SimplePlanes 2

SimplePlanes 2 is the long-awaited heir to the cult aircraft-builder that makes you feel both like an amateur engineer and a mad child with a lot of glue. The game dials up nearly everything that made the first SimplePlanes lovable — building freedom, fiddly physics, and “what happens if I do this?” experimentation — while adding modern visuals, procedural parts and chaotic multiplayer. If you enjoyed tinkering in the original or Jundroo’s Juno, SP2 instantly feels familiar and noticeably… shinier. I’ve spent hours alternating between serene flights over the Archipelago and yelling at wayward missiles I forgot to lock.

Mastering Wing Shapes and the Joy of Tuning

The heart of SimplePlanes 2 is still the designer. You drag, stretch and sculpt wings, fuselages and control surfaces until your creation behaves — or spectacularly doesn’t. The new NACA-based airfoil controls and overhauled flight physics make building feel meaningful: change a thickness slider and suddenly your plane stalls earlier or climbs like a rocket. Engines now expose real parameters (compression, bypass, afterburner toggle, nozzle types) so tweaking thrust and fuel economy is an actual puzzle, not a guess. Controls support mouse/keyboard, controller and even HOTAS, which I loved for longer flights. Everyday play alternates between delight (a perfect takeoff after three iterations) and facepalm (watching an expensive tail section explode because of a misplaced hinge).

Procedural Parts and the Creative Mayhem They Enable

What sets SP2 apart from its predecessor is how many different things you can build — planes, cars, boats, forklifts and bizarre hybrid contraptions. The procedural powertrain and missile parts are surprisingly deep: scale, diameter, guidance types (IR, SARH, ARH, laser, unguided and more) and thrust choices mean weapons are as much about design as destruction. There are also 40+ hidden stock crafts to discover across the map, plus backwards compatibility with many SP1 crafts. Multiplayer turns those toys into social chaos: races, dogfights, towing gliders and pure trolling with ridiculous vehicles. It’s brilliant when it works, and incredibly entertaining to watch when it doesn’t.

A Living World and a Polished Presentation

The Archipelago map is a genuine joy to fly over. Trees, roads, airports, a race track and 787 square kilometres of terrain give you places to test speeds and handling, while water graphics and volumetric explosions look and feel satisfying. The UI is cleaner than SP1 in many places, paint and decal tools allow surprisingly pretty liveries, and performance is generally very solid — the game even runs on a Steam Deck according to many players. That said, some UI elements still feel mobile-leaning and awkward in the builder, and spawning huge numbers of AI can tank framerates. Sound design is effective but rough around the edges; engine volumes and some FX could use polish. Overall the tech side nearly matches the ambition: a sandbox that looks good and feels alive, but still wears a few Early Access badges.

SimplePlanes 2 is a joyful, ambitious Early Access that fixes many old annoyances while introducing wonderful new toys. It’s ideal for builders, tinkerers and groups of friends who want to race, ram and laugh — but expect some rough edges: UI niggles, mod tools and stability need attention. If you loved SP1 or crave a creative flight sandbox, this is a highly recommended upgrade with room to grow.