Recent reviews by Patchrikc

Do I recommend Kerbal Space Program 2?

NO. Not anymore. You can read what I thought right after the "For Science" update, and the game began to look something like the game that was promised. Now it's not, the game has been abandoned and is being hawked by a private equity firm. This game will not be made better and they're hoping that you're just dumb enough to buy a copy. Don't, it's not worth it, you're better off buying the 1st KSP and learning how to mod the game. R.I.P. KSP 2 you never really had a chance.

- PREVIOUS REVIEW -
Short answer: Yes, after the "For Science" update. This update transformed the game from a broken alpha at launch to a solid beta experience. As a KSP 1 veteran with 100+ hours who never ventured beyond Minmus, I've already made multiple trips to Duna in my 30 hours with KSP 2. The new Exploration mode has sparked a genuine thrill for discovery.

But is it truly out of Early Access yet? Not quite. It lacks feature completeness, has some baffling UI/UX choices (bordering on terrible, frankly), and still suffers from occasional, albeit non-game-breaking, bugs.

Overall, however, it's finally reached a point where fans of KSP 1 will likely find just as much to love as I have. I'm excited to see what 2024 holds for KSP 2 – it feels like it's finally hitting its stride.

So this is a recommend, there are some things that need to get tweaked for this game to be a A tier game, but this is actually a solid game. Which I wasn't expecting. I was expecting a glitchy mess with a poorly thought out in game store and pay to win gear.
What I found instead was a game that's trying to tow a unique line, STALKER and Tarkov without the extremely punishing aspects. It's a free game worth checking out, and seeing if the gameplay loop clicks with you. Even if you don't try it now, I'd follow it, and see what tweaks the devs make to the game. Overall the game feels like it's a couple of gameplay tweaks and patches away from being a game that blows up and you see it all over YT and Twitch.


Pros:

• It's free, I mean really? What's the barrier to enter?
  
• Performance, granted I'm on a 3090FE and 5600x, but this game runs perfectly, this was a pleasant surprise.
  
• Game's tutorial is actually pretty good, (Not great) but good which IMO is important.
  
• Gunplay, again another pleasant surprise, high TTK but not on the level of STALKER or Tarkov, more like COD or Battlefield which feels right. Not too fast but not too slow. Aiming also doesn't feel clunky.
  
• You don't lose all your stuff when you die. This is a big deal to me, as you're learning the game nothing could be more frustrating than being in a low level area just for some dude in high level gear to be farming new players. You will drop some stuff, enough to make you care about dying. But not enough to ruin the game for you.

The In-between:

• Progression right now feels a little weird, because you won't be pulling your gear off of NPCs and other players. You have this Base upgrading and bartering system, where as you complete quests and world events you level up your Rep, as your Rep increase so does the base level. The Base level allows you to barter/buy/craft new gear. Armor, guns, attachments, other needed gear, this is how you will get all your shiny new toys.

Suggested Fix: Currently the issue with progression is actually part of a Pro, (You don't lose all your stuff when you die). So how do you fix this? My first thought is a insurance based system, When you unlock gear it's insured for life, you can always grab it from your base that you spawn at, but if you keep losing your stuff you'll have to start paying for the gear with your rep. This keeps the current progression system for unlocking new gear intact. But how would this affect other players? Well other players would be able to grab your gear BUT, this wouldn't unlock it totally, and it can't be placed in personal storage. It would instead allow you to trade in the weapon/armor to the gun smith for discounts/points towards unlocking that weapon/armor (Think the AKM cost 1000, and 5 crafting parts before I traded one in, now it's 800 and 3 crafting parts). This would allow that weapon/armor to be used while on that life (again looted weapons can't be placed in personal storage and are lost on log off). Looted weapons and armor would have a durability de-buff to balance them towards your unlocked gear, so if you use them too much they'll break and you can't trade them in for progression points.

Cons:

• Alright riffing off that last point. Looting, looting kind of feels not great, because you don't drop your guns and armor it means you don't get to loot guns and armor. You can still get ammo, meds, artifacts, and some pretty useful stuff. But don't expect that thrill of winning a gun fight where you should be dead and pulling a M4 off a high level NPC.
  
• UI / UX - the UI is heavily based on STALKER's UI, and well, that's cool from a looks perspective. However the UI in some places feels outdated and clunky. Especially the bartering/upgrade menus. Some of these menus could use some TLC but they're not a deal breaker.

This game has the most rewarding gameplay loop I've ever experienced. The game is simple get the ball into the other teams net more times than they get it into yours. But how you do it will constantly evolve. The skill progression that you will see along the way of playing this game is insanely rewarding. From your first goal to your first air dribble, if you want to get better you will be rewarded, but if you just want to play a fun casual game you will get that as well. Easily one of my favorite games of all time.

This game is made by the people you play with. If you have a good group and can get on to a good server you'll have fun. But be prepared to grind on any vanilla servers. Over all is this game worth 60 dollars, hell no. Is it worth 30? I would say yes, so if you can get it for 20 grab it.

The game has a good story which surprised me. I came in expecting a AC clone, but I was really surprised by what I got. Highly recommended! Get hype for Shadow of War!

Well I beat it. Still don't know what to believe. This game will mess with your head but in a good way.