KSP's reputation, does it deserve it?

[DJEN]

Right now, KSP is fairing quite well in the internet. For example, when I searched Google using searchwords such as "KSP is overrated","KSP sucks", it only showed reviewers prasing KSP and describing the reasons regarding how it doesn't suck. I was highly mystified of this grotesquely one-sided reputation, and decided to find out more by asking people who know the most.

So I'm here in this forum to ask the people. Does KSP deserve its current reputation, or is it truely overrated?

[astropapi1]

I don't think you can overrate this:

[Poryy]

Yes, it deserves it's reputation. I dare you to find one reason why this game sucks.

[DJEN]

A poll is out. Express your opinions, please.

[Seshins]

This is probably the one game ive owned over the years - bearing in mind its not even 1.0 - that i not only find myself playing pretty much consistently, but i can actually plan meaningful builds while im not playing, and have maximum excitement about implementing and refining said builds.

I mean you get your space flight sim (i use this term loosely), your rocket/plane builder, the attachment to kerbals, the pretty massive solar system. i didnt believe it existed when i was first told about KSP, but how was i wrong.

Not to mention the amazing community - you dont get this kind of general humanity in 90% of other gaming/car forums.

It also taught me more about Orbital Mechanics in the space of a few hours than any other source of information i had come across.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Seshins

[Guest]

KSP is pretty much the only thing I play anymore. I take breaks for other games every so often, but I keep coming back to KSP. Best $17 I've spent on a video game in a long time.

[SkyRender]

About the only point out of KSP's favor is that it's currently a bit hard to get into for certain newcomers. Understandably, of course, given that the entire process is terrestrially unintuitive and requires a lot more inputs than most games do. But I've never really heard anyone complain about the game itself once they have gotten past the initial learning curve.

[TheCanadianVendingMachine]

I feel as if the forums will be a littttlllleeee bit bias about this.

[astropapi1]

I feel as if the forums will be a littttlllleeee bit bias about this.

Yup. It would be like going to a football team's fan club and asking them what they think about the team...

But still, KSP's only problem is the learning curve. It's not even a curve, it's a 90° wall, but that's what makes it so awesome. The sense of reward it gives you is much better than the one "Do this, kill him, shoot that" games give.

[Stargate525]

I'll play devil's advocate.

It's got more praise than I think it deserves. Yes, it's a pretty decent game, especially for alpha, but it's not the best game I've ever played. Some of the UI is annoying, the lack of keybind documentation is annoying, that the game doesn't tell you how far back your quicksave is is VERY annoying. The amount of customization available for your program is almost nil, and the replayability is woefully lacking. While it's gotten better, the art style is... meh. The parts don't really have very much flavor to them. And speaking as a jaded player of abandoned alphas, this Dev team has zero track record for me to trust that any of the above will be fixed in any meaningful way.

If I had to rate the game objectively... I'd give it a seven or eight. Fun, worth the money... But could still be better.

[The Destroyer]

In my opinioin, KSP, if average games remain the same, will be the best game of the decade when it comes out.

[SkyHook]

Hmm. I'm of two minds about this. For the poll, I put that KSP has the reputation that it deserves. It's an amazing game, and I'll state my personal pros and cons below.

Pros:

-No game like it. It fills a niche where there was nothing before. This simple fact is inspiring.

-Addicting. The open nature of the game allows for endless fun.

-Frickin' rockets man!

-Educational factor is admirable.

Cons:

-Objectively shallow gameplay. Once you learn how to get to other bodies, the developer-created gameplay stops cold.

-Developers' focus on new players' wants. This isn't a bad thing per se, but it leaves large portions of the playerbase starved for content.

-There is no game like it. Lack of competition leads to lack of variety and monopoly in game experience. Harv has the last word on (Newtonian) space games atm.

With both in mind, there is no way that KSP would deserves LESS hype in my opinion. It's the game that I've played the most in my life. EDIT: WoW takes that cake for me actually. 1500+

Edited February 27, 2014 by SkyHook

[Whackjob]

I am of the opinion that one must be either mentally deficient or intentionally obtuse in order to find significant fault with KSP.

You can trust me. The beard says so.

Look at that beard. Can you imagine someone with a beard like that lying to you? Of course you can't.

[maccollo]

KSP educated the public about real space travel with a an incredibly fun and engaging gameplay experience.

For that it deserves all the praise it gets.

[astropapi1]

KSP educated the public about real space travel with a an incredibly fun and engaging gameplay experience.

For that it deserves all the praise it gets.

And it does so while keeping it fun enough that my little sister always asks me to play it with her.

[SSSPutnik]

I actually didn't find it hard to get into at all.

I started in Career mode, then dumped it real quick and now play only in Sandbox.

Yes it was a bit tricky for first few hours, but so are most games then, (unless its point n shoot).

I think I made orbit in my first sitting after a bit of blowing things up. It's not that hard.

(Mind you I have been mad about space and scifi since I was about 6-7 years old, my Dad had a huge SciFi collection).

Asparagus staging, SAS, multi port docking etc all require some learning, then there's mods like FAR etc. But to get a stock rocket, into some kind of orbit isn't that hard.

(Let's not mention Oberth)

That's not to say I don't learn new things every day I read the KSP forums or play the game. I disagree it's hard to learn to play though.

Edited February 27, 2014 by SSSPutnik

[Tripzter]

I voted its somewhat over rated. Fact is graphics are bad, single core support only, very little parts come stock, no achievements, many bugs, very slow progress.. this game is now 2 years old. That sums it up. Dont get me wrong, i love the game but its definitely not up to 2014 standards.

In my opinion if it had competition of the same genre, if it wasnt the only fat cat in town, the results would be quite different.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Tripzter

[DJEN]

I am of the opinion that one must be either mentally deficient or intentionally obtuse in order to find significant fault with KSP.

You can trust me. The beard says so.

http://i.imgur.com/5PG7vmNm.jpg

Look at that beard. Can you imagine someone with a beard like that lying to you? Of course you can't.

Yat doxen'c xeen you !e logical, it's an ad hominem!

[Epthelyn]

I think KSP may be a little overrated in its current state. If the devs complete the game and add everything that's either planned or hinted at then it will more than deserve the reputation it has gained.

That's from a gameplay perspective; although there are many, many, many, many things you can do you will always have to repeat things like getting to orbit, burning for a long time to get somewhere etc. For the most part it's just a matter of patience and coming up with more interesting ideas, but when you're launching the 15th module of your space station using a launcher which will reliably not explode it's not quite as fun.

From any other perspective, it's a physics simulation in which you build rockets. That simulation has flaws (it breaks frequently and only simulates simplistic semi-realistic physics) but it's still pretty amazing. As SkyHook pointed out a few posts above, there is literally nothing like it. Yes, there are realistic planetary simulators and yes some of them have rockets (e.g. Orbiter), but none of them allow you to start with an empty hangar and a list of parts and build an interplanetary spacecraft in the same way that KSP does and then ceaselessly attempt to analyse why your rocket exploded in some meaningful way.

As for the educational reputation, well, the game pretty much mirrors exactly what I was taught in A-Level Physics. Aside from the added interest increasing 'potential for learning' or whatever name educational people have come up with for it now, the satisfaction of knowing exactly what the apparently meaningless equations in a classroom mean whilst others have no idea why they need to learn about orbital physics is immensely satisfying. I recall some argument I was having which ended with me saying "Can you fly a rocket to Mars? I can." (out of context, it was one of those things I just couldn't 'win' without saying something stupid). Someone across the table pointed out that that depended on what I meant. Reply: "Kerbal Space Program". The person I was arguing with had no idea why both of us laughed and started discussing why this thing called "Duna" may or may not be Mars.

Best game ever.

[Kasuha]

KSP is kinda like chess. Nobody says chess sucks, but on the other hand, only selected few play it, those who have what it takes. And everyone else says chess is a great game.

[Corw]

I'll play devil's advocate.

It's got more praise than I think it deserves. Yes, it's a pretty decent game, especially for alpha, but it's not the best game I've ever played. Some of the UI is annoying, the lack of keybind documentation is annoying, that the game doesn't tell you how far back your quicksave is is VERY annoying. The amount of customization available for your program is almost nil, and the replayability is woefully lacking. While it's gotten better, the art style is... meh. The parts don't really have very much flavor to them. And speaking as a jaded player of abandoned alphas, this Dev team has zero track record for me to trust that any of the above will be fixed in any meaningful way.

If I had to rate the game objectively... I'd give it a seven or eight. Fun, worth the money... But could still be better.

Does wiki count as source of keybind documentation? 'Cause it has key bindings.

[The Destroyer]

I voted its somewhat over rated. Fact is graphics are bad, single core support only, very little parts come stock, no achievements, many bugs, very slow progress.. this game is now 2 years old. That sums it up. Dont get me wrong, i love the game but its definitely not up to 2014 standards.

In my opinion if it had competition of the same genre, if it wasnt the only fat cat in town, the results would be quite different.

Graphics: It could be better, but do you really want a 1 FPS game? Imagine the phsyics calculation...

Core: That's gonna get changed.

Very little parts: It's a big alpha... so just wait for more. Try playing 0.7 and play this.

Achivements: This is specifically something they don't want.

Many bugs: Alpha alpha alpha... new features, new bugs.

Very slow progress: Of course, it's not a Arcade action game, it's a sort of simulation-science game. You need to actually know stuff.

Age: Sure, it's two years old, but there is MASSIVE ammounts of stuff that KSP has, all around the unity engine. It takes time.

"Fat cat in town": Sure, given enough time. A game like this needs massive ammounts of time, some other dev could give you a quick game that you only get 100 hours out of. Or less.

[FanaticalFighter]

This game can't be given ENOUGH rep. 'Nuff said.

[Justin Kerbice]

KSP is pretty much the only thing I play anymore. I take breaks for other games every so often, but I keep coming back to KSP. Best $17 I've spent on a video game in a long time.

I'm agree with that.

KSP has some issues, perfect games are very rare by the way, remember Bullfrog or The Bitmap Brothers games, in the other hand, the huge amount of various mods available let us almost "play it as we want it" and that's great !

Squad draw a kind of layer, and we can add what we want inside.

For example I have always like to flight plane and chopper in GTA 3 San Andreas (very easy and relaxing, we don't have to manage 1000 tiny parameters and spend 3 years before being able to flight) and more recently in Saint Rows the 3rd which have a similar model. KSP + FireSpitter gives me a very similar experience.

So IMHO it's hard to say it is over or under rated, but for sure it's not the game you'll drop after a week if you like it.

[Whackjob]

Yat doxen'c xeen you !e logical, it's an ad hominem!

Why would I insult my own beard? It'd take offense and probably go on the attack. I would not fare well.