Given a little time it’s actually quite intuitive, but there’s another simpler way to access your ship’s systems which is achieved by clicking in the R3 button. The array of controls, menus and sub-menus can be overwhelming at first, with all of the main buttons assigned a function and extra inputs created by holding down a face button and combining it with the D-pad. Docking was incredibly tough too, and I failed spectacularly on my first attempt, but after taking a breather and trying again I was able to successfully land my ship, without the starport turning its lasers on me! This means often there isn't much to look at on the screen but a few pinpricks of light.Even the training is unforgiving, and I had to retry a couple of the missions as I got used to the technical requirements and involving combat. There's a blazing star in the centre orbited by planets, asteroids moons, and space stations, with abyssal gaps of inky, star-pocked void between them. Each star system is Elite is realistically structured and mapped to scale. But it's visible in almost every facet of the design. 100 billion star systems is an insane number. The scale of the game is the most obvious example of this. This is a caution rather than a criticism because Dangerous' lack of compromise is vital to its nature, and it gives so much more than it takes away. Sudden, dramatic, frequently embarrassing death.

Elite Dangerous is a vast, complex game that gives little in the way of initial direction, expecting the player to learn from experience and experimentation. Space is the harshest of environments, where obliteration is just a few inches of metal away, and Frontier have refused to shy away from that fact. But as a game it is also quite uncompromising. Frontier's reasoning behind the Kickstarter was to create a vision that was uncompromised by the involvement of publishers, and that they certainly have done. A brief word of caution before we begin, however. The slightly longer answer is oh bloody hell it's brilliant.

Ultimately though, everything comes down to one question is the resulting game any good? The development of Elite Dangerous has been a remarkable process to witness. In the space of twelve months I've watched the game grow from a simple combat demo through to an explorable galaxy featuring 100 billion star systems. They've hit every release deadline they've set themselves, and delivered on (almost) every pledge made in that original Kickstarter proposal. This past year, Frontier have proved both the validity of their funding drive and their commitment to the project. After years of fruitless speculation regarding a potential fourth Elite game, Frontier's £1.5 million Kickstarter appeared to bank on little more than nostalgia, leaving many people, myself included, more than a little sceptical of Frontier's ability to produce such an ambitious game.

It's odd to think that eighteen months ago Elite Dangerous was largely viewed with suspicion.

Elite dangerous review