Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is a game that is all too aware of how frustrating and stressful it can be. The game takes place in several large stages across four campaign chapters, where a group of 1-4 people operate a large circular ship with stations that control guns, mapping, shields, and engine usage. The idea is to move across the level, save anywhere from 5-10 good guys, and high-tail it out of there.

That said, the amount of fun varies on the level of stress the enemies are causing. For 1-2 players, the action can bring a crippling amount of worry on Normal mode alone. Maneuvering between two people or just one person and an AI partner can be incredibly unwieldy, and massive amounts of enemies can spawn to the point where plenty of valid strategies are just "run away", to varying degrees of success. The game has a mini-roguelike tone to it, with a ship that resets ship upgrades every chapter, a variety of upgrades that, while providing plenty of superficial variety, frustratingly prefers a specific choice in order to survive, and a lengthy amount of time for each level. So long, that the player will feel very little will to continue after that last run took a few years off their life.

Luckily, the game is not a roguelike. Being aware of how merciless their design also is, the developers also added a Casual mode that honestly feels like a normal mode for less people. 3-4 people makes for a blast and a decent challenge on Normal, but it's good to be able to jump back to something that doesn't get too frustrating.

As for the visuals and audio, it ranges from cute and colorful levels with sinister and geometric enemies to a serviceable techno soundtrack. Nothing particularly stands out, and there's a lot of miniature detail on the ship that often forces the player to sit particularly close to the screen.

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime can be conditionally fun, and that's with more people. At lower amounts, either one's own concentration and speed or two people's communication and speed must be so intensely aligned for 15+ minutes at a time that you'll forget what fun feels like and mostly get crushed under stress.

Spacetime is ripping apart because the forces of Anti-Love are attacking! Quickly, get into the round pink spaceship and pew pew pew enemies and prisons that hold your friends until rainbows heal the heart-shaped portal and you can escape!

Hell yes I'm into this! We had a blast playing this with my friends. Discovering and trying out new upgrades is really cool, and the game manages to keep the level design fresh and entertaining, which is honestly deserving of a lot of respect, as there's only so much you can do with shmup kinda gameplay.

It plays 4 people but it's good with a few more people too, since it's fun to watch and you can rotate players in and out of the crew. You'll need a break every once in a while anyway, it can be a little overwhelming. I can see it play decently with 3 too, but with 2 you'd definitely need to lower the difficulty or be really really into it.

This game might have a bit more niche appeal compared to say Overcooked, so I wouldn't blindly suggest it to just anyone that wants to have some local multiplayer coop chaos, but if you're up for something fresh, I would definitely recommend it.