
There’s so much to take in, so many different interlocking systems that all contribute to whether your flight ends in space-bound glory or fatal explosions. Just don’t google the phrase ‘dick rockets’, please.Ĭoming in fresh, you will fail, unless you’re a real-life rocket scientist or dubious hobbyist. This all looks very serious now but rest assured, dick rockets definitely exist.

Conquer the first few training exercises and you might feel confident enough to strike out on your own, but one failure and a handful of obliterated Kerbals smashed against the planet’s surface and you’ll quickly be back to pick up some new knowledge before you try again. It can be a lot to take in, but the training is provided in convenient chunks that lay out a breadcrumb trail to eventual success. The tutorials, thankfully, are comprehensive, covering everything from building your first flight-ready rocket to the finer points of interstellar travel. Don’t be deceived by the cutesy Kerbals – a visual mix between Ubisoft’s demented Rabbids and those despicable yellow things I don’t want to name here – this is a deep sim game that doesn’t pull any punches. The little picture people, more gratified by the explosion than what makes it happen in the first place. Kerbal Space Program is not friendly to people with my mindset. Hell, it took me about six hours to just about start getting my head around some of of RimWorld’s more intricate systems, let alone something that gets as close to actual rocket science as videogames have ever gotten. My brain works best when I’m reading, or reacting – the finger that pulls the trigger as opposed to the mechanism firing the bullet.


When it comes to things like statistics, charts and work orders, my head just kind of freezes up. Kerbal Space Program is available on Steam, Xbox One, and PS4.
