High on Life is meant to be humorous. What more would you anticipate from the most recent game from Squanch Games, a studio started by the co-creator of Rick and Morty, Justin Roiland? The game, however, isn’t a joke. This unique first-person shooter blends elements of classic games like Metroid Prime and Doom with Squanch Games’ own aesthetic. After an hour-long hands-on experience with the forthcoming PC game, High on Life, I was shocked and thrilled by how pleasant it is turning out to be. The crude comedy may not be to everyone’s taste.
This Is Your Brain on Drugs
You may anticipate what to expect from High on Life’s distinctively obscene and irreverent sci-fi setting if you are acquainted with Roiland’s other works, such as Rick and Morty or Trover Saves the Universe, which was previously released by Squanch Games. Cursing, rambling, and stammering like improv characters, wiggly creatures. There is goo all over the place. Any instant might see an act of violence. The plot begins with an extraterrestrial drug gang invading Earth because humans make excellent intergalactic opiates. As a bounty hunter, your goal is to eliminate six ludicrous criminals.
High on Life’s powerful tone gives the audience a vivid feeling of location despite the laughter. To create visually terrifying content, the team used AI art technology. I was reminded of immersive video games like Cyberpunk 2077 or The Outer Worlds when exploring these foreign environments, such as a mining operation or a military recruiting facility. Alternately, you could simply sit at your character’s house and watch full-length schlock flicks like Tammy and the T-Rex. High on Life does not support virtual reality headsets in the same way as Trover Saves the Universe does.
Your expanding collection of talking alien weapons, voiced by celebrities like J.B. Smoove and Roiland himself, will lead you on your trip. These creatures give plot points, helpful gaming tips, and snappy one-liners. This is a rather concentrated dosage of Roiland’s distinctive delivery, if you’re into it. It’s essentially a scene from the Rick and Morty episode “Interdimensional Cable” when they accidentally walk past a little alien settlement, and I adore it.
Even if you appreciate the humor, Squanch Games also understands that too much annoying chatter may detract from the experience, thus you have the choice to lower the talking’s frequency. This functionality may be used to improve certain other recent, excessively verbose games (like God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West). I like the choice, and I believe it demonstrates the team’s (justified) trust in the gameplay.
A Slimy Shooter
When I first began playing the shooter, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from it, and while I engaged in light grapple-hook platforming in quest of my reward, extraterrestrial construction workers known as the Macaroni Brothers fried me. But as I engaged in my first skirmish, I realized: “High on Life is Doom!”
The combat evokes the brilliant recreation of the classic first-person shooter by iD Software from 2016. I used my quick power slide to go around the arena before employing my melee assault to shred and tear adversaries to bits. Although not nearly at a AAA level of refinement, the battle felt fantastic. I was furiously swinging around the arena during a monster battle in order to escape an electric floor, yet I always felt in control of the fast-paced action.
The gunplay makes up for the discrepancies in sheer ingenuity, even if it is a little looser and sloppier than the melee action. High on Life’s bizarre organic weapons bring to mind Stranger’s Wrath from Oddworld. Weapons have clever alternate abilities that are helpful in combat and puzzle-solving situations in addition to the standard bullets and shotgun blasts, such as the ability to ricochet gooey balls to set platforms into motion, launch a spinning energy disc and manually deflect it with your knife, and draw enemies toward you and blow them away.
During the little time I spent with the demo, High on Life’s main framework wasn’t nearly as simple to understand. But I understood what the game’s creators meant when they said that it had Metroidvania and immersive simulation elements. Along with improving your attributes, you can get access to new locations on ancient worlds via talents. Even the sequence in which you go for bounties and how the tale develops as a result are choices you may make. I came encountered a shady black market trader who offered me essential bootleg slime during my demo, which allowed me to jump ahead of the quest line. To determine how extensive and significant these exploring components are overall, I’ll need to play the finished game.
Living the Good Life
High on Life is a risky move for Squanch Games since it is a full-length, full-priced game. Expectations may be unreasonably raised by comparisons to Doom, Metroid, and some of the greatest shooters ever made. The fact that High on Life comes so close to those titles while smugly embracing its own disgusting, alien personality is nevertheless amazing. Additionally, if you like Justin Roiland shouting at you, none of those games include him. On December 13, High on Life becomes available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S (including Xbox Game Pass). For a thorough evaluation, come back soon.
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