If an astronaut gets stranded attempting to reach the moon, for example, the player is able to decide whether to abandon them to drift forever in an eccentric orbit, or put the moon mission on hold while they plan a rescue mission. The game compensates for this as the player is always pushing towards the next achievement, flaws in rocket designs organically produce missions of their own based on the player’s mistakes. Such scenarios are finite in nature, growing more sporadic as missions take place further and further from your home planet. Landmarks like achieving your first stable orbit feel rewarding and are a step towards ever more complex missions. Kerbal Space Program’s biggest strength lies in how invested you become in every task. However, fire up a dozen rocket boosters at once and the visceral roar will quell any issues you have over sound effects. Admittedly, this could be intentional, as it certainly suits the slap-dash approach to reliability the game tries to suggest. Occasionally, exploding parts, like discarded boosters caught in a ship’s backdraft, will produce an odd audio reverberation, and sometimes it sounds as if something fell off when in fact the rocket is perfectly fine.
Sound likewise is decent, but aside from noticing small details like how the music changes when you enter orbit, it’s simply background. Overall though, it looks better than expected, and graphics quality is but a minor priority in sandbox games. The sudden generation of objects and application of forces upon them strains the game engine at times, with large rockets swaying on the launch pad like trees in the wind unless you overload them with structural supports.
Nevertheless, the ship designer, where a substantial proportion of game-time is spent, looks quite impressive, and up close the ship parts are finely detailed, right down to serial numbers on parts. An extraordinary level of micromanagement is possible eventually, with some aspects only relevant once you’re gearing your ship for extra-terrestrial atmospheres, or gated behind in-game research.Īs with copious other sandbox titles, the hallmark of Kerbal Space Program is creativity as opposed to graphical fidelity. It’s intended to be simple and intuitive to entice you into designing your first vessels. You achieve these ends using the game’s detailed and comprehensive ship designer. The premise of the game is simple, but ambitious: from humble origins you progress from creating your first atmospheric rockets out of scrap to constructing bases on distant planets.
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