends on if you find the act of combat or exploration exiting/rewarding (even after have done it 1000 times before) rather than it just being the means to get to "the end".

i want my life back

powerplay 2 really really sucks and they just nerf all the good ways to get merits instead of fixing a broken system.