Each component found inside snaps satisfyingly to other parts and is clearly described, providing key (but never intimidating amounts) of information. Something I definitely, definitely didn’t forget to do.īack in the VAB things are just as clearly laid out, with tabs full of fuel tanks, command modules, and the all-important emergency parachutes. It’s probably wise to have your engine ignite before decoupling half of your ship, for example. For instance, a series of actions, formed into a playlist of sorts in the bottom right of the screen, act as the stages of your launch, each numbered to indicate the order in which they will be performed upon a press of the spacebar. At first, the number-riddled UI can be quite overwhelming to look at, but it quickly decodes itself. It’s a credit to developer Intercept Games that even I, very much a newcomer, was able to swiftly and accurately diagnose the problem each time my efforts crashed and burned. Next up on my production line were The Banana Man Mark 1, 2, and 3 - a series of yellow space bullets that each failed for various different reasons. And so back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) I went - a welcomingly intuitive space to design your very own rockets, landers, and buggies, and where I found a lot of my enjoyment with KSP2 coming from.

Style over substance clearly isn’t the way to go when it comes to space travel it would appear.

It didn’t look anything like it and it functioned even less impressively, barely packing the thrust of a late-era Elvis Presley. My first attempt to crack the atmosphere consisted of me desperately trying to relive my youth in the form of a truly shoddy reimagining of Thunderbird 3. Turns out, that doesn’t really come in much help. Up until this point in my life, most of my understanding of astrophysics came from repeated rewatches of movies like Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff. Something that I just about managed, but not before a few mishaps along the way. Whilst Kerbal veterans around me with thousands of hours logged harboured dreams of ambitious Martian programs, I was more than happy just to launch one of my rockets and get everyone on board back to Earth (AKA Kerbin in this universe) safely. The generous and well-structured tutorials are presented in a light-hearted and digestible manner, and I swiftly found myself swept up in the vast possibilities that Kerbal Space Program presents. The game offers three gameplay modes: Sandbox, in which you are free to build anything you can think of Science Mode, which lets you perform Scientific experiments to advance the knowledge of Kerbalkind and further the available technology and Career Mode, in which you must manage every aspect of your Space Program, including administration strategies, Crew Management, Reputation, as well as taking up Contracts to earn Funds and upgrade your Space Center Facilities (or repair them).Īdd to this the ability to capture asteroids (a feature done in collaboration with NASA), Mining for resources out across the furthest reaches of the Solar System, Constructing Bases and Space Stations in and around other worlds plus literally thousands of mods from a huge active modding community, all add up into the award-winning game that has taken the space sim genre by storm.In some ways, the experience reminded me of my early hours with Media Molecule’s Dreams - being let loose in a sandbox of possibility where experimentation and well-intentioned – but fundamentally flawed – ideas are encouraged.

So strap yourself in, and get ready to try some Rocket Science! Each part has its own function and will affect the way a ship flies (or doesn't). At your disposal is a collection of parts, which must be assembled to create a functional ship. In KSP you must build a space-worthy craft, capable of flying its crew out into space without killing them.

Play kerbal space program demo