Shooting games have shown little innovation in recent years: they are still often characterized by monotonous gameplay and slapstick stories. THE High on lifefinally managed to update this recipe, and although in history the Rick and Morti even the creator’s love child doesn’t change the world, thanks to the endless sea of jokes, it never gets boring.
A Rick and Morti is one of the most popular pop culture products today, so it’s no surprise that fans have been clamoring for the creators for years to create an open-world video game in which they can travel around the many planets of the multiverse. While this is still just a dream, the co-creator of the series, Justin Roland and the development company he founded, Squanch Games, has done everything to please the fans, the result of which was released on December 13 High on life. The sci-fi adventure game – as well as being excellent at conjuring the Destiny its hit and gameplay – it also features completely new solutions.
Our unnamed protagonist and her sister are left alone for the weekend after their parents leave, naively trusting that their home will remain intact. Our protagonist, a video game enthusiast, is reluctant to leave his room, but when he looks out the window and sees an alien spacecraft land in front of his house, and the aliens that emerge begin to wipe out the neighborhood, he is forced to Act. Luckily, he quickly finds a weapon with which they can escape the conquered Earth.
Our hero (and his sister) find themselves in the middle of Blim City, a large city on an alien-inhabited planet light years away, and it soon becomes clear that the only way back to Earth is to become a bounty hunter and destroy the leaders of the attackers. And during the gameplay of the sci-fi shooter, placed in an RPG, we also learn that the Earth-subjugating G3 cartel is not exploring less developed civilizations for any purpose: the creatures yoked in this way are used as drugs – hence the game title.
Starring talking guns
Anyone familiar with the creator’s series (Rick and Morty; Attention, UFOs!), he must have expected that this was not the end of the series of strange things. THE High on life true to its creator: the first witnesses of this are the talking weapons, which in fact take the main role from the silent and nameless hero throughout the game. In a world inhabited by strangers, they speak for us, help us navigate and of course do the dirty work too.
There are a total of five of these living guns to acquire throughout the game, and each one is a truly surreal character. Examples include the bloodthirsty and vulgar hunting knife, Knifey, or the shotgun that uses infants as ammunition, Creature.
And the icing on the cake is that Roiland voices the anthropomorphic gun just like Morty in the series. It is important, however, that there are not only character reasons for the multiple weapons, given that our tools also differ significantly in terms of functions: if we want to fight effectively, we could easily have to use all weapons.
Also, depending on who leads our conversations with the characters in the game, the story could take a slightly different direction, even if the end result remains the same. Special credit goes to the writers for carefully crafting the personalities and vocabulary of the weapons. Unlike the usual action games, here too the spontaneous reactions are extremely varied, and during the fights it is difficult to stand without laughing, as our gun shoots the opponents with aggressive curses and egregious comments.
By the way, the detailed textbook is also noticeable in the case of the characters who come towards us, because there is hardly a second when someone does not shout from the sound system. There is therefore not much to complain about the script, even if going back to the missions it is a bit confusing that we always have to mediate in the long discussions between the alien who lives in our house and our sister. Moreover, the writing falters in the finale: by this time, the writers’ pens have noticeably run out of kraft, and as a result we get an ad hoc conclusion without a full-fledged climax.
The gaming experience and design are also gorgeous
While we visit many planets during the adventure, the game itself isn’t really open-ended. Our bounty hunter and his weapons know each planet through different missions, but they cannot be explored without limits. At the same time, it’s excellent for a platformer High on lifebecause with the help of the accessories that can be purchased after the various missions (jetpack, magnetic shoes, teleportation, etc.), we will be able to walk from floor to ceiling on carefully constructed tracks.
The worlds that can be visited are also very different from each other, on each planet we are presented with different flora and fauna. Among other things, we explore a Mars-like sandy planet with strange deformed children, as well as an undeveloped forest world populated by teddy bears. During missions, however, most planets radiate a cyberpunk-like modern industrial environment. And this kind of diversity is good for the shooter genre, which basically isn’t known for its ability to innovate.
In terms of graphics, the indie studio Squanch Games doesn’t make a big step forward, but the game doesn’t even need that. The wandering worlds and characters are basically made with a more minimalist mindset, wanting to get closer to the level of the animated series, and this gives the game a unique atmosphere. Therefore, we probably won’t get a sense of absence in this area. And if someone is still dissatisfied, I can only advise you to look at the little gags and easter eggs found on the planets – there are a lot of them.
Fortunately there are no problems with the game’s controllability either: the platforming parts are particularly smooth, only during the fights can you feel that the focus is on grinding instead of precision, because even if you aim a few millimeters away, the you’ll still most likely get hits.
At the same time, the creators paid attention to the main opponents, they make our work difficult, so there is no shortage of challenges. The only noticeable issues were micro-delays during dynamic combat and fast movement, and sometimes the loading screen took longer than it should. However, they can be fixed soon with various patches.
Verdict
Without exaggeration, Squanch Games delivered one of the surprise games of the year in December, which will surely be remembered for a long time with its fresh humor, dynamic gameplay and anthropomorphic weapons that take shooter games to a new level. All this despite the fact that, in terms of the complexity of the game, it doesn’t even come close to what many consider to be the basis of comparison No man’s sky-t.
Since the Rick and Morti it can be said to be a divisive series – also featuring much of Roiland’s often nasty and vulgar humor – so this game won’t be the same experience for everyone. Luckily, many people don’t even have to shell out tens of thousands to try it out, as Xbox and PC users can get the game as a Game Pass exclusive game. High on life-to.
