The shooter High on Life has become the most unexpected surprise of 2022, which, for all its shortcomings, manages to hook and interest. High on Life, developed by the studio of Justin Roiland, the author of Rick and Morty, turned out to be a bright, fun, and good hooligan game, not for everyone. Whether you like this project or not depends on how you personally feel about Roiland’s work and his trademark sense of humor, in which witty and absurd postmodern jokes coexist with frankly hacky jokes about all kinds of secretions of the human body. If you like it, then High on Life is a great eight to ten-hour humorous adventure. If not, feel free to pass by.
As mentioned, High on Life takes place in the universe of Rick and Morty, and the game itself is very similar to one huge series of this animated series. Flashy and goofy aliens give long stand-up monologues about their lives, almost all the characters stutter badly, 1980s thrash horror films are played on TV along with alien porn, and Kenny – our first gun – is voiced by Roiland himself. There are enough really sharp jokes and inventive banter over game conventions, but at the same time, there is plenty of completely fleeting humor that cannot even cause a smile. High on Life is like South Park: Stick of Truth at its best moments of humor, and at its worst, it’s like a boring episode of Rick and Morty.
The novelty has 88% of positive reviews on Steam. Online is only growing, and critics in general warmly accepted the novelty. The secret is that it is extremely pleasant to mow down the villains – that is, it turned out to be a shooter.
Weapons talk and help
The link is next. The player takes control of a sociophobic buzzer who has to save the population of the Earth from the alien drug cartel G3, who decided to turn people into a new mass drug. In the hunt for villains, the protagonist will be helped by his hyperactive sister Lizzy and the legless bum Jean, who was once a famous bounty hunter. However, the central role in the adventures of the action zoomer is assigned to the last representatives of the Gatlian race – intelligent creatures that can shoot from the anus. Each is a unique analog of a blaster, which must be used competently in battle.
So, who will keep us company throughout the game:
- Kenny – is a chatty blue pistol that can deal high damage at medium range. Special Ability: Fires a sticky goo that launches enemies into the air and knocks over metal platforms.
- Knifey – A psychotic red knife that wants to cut into pieces anyone it meets. Responsible for melee attacks and spectacular finishing moves. Special ability: unfolds into a hook and clings to ledges and cables.
- Gus – is a green shotgun that looks like a toad. Able to pull enemies towards him and deal massive damage at close range. Special Ability: Fires a buzz saw that ricochets off enemies and creates platforms for movement.
- Sweezy – is a snarky orange pistol and the only girl on the team. Fires a rain of exploding crystals. Special Ability: Slows down time.
- Creature – is a goofy but good-natured launcher. Shoots at his own children, who automatically rush to the nearest enemy and solve puzzles on their own. Special ability: subjugates the mind of one of the enemies.
Sometimes you can play on the nerves
Before getting to know High on Life, you need to remember one important thing. Roiland isn’t trying to make you laugh so much as testing your patience. That is why from the very beginning, he seeks to irritate with annoying chatter. Everything is constantly cracking here, and a lot, a lot, except for the main zoomer, who acts as a silent protagonist.
In addition, the player is constantly trying to take on weaknesses with characters that purposefully piss off. Also available are a bunch of pointless tasks for perseverance designed to troll the audience. At the same time, the perception of High on Life is influenced by the fact that the developers have chosen the iconic The Darkness as one of the sources to follow.
But if you remove all this annoying tinsel, it turns out that the game boasts interesting, gradually revealing characters, a solid plot, and a well-developed (albeit absurd) world. And this is the strength of High on Life.
In High on Life, they laugh at everything. Religion, politics, tolerance, trends, and, of course, games fell under the distribution. However, toilet humor is also present. For example, to penetrate the enemy’s lair and impersonate his own, the hero will plunge into feces. Fans of “Rick and Morty” will be delighted, and some will be shocked by the abundance of jokes.
Of course, there are terrible jokes, but they are surprisingly few. Even banalities become funnier thanks to excellent presentation. Everything fits perfectly here: numerous actors clearly get a buzz from dubbing, the characters look different from each other, and some cause laughter just by their appearance, and colorful and diverse locations make the adventure not boring. Breaking the fourth wall, video game references, and below-the-belt humor is not all, and the icing on the cake was the appearance of several feature-length films of the last century. Yes, the movies are in the game. Where else can you see this?
Of course, the main stars are guns that do not stop for a minute. The first pistol is especially good – it was voiced by Roiland himself, and one can only envy his mastery of improvisation. Even when he repeats the same thing, he does it the way it should be. Pistols comment on your actions, remind you of gameplay features, scream instead of the main character when he falls into the abyss, and sometimes complain that it’s boring to stick around in a holster if you haven’t used them for a long time. You can make the characters less talkative in the settings, but it’s hard for me to understand why, in this case, even play such a game.
This is a shooter, not a parody of it
At first, the main character only runs and shoots, but thanks to a bizarre costume and weapons, he will quickly turns into a local Fatal Guy. He demolishes everyone with a roll, shooting in different directions, flying on a hook-knife, and bloodthirsty finishing off enemies. It generally does everything that fans of the genre are used to.
At the same time, it is a pleasure to run around the arenas and shoot. All guns are unique, exploding barrels are placed around the district, and aliens calmly react to hits. From wounds, they even change color and decrease in size.
The fights are hot too. The hero has a shield, and health is restored quickly, but the enemies climb in droves. Some shoot from afar, others rush into hand-to-hand combat, and others jump and explode. To survive, you need to move, use abilities and run away from the trap.
Entertain yourself
The gameplay here is not perfect, but the novelty does not seem like a low-budget craft either. The authors are clearly inspired, and the game smells like Metroid. The main character constantly receives not only new guns but also abilities. In early levels, some chests containing collectibles and currency to purchase upgrades cannot be opened immediately – you are expected to return later with the necessary gear. I would not say that the game encourages you to spend time on this, but those who like to go through everything 100% will have something to do.
But the combat segments turned out to be much more interesting and thoughtful. Justin Roiland is clearly a big fan of Halo because High on Life is built according to the precepts of the cult shooter. Enemies actively react to the player’s actions and have their own roles. Ordinary opponents attack in batches and provoke the player with might and main, and left in the minority. They begin to panic and run away. Stronger comrades tend to close the distance quickly, so you have to monitor the battlefield constantly. Small drones also flicker in front of the face and distract.
Too bad the game doesn’t try to put you in a situation where you have to use your full arsenal. With a pistol, you can easily go through almost everything, switching to something else just to solve puzzles. The arenas are quite primitive, there are few types of enemies, and the artificial intelligence is dumb – sometimes opponents hide behind covers, but very soon either stick their heads out, crawl out of safe places and run away to the side, or even come out of cover to annoy and twerk. There were moments when I died even on the average difficulty level, but this was not due to the intelligence of the enemies – rather, due to their stupidity, I became too arrogant and almost crashed into the crowd. Although if they were to add intelligence and make alien thugs out of them, then this would result in the fact that our main character would not come out of hiding and would spend the whole game behind them.
But the authors of High on Life devised an original damage system. Here, the enemies are covered in yellow goo, and the more you hit them, the thinner the layer becomes. Throwing away grenades, using alternate fire modes, and exploding barrels, you very quickly notice “skinny” aliens, which are enough for two or three hits. Subsequently, the game will even explain what kind of slime it is. They can come up with an alternative health bar whenever they want!
Praise and boss fights are much more fun than shootouts with ordinary aliens. You need to hide behind shelters, constantly move, and use a whip – then the shells fly, then areas appear on the floor, which is undesirable to stand for a long time. In the end, you still have to shoot a large enemy with a lot of health, but it’s still more fun than the tedious firefights in the arenas by the second half of the game.
But there are questions
Technically, High on Life is very simple. It is better not to peer into the textures. There really are no reflections. The lighting system is primitive. But in terms of design, everything is cool: guns, enemies, and every nook and cranny in the locations are worked out to the maximum.
The amount of detail is often overwhelming. This is not surprising because neural networks are responsible for the little things. For example, AI draws all the posters in the hero’s room. Sounds like artists really need something to do.
The planets available for exploration turned out to be juicy, visually different from each other, and stuffed with small details. They are filled with Easter eggs and bright characters, of which the drug cartel members turned out to be the most interesting.
On a global scale, the locations are also beautiful. The hub perfectly conveys the atmosphere of an alien metropolis, and the jungle is reminiscent of Pandora from Avatar. The problem is that there are few large locations. From the authors of “Rick and Morty,” you expect an extravaganza, and the setting contributes to this – but the developers came up with only a few interesting worlds.
If you like hilarious gunfights and Rick and Morty humor, put everything aside and get on with life. The game is from a Game Pass release and is sold at modest prices on Steam. But if you don’t like the cult series, the jokes will bore you and ruin your alien shooting experience.
High on Life has already won the public’s love not only among Game Pass subscribers (in the first days after the release, the novelty entered the top five most popular games on Xbox), but also on Steam. Apparently, gamers missed the humorous shooting games, devoid of seriousness and drama.
