Kerbal Space Program has become nothing short of a beloved game over the years. Being able to build your own spaceships, rovers, planes, and much more was a fantastic experience, whether you send them into orbit or out into space to find planets, the possibilities felt endless. Now with a sequel on the rise and in Early Access, we can only wonder what is to come, but luckily, we have a road map.

Developed by Intercept Games, ‘Kerbal Space Program 2’ is a spaceflight simulation game. Enter the next generation of space adventures and help aid the cute little Kerbals on their journey. Being built from the ground up with a fully revamped UI and map view, along with a selection of new parts to build with and rich new environments to explore.

Starting out, you can head through the tutorials and learn how space travel works along with the mechanics and science behind building the perfect spaceship, or for the seasoned veterans, you can skip and get straight to the fun part.

Let’s look at some of the key features available and what’s to come.

• Major upgrades: Naturally, as an Early Access title, they have major updates to come which are laid out in a road map and it definitely looks like some good stuff.
• Improved onboarding: With Kerbal Space Program 2’s overhauled UI, new animated tutorials, a fully revamped assembly, and updated flight interfaces, it’s now easier for new and novice players to put their creativity to the test.
• Rich new environments to explore: There’s so much more detail in each planet you explore, and it’s a great advancement over the original. Clouds, atmospheric scattering, and an all-new terrain system combine to take your breath away.
• So much more: including more immersive sound design, new tools to optimise your exploration, and a whole lot more customisable parts and new space-flight technology to better your space exploration adventures.

With the Kerbal Space Program 2 being in Early Access we don’t have a whole lot to play with at the moment, but that’s how it is these days, with more and more developers opting for the Early Access option and building from there.

Luckily, Kerbal Space Program 2 has a road map of what is to come, so you can make an informed decision on investing now or later when the specific content you want is ready. Although there are no official dates for these updates, you might have to be a little patient.

Unfortunately, it felt a little rushed out the gate. After building my ship with very few parts just to get a hang of things, I noticed a considerable dip in frame rate when launching, and I’m running this on an RTX3080 and a Ryzen 9 5950x.

You can only imagine what it would be like with larger ships with many stages. I actually decided to give it a go, and boy did it struggle, getting as low as 5 FPS with a larger spaceship. In that respect, it’s practically unplayable in this state.

The graphics and sound are definitely an overhaul from the first game, with much more detail in your spaceships, the planets you can explore, and the way the Kerbals look and act. Along with the graphical updates to the planets, each has its own ambient sounds and music, which helps in making them feel more alive.

All in all with Kerbal Space Program 2 being in Early Access, it’s a bit of a “buy at your own risk” situation, knowing that the game isn’t going to perform as well as you might like. I recommend waiting for a more stable build with more content. I can see potential and am glad to see a road map of what’s to come, but it’d be better if we had a schedule.

Written by: MrVibeAU