The Melting Pot: Elite Dangerous .

Elite Dangerous is a space combat and trading sim set in a vast open world sandbox. Players enter the universe with little more than a basic ship and a handful of credits, setting out to make a fortune or simply survive in a galaxy filled with great opportunity and danger.

As a sandbox, Elite: Dangerous will offer players the ultimate freedom to go where they like, do what they like, and become the kind of space pilot they always dreamed of. It’s up to the player to decide how they wish to exist in the galaxy and the impact they will have.

It’s often this lack of hand-holding or forced direction that scares away indecisive gamers, while attracting those with endless imagination and ambition. This means that Elite: Dangerous will most likely be a niche game in an already extremely niche genre of gaming.

Elite: Dangerous is the latest instalment in a long-running series. It will feature solo, co-op and large-scale online free-for-all gameplay. This allows players to choose who they share their universe with and what kind of dangers they will face during their playtime.

The idea is simple, a universe brought to life where players can choose to be whatever they want; bounty hunter, pirate, trader, businessman, assassin, grand schemer, and more. The role players choose and how they get there is determined by their actions.

Fight

There are constantly forces attempting to tip the balance of power throughout the galaxy in their favour. Players can choose to take on many combat roles in Elite: Dangerous, from bounty hunters to ruthless pirate. There will be missions and battles all over the galaxy.

To meet the task players can upgrade their ships with various hulls, engines, weapons, defences. This customization allows players to match their ship with their role, increasing efficiency and survival chances as they rise through the ranks from Harmless to Elite.

Trade

There are many roads that lead to Rome, and not all of them are soaked with bloodshed. Some players might wish to achieve their goals through economic means, bartering and trade. If your life calling was space trucker, then Elite: Dangerous has the answer.

Search for cheap goods and then plot a trip to a distant region low on that good, often through dangerous pirate infested territory. Make the journey and players will receive their pay, getting them by or working towards building a trading empire; do the work, don’t die.

If playing the markets doesn’t sound ideal, follow the trail of battle and scavenge the wrecks left over. Be careful however, it can be a dangerous gig – but players can go as far as toppling a planets economy for their own benefit – money is power.

Explore

The galaxy of Elite: Dangerous consists of 100 billion star systems, all free for the player to explore. Fighting and trading are good choices but they can both be done while reaching out to the farthest corners of the galaxy, discovering the secrets that await or profit.

Players may stumble upon trading ships ripe for ambush or a battle taking place as galactic powerplays are acted out. Perhaps it’s just the simple sight of watching the galaxy thrive and move along, ceremonies taking place, lives being lost, and money being made.

Utilizing gameplay that will allow players to scale their experience, pilots can limit their game to just friends – fighting only against the AI. The more bold can take on the multiplayer component which will allow a large amount of players to occupy the same game.

All this interaction takes place from the first person perspective, with full cockpit view for flying ships and combat. The developers are working on including support for controller, joystick, 3D TVs, the Occulus Rift VR headset, and TrackIR head motion tracking.

Elite: Dangerous is currently in Alpha after being successfully backed on Kickstarter. It is an ambitious game that has many plans for the future, if you’re interested in checking it out or backing the project head on over to the official site. We highly recommend it!

The Melting Pot is a regular column featuring new games that are trying to break away from the binds of traditional genres. Not quite MMOs and not your typical online games – join us regularly to find out more about the new genre-bending games being crafted in The Melting Pot!