Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

 PlayStation 4
User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 44 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 44
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 44
  3. Negative: 7 out of 44

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. emerazea
    Feb 22, 2016
    9
    A rare coop gem. Get this game to play with a friend, and ignore that you can play it alone. The mechanics of LiaDS are quite delightful. You and a friend are inside of a ship together, and you must control it's weapons, shield, and engine between the two of you.

    Each part of your ship can be powered up by gems that you collect, and the results are surprising. Each new “Campaign” (a    A rare coop gem. Get this game to play with a friend, and ignore that you can play it alone. The mechanics of LiaDS are quite delightful. You and a friend are inside of a ship together, and you must control it's weapons, shield, and engine between the two of you.

    Each part of your ship can be powered up by gems that you collect, and the results are surprising. Each new “Campaign” (a series of 5 levels) introduces a new environmental mechanic, all of which were creative and fun. I don't want to spoil any of that.

    The gameplay itself can get pretty tough, and you and your teammate will end up creating little strategies in order to overcome them. You'll panic together, you'll sigh as you fail your first mission together, and you'll also feel the satisfaction of winning together.

    Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime found that perfect line of how much time and trial my friend and I could bear and nailed it. Highly recommended.    … Expand
  2. SassyQuatch
    Jan 12, 2017
    7
    As of playing the game up until a little while after the first boss:

    The game is incredibly simple and, if played right, incredibly fun. It does what it does very well. It provides players with a co-op experience that is truly cooperative (to play this alone is to not play it at all). If one player isn't up to par, the whole operation doesn't work. This creates a sense of comradery.    As of playing the game up until a little while after the first boss:

    The game is incredibly simple and, if played right, incredibly fun. It does what it does very well. It provides players with a co-op experience that is truly cooperative (to play this alone is to not play it at all). If one player isn't up to par, the whole operation doesn't work. This creates a sense of comradery. Combine that with a silly story and good times are bound to be had.

    The mechanics are sometimes difficult to control, but this doesn't make for a problem as much as it makes for shenanigans. There's ever the feeling that you're slightly out of control, which helps the gave move along in what would otherwise be a rather linear experience.

    The level design is incredibly simple as far as structure goes, with not much variation being had so far. The visual design doesn't change much within each section either. This isn't that big of a deal so long as you play the game in short bursts.

    There isn't much depth to the game, but the game isn't meant to be too deep anyway. It takes itself lightly and players can't help but do so also.

    The gameplay consists of you and your friend(s) each operating a different part of a ship (i.e, the engine, the shield, a gunner, etc.) and trying to make your way through a monster infested atmosphere filled with obstacles. The maps are pretty small, but they consist of several different paths to take. Ultimately, this degree of choice will begin to feel inconsequential but it's nice while it lasts.

    All that being said, there does come a point where the player might start to feel like the whole thing is really just a lot of fluff, and that feeling would be partially justified. The game is entertaining, but in a way similar to phone games. It provides temporary entertainment that forces the player to provide his own humor if its to last. The amount of fun you derive from this game largely depends upon whether you and your friends can see the funniness in the game. If you can't, this game just won't be kind to you.    … Expand
  3. plotlesviolence
    Feb 19, 2016
    7
    [OVERVIEW = 7]
    A 2D cooperative top-down shooter where 2 players switch between different subsystems of one spaceship.
    [PRESENTATION = 5] (Graphics = 4) Clean and textureless, like a 2D flash cartoon. (Visual aesthetics = 6) Simple, bright, cartoony. (Sound Effects = 6) Functional. (Music = 5) (Voice Acting) None (Plot = 4) You’re collecting “love.” I skipped most of it, but    [OVERVIEW = 7]
    A 2D cooperative top-down shooter where 2 players switch between different subsystems of one spaceship.
    [PRESENTATION = 5]
    (Graphics = 4) Clean and textureless, like a 2D flash cartoon.
    (Visual aesthetics = 6) Simple, bright, cartoony.
    (Sound Effects = 6) Functional.
    (Music = 5)
    (Voice Acting) None
    (Plot = 4) You’re collecting “love.” I skipped most of it, but occasional popups kept insisting a story existed. Plot is a bad idea in a co-op game, because when you get a friend together to play a game, you don’t want to be bogged down in non-gameplay.
    [CONTROLS/MECHANICS = 9]
    (2D Shooter mechanics = 9) This is a top-down shooter where, rather than controlling the shooter, you are controlling a character running around the inside of the shooting vehicle, very much like “Air Buccaneers” and “Guns of Icarus” but in two dimensions instead of three. You press “use” on different chairs that represent each subsystem. In one of the four “gun” subsystems, you aim and fire the cannon covering that quadrant. In the “shield,” system, you rotate a shield around the ship to block incoming fire. In the “engine” subsystem, you can drive the spaceship. There’s also a recharging superweapon seat. It’s intuitive and easy to pick-up-and-play, making it perfect for cooperative games.
    (Friendly AI = 8) When playing alone, a cat substitutes for player 2, and you can direct which of the subsystems it takes (where it is actually competent), except that it won’t take the driver’s seat.
    (Enemy AI = 6) Functional.
    (Physics = 6) Planets tend to have gravitational orbits that will guide you around if you stop flying. There are other little touches like a current in the underwater stage.
    (Camera = 6) It works, but it’s zoomed in a little more than I would like in order to show the positions of both player characters at all times, which makes the player ship take up an inordinate amount of screen space and limits the enemy encounters you can have.
    [DESIGN = 7]
    (Menus = 7) Not terrible, but it incorporates the main gameplay flight mechanics into selecting the stage you want to play, and it wasn’t that clear about how far I was in the game, leading to some confusion. Convenient drop-in, drop-out co-op.
    (Level design = 7) The goal is to fly around small-medium open stages, fight off enemies, and collect the hearts. You have to hunt a bit to find the collectibles that let you continue but they’re signposted. Nothing really interesting.
    (Checkpoint distance = 7)
    (Difficulty Curve = 6)
    (Upgrade System = 8) The upgrades are cool, usually offered as your choice of a progressive boost to one of your ship’s subsystems (i.e., faster rate of fire vs bigger bullets).
    (Modes) = Campaign-only (singleplayer or 2-player local cooperative). No versus of any kind.
    (Length) = 7 hours (0% Padding)
    [CONCLUSION]
    The core gameplay never really changes, but you won’t finish the game in one sitting. It’s too basic of a top-down shooter to play alone, or to last more than an hour at a time with a friend. But it’s just simple enough to work great for really enjoyable half-hour bursts with a friend where you call out instructions to each other.    … Expand
  4. RoboMC
    Aug 14, 2017
    3
    Fun until the first time we died. We play mainly couch co-op in our house and had high hopes for this. We were enjoying it and had gotten about 20 minutes into the tutorial. The ship controls are a bit tricky and counterintuitive. One might potentially just consider that clumsiness part of the charm, except: While learning to negotiate laser traps we lost all our health...and the gameFun until the first time we died. We play mainly couch co-op in our house and had high hopes for this. We were enjoying it and had gotten about 20 minutes into the tutorial. The ship controls are a bit tricky and counterintuitive. One might potentially just consider that clumsiness part of the charm, except: While learning to negotiate laser traps we lost all our health...and the game restarted at the beginning of the tutorial. 100% of our progress had been erased. Every time you die you go back to the beginning of the level, no matter how deep you've gotten in the level. There is no checkpointing.

    This could have been a lot of fun, if they had only put us back a minute or two the way other games do. Instead they give you a spaceship with confusing controls and then punish you harshly when you don't pilot it expertly. I am not willing to replay 20 minutes just to experiment with what I might have done differently in the final 10 seconds.    … Expand
  5. Turbodowg
    Apr 26, 2017
    0
    Another weak month on ps+..... sigh. This month we are treated to a terrible indie title that no one asked for or wanted....yay!

    The graphics are shocking, game play is laughable, sound is irritating and the most fun you will have is pressing X to delete. Avoid this drivel designed for those poor creatures who cant afford real games but sadly have to rely on ps+ each month. Sad    Another weak month on ps+..... sigh. This month we are treated to a terrible indie title that no one asked for or wanted....yay!

    The graphics are shocking, game play is laughable, sound is irritating and the most fun you will have is pressing X to delete.

    Avoid this drivel designed for those poor creatures who cant afford real games but sadly have to rely on ps+ each month.

    Sad times in gaming indeed!    … Expand
  6. Nel
    Jun 13, 2017
    5
    Very basic game, feels more frustrating that it suppose to. The game is coop, but can be played alone. It's not my cup of tea, but time can be spend in it without being to frustrated
  7. drlowdon
    Feb 15, 2022
    6
    Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime can be played alone, but this is really a co-operative multiplayer game at heart. The aim is to pilot a spaceship using a variety of stations (thrust, weapons, shields etc) safely through each level, but with each station located in a different part of the ship players have to work together to ensure they are all in the right place at the right time.

    On    Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime can be played alone, but this is really a co-operative multiplayer game at heart. The aim is to pilot a spaceship using a variety of stations (thrust, weapons, shields etc) safely through each level, but with each station located in a different part of the ship players have to work together to ensure they are all in the right place at the right time.

    On the occasions that I’ve managed to get three people together to play (I’ve never had the maximum four) this his has proven to be very good fun, but being limited to local co-op only its very difficult to find a regular group often enough to make this worth playing, and I suspect that will be an issue of a lot of other people as well. Basically, if you can get three or four players round a console I’d highly recommend this game, otherwise you may as well give it as miss.    … Expand
  8. krazy85
    Apr 7, 2017
    9
    An incredible co-op experience chock full of quick-thinking strategy and wildly imaginative environments in the vein of the Pixeljunk series, namely pixeljunk shooter. Fluid learning curve which ramps up as you gain abilities and stretches your capacity for reacting to rapidly changing threats. It's been a blast to play with both my nine year old son and a friend my age(30's). This isAn incredible co-op experience chock full of quick-thinking strategy and wildly imaginative environments in the vein of the Pixeljunk series, namely pixeljunk shooter. Fluid learning curve which ramps up as you gain abilities and stretches your capacity for reacting to rapidly changing threats. It's been a blast to play with both my nine year old son and a friend my age(30's). This is easily the best psplus freebie in the past year and I highly recommend it!… Expand
  9. deneb006
    Jan 8, 2018
    9
    Unique and wonderful couch coop experience. Great family game, totally safe for kids. Unlike many other coop games, Lovers is designed in a way that communication with others is a must. Overall this game is very fun, highly recommended.
  10. Ruzaky
    Aug 26, 2020
    9
    One of the best couch co op games out there. near perfect game for coop :) Especially when you play like 3-4 people
  11. tobivv
    Apr 3, 2020
    5
    When played by 2 players the game shines as you shout commands at each other trying to survive attacks from all sides with much to do and not enough time. Unfortunately, it becomes very boring when played with 4, as everybody gets their own role and sticks to it. Ships should change sizes based on how many players are playing.
  12. souffle_pan
    Dec 26, 2019
    10
    Love it! Rescue kidnapped space-bunnies! the Soundtrack is awesome. Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is a frantic co-op action space game.

Awards & Rankings

49
#49 Best PS4 Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
82

Generally favorable reviews - based on 8 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 8
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 8
  3. Negative: 0 out of 8
  1. SpazioGames
    Apr 11, 2017
    75
    Just interesting in single player but exhilarating and crazy in multiplayer, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime surely is worth the download. Be prepared to shoot down tons of aliens and to save a lot of little guys (mostly rabbits), because love has to win and your customized-and-upgraded ship is the only hope left.
    Read full review
  2. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    Apr 10, 2016
    70
    It's hard to be cross with any game that has you rescuing space rabbits. [Apr 2016, p.94]
  3. 4P.de
    Feb 24, 2016
    88
    This space adventure with a surprising amount of fresh ideas puts a fresh twist on arcade action.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »