WITH the risk of showing my age, I remember getting quite excited by the release of the original Elite in 1984 on the Acorn Electron and again for the follow-up, Frontier – Elite II in 1993 on PC. I spent hours exploring the galaxy in both.

A long-awaited addition to the series, Elite Dangerous, was initially released on PC and Xbox One in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Now finally available on the PS4 I’m pleased to say Frontier has done a great job in porting the game to Sony’s system and it is completely up-to-date with both the PC and Xbox versions.

Set in our own Milky Way galaxy and starting with a basic Sidewinder spaceship, with no money or influence, you launch from a landing pad into the unknown. You travel between planets and space stations within each star system, or travel to other star systems via hyperspace.

There is no actual story to Elite, instead, all the adventures are what you create for yourself, whether that be trading goods, both legal and illegal, running missions or trying your hand at combat and earning the bounty that can come with that.

Initially, it can take rather a long time to accrue any meaningful amount of credits, and this will put a lot of gamers off, as these days we are used to quick rewards for our efforts. But once you have been playing for a while, you can then do cool things like upgrade your ship with better weapons, or buy new ships, depending on what path you choose to follow.

The graphics and sound of Elite Dangerous really do need a mention too. Each Starport has its own unique look and any other spacecraft that you come across are beautifully rendered.

The sound really is top notch – yes, I know space is silent – but you have the hum of spacecraft going past you, each one is different, depending on the model.

Elite will not be a game for everyone. Plenty of people will find the necessity of jumping to and from star systems tedious, while others, like myself, will love the free exploration of a vast galaxy.

RATING: 9/10

MARK PRICE