REVIEW – The game depicts itself as stoned on life. Justin Roiland’s newest creation is pretty disconnected from reality and quality. You may know him from the Rick and Morty series, but you don’t have to see the series to play this absurd, unusual, swearing-filled shooter, whose title also refers to the story.

From the mind of Justin Roiland comes High On Life. Humanity is being threatened by an alien cartel who wants to use them as drugs. It’s up to you to rescue and partner with charismatic, talking guns, take down Garmantuous and his gang, and save the world!” – we can read on Steam’s description.

Alien shooter

There are a lot of aliens to take out with the help of living and talking weapons. There’s a sentient pistol, a shotgun, an automatic pistol, and a gun that shoots its offspring. These sentient weapons can be upgraded using organs, which are either found in crates or bought in the shop. You’ll need them, as most are below average for most of the game (except for the last weapon, the low clip-capacity Lezduit). Consequently, you’ll have to apply a lot of ammo to most of your opponents to make them drop, especially with the first gun, Kenny. It ruins the atmosphere, especially when you have to use a lot of bullets during the boss fights. The accuracy of the weapons is also questionable, with the exception perhaps being the (of course, it’s Australian… maybe the developers watched too much Crocodile Dundee) knife, which at least doesn’t talk non-stop.

Speaking of chatter, it only seems focused at first, and later, it didn’t seem so, but the annoyance factor is further compounded when you have to listen to the monologues all the way through, and they reflect in vain that you might turn away or at least move away from the scene. Sometimes, mini-games can have this effect: there is one, for example, where paperwork is waiting got the player, and this uncomfortable thought will linger later because, along with the inaccurate shooting, these detours make you feel bad rather than serve as a relaxing moment away from the gunplay. The visuals also perhaps make it possible that this game was previously designed with VR in mind (and given that Roiland previously worked on Trover Saves the Universe, also a VR title, perhaps not a coincidence?) because you can see your character as you select them, the pacing is unusual, the bosses may have been deliberately oversized, and the visuals may also be leading you in that direction. It can have a slightly druggy Teletubbies feel, as simple as it looks later on. Not at first, because the first open-world section is a departure with its cyberpunk style. If the oscillation between themes is unintuitive, it’s no accident: the game seems to wobble.

Original humour

Taking around 16-17 hours to play through, it starts with a lot of swearing from the beginning and doesn’t stop for almost a moment. The humor may not be to everyone’s taste, and it’s perhaps akin to the Rick and Morty series (the perpetrator of this bunch of characters hasn’t seen a single episode of it). Despite one or two scenes seeming pleasant, some of the dialogue is annoying. And yet, it is what makes High On Life unique because, in addition to testing your patience, you can watch the whole film in your parent’s home (the headquarters). No, it’s not a joke: Tammy and the T-Rex from 1994, starring Denise Richards.

Her boyfriend’s brain has been transplanted into an animatronic dinosaur that looks like it’s from Five Nights at Freddy’s. There’s also the matter of transport, which can be done with that violent knife, and which allows you to get from point A to point B via a zip line cable, and later on, you can move with a jetpack (and you can cover quite a distance by upgrading it). Seeing all of it, you have to ask again, wasn’t High on Life initially designed for VR? After all, it would be better in virtual reality if these could be applied there.

Sometimes funny

High On Life gets a five and a half out of ten only because some of its moments are humorous, but it is also good that some of the characters in the cast are bizarre, and some of the scenery looks good. However, it is a waiting game. It tests your patience when you use the guns and listen to them; when you wait for the scenes to end; when you start the game, and when you would instead get as far away from the humor as possible. For those who like Roiland’s work, treat the score as a seven out of ten, but for the rest, High On Life is not a recommended purchase because, at some points, it feels like it starts to get going and then slows down because you have to listen to the characters talk and there’s not much to do. It gives a wobbly overall impression of itself, and the dialogue alone does not make the product successful. We wouldn’t be surprised if it shows up on some end-of-year bad player lists.

-V-

Publisher: Squanch Games

Developer: Squanch Games

Style: action-adventure, FPS

Release: December 13, 2022.