After a delay of almost three years, Kerbal Space Program 2 is finally here. Well, some of that. As with the original space flight sim, the sequel has launched into Steam Early Access, with ambitious plans to build on its sandbox base. Colonies, interstellar travel, and multiplayer will eventually arrive, adding features that don’t exist in Kerbal Space Program. But without any of those features at launch, fans of the original game are wondering if it makes sense to start playing Kerbal Space Program 2 just yet.
A “no” to that question was the conclusion of our own launch impressions. “Without the skeleton of a campaign or progression present, Kerbal Space Program 2 can often feel like being in the middle of an ocean, clinging to a piece of wood,” we wrote. “It has a depth you can dive into, but it’s not an easy way to navigate without the (supposed) support of its community.”
As of Monday, the KSP2 Users Verdict stands in a final “Mixed” on Steam, with 50% positive reviews. Here’s a breakdown of some of the most common complaints, as well as praise, from Steam reviews thus far.
performance is rough
“Kerbal Space Program 2 FPS” – Flekso, Steam reviewer (still gave it a thumbs up)
“We don’t have all the features of KSP from day one, but KSP2 is a fundamental improvement in many ways. The only thing that’s a core issue right now is performance. Anytime Kerbin is in the offing, the game becomes super slow On a positive note, load times have been drastically reduced, the UI has received a huge boost in every way, procedural aircraft wings, live swapping to the follow station, and huge improvements to the ship swapping, just to name a few. performance is what kills it right now, even if its specs go way above what is recommended.” – Steam Reviewer Mike Honcho
“It uses 70% of a 4090 just to have a CPU bottleneck at 75fps. I can’t imagine how bad it is on low or even mid tier systems.” – Steam Reviewer Crimsonblod
“No matter the graphics settings, I always get less than 20 FPS on a 3070. Not to mention game-breaking bugs… I have high hopes, but will refund until performance is fixed. Can’t test a game to find bugs and make suggestions if the game is not even playable”. – AdmiralViper Steam Reviewer
“This game wasn’t ready for early access. Lack of content isn’t the problem, it’s abysmal performance. The NUMBER ONE problem with KSP1 was performance, and yet they released it in an even worse state. I have a 5950x and 4090 and yet I get 15-20 FPS during launches with a rocket that is only complex enough to get to Mun and back. I wish they had waited a few more months to optimize.” – Dr. Neeley, Steam Reviewer
it is very buggy
“As it is, the game is unplayable. Parts will not be selected correctly, if you are building your ship there is a chance that it will end up on the ground with no way to recover it. Even small ships can start to tear apart. I have accidentally wiped my ship out of orbit more than once and there is no guarantee that quick save and reload will help with that problem I have been through moons and planets in the time warp loved the first game but this one needs a lot of work, it may be too early access for early access.” – Steam Reviewer Sigguard
“I wish I could recommend this game, but it’s not playable. For example, how can I create satellites if each of them can at some point change orbit onto a collision course?” – Steam Ash reviewer.
“- ship exploding spontaneously, apparently for no reason.
– conics and flight paths that disappear when they intersect the SOI of a body.
– craft CHANGING FLIGHT PATHS when not being controlled or flown. Try to dock with a haunted ship.
– Had an unnerving spinning ghost kerbal in a pod that haunted my entire trip to Gilly, even on the surface. She would appear and then suddenly disappear, for no reason.
– uncouplers, motors, and other critical items that don’t appear on the prep list in the VAB or in flight.” – Steam Reviewer samjacbak
“I want to like this game, but the bugs make it extremely difficult to do things like an Apollo-style Mun mission because you get kraken when you try to undock. You have cargo bays that cling to your legs when they shouldn’t, so you can’t untangling them, and a host of other issues. For all the new and good stuff developers bring, these bugs are all hurdles and should never have been allowed in public release.”
Many gamers are excited about the graphical update.
“The graphics in this game are unreal and I find myself constantly taking screenshots” – Steam Shrekticle Reviewer
“The sound design and revised graphics are stylistically and qualitatively AMAZING.” – Thygrrr Steam Reviewer
“nice graphics, better UI, lots of new quality of life additions, sound design is great, planets look beautiful and load times are CRAZY for me in terms of speed. KSP 1 never loaded that fast.” fast for me… Wait at least a couple months for them to fix everything. I strongly believe the game will be good eventually! But from now on…” – Steam Reviewer Collcroc123
There’s still fun, even with the limited features…
“the rocket keeps going up” – Steam reviewer retro
“This is how Early Access was supposed to be used. Lots of bugs, but a lot of fun. As long as they deliver the features and optimizations over time, it’s worth buying now. I think they will. We’ve seen progress from many of them already. I’m having a lot of fun just playing with it as is.” – Steam Veritas Reviewer
“Overall, I didn’t care (and seeing the direction they’re going with KSP 2, I still don’t care) giving them my money for this game. It’s very obvious that it’s still a very early alpha. You need money to make these games, and while the $50 price seems steep, I’m willing to bet on the product it will be built on… Personally, I’m treating this more like a pre-order with a playable demo.” – Steam fillmore reviewer of the fillmore program
…but you’re probably better off playing KSP1 for now
“I really didn’t want to have to say this, but just go play ksp 1 for three or four months and see how you do. It’s a nice, but buggy, shell of what ksp 1 is. Even without mods. Even ignoring the Missing several major features (campaign mode, any of the promises made over the past three years), the current state is genuinely as empty as early versions of KSP 1, only with a worse user interface.It has the potential to better, but it’s WAY too messy and hard to read to be considered even better).” – Steam Reviewer Crimsonblod
“As it stands, KSP2 is in a couple of ways better than KSP1. Unfortunately, it’s also worse in dozens of ways.” – Samjacbak steam review
“The game in its current state is lacking in key features and quality of life features that simply preclude any kind of creative freedom that KSP inspired and fostered. First off of course the wobbly rockets, this feature really makes you step away from the over-engineered. and wacky creations that you want to experience in-game. The addition of new, bigger parts is almost completely overshadowed by the fact that using/building with them just isn’t worth the headache.” – Steam Fecal Flinger Reviewer
“One positive aspect of KSP 2 is the changes made to the user experience, UI, and onboarding process. These improvements make the game much more accessible, and once it’s optimized it will certainly be much more The changes are impressive, and it’s clear the developers put a lot of thought into them… Overall, if you’re interested in KSP 2, I would recommend buying it only if you intend to provide feedback and help the developers test the game. Best to wait until the game is fully released.” – Steam Reviewer Mrbluestar
“Just wait. There’s a diamond in the rough, but there’s a LOT in the rough.” – Steam Ath Reviewer