Steins;Gate Elite gives you the experience of the original Steins;Gate but with the visuals of the anime. In my opinion, if you're trying to introduce someone to visual novels in general, Steins;Gate Elite could potentially be a better alternative over the original.

There are many things that I like about Elite over the original visual novel. For one thing, the visuals are pretty good except for the timing of the video with the actual words (the video tends to lag behind that text on screen). Additionally, the soundtrack is kept intact with each scene having the same or similar tracks playing as the original. Finally, the message triggers in the game (which are required for different endings) being something placed at the end of a scene over mid-scene in the original just felt more fitting.

Now there are still a ton of negatives to go over but I'll simplify them. For one, a lot of plot points are just completely removed from this remake(?) and they also make some changes in the overall adaptation which can be jarring for veterans of the series. Secondly, a lot of customization features are removed such as being able to change the background of the in-game phone. Lastly, a minor criticism I had was that they never attempted to fix the pace of the beginning. Fans of the game will tell you that the beginning is extremely slow and until a certain point of the game, you might even drop the game from a lack of overall content. Even after playing both, I wanted to put it down in the beginning because it was just dragged on for ages. I understood the need to world-build and to establish the characters but going through the early game is probably the toughest hurdle to overcome.

My final thoughts: Steins;Gate Elite is a decent alternative to the original. Was it as good as the original? In some cases yes but in others no. Personally, I prefer the original over Elite but don't let this deter you from purchasing either. No matter what path you go, likely you will enjoy the experience and be brought into the magnificent world that the SciADV series has created.