I got a HOTUS and started playing the game in March of this year. I'm a real grinder and I played about 12 hours a day. It took me about 9 months to unlock all of the available content. From corvette to fleet carrier, and from triple elite to fully stocked engineering mats I've completed all of the grinds, and some more than once.
My Horizon's review:
Great game. Best space sim play out there. However to advance grind is too much for traditional gamers, and learning curve is far too steep for average gamers. Missteps in today's gaming industry (poor rollout of mods, outdated marketing approach to skins) have regulated new content to the back burner, and new ships or weapons aren't on the radar at all. Additionally the alien content was abandoned in 2018 leaving some of the promised guardian gear from Ram's quests undeveloped though players can still access the quest.
What I like: Fully engineered federal Corvette in Conflict zones in solo mode is my favorite game loop. Laser mining is very relaxing, and trading cross platform with my FC shop was an exiting adventure.
What I do not like: 3 years of shotgun development meant abandoning the things that made ED stand out in the first place. I found this great thing but it's actually the corpse of a great thing because there's no active development on it in the 9 months that I played, or in the 2 years prior to that.
Next for me: New main HOTUS game, and I'll keep ED in the rotation for the vette conflict zone play loop.
