Kerbal Space Program

 PC
User Score
8.2

Generally favorable reviews- based on 724 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 584 out of 724
  2. Mixed: 54 out of 724
  3. Negative: 86 out of 724

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  1. inopinatus
    Mar 16, 2019
    6
    Eight years on from its first appearance, KSP would clearly benefit from a rewrite or replacement by something more polished. The rocket building and physics simulation are still a superb education in orbital mechanics, but it was never a great-looking game, was (and still is) plagued by bugs, and never really had a sense of game progression even in career mode.

    Visually and in    Eight years on from its first appearance, KSP would clearly benefit from a rewrite or replacement by something more polished. The rocket building and physics simulation are still a superb education in orbital mechanics, but it was never a great-looking game, was (and still is) plagued by bugs, and never really had a sense of game progression even in career mode.

    Visually and in gameplay, the modding community has far surpassed the original. Unfortunately installation and management of mods is complicated and poorly supported; few players will bother.

    KSP proved that there's demand for a gamified simulation of rocketry and orbital mechanics. The alternatives such as Orbiter and SimpleRockets are either extremely specialised or massively simplified, so for now it's your only option.    … Expand
  2. gracjanski
    Feb 27, 2018
    6
    The beginning is perfect: In the long tutorial you get a great feeling of the perfect physics and complex gameplay. The setting is very unique, where did you ever manage a space center?
    After some hours the problem begin: The last tutorials are not very clear. There is no manual -> so many informations are hidden. You can loose your free time of your life to play the trial and error game,    The beginning is perfect: In the long tutorial you get a great feeling of the perfect physics and complex gameplay. The setting is very unique, where did you ever manage a space center?
    After some hours the problem begin: The last tutorials are not very clear. There is no manual -> so many informations are hidden. You can loose your free time of your life to play the trial and error game, but I hate it. Or you can search in internet for more informations. But overall this is frustrating. Another big problem ist the missing localization. I understand english well, but I need to understand everything in a complex game.
    Somehow the atmosphere is boring and not motivating. The boring graphics fits into that feeling.The campaign is a good idea: you get contracts and get science and other points to develop your space center. But the contracts are very similar. I have the feeling, the campaign needs improvements to be funny.    … Expand
  3. Hersir
    Dec 10, 2015
    6
    The game allows you to be Sergei Korolev, Wernher von Braun, Yuri Gagarin, Alan Shepard and Neil Armstrong all at the same time, and many more. You can build aircraft, rockets, spaceplanes, satellites, landers, rovers and etc. and use them to travel around an imaginary star system similar to our own and this all features real-life-esque environments, physics and equipment.
    .
    Even more    The game allows you to be Sergei Korolev, Wernher von Braun, Yuri Gagarin, Alan Shepard and Neil Armstrong all at the same time, and many more. You can build aircraft, rockets, spaceplanes, satellites, landers, rovers and etc. and use them to travel around an imaginary star system similar to our own and this all features real-life-esque environments, physics and equipment.
    .
    Even more possibilities are introduced in various mods that add anything from new parts to whole new layers of gameplay like inventory system and ability to exchange resources on the fly, and even multiplayer synchronisation.
    .
    Unfortunately this all comes with a serious downside - the technical implementation part of the game is abhorrent. Most game assets are pre-loaded instead of loaded on demand (and unloaded when not needed), I feel like I'm in the 90's or something. But even worse, combined with absence of fully functional 64-bit exe file this means game always crashes because of memory limits and the situation gets even worse if you naturally want to mod your game. The game also lacks some optimization as quite sometimes I experience frame drops for no fair reason - the graphics or physics in this game isn't something that anyhow should fully load your CPU or GPU even if they're not top of the line.
    .
    So, for now I'm giving it a 6. I will change my mind when devs move KSP to Unity 5.2 with some proper 64 bit support.    … Expand
  4. joecool99
    May 7, 2015
    7
    Great game, the technical presentation reminds me of the original UFO defense from Microprose in 1994
    I want to see streamlined KERBAL 2 - similar to recent reboot by Firaxis XCOM in analogy. They streamlined it well with good game mechanics and graphics. Not perfect, yet I prefer it over original now.
    I have about 50h in Kerbal - however my excitement is diminishing with the weak    Great game, the technical presentation reminds me of the original UFO defense from Microprose in 1994
    I want to see streamlined KERBAL 2 - similar to recent reboot by Firaxis XCOM in analogy. They streamlined it well with good game mechanics and graphics. Not perfect, yet I prefer it over original now.

    I have about 50h in Kerbal - however my excitement is diminishing with the weak boring graphics, loading in between flight center and launchpad etc. - empty planets.

    KERBAL 2 vision:
    - immense graphics overhaul (think no mans sky)
    - somewhat streamlined gameplay and research (not everybody want to deal with 20 different winglets etc.)
    - better time speed mechanics and limits.
    - planet view needs to look as real planets with hi-res textures and dynamic atmosphere (if it has one)
    - narrative gameplay single player - journey across Galaxy etc. (think homeworld)
    - better physics of cloth for parachute
    - I'm sure there is more...

    This is already a huge success for your studio. Keep evolving, now you have funds - take it to next step! ;-)    … Expand
  5. Pannon
    Jan 14, 2016
    6
    I hate to be a party pooper, but I liked everything, up to 1.00. My problem is, the game is the same, as it was 10 versions ago. Since this supposed to be the "release" version (1.0 +) , I expected more things being fixed and the game tuned better, more bugs taken out, and more gamer friendly.
    Despite I know almost everything how to build rockets and balance it right, a newcomer will    I hate to be a party pooper, but I liked everything, up to 1.00. My problem is, the game is the same, as it was 10 versions ago. Since this supposed to be the "release" version (1.0 +) , I expected more things being fixed and the game tuned better, more bugs taken out, and more gamer friendly.
    Despite I know almost everything how to build rockets and balance it right, a newcomer will struggle. There should be at least ballon help for the parts and easier mechanics for assembly.
    I understand this is an indie title (and probably the best one out there), but I don't see any real progress from alpha to final. It's like, the developers themselves got bored of it and just kicked it out the door with a price attached to it.
    As I said, as an alpha indie game, it's fantastic, but I hoped to see more.
    The interface in the hangar is mediocre. There is hardly any explanation of what is what and how it comes together.
    Text doesn't scale, so people with 1080 resolution will either have to stick their heads to the monitor or get glasses. Forget about 4K people, they will need a microscope.
    Sounds continuosly cuts out periodically, as the loop of the sound effect ends and restarts.
    I have 32GB of memory and an upper midrange card (960 GTX 2GB) , and yet I still feel like there are performance issues, especially in orbit. And that, considering the fact, that the game isn't really pushing textures and visual quality to begin with.
    The gameplay could have used more TLC. The missions are fun, but it gets hard from easy really fast. People should not rely on youtube to know a game. This goes for all games here, not just this. I found this an unacceptable practice, that gone haywire and now developers just cut the whole introduction and tutorials out of the game. I know Kerbal has a tutorial, but it's hardly enough. It's more like just an excuse.
    So to sum it up, my dislike isn't about whether the game is good or bad, but more about lack of polish and lack of content added to the final version.
    As an alpha or an early access, it's an exemplary game and goes fully recommended to everyone, but as a final product - considering what it was in alpha- I can't give a thumbs up.
    I know, I am going against the flow here, and I understand that many will not like my review, but I'm not here to please people, but give my fair share of thoughts and my opinion.    … Expand
  6. TheMadGolem
    Jun 28, 2015
    7
    When I first heard about what KSP was, I was really excited. I had seen youtobe videos on it. I was really excited. Whhen I got it, I was a little dissapointed. I was expecting more parts. But when I got used to it, It became really fun :D.

    However, I don't think it is worth the £30 I spent on it. I would acceot £20 or £25 but not thirty.
    Besides from that, It's a very good game :)
  7. auditbadger
    Jul 30, 2017
    6
    I think that this is truly a unique game and I would recommend that if you are a fan of this type of genre then I think you should give this game a try.
  8. rezo_21
    Sep 18, 2021
    7
    ====================IIIIIIIIII GAME SCORE : 66 IIIIIIIIII====================
  9. Wrathzo
    Mar 24, 2022
    6
    Kerbal Space Program is a space flight simulation video game developed by Mexican developer Squad. In the game, players direct a nascent space program, staffed and crewed by green humanoid aliens known as "Kerbals". The game features a realistic orbital physics engine, allowing for various real-life orbital maneuvers such as Hohmann transfer orbits and orbital rendezvous.
  10. clem666
    Mar 16, 2021
    7
    'Kerbal Space Program' may seem like a peaceful casual funny game but rather appears as a complete simulator. You won't have the courage to play it more than one hour if you don't stop sufficiently at the tutorials. And just when you think it can't be that hard to reach the stars, you suddenly realize that there are an impressive amount of parameters required just to visit the stratosphere'Kerbal Space Program' may seem like a peaceful casual funny game but rather appears as a complete simulator. You won't have the courage to play it more than one hour if you don't stop sufficiently at the tutorials. And just when you think it can't be that hard to reach the stars, you suddenly realize that there are an impressive amount of parameters required just to visit the stratosphere without landing anywhere.

    The game strangely manages to give you the impression of total freedom when it doesn't allow you to go anywhere without following and understanding an incredible amount of rules. Each step you will achieve in order to reach an objective will demand you to dig deeper into the game mechanics. 'Kerbal Space Program' tries to be funny but I think its humour is totally obliterated by its incredible difficulty. Graphics seems effortless and do not help to truly get involved in the game.

    It is important to highlight the fact that 'Kerbal Space Program' benefits from a huge community that is hyper-active. Play it on Steam and you will easily disover plenty of crazy-original mods.    … Expand
  11. Bloodnes
    Nov 6, 2020
    5
    На любителя, задумка классная, но реализация так себе, сидеть тыкать кучу мелких окошек ну такое себе 5/10
  12. SeanD
    Sep 11, 2020
    6
    A good game with a novel concept that's bogged down by an extremely poorly designed UI. The art style is a bit inconsistent in some places. However, it has a very vibrant community of competent modders that help the PC version immensely.
  13. JustSingleGamer
    Jan 27, 2023
    6
    It's a really good game for who wants to be an astronaut since I was a kid. But terrible controls (in editor). I'm waiting for KSP 2.

Awards & Rankings

11
#11 Best PC Game of 2011
44
#44 Most Discussed PC Game of 2011
11
#11 Most Shared PC Game of 2011

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 24
  3. Negative: 0 out of 24
  1. PCWorld
    Jan 20, 2016
    100
    Kerbal Space Program isn't just a fantastic space game. It's one of those games that makes you glad you play on PC, because it could only come to exist on PC.
    Read full review
  2. Power Unlimited
    Jul 24, 2015
    92
    KSP is bloody fantastic! The possibilities are endless and the feeling you get after a successful mission is the best ever. You should probably buy this video game. [Jul 2015, p.063]
  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jul 8, 2015
    80
    Neither for the impatient, nor for absolute purists this simulation although focuses to the latter significantly more. When your game is supported by NASA itself, you are just doing something exceptionally well. [Issue#253]
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