Kerbal Space Program Enhanced Edition Review

Kerbal Space Program has been around for almost a decade now. What initially launched into Steam Early Access way back in 2013, finally made its way to consoles in 2016. The PS4 edition however only launched much later to a global audience in the form of the Enhanced Edition. We got a chance to try out the Breaking Ground expansion pack which has only recently been released in EU regions onto the PS4.

Kerbal Space Program is a very complex game. Newcomers to the game will have to play through the multiple tutorial levels and even then, getting to grips with the game is something that can easily take hours and hours of gameplay. This isn’t a game you can just pick up and play and hope for the best. Your spacecraft will crash and your poor Kerbals will die a gruesome death. While that might be fun to see in action the first couple of times, it’s not the point of the game.

Kerbal Space Program encourages gamers to build new spacecraft and be creative. Using the easy to use editor, you’ll spend literal hours in the hangar constructing new spacecraft for the missions at hand. You’ll also learn about the various stages of launching a spacecraft as well as how to safely land them either back on Kerbin or on another stellar body. On PS4, the controls are a bit iffy though with the analogue sticks being way too sensitive when trying to set specific parameters. The radial menu available is a great addition and simplifies much of the hassle of finding and clicking on specific contextual menus. That said, Kerbal Space Program is still best played on PC in my opinion but having the game available and playable on a console does not significantly detract from it at all.

The game is quite a niche title and Breaking Ground is the second major expansion to have been released for it. Breaking Ground introduces surface features on planetary bodies which further complicate matters along with a range of other new content. Robotic parts and additional science-based equipment can also be used now and these keep things fresh for when you eventually get the hang of the game.

There’s a variety of game modes on offers in Kerbal Space Program and the scenario mode features a lot of content to get through. Those who don’t want to tackle specific missions or scenarios though are free to play in the sandbox mode and that’s probably where the most fun is to be had. Want to build an insanely overpowered rocket? Sure, go ahead. Want to build a one-man lunar exploration unit? Yup, you can do it. Kerbal Space Program is incredibly fun if you have the time to dedicate to it

Graphically, the game still features rather minimal looks with a lot of lacklustre textures. However, this isn’t a major problem as the game aims for realism in terms of its physics engine instead of its ground textures. The soundtrack used in Kerbal Space Program is fairly standard with nothing particularly stand out in my opinion and a little bit of voice acting could have helped with some of the earlier tutorial levels, especially for newcomers. Alas, this is not the case and the game presents you with walls of text to wade through to learn how to play.

Overall, Kerbal Space Program Enhanced Edition on PS4 does the original PC version of the game justice. The PS4 edition features all the same content as the base PC version does and with the additional Breaking Ground expansion pack, the game has a tonne of additional content to get through. If you want to say goodbye to multiple hours of your life just tinkering around with spacecraft and space exploration, Kerbal Space Program Enhanced Edition on PS4 may interest you. If you lack the patience to sit and play a game like this, you may want to pick up something else.

Kerbal Space Program is available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with the DLC Breaking Ground

The game is also available PC for Windows, Linux, Macintosh and Wii U

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