
I’m not saying every game needs to be in this mold. There, too, you had a physics simulator cleverly disguised as a sandbox game.
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In that regard, KSP reminds me of another PC classic, The Incredible Machine. Where the flight simulator genre is intrinsically “adult” and “boring,” Kerbal Space Program somehow feels more like a game-even though it is, at heart, still a simulator.

And if a few Kerbals need to suffocate in the vast vacuum of space so I can test out a new rocket design, well, so be it. There are so many possibilities for spaceflight when pesky real-life constraints like “Will people die?” and “How will we fund this?” go away. Or fly halfway to space and then force your Kerbals to jump out of the cockpit. Or strap sixteen rockets in a helix pattern around a girder and see what happens when they all ignite.
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You know how people always say “It’s not rocket science” in that annoying, pedantic tone? Well in this case, KSP is quite literally rocket science.ĭo you know how to nudge a throttle during takeoff so that you’re not unnecessarily burning more fuel than drag necessitates? Do you know how which thrusters to fire to increase your orbit around a planet? Do you know how to plot a course to the moon? Regardless of whether you choose the Story or Sandbox path, make no mistake: Kerbal Space Program is hard. But if you like drowning, well, sandbox mode is always available to you. There are a ton of parts to experiment with in KSP, and the best way to understand what each does (in my opinion) is to have them introduced a bit at a time through the career. It’s a great way to introduce players to the game, because if you jump straight into the sandbox you might find yourself drowning in quicksand. The only difference between the Story mode and the sandbox modes is that in Story you’ll have limited funds and will literally build up Kerbin’s space program from scratch, researching more advanced parts as you get better.

While KSP now has a “Story” mode, the core of the game is still the same as it’s ever been-build rockets, then fly those rockets.
