High on Life (2022)

I think a lot of games that are focused on comedy tend to skate by on the fact that most people are going to play their game for the humor. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of great games that manage to be funny and are a blast to play, but I've found quite often that if a game is primarily known for its humor, it may not try too hard in other aspects.

If High on Life didn't have its humor, it would be a fairly bland first-person shooter. The gameplay isn't that exciting, the level design is decent (but the lack of maps is an insane choice), and the story itself ends up not mattering much in the end. Weirdly, I don't even think High on Life is hilarious, it's more just pleasantly amusing for the most part. There are clever moments that made me chuckle, but pretty much on all fronts, High on Life is a middle-of-the-road game.

High on Life worked best for me when it leaned into its meta humor, referencing that you're playing a video game with nods to Mario, Metal Gear Solid, or Fallout, just to name a few. The self-aware humor, as well as the more absurd moments, like having a Space Applebee's, or a shady alien who just gives you a big ol vat of sperm that serves no purpose. When it leans into the ridiculousness of video games, High on Life really worked for me.

But for the most part, I played High on Life constantly thinking that this is a series that will really find itself in the second game — at least I hope so. I want the combat to be more exciting, I want the game to have a map so I can try to explore these worlds without getting lost, I want a story that is effective beyond its humor.

Thankfully, I played High on Knife after finishing the core game, and I found a lot of what I wanted there. I found it to be a more ridiculous, over-the-top chapter that leaned into the humor and the wildness of what a space adventure should be. This DLC felt more refined and focused, the story felt more centered around character development, the weapons were tighter, and the humor actually made me laugh out loud. I mean, that Frasier joke is pretty great, and making an Andy Daly/Jon Daly joke in the credits is the way to my heart.

I'm glad I knew High on Life 2 was coming while playing this, because it only made me hope that it'll fix the rough edges that were present in this game. It's not bad, it's just fine, and considering the talent involved in this project, and the potential of what this could be, I really wished this would've knocked this idea out of the park. There's always the sequel though!

I'd like to pretense this rating by saying that I couldn't hold out till the end of the game, so this is only reflective of about 3 hours of gameplay.

High on Life is effectively Justins wet dream materialised in video game format and whether or not you like this game will depend heavily on whether you enjoy his humour. Because yes this game is mostly a dialogue focused adventure with combat added on.

The combat is about what you'd expect from a FPS title, a few different weapons and some alternate firing modes along with melee, but really what you're there for is the environments, characters, and dialogue.

There are some truly bizarre moments in the game, some sections that surprised me and had me laughing, but ultimately I didn't have the patience to stick with the slew of dialogue. This isn't a criticsm at all, and I actually admire the developers a lot for putting something like this out there. This game will be memorable for years to come and reminds me a lot of the sort of whacky titles I experienced on the ps1 and ps2.

If you love Justins humour, or the weird, synical, sattircal, silly side of comedy then give this game a shot. Just expect to witness a lot of NPCs talking to eachother.

It is true that High on Life lives and dies by its humour, and chances are that, if you don’t like the comedic style or self-aware fourth wall-breaking moments, you won’t like this either, since there’s an incessant barrage of both constantly thrown at you. NPC dialogue is pretty funny as is the TV content, even if not all jokes land mostly because of the pace at which they’re churned out. However, even for someone like me who isn’t a fan of Rick and Morty or didn’t exactly love the constant chattering, this game has quite a bit to be appreciated outside its comedy.

High on Life achieves its originality in a couple of different, non-humour related ways. The most immediately obvious one is art style. Even though some textures could’ve used a bit of extra work the presentation here is awesome, giving birth to a lively colourful world filled with vivid greens, purples and blues that lend themselves perfectly to a game like this and reminded me of Psychonauts 2 on more than one occasion. Another thing that makes this game unique is its set of guns, who not only talk - fantastic voice acting by the way - but also have great, distinct personalities and really cool, useful abilities to experiment with. They’re reminiscent of Sunset Overdrive in their creativity and variety, but the fact that each has their own persona definitely takes it up a notch. Shooting feels good - not great but perfectly serviceable -, and apart from a few drawn out, repetitive boss fights I never had any issues with combat.

There are some niggles here too, such as the occasional bug / sound issue or the unremarkable level design. But on the whole, High on Life is a fun game that respects your time and stands out from the pack for its vibrancy and for not taking itself seriously. There’s clearly a lot of love put into it and care to get every aspect right, and its coarse, self-deprecating, slightly corrosive comedy does a great job of giving it a tone you don’t often see in gaming. 7.5/10

Overall great experience.
(Don't take the game seriously at all and you will enjoy it a lot)

Shooting fights were interesting and fun, each gun changes how you decide to face enemies. Also each gun can have one mod equipped so even that can change your gameplay.

Dialogs where awesome, 10/10 on ridiculousness scale. The interactions between the different characters(guns or aliens) throughout the game was super fun, I had good laughs and they were super entertaining.

TV propaganda on the main city was also unexpectedly super good? I found myself watching the ingame TVs for maybe more than 1h in total. (Like all the times i stopped to watch summed up)

Bosses fights were not the divine papaya but were good enough to just be entertaining and have fun.

LEZDUIT

When I saw this game's first trailer, I didn't know what to think. I don't think I had ever seen a shooter like it before, and having never experienced Rick n Morty or any other media by this creator, I wasn't sure how much I would like this game. That being said, I think this game is hilarious and worth a playthrough, especially if you love this kind of humor.

To be clear, the humor is the focus of the game. It's important to understand that comedy is the priority in this game above all, and comedy is subjective. I thought the game was funny, and I loved the gags. Talking guns were great. Humans as drugs was funny. All the little bits and moments you can experience were wonderful and I found myself going out of my way to seek them out. I also love how self aware this game is, making references to other games and the fact that it is a goofy video game in itself. I can't explain too much as to why it was funny without just writing up the jokes from the game, so I highly recommend you give this a try to see for yourself.

That being said, this game is an average shooter. It plays just fine, and gives you different gun types, upgrades to your suit, and offers different playstyles. It is all just okay though, nothing special. I found that I preferred Kenny and Creature as my two go to guns. Every gun has its special alternate mode, as well as an ability that allows you to traverse the worlds to progress the story. The issue comes from the enemy variety, and how you more or less fight the exact same enemies from start to finish. They're fun and occasionally funny, and the end-game enemies are a little more beefy, but they are pretty much the same as the starting enemies. I think this is the biggest drawback of the game, despite the gun variety offering "different approaches" to combat. I do feel I could use any of guns but Gus and just constantly strafe and dodge to win the game regardless (Gus kinda sucked damage wise, even with the upgrade).

The shooter part of the game does shine in its boss fights. These offered a unique enough challenge, and were appropriate to the abilities you should expect to have at the point in the story you come across them. I particularly enjoyed the Trio of brothers where you fought each one individually before having to fight the 3 of them at the same time. The end fight is pretty decent as well, including the overpowered addition to your abilities given to you to fight the final boss.

Last thing to mention, this game has stellar voice work. My favorite being a mad scientist bounty you hunt down that is the same voice as Pleakley from Lilo and Stitch. Just something that made my day when I can across him.

Overall, I think this game is summed up by this: Really Funny, Okay Shooter. It's not too long so it's really worth picking up and playing from start to finish, and there are some collectibles to go for if you want to go for that kind of stuff.