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Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime Indie Game Review

Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime Indie Game Review

We at Geeky Hobbies would like to thank Asteroid Base for the review copy of Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime used for this review. Other than receiving a free copy of the game to review, we at Geeky Hobbies received no other compensation for this review. Receiving the review copy for free had no impact on the content of this review or the final score.

Every so often when you are browsing Steam you will come across a game that while looking strange looks like a blast to play. Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime did just that. Developed by Asteroid Base, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime was released on Steam on September 9th, 2015. You can’t deny the charm and wackiness of Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime one of the best co-op games I have played in quite a while.

A Wacky Lovable Journey

In Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime your world is in danger of being destroyed by anti-love. Anti-love has laid waste to your galaxy and has kidnapped many of its inhabitants. You and another companion need to work together to navigate your heart ship to rescue the kidnapped inhabitants. The forces of anti-love will try to stop you though. Can you stop anti-love before it destroys your galaxy?

If that sounded like one of the weirdest plots for a video game that you have heard, you would be correct. Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime is one of the weirdest/strangest games I have played in quite a while and I had a blast with it. The story is kind of cheesy but that is one of the things I like about the game. The story doesn’t feature prominently in the game but it is interesting enough that I want to see what happens (I haven’t finished the game yet).

A Fantastic Co-Op Experience

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

© Asteroid Base

While the game has a single player experience (you control both characters), I am not going to address it for two reasons. First I have not played it so I really can’t comment on it. Second and more importantly, unless you have no one to play the game with I don’t know why you would want to play the game single player.

Co-op is where Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime truly shines. The game was made as a co-op experience and you can tell. You and your partner, control a ship together. Throughout the ship are various panels that you use to control different parts of your ship. There are controls for the engine, the shields, a weapon on all four sides of the ship, and there is a special weapon that you can occasionally fire. The catch is that each player can only control one panel at a time and they are spread throughout the ship. This forces you and the other player to continually run from one panel to another in order to control them.

It is kind of hard to explain exactly why but it is just fun controlling the ship. This is especially true when you are being attacked by many enemies at the same time and need to run all over the ship just to stay alive. The controls work really well since the game only requires you to use a couple buttons. Communication with your teammate is key since you need to work together in order to get rid of the enemies you will encounter. In some situations you will be swarmed by enemies and your only chance at survival is to work well together.

The main objective of most levels is to find and free at least five creatures and then reach the exit portal. It’s not so easy though since each time you play a level it will be different because the level layouts are randomized. This presents you with two options of how to find the creatures. You will also occasionally run into question mark boxes that will help guide you in the right direction. Otherwise you need to explore the map and you will eventually run into them. Sometimes you will have to spend quite a bit of time searching for the creatures since they will be in the last place you check.

The game actually presents you with an interesting dilemma in every level regarding rescuing creatures. In each level there are ten creatures. You only need five creatures to leave the level though so the game has a risk/reward mechanic. As soon as you get the five creatures you can head straight for the exit portal. This will increase your chances of successfully completing a level since you will have to face far fewer enemies. If you want to risk it though you can try to rescue more of the creatures which will help you purchase upgrades quicker. Generally I  preferred to take the safe path since I always seemed to get swarmed with enemies when trying to rescue additional creatures.

The game also includes some mechanics where you can customize your ship. Occasionally you will encounter gems that can be added to the various parts of your ship which provide various special abilities. For example you can add a gem to your shield which allows you to reflect projectiles back at your enemies. Each gem adds different special abilities for each ship part so there are many different ways that you can customize your ship. You will eventually be able to add multiple gems to each component which will combine the two gems’ powers. I really liked the idea of the gems since it adds customization to the game as you can adjust your ship to fit your preferred play style. I kind of wish the game had some way of telling you what each gem does though without having to use trial and error.

While I had a lot of fun with the game there are a couple small issues I had with the gameplay:

  • Someone will usually have to stay on the shield controls. If you are getting swarmed by enemies you are going to have a hard time avoiding death if no one is controlling the shield preventing your ship from tacking damage. Having someone always on the shield could get boring after a while. You can eventually get an upgrade that allows you to reflect enemy projectiles which makes shield duty a little more enjoyable.
  • As I alluded to earlier, in some levels you could end up spending a lot of time just navigating around looking for the creatures. This is usually not too bad but it can get dull at times.
  • I wish the game supported more than two players and that the game could be played online. Since the game was developed by a small studio it is understandable that these two things couldn’t have been added but I wonder how good the game could have been if either were implemented. While the game’s difficulty would have had to be significantly upgraded, I think it would have been a blast playing the game with three other players.

A Challenging Lengthy Experience

Although I am only at the midpoint of the game, I would say that Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is a moderately difficult game. A lot of the difficulty comes from how each level is randomly setup. At times certain areas will be swarming with enemies while other times an area could only have a few enemies. For the most part the game is appropriately challenging but you will encounter some times when the enemies seem almost insurmountable. The game never gets frustratingly hard though.

At the halfway point I have currently played Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime for around three hours. On average the levels seem to take around ten minutes more or less dependent on how many of the creatures you try to save. While the game might not have a ton of missions, the game has quite a bit of replay value. The game has a quite a few customization options to try out and it is the type of game that will still be fun after completion. With the levels always being randomly generated you could play the same levels over and over again.

Should You Purchase Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime?

If you have no one to play the couch co-op with I am unsure if Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime will be for you. If the game did a good job with the single player controls I could still see you enjoying the game but it will not be the same experience that you would get playing the game with another person.

If you have someone to play the couch co-op with and you like co-op games I think you will love the game. This is the type of game that thrives with couch co-op. The game is simple but requires communication between the two players. Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is one of the best co-op games that I have played in a while. At $15 the game is a good value if you have a friend, family member, or significant other that you can enjoy the game with. The whole message behind the game is spreading the love after all.