I sacrificed 23 astronauts to take 1 to the Moon, and this one squashed against the surface: this is the new Kerbal Space

To give you an idea, I am a student of letters, so my closeness to science does not go beyond the tag line “fiction” or the world of cinema and video games. I know how to add 2 plus 2, but solving what I need to get to space on an interstellar journey is very difficult for me. That is what Kerbal Space Program 2 proposes, a game that we were able to get our hands on last week for about 6 hours and that, except on one occasion, I didn’t get to the moondying several times along the way.

Kerbal Space Program 2 en well ordered madness. After trying the first one and realizing that I’d better stay on the ground, sitting in front of a PC writing texts —which, after all, is what I like—, instead of going into space, I was afraid to face ” same” for this sequel.

Although the game follows in the footsteps, “at face value”, of the first work of the Mexicans from Squad with Felipe Falanghe at the helm, Intercept Games —who pick up the baton after helping the Mexicans with that 2011 development— is committed to the term sequel at its best: everything that made the first good has been magnified. I did not expect anything else with 2 heavyweights like Private Division and Take-Two Interactive behind, and that is that KSP2 It’s so good that I’m sorry I don’t know anything about science.

Because yes, it is still essential, at least to fully squeeze all the options that are put on the table to taste. The idea, again, is to offer a management experience and ship building —although any “jalopy” capable of being propelled into the atmosphere is also valid— to conquer space. And I have tried; Believe me I have, but I couldn’t, at least not without losing people along the way.

In the time that I played the beta version provided by Private Division, and prior to its release in early access, I flirted with all the possible options for expand the power of the Kerbal race into space, unsuccessfully. The constructions that they let us use, predesigned by the development team itself —as in that first part, I already tell you that there are a lot of similarities—, they fly! It is surprising, but true, something that does not happen with my works.

Almost replicating Homer Simpson when he tries to build a barbecue and says “why isn’t mine the same?!”, my “aberrations” did not exceed hundreds of meters; they did not enter the atmosphere; or they suddenly lost power, forcing the ballast to be released so that the impact would be of a smaller caliber. Total, I had to “sacrifice” 23 poor astronauts in a space race against myself to get to space. Only 1 managed to land on the nearest moon, although since I don’t know how to brake and the atmosphere is non-existent, the parachute did not open and he died instantly.

And it is that Kerbal Space Program 2 is difficult for one reason only: to understand the world around us, the physics of the everyday, it is. The reality depends on a thousand factors. Flying a ship implies knowing the impact exerted by gravity, pressure, the difference between power and weight… A host of things that, excuse me, I don’t understand. And yet, I wholeheartedly say that science is not difficult to understand, at least not for someone who loves it.

Does this mean that the game is not made for everyone? Now here near. In all the time that I was able to enjoy the game —emphasizing the word “enjoy”— there was not a second in which I did not have fun fiddling, like a small child with his LEGO set, the thousand and one options that we have in Kerbal Space Program 2; some that will be expanded as the game leaves its early access.