Elite Dangerous' much anticipated Odyssey expansion finally has a release date. The planetary, first person, on-foot update is coming on May 19th for PC.
Odyssey has currently been undergoing an alpha the last few weeks, each phase progressively opening up more and more of the experience as the team at Frontier has been slowly trickling in new features to bring it closer to launch. This last phase, Exploration, added the ability to fly within 50 light years of the starting system, testing the First Footfall system of exploration in Odyssey, as well as the Exo-Biology feature.
Take that giant leap for mankind! The PC version of Elite Dangerous: Odyssey will launch on Steam, Epic Games Store and the Frontier Store on May 19th! Pre-order now to get your hands on the exclusive Pioneer suit skin: https://t.co/Op9ML4oLFx pic.twitter.com/0ziMvldShk
— Elite Dangerous (@EliteDangerous) April 22, 2021
Odyssey heralds the first time Commanders are able to exit their ships in a station or on planet outside of a SRV, bringing on-foot, first person gameplay to the vast space-faring MMO. Odyssey adds new mission types, first person shooter gameplay, as well as exploration gameplay that rewards those who trek across planets, cataloging the organic life on the surface of those planets.
Via the press release this morning from Frontier:
"Odyssey constitutes the most ambitious Elite Dangerous expansion to date, delivering on the promise of allowing Commanders to explore atmospheric planets on foot for the first time, taking on new missions, and engaging in intense tactical combat, expanding Elite Dangerous’ gameplay from the iconic cockpit experience players have come to know and love over the last seven years."
To celebrate the announcement of the launch date, Frontier has released a new trailer, showing off some off the first-person gameplay set to the most iconic David Bowie song out there. While the full launch of Odyssey comes on May 19th, players have been able to play it in Alpha for a few weeks now. However, that will be coming to an end here on April 30th. Phase 4 has yet to be launched in the Alpha, which brings all of the Odyssey features to the wider world, testing them all as they would be seen on the live servers come launch day.
Recently, the team announced they were removing part of the upcoming Exo-Biology minigame before or around launch due to player feedback.
