Like the best classes at school, Kerbal teaches you via fun, trickling science into your brain through playful osmosis. I not only found myself having fun in designing rockets that in theory should work but sneakily learned more than I bargained for, such as the difference between a sustainer and an orbital engine. 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. 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.

Kerbal space program review ign