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This is the sequel to Frontier: Elite II. It was originally intended to be an add-on disk for the second game, Frontier: Elite II. However, because they rushed that game, its engine could not handle expansion disks effectively. The engine was rewritten and the game was released standalone. Unfortunately, it was also rushed and filled with numerous bugs that made its initial release unplayable. You are a space pirate and you fly around through the universe in your space craft to fulfill different missions. You can also earn money by trading cargo with other races. It also has spying, bombing and a variety of other military activities; the combat ratings were also carried over from the previous games. It features realistic Newtonian physics and the ability to land on planets. It has graphics that are an improvement over Frontier (the main differences being Gouraud shading and more extensive use of texture mapping) and, as well as employing the same open-ended gameplay of its predecessors, it also features a storyline concerning an alien race called the Thargoids. New are journals that report on happenings within the known universe. It introduces hand-coded missions that add a storyline to further increase the player’s sense of immersion within the Elite universe. Unlike the various military missions which are randomly generated, these take the player through a linear series of events that starts with the “Wiccan Ware Race” and culminates in “Thargoid Missions” trilogy. Also unique is the ability to earn special ships that are not available to buy. These ships are given as rewards for completing missions; the ships are the Turner-class Argent’s Quest, the Stowmaster-class fighter (which comes with the Argent’s Quest, equipped as the escape pod) and the Thargoid Warship, given to you by the Thargoids at the completion of the “Thargoid Missions”. |
