Trailer Review - Kerbal Space Program 2 Cinematic Announce

How can cinematic trailers successfully convey feel and tone without a single frame of in-game footage? The cinematic announce trailer for Kerbal Space Program 2 is a spectacular example of how to do just that.

This announce trailer is inspired by a fan trailer made by Shaun Esau which debuted over six years ago in 2013. Like the fan trailer, this uses music by M83 and depicts the highs and low of playing Kerbal Space Program.

If you're not already familiar with the game, Kerbal Space Program is a game about "realistic" space travel in a fictionalized world populated not by humans, but by the cute, titular Kerbals. In the game you have access to all machine components you could possibly need to make rockets, but the game does very little to teach you how to do it successfully. What inevitably happens is you build rockets, many of which explode, forcing you to go back to the drawing board. But if you construct your rocket properly, you can get into outer space, and even land on the planet's moon and more. In this case, the sky is not the limit.

This is why the original fan trailer features majestic shots of space, but also comically overbuilt rockets exploding in the atmosphere. For the cinematic trailer for KSP 2 they took this basic premise, refined its story structure and pacing, and made it shiny as heck with bespoke CG animation. 

The cinemascope widescreen aspect ratio gives it even more dramatic weight.

The trailer opens with a shot in outer space of a small ship dwarfed by the size of the Earth it orbits. The music slowly swells as the ship passes the craters of the moon. There's a closeup as part of it undocks, and inside we see the reflective face plate of the passenger as they look out at the moon. So far this feels like any number of dramatic films about space like Interstellar or Gravity.

There's another wide shot of the undocked lander; it deploys its landing gear as it approaches the surface of the moon. The M83 music is epic and hopeful, like this is history in the making. The ship lands successfully, and an astronaut emerges, setting their foot onto the ladder on their way out when:

Slip!

The astronaut slowly falls in the low gravity, and the camera reveals it's a green Kerbal screaming in fear! As they bounce out of the ship, there's a closeup of another Kerbal already on the surface with a look of joy and wonder on their face. Contrasting the smiling face, the lander falls over in the moon dust. This is an amazing rug pull about a third of the way through the trailer. Already we've experienced the majesty of space travel, and the comical, light-hearted face of failure. The Kerbals overlook a massive crater, and behind it is Earth.

Cut to blue skies where a time-lapse shows a rocket being built, and then blasting off. Even if someone isn't familiar with the game, the simple time-lapse is a good way to show there is building in the game. We're back in an epic, hopeful scene of the rocket taking off; it's impossible to look at and not associate it with footage we've seen of real life rocket launches. Ice falls off the surface of the rocket, it flies through space, the booster rockets fall away as planned, and not a moment later...

The rocket SMASHES into a space station!

There are no sound effects at all, but the music rises as there are quick cuts of horrible rocket accidents and Kerbals haplessly spinning around in the cockpit. After this burst of failure we see more footage of successful rocket launches, space stations, planetary bases, Kerbals doing extra vehicular activity, and then some sort of massive array on a space station lights up. Once again we see total chaos as planetary bases collapse, sparks flying from ships, and Kerbals in the cockpit scream out. 

This delightful image contrasts wonderfully with the familiar epic space shots.

Finally one more launch of an impressive looking ship which lands on a base which builds up via time-lapse. The Kerbals run out to the edge of the base to look at the desolate, but beautiful scene. They smile and point as their rocket falls over causing a chain reaction which causes other parts of the base to crumble and fall. The music, ever hopeful and majestic, finishes on light pianos as the camera tilts upward to see a couple more rockets blasting off, one of which turns into the logo for Kerbal Space Program 2.

Wow.

This is one of the best cinematic trailers I've seen for a game.

Using the fan trailer as inspiration was a brilliant gesture to make something which would resonate with the existing community. Not all fan trailers for games are as good as this one, but they could clearly see how it encapsulated the entire feel of the game. They didn't have to figure out what the audience wanted, the audience just told them.

Most of the cinematic trailer focuses on the awe of space travel; the failures are just enough to get in a good laugh to break it up, but the trailer is smart not to dwell on them too much. The comedic beats at the beginning and end are the longest because the first is the rug pull, and the last is the culmination of all the failures that came before. The comedic beats in the middle are there to bring the trailer to an exciting climax. The trailer's use of epic space travel imagery, and colossal failure are basically the cinematic depiction of the game loop where a player uses trial and error to hopefully make a successful launch, and then tackle progressively more difficult tasks. 

Pretty much the whole game summed up in one image.

I love how there are absolutely no sound effects in the trailer. Not just because it's accurate to lack of sound in the vacuum of space, but because it makes the audience feel the disasters more. The sound of explosions and metal crumbling could've worked, but I think might've been too much over the top. No sound makes the music and majestic moments that much stronger, and also makes the failures are more visceral and comedic. The first time I watched this I think I physically jerked as I laughed at the crash of the rocket into the station. A sound effect would've given me a measure of satisfaction, but by depriving me of the sound, it was even more horrifying/funny.

This does precisely what a cinematic announce trailer should do; convey feel and emotion. Practically speaking, early in game development it's very unlikely to have something looking like the final game, so games with the budget for something CG or animated can afford to do this sort of mood piece to make an announcement and start building excitement. This goes double for games which are already something of a known quantity. Whereas a completely new game might have to show a bit more specifics to communicate a general premise, sequels just need to push the right buttons to tell the audience: "Yup, we know what you like. Here it is either new or better than ever."