Move - A/D or Left/Right Arrow keys ---- Jump - W or Up Arrow key ----- Crouch - S or Down Arrow key ----
Short Life 2 is just pain in game form. You walk a few steps, and boom—arrow in the face. Or maybe a mine launches your legs into orbit. This isn’t your regular side-scroller where you casually hop around; this one hates you and shows it by throwing every deadly thing it can find straight at your poor, clueless character. From swinging axes and exploding barrels to hidden spikes that just sit there waiting for you to mess up, it’s like the game was designed by someone who really enjoys watching cartoon people suffer. Every level is basically a trap-filled nightmare. One moment you’re ducking under a buzzsaw, the next you're getting karate-chopped in half by a giant metal hammer. The game doesn’t even try to warn you half the time—stuff just comes flying out of nowhere. You’ll jump and accidentally land on a spike, or try to crawl and get your head knocked off by a swinging log. And don’t even think about speedrunning it unless you enjoy restarting the same level 40 times. The ragdoll physics make everything worse (but also kind of better). When your dude takes damage, it’s not a clean animation—it’s full-blown floppy chaos. Lose a leg? He still tries to crawl. Get hit by an arrow? It sticks in you while you keep moving like some weird zombie. It’s hilarious in the dumbest way possible. You can’t even stay mad because watching your character’s limbs flail around after stepping on a trap is low-key the best part of the whole game. Checkpoints feel like winning the lottery. Seriously, getting to one is like finding water in a desert. Most levels are so packed with death that reaching a checkpoint almost feels like you’ve beaten the game—until you realize there’s even more nonsense waiting ahead. Some players try to collect all the stars on each level to unlock new skins, but honestly? Half the time it’s not worth the risk. Those stars are always in the dumbest places, like under a swinging axe or above a spring trap that launches you straight into a buzzsaw. Short Life 2 isn’t about playing smart, it’s about surviving stupidity. You’ll tell yourself you’ll be careful, and then two seconds later your guy’s in pieces again. And yet somehow, you’ll keep restarting, trying to beat that one level because now it’s personal. It’s frustrating, dumb, hilarious, and kind of brilliant all at once.