Kerbal Space Program 2 is an upcoming space flight simulator, but it's more accurately described as a freshman astrophysics lesson. The anticipation has been through the roof ever since it was revealed at Gamescom in 2019. However, it hasn’t had the smoothest history after its original development team, Star Theory, was removed from the project after the game received a substantial delay. Now, newly formed Intercept Games has taken over Kerbal Space Program 2 after a number of developers from the original team moved over.
With everything Kerbal Space Program 2 has riding on its shoulders, it could remain relevant for years after its launch. So without further adieu, here’s everything we know about the game, including its release date, gameplay, setting and more.
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Kerbal Space Program 2 release date
Kerbal Space Program 2 has been delayed a number of times, but it’s currently set to launch at some point in 2022. Since this release date was revealed in 2020, it’s hard to say whether or not this will hold up. We haven’t had a substantial update on its release window since then, but we could hear more about the game at any point.
Kerbal Space Program 2 is set to launch on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. The game receives frequent coverage on the official Kerbal Space Program YouTube channel, which hopefully means development is going smoothly.
Kerbal Space Program 2 gameplay
Kerbal Space Program’s gameplay revolves around the player building and flying spacecraft with the goal of reaching new and undiscovered parts of the Kerbal’s tiny corner of the cosmos. However, it is presented in a way that is largely inaccessible and difficult to understand. Players need to learn concepts that are actually applied to astrophysics and space engineering. In fact, playing the first game forced me to learn more about space travel than any physics course ever could teach me. But I didn’t learn by playing; a friend of mine put me through numerous test courses and lessons to explain to me the game's core concepts.
Kerbal Space Program 2 intends to remedy this by stringing players along through tutorials that explain the fundamentals of space travel and what you’ll need to do for your ship to properly survive its hard conditions. This will be communicated through animated videos, an enhanced user interface, and “revamped assembly and flight instructions.” Veteran players can look forward to a whole new collection of “next-generation” parts to make up their ships.
What I’m most looking forward to is the graphical enhancements that Kerbal Space Program 2 will feature. Although the original game is mechanically wonderful, the magic of space can be realized on a grander scale with more complex models, deeper shading and higher quality textures.
Kerbal Space Program 2 planets
Kerbal Space Program 2 is changing how planets work throughout the cosmos, now allowing players to build colonies on foreign planets they land on. This requires resource gathering and management, but could result in the creation of space stations, habitats and other breeds of structures.
Beyond just colonies, players can now travel throughout space at an interstellar level. With this newfound technology, we will see our Kerbals reach never before seen corners of the cosmos and bear witness to a whole new class of astronomical anomalies. Among these new planets, three have already been hinted at. Charr is a smoldering iron world, Ovin seems like a Halo ring with especially intense gravity, and then there’s binary pair Rask and Rusk, two planets locked in a “dance of death.”
It’ll be exciting to see full details on what these worlds will look like, and I can’t wait to find ones we haven’t seen before once the game launches. Figuring out how to maneuver throughout these new places, land on them and orbit them will feel like a whole new set of astrophysics logic puzzles.
Kerbal Space Program 2 multiplayer and modding
One of Kerbal Space Program’s most commonly requested features was the inclusion of multiplayer. Players tried to find ways around this by creating their own community mods that allowed for it, but it wasn’t easy to connect to each other, and even then, features were limited when it worked. I could never get it to work properly.
However, Kerbal Space Program 2 will have its own dedicated multiplayer features. We don’t have extensive information on what exactly this will entail, all we know is what the developers have stated: “Soon players will be able to share the challenges of deep space exploration.” We can also expect the game to feature even more extensive modding capabilities.
Kerbal Space Program 2 video updates
If you’re a huge fan of Kerbal Space Program 2, developer Intercept Games have not been quiet about their progress through development. The Kerbal Space Program YouTube channel is full of updates on the sequel, with four full episodes currently released that showcase some pre-alpha game footage along with developer interviews.
This is a good example of the type of videos uploaded to the YouTube channel, with this one in particular going over the new technology that players can expect to see in Kerbal Space Program 2. These videos also explain the scientific reasons why they’re pertinent to the future of space travel, and briefly go over how much technology has developed since the release of the previous Kerbal Space Program.
Accuracy is important for Kerbal Space Program, as the original was lauded for how it helped actual astrospace engineers and astrophysicists understand core concepts of space travel more clearly.
