Elite Dangerous is pretty nice if you can stand having no kind main story or any kind of handholding throughout the blatant grind. In terms of exploration I'd say that nothing beats the 1:1 construction of the Milky Way combined with the feeling of cruising around thousands of light years from Sol in star systems never before seen by anyone else ever.
That being said, you are locked into your seat at all times, the only planets that are landable are the non-atmospheric ones and the multi-crew is quite lackluster, if you're only looking for a cool multiplayer experience. The game is certainly not for everyone.
