A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Kerbal Space Program 2 (abbreviated as "KSP2") is coming out...seriously this time.  After being delayed over and over, from 2020 to 2023, it now has a set launch date of February 24th.  There's just one catch though - it's early access.

Normally I wouldn't have a problem with this except the price tag is just shy of what full retail titles cost.  That's a lot for a game that doesn't have a campaign mode, base building, interstellar travel, multiplayer, or any of the other features implemented yet that would make KSP2 a proper sequel.

Well, surely the graphics are a big improvement over the original, right?  Not exactly...with the Parallax 2.0 mod coming out for the original KSP soon, the difference is a lot slimmer than one might expect.  Granted KSP2 may have some under-the-hood improvements (such as code optimization, better UI, and a true banishment of the dreaded physics kraken), but I'm not believing it until I see it.  That high degree of skepticism might seem unduly harsh.  However, keep in mind the dev team has gone on record in interviews incorrectly claiming that time warping while under acceleration is a new feature.  In fact, it was possible in the original KSP up to a "x4" increase.  As discouraging as all this is, I might be willing to overlook these failings if not for a rather huge misstep early on in KSP2's development.

The original team behind KSP2 consisted of a studio called Star Theory Games.  For reasons that remain nebulous, the publisher, Take Two, cut funding which in turn caused the developers to go belly up.  Take Two then immediately poached a bunch of the studio's former employees with the allured of a new job and sign-on bonuses.  Essentially, it allowed Take Two to move the entire operation in-house while simultaneously purging anyone they didn't see eye-to-eye with.  It's about as sleazy as business practices get, plus it was done by a corporation with a (let's just say) less-then-stellar reputation...not that the original inventor of KSP, Squad, was all that great either.  Recently it came light that they apparently paid their employees very poorly even by Mexican standards.  No wonder the programming work on that game was such a hack job.

Sorry little Kerbals.  You guys might be adorable, but your creators have all the flaws of Greek gods and none of the splendor.