Space has never been so crazy and brilliant at the same time.
With High on life Justin Roiland and Squanch Games continue to deliver their patented comic in new forms with an excellent end result, if the jokes are to your taste of course.
“Humans work great to use as an intoxicant.”
OK wait. The game then begins with Earth being invaded by an extraterrestrial cartel who have discovered that humans work perfectly to be used as an intoxicant. Luckily, you soon meet your new best friend Kenny—no, not Starfighter. He belongs to the race of “gatlians”, who are a kind of living and intelligent firearms. Kenny becomes your guide in space and a perfect companion who is not slow to comment on almost everything you do. Add in a high-tech bounty hunter outfit with accompanying gadgets and you’re ready to save both humanity and the galaxy from the criminal network of space villains.
From the colorful jungles…
Here you can buy both upgrades and banned volleyballs.
If you’re familiar with the Rick & Morty and Solar Opposites animated TV series, a lot of things will feel familiar to you pretty quickly. That’s not at all strange given that Justin Roiland is the co-creator of both series and also leads developer Squanch Games. High on life it’s full of gritty and twisted humor and on several occasions it feels like playing an episode of Rick & Morty with none of the main characters appearing. He’s also really impressive how they’ve managed to translate the two-dimensional style, which has become a bit of a signature for Roiland, into three dimensions.
The fight against the cartel takes place in colorful, semi-open environments spread across different planets where there is a lot to see and even more to hear. I’d like to know how many dialogues were recorded, because almost everywhere you go you can overhear more or less derailed conversations. More often than not, these have nothing to do with the plot itself, but are still worth stopping by for a good laugh. It is evident that much of the content must have been created on the spur of the moment and I suspect they had a lot of fun recording it. I myself have been stuck an unreasonable amount of time in front of the b-horror movies playing on the TV at home, and it seems the movies can be enjoyed in their entirety if you’re patient enough.
Aside from the humor, one of the best features of the game is all the curvy weapons. Sure, we’ve seen buffs that speak to you as a player before, but they’ve never been as vivid as they are here. In addition to belonging to different categories of weapons such as pistols, rifles and machine guns, each firearm has its own personality and will speak to you as you use them to eliminate the opposition that stands in your way. Sagittarius is also the driving force in many conversations and if you switch from one to another, they can comment on different things. It’s really impressive how the team at Squanch Games manages to make it flow so naturally. Weapons also have special abilities that are used to move through environments, so they fill several important roles and are not just pure instruments of death.
“They play several important roles and are not just mere instruments of death”
Aside from the dialogues, voice acting, and jokes, the game is basically a perfect first-person shooter with components reminiscent of other games. The crazy arsenal is similar to the one we find in Ratchet & Clankalbeit a lot rougher in the mouth, and the shooting setup feels like a simpler version of what we’re on offer Destiny (then 2016 e Eternal). In between rounds you can also find a bit of lighter and more puzzling platforming and a bit inside you have unlocked abilities that allow you to traverse the different worlds in a really competent way.
The enemy design looks good at first, but the variety quickly becomes quite jarring. You’ll come across different varieties of simple cannon fodder that aim pretty poorly, flying drone types that require some sniping, and berserks that run straight ahead of you. The range expands a bit, but does not require direct challenge, creativity or revolutionary strategies. Which is a bit of a shame, because if they’d gotten even more inspired by Bethesda’s hell-shooter, no one would have been happier than me.
Even in space we do not escape pop-up ads.
What’s a bounty hunter without something to hunt?
All the biomes and characters are really nice, but the cartoon style sometimes makes everything look a bit plastic. I also miss meatier animations, there are some but when you’ve seen the same execution hundreds of times they feel a bit tired. Then you really must have the right sense of humor. You can lower the frequency of some dialogues if you want, but that’s not something I recommend.
Overall, this is a very nice title that entertains well. If you like crass jokes, twisted comedy that’s delivered on the spur of the moment, and think it’s nice to brag to tinderboxes in colorful settings, you’ll be able to enjoy it to the brim.
Note: High on Life was released for PC and Xbox. Tested with Core i7-12700H, RTX 3070 Ti, 16GB RAM.
