Kerbal Space Program 2 delivers a hell of a rush

polygon.com:

Oh, to be an astronaut, flying away from Kerbin and into the great frontier of space.

In Kerbal Space Program 2, you meticulously build rocket ships to launch into orbit around the planet Kerbin, and eventually explore other celestial bodies across the cosmos. The game launches (pun intended) into early access on Friday, with a sandbox mode available. I’m trying the game as a newcomer, having only spent a small handful of hours with Kerbal Space Program, during which I developed an intense appreciation for, and terror about, its complex and fairly realistic physics model.

In early access, KSP 2 doesn’t yet have a career mode, so there aren’t contracts or objectives to guide my time. Instead I set a basic goal: Make a ship and successfully guide it into orbit. I, a fool convinced of my own intelligence, thought this would be pretty easy. I was wrong. Earning sweet KSP 2 success required a lot of trial and error and back-of-napkin math. But I enjoyed every minute of the ride. The early game made me feel like an amateur physicist, even if it’s the closest I’ll ever get to an actual rocket.

It all started in Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), where I designed my rocket ships. The sleek, charming building tutorial did a great job of guiding me through what a ship needs to be able to launch into the sky and safely land — command module, fuel tank, engine, and parachute — which I dutifully wrote down in my gamer notebook. But these components would not be enough to send the rocket into orbit. I hopped out of that tutorial and decided to take on the mantle of head engineer. This would be a mistake for the Kerbals, many of whom perished in my cruel attempts at reaching the majesty of the stars. (I save-scummed a lot because I