When comparing Project Zomboid vs Elite: Dangerous, the Slant community recommends Elite: Dangerous for most people. In the question“What are the best Simulation games on Steam?” Elite: Dangerous is ranked 21st while Project Zomboid is ranked 22nd. The most important reason people chose Elite: Dangerous is:
When Elite Dangerous come out, development won't stop. To build a game with the huge scope of Elite Dangerous, not all of it can be done at once, so the developers have adopted an approach of incremental improvement. Various game play elements are being designed as a foundation for later features. For example, although planetary landings aren't going to be available until a later update, the engine has been designed to be able to support going from lightyears away to meters away.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Can truly challenge your survival skills, creating an environment where you must adapt fast in order to survive
While you can turn the difficulty down, PZ can present a true survival horror experience for those that are interested in it. In PZ zombies pose and actual threat, crafting is not easy, fortifying your shelter is hard and a the tiniest mistake can be fatal. And there are so many tiny mistakes you can make - forgetting to change your bandage might get your wounds infected, leaving the stove on could burn your house down. The odds are stacked against you and you won't win, but let's see how long can you survive.
Pro Zombies pose an actual threat, keeping the player always on their toes
Unlike many other games in the genre, Project Zomboid manages to instill fear of zombies pretty quickly. You are considerably outnumbered and the smartest move in many cases is to run away from an encounter. You're not superhuman in this game, zombies will overwhelm if you're not careful.
Pro Well-realized bleak atmosphere that suits the game perfectly
You truly feel like your survival is at stake. You are constantly reminded of the ever-present danger of zombies everywhere with sound cues. And even though it's a top-down game, your field of view is limited - zombies could sneak up on you or you might run into one around a corner. Any move you make could be your last one.
Pro The competent weather systems gives a feeling of realism to the game
There is randomly generated weather in the game, which can effect your character such as getting sick from being wet and cold. This offers a level of realism that makes perfect sense in a survival title.
Pro Feels more realistic compared to other survival horror games
Project Zomboid feels less arcadey compared to similar games. You are not an all-powerful character capable of carrying the town's arsenal in your backpack and taking on hordes of enemies alone. If you break a window to get into a house, you might get cut, if you decide to stock up on food and not use it, it will rot, etc.
Pro Easily adjustable difficulty creates a game that anyone can feel confident in trying, no matter their skill level
You can adjust the difficulty in sandbox mode, which can greatly impact the way the game plays. You could make it extremely easy to survive, but the opposite can also be accomplished with the with a more difficult setting.
Pro Character traits add more fun to the game, allowing you to customize to your liking
You can level traits as you play like strength, carpentry, cooking, etc.
Pro True sandbox gameplay where you are always free to do whatever you like
There are no missions in Project Zomboid, meaning the player can do anything they can think up, at anytime they want. This gives a level of freedom not always found in games, but of course makes for a great way to just waste time screwing around and testing the limits of the sandbox.
Pro Built with future expansion in mind
When Elite Dangerous come out, development won't stop. To build a game with the huge scope of Elite Dangerous, not all of it can be done at once, so the developers have adopted an approach of incremental improvement. Various game play elements are being designed as a foundation for later features. For example, although planetary landings aren't going to be available until a later update, the engine has been designed to be able to support going from lightyears away to meters away.
Pro Exploration at every level of detail
Full exploration of the galaxy is planned, allowing you to be able to jump from star system to star system, and fly around within a solar system from planet to planet, eventually going all the way down to a planet's surface at a 1:1 scale in a later update. Planetary landings will require a lot of details to be developed and designed, but you can still see the level of detail shift in action when flying into a planet's rings, where getting close enough show the individual asteroids within, which you can then interact with through mining, or by having a battle among them.
Pro Very realistic representation of space & star systems
Elite Dangerous uses publicly available real world star maps that we have of the Milky Way consisting of 150,000 star systems. Although in the current beta, full access to the entire galaxy is limited, in the final game, you will be able to visit any of the 400 billion stars in our galaxy on a 1:1 scale. Stars that we do know of are properly mapped in place and are of the correct type given the information we have about them. Stars we haven't collected data on are procedurally generated which allows you to explore any of the 400 billion of them.
Star systems are intelligently simulated using the "Star Forge", a generator that simulates the creation of a star system forming from its nebular cloud to determine what celestial bodies appear and what orbits they have. This feature leads to many varied and unique star systems possibly with planets that can co-orbit around each other, or with binary star systems, and infinitely more possibilities.
Pro Great Oculus Rift integration
Elite Dangerous has very good integration with the Oculus Rift thanks to its cockpit view only gameplay philosophy. All ship UIs are part of displays that appear on each side of you that appear when you turn your head, so accessing the navigation or ship menus happens seamlessly just by looking in their direction. The game also uses the direction you are looking in for targeting, so your lock on target is whatever you're head is pointing at.
By sitting in the cockpit of a ship, you are given a stationary frame of reference that helps prevent motion sickness associated with movement in game when you aren't actually moving.
Cons
Con Slow development prone to setbacks
Project Zomboid development has been going on for several years now and has hit quit a few snags that have set back its full release.
Con Weapon and weapon crafting systems could use some work
The weapons (mostly guns) in the game could use some work. They are oversimplified compared to the rest of the mechanics in the game.
For example, to repair used guns the player uses other guns, which feels wrong. It would make much more sense to use cleaning kits to maintain them.
Con Difficult
Survival in Project Zomboid is pretty difficult, which makes advancing in the game something to be relished when accomplished.
Con Really complicated to learn
Looking up faqs and trade routes from first hand users will be the norm for figuring out many aspects of Elite: Dangerous. On top of this notes will have to be taken, which is made more difficult by the fact the game does not support in game not taking. So a pad and paper is recommended to remember all of the minutia of the game.
Con Boring
It is more a simulation than a combat game.
Con Launcher issues
I bought the game on multiple stores and were never happy how the laucher and the account linking worked.
Con "Mile Wide and an Inch Deep"
The game has a serious problem with depth and requires the user to repeat the same few fun actions over and over again. The world is massive and beautiful but feels empty. The game gets stale quickly despite being visually stunning.