Picking up Elite again after almost 10 years has unfortunately only highlighted the reasons I left the first time are still here. Back then, I finished the tutorial to figure out how to dock, then was left at "now what" because there seemed to be no... reason to do anything.

Fast forward 10 years, and the "reason" to do things appears to be grind for engineering materials in order to build better space ships. But almost NONE of that is conveyed in the game, and I'm left digging around for forum posts and similar. I'm told that recently returns from that grind have been buffed, but I don't even know where to find those things to begin with. Engineering does not even have a codex entry despite the game having a codex. You get mail from an engineer, spend 45 minutes going across the "bubble" to get to them, only to be told "♥♥♥♥ you, this has been a huge waste of time, come back with 'Meta Alloys'". What is a "meta alloy"? Game doesn't tell you! Good luck googling and hoping that the player run things that *should* be in the game are still working because half of them you'll see talked about this no longer do.

Even microtransactions don't get you out of this. You can buy ships, but can't customize much about them or use their modules on anything else.

I was really sold by InferAGoodTime's recent YouTube videos that got me to pick up Elite again. I just wish the game had fixed in the intervening 10 years its complete inscrutability. If you've got a HOTAS or HOSAS and want a space ship flying game, there aren't a lot of options in town. That still works and can still be fun for 20 hours or so, if a bit shallow. The most recent expansion apparently being about getting out of the space ship and doing FPS combat which... is not something I think anyone asked for.

The most fun I've had in years

This game is amazing. They changed enough to make it meaningfully different but it's still recognizably Riven.

And I really really really like the change to how the domes work; it's such a better narrative justification for what's going on. And the interaction is so satisfying.

They also removed most of the "hope you realized that was clickable while you go in circles for hours" puzzles or made them substantially more obvious, such as the open/close door trick on Boiler Island.

A pretty game about building things with flaky netcode

This is best story-driven and/or action oriented gameplay experience I can remember. XCOM 2 has more play time on record for me, but that's a totally different experience. The combat system is responsive and feels good to use, and they do a great job making you care about the characters.

It's going to be a *long* time before something can dethrone this for me.

Great music, tight, responsive gameplay, hard but has insta-restart. Best thing I've played in a long time.

Simply the best twin-stick I've played.

Fantastic puzzle platformer (and that's coming from someone who doesn't like puzzle platformers most of the time). The crosslink mechanic is fun to use, and solutions to most levels are open-ended. Feels kinda like a 2D Hitman: Blood Money. Most missions have hilarous dialogue too.