Monday, July 25, 2016

Mini Review: Kerbal Space Program (Xbox One)

Bob, Bill and Jebediah Kerman crash onto console

Release Date: 15th July, 2016
Genres: Space-flight-simulation, Single-Player
Platforms: Xbox One, PS4, Windows, OS X Linux 
Platform Reviewed on: Xbox One
Date Reviewed: 25th July, 2016

                      After over two years in development within Steam Early Access, the hit space-simulation lands on consoles with an experience recommended for Xbox one players everywhere; it's a rare hidden gem hidden amongst the depths of modern shooters.

Kerbal Space Program is home to 3 different modes: Career, Science and Sandbox. Sandbox is where your imagination becomes the limit as you have an infinite supply of any equipment in the game, which can lead to hilarious results. Career is when you have complete control of your space program, from keeping track of the cost to run the facility, to upgrading the buildings in it. Science was clearly constructed with Career in mind, because of their similarities, but they feel different and distinct enough gameplay-wise to be separate ways of playing.

When playing the game, it is entirely possible to spend hours upon hours at a time attempting to brainstorm ideas and put them into action. It is entirely possible for you to spend hours upon hours building or modifying ridiculously stupid ships or planes in an attempt to break free from orbit. And it is, unfortunately, possible for you to spend hours upon hours at a time failing horribly and concluding your gaming session with the deaths of multiple kerbals, which is how I spent my Sunday night. This means the game is better played in long segments rather than multiple small doses, which may sound off-putting at first but you can save different designs and test them later,
However, the clunky and somewhat complex controls as well as frequent frame rate drops prevent this game from being the best it could be, but if you're looking for something new and exciting, give this a try.

Good!
8.5/10


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