Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, the highly anticipated expansion to the space travel simulation game, will begin open alpha testing on March 29, announced Frontier Developments on Thursday. The studio also released a new video showing a three-player walking cooperative mission.
Elite was launched in 2014 and has undergone major improvements since then. A paid expansion (which is now free with the base game) added planetary landings to some of the game’s trillions of worlds, while a free update added huge player-owned fleets to the game. Odyssey stands out as it will allow players to leave their vehicles for the first time and set foot in alien worlds. It will also open billions of new worlds to explore, making planets with narrow atmospheres accessible.
Odyssey will rely heavily on EliteBackground Simulation (BGS), which controls the political and economic status of the many populated areas of the Milky Way. Through their actions, players will be able to impact the state of certain locations in planetary systems, which, in turn, will change the types of missions available. New settlements will also be added to the game, and will allow for a number of different types of missions, from stealth to total assault. Odyssey it will include a complete set of weapons, space suits and tactical equipment, as well as new options for exploration on foot.
In a press release, Frontier gave some details about the new footage of the game. It is a type of mission that the studio is calling a raid.
“All three commanders of the raid team are specially equipped for the functions assigned to them,” wrote Frontier, “selected from the wide range of space suits, weapons and equipment available at Elite Dangerous: Odyssey. Their tactical equipment gives them an advantage in their assigned tasks, whether to infiltrate the base avoiding detection, establish fire coverage if the alarm goes off, to hack or quickly extract teammates from a tight spot if enemy forces dominate them . “
Frontier said that Elite Dangerous: Odyssey will be released on the Windows PC in late spring and will hit PlayStation and Xbox devices in the fall. The expansion will cost $ 39.99. The base game was recently added to the Xbox Game Pass program.
For more information on the changes to come Elite Dangerous: Odyssey, read our report.