2 Minutes in Space: Missiles! 2.1.1

Stuck like a wasp to my fizz-drink, the seeker missile was tailing me, and gaining ground. No matter how hard I tried to evade it, it was either going to tag me right then or blow me up the next time it would have come about. And because there's nothing worse than delaying the inevitable, I decided I'd prefer crashing on the Moon, than give whoever launched that thing the undeserving pleasure of success.

This feeling of hopelessness is typical during the first seconds of playing "2 Minutes in Space." That's because surviving for even two minutes in this game is comparable to developing pyrokinesis after only ten minutes of trance meditation. You can't.

Luckily, your impotent space shuttle can be ditched after a dozen or so pitiful sessions to make way for a swifter vessel, which is also armed. You see, for every second that you last in that hostile space, you gain a credit. Got enough credits? You can ease your pain in the future. You're also after space gold nuggets that up your credit considerably. Blow up a few missiles? You get a bonus. You do all of these things so that you can finally advance to the best ship in the fleet and - allegedly - sail the missile infested space in style.

However, guns don't make up for the lack of movement. You ship fires automatically once something gets in its sight, but targetting isn't your gunner's forte. In fact, your gunner seems to be playing whack-a-mole with the fixed targeting reticule and losing a lot. Moreover, you have a limited supply of ammo. But that is not such a big problem, since you rarely get to live longer than your laser pack.

2 Minutes in Space features three environments, out of which only the Moon is available at first. Each one also includes a semi-random progression of events. For example, after you've evaded some small seekers, picked up a gold nugget and managed to slip past a barrage of blind rockets, you will be blessed with a bunch more chunks o' space-gold and with a not-so-lovely cluster rocket on the side. In short, things get even harder.

But if you're persistent enough, you can purchase slightly better ships and upgrades with what you've gathered, and finally begin to alleviate these constant sources of frustration.

Final Thoughts

2 Minutes in Space is a profoundly unfair game. The gameplay is designed in such a way to make you feel you have a fighting chance, when the realistic chances of you getting anywhere past the first minute begin from very low and then go down fast. Highly recommended for masochists and the like.