More jokes than bullets.
High on Life is the newest game by Rick and Morty co-creator, Justin Roiland, and that is either going to have you incredibly excited or exhausted by his relentless sense of humor. With a few games now under his belt, including Trover Saves the Universe, and the enjoyable, albeit brief PSVR title, Accounting+, High on Life is the biggest and best executed of his foray into videogames. It doesn’t always hit, but when it does, it’s a natural bullseye.
Regardless of my few issues with the title, High on Life has a lot more going for it than against it. It’s vibrant and colorful, action-packed, and while not every joke sticks the landing, its story and combat see it through, offering up a game that is just as enjoyable for its gunplay as it is about its onslaught of non-stop laughs. And, much to my surprise, the story has a moderate amount of heart to it, buried deep in a narrative about aliens using humans as a type of psychotropic drug.
While playing through this roughly 10-12 hour comedic adventure, I couldn’t help but think of Journey to the Savage Planet, a game that by all accounts could be High on Life’s long-lost sibling. Both titles embrace strange alien worlds and a penchant for humor, but take very different approaches to how that humor fits within their gameplay. High on Life’s humor is directly influenced by your actions, the story, and your weapons, as each gun you wield, is front-loaded by a talkative personality that results in them being your most direct supporting cast members.
High on Life has you playing as a voiceless protagonist, thrust into saving humanity once Earth has been invaded by an alien gang called the G3. As this coincides with your character’s love for video games, saving the planet feels like a natural fit for their talents, despite being a total disappointment to their parents, and to that of their sister, Lizzie, who makes that known every chance she gets. During this introduction, you shoot a bunch of bad guys, secure a crystal, and you, Lizzie, and your house are suddenly transported to Blim City, a grimey metropolis in a galaxy far, far away.
To take out the G3 and save Earth, you enlist the assistance of a washed-up bounty hunter, an alien named Gene who agrees to help you on one condition; if you die, he gets the house. This arrangement works as a solid premise as it continues to give Gene reason to put you in dangerous situations, and it also continues to piss Lizzie off. And, as you return from each of the missions that Gene will have ready for you, you’ll take in conversations that have you take sides in various arguments between the two.
Also, as something of a progression reward, Gene will often be watching a full-length movie that you can just sit and watch, including the notoriously bad, Tammy and the T-Rex, Vampire Hookers, and Blood Harvest. You can also visit Blim City and take in the few TV screens there, watching a host of animated shorts, puppet shows, and more. For as throwaway as some of these skits are, especially the one where a sock puppet finds his wife’s adultery to be hysterical, there is a lot here and after a while, it comes across as impressive with how much content there is that most people will likely just skip over.
Now, the bounty hunter suit that you gain access to has its own joke that periodically pops up from time to time. Suit-O is a bounty hunter suit AI that introduces new suit mechanics to you. If these are part of a “trial”, you’ll have pop-ups that will need to be dealt with before you continue your quest to destroy the G3. From his blunt dialogue about being unable to discuss button prompts because he doesn’t know what kind of controller you are using to his “Fuck yeah!” moment when you gain access to a “detective” vision, I found him to be one of the best characters in the game, especially as his gimmick isn’t run into the ground as much as it could have been.
Now, High on Life's loop is simple; at various points in the story, you'll get a lead on some of the high-ranking members of the G3 as well as their location. You'll then travel to one of three alien worlds that continue to open up more as you track down new guns, each granting you some sort of traversal function, such as creating platforms on certain walls or a gun that uses its “ammo” to open up locked doors. This element of Metroidvania allows new areas to open within existing levels to progress you to the next G3 target. And, once you have taken out all the targets, then it’s time for the showdown with the leader of the G3, Garmantuous.
While most locations here do open up and offer up a decent amount of level variety, we only really get two big alien worlds, one mid-size map, and a few throwaway single-use environments. Nova Sanctus, the planet where your house is teleported to, only includes Blim City, the Mayor’s office, and the Slums, which is spacious, but you’ll revisit that location a bit too often. The few remaining environments are Zephyr Paradise, which is a gorgeous jungle planet, as well as Port Terrene, which initially is a desert environment, but then grants you access to a massive underground city and more. There is a fourth location, but honestly, it’s just a single room with a few JPEG windows that has a few flat jokes.
I think the locations that are here are fine and more than serve their purpose but do wish there were more variety to them in the same way as we get with Port Terrene, which has several locations that are all distinct from one another. The Metroidvania appeal of unlocking new paths and new locations is fun, but when it simply leads to the same types of locations, it doesn’t feel as satisfying as it could be. The level design is often great by using your traversal skills in fun ways, so I am hopeful that a future sequel could offer us more Port Terrene-like planets and fewer samey locations.
As mentioned previously, you’ll gain access to Gene’s bounty hunter suit, which despite the difference in size between you and Gene, it somehow still fits, especially the helmet for reasons immediately clear. The suit will have access to several upgrades that will be rolled out when the game demands you have them. These include a dash, bash, jet pack, and more. Most of these upgrades are purchased at the Pawn shop in Blim City. While your bounty for the member of the G3 you just killed will often pay for the upgrade, you’ll need to work for the rest.
While you’ll find the occasional side quest, most of your money will come from exploring every nook and cranny of each alien world, killing enemies, and tracking down organic loot chests that you’ll be able to open once you track down Knifey, a homicidal knife that is probably the most underutilized character in the game. These chests are practically everywhere and are noticeable from a great distance due to their illuminated antenna-like danglies that bounce around. While these chests do often contain money, they can also contain a trading card, which is the overall collectible featured in the game.
Another object to be on the lookout for are crystals. These are usually found in special terminals that are linked to some of the teleportation bases that the G3 uses to ambush you as you explore. It’s possible to grind these away as you exit and leave the area and then return, seeing them teleport back in and simply repeat the process. This allows you to rack up a large amount in just one area. These crystals are used at the “totally legit food stand” to purchase bonus content such as running around a skate park performing tricks, taking in a movie at an impromptu theatre, MST3K-style, or visiting a tiny little town where nothing could possibly go wrong. These are decent diversions but most of them fail to be even the tiniest bit interesting.
Now, the real selling point of the game are the six weapons that you'll have access to throughout the adventure; Kenny, Knifey, Gus, Sweezy, Creature, and one final one that simply says his name, Lezduit. Each gun is quite the chatterbox, voiced by a variety of somewhat known voices such as Michael Cusack, J.B. Smoothe, Betsy Sodaro, Tim Robinson, as well as Justin Roiland himself as the first “Gatlian” gun you'll encounter, Kenny. Each gun has a different class type from being a semi-charged pistol, shotgun, or shooting ammo that is actually its children, who then seek out enemies and tear them apart. There is a good variety here that keeps combat consistently fresh, largely due to diverse secondary weapon fire.
Shooting feels fun, headshots have a nice pop sound and each gun is extremely viable. That said, while I did enjoy Gus and Sweezy, I had Kenny extremely leveled up and tended to prefer him over the other two in most circumstances. Creature, however, was a blast to use, shooting his ammo-children all over the battlefield, having them mind-controlling enemies, and listening to the slaughter as I reloaded and continue to add to the chaos. While the dialogue coming from each gun can make these encounters really pop off, I do suggest turning dialogue frequency down considerably so that your gun doesn’t keep shouting about its “Trick Hole” every few seconds. It gets a bit much.
Each gun can also be upgraded with a variety of additions as well as mods that not only have varying effects, but change the color of the gun as well, or in the case of Creature, the color of his "children". These upgrades are largely bought at the shop in Blim City but can also be found at various vendors on each of the different alien worlds. Most of these upgrades shorten the cooldown on their special attacks or let you hold more ammo, pretty standard stuff all things considered.
What is fun about the weapons, apart from the constant jokes, is that swapping back to them after a lengthy time away will trigger some sort of "Oh hey, finally using me again?" dialogue that I quite enjoyed. Each gun will also make comments on the current situation, such as Kenny often making references to a few gaming outlets or listing off platformers while your character is jumping from platform to platform, such as Super Lucky’s Tale.
While you'll have plenty of moments with each of the guns, Knifey is really only used a small handful of times throughout the game. He's the first weapon you track down after obtaining Kenny, but after that, he is largely used for one joke that illustrates that even the developer knew he was pushed aside in favor of the other guns. The final gun, Lezduit, is a powerhouse that is only given to you near the end, with his only line being his name, illustrating when he has reloaded and is ready to obliterate everything his cursor can attach to. He is sort of the equivalent of a game’s final level dropping you in a tank just for the hell of it.
As mentioned before, your guns are your real supporting characters, constantly chatting, having one-sided conversations with you about life, the mission, or even having a heartfelt talk with you while ordering appetizers at Space Applebee's. Yup. You do have plenty of conversations with Lizzie and Gene, and even get texts from them as you are on task to kill your target, but your guns are constantly with you, chatting up a storm, cracking jokes, and keeping you on task. I do have to say though, that the subplot with Lizzie was pretty interesting, albeit predictable, but I do love the moment of walking through the portal and seeing the aftermath.
The humor that Justin Roiland brings to the table is again, going to excite you if you are big fans of his work, or drive you away from the game entirely. I sit somewhere in the 70/30 camp as while a solid chunk of the game is downright hysterical, there were a few bits that were incessantly annoying, During one of the earlier missions, you’ll be approached by a floating alien, an ex-G3 member. His whole shtick is that he doesn’t shut up, at all. This bit goes on just way too long and it ended up impacting a few other similar moments in the game for me. Had this been a shorter bit, then I don’t think I would have minded, but it ended up having rippling effects that turned me off from “some” of the comedy presented here.
High on Life is often gorgeous and sometimes a tad bland. Its alien worlds are often breathtaking, packed full of detail and color, begging to be explored. However, with only a small handful of distinct locations, it does lack some variety in the types of environments you do explore. This translates to the enemy variety as well as while bosses are all unique, the few enemy types you do fight tend to repeat a bit too much and you never feel like there’s more than just a tiny handful of different types.
When taken in its entirety, High on Life is an extremely enjoyable time. I’m not sold on every attempt at its humor with a few annoyances here and there, but the tight shooting, clever level design, and weapon variety are often really impressive. Should High on Life return, I personally would love more planets to discover, more cities to explore, and more guns to play around with. I think what is here is a solid foundation for potential sequels, especially as comedy-focused shooters are not exactly a dime a dozen. If you haven’t burnt out on Roiland’s style of humor yet, then High on Life is certainly worth the trip.
Developer - Squanch Games. Publisher - Squanch Games. Released - December 13th, 2022. Available On - Xbox One/Series X/S, Windows. Rated - (M) Violence, Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Use of Drugs, Strong Language, Crude Humor. Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X. Review Access - High of Life was downloaded and played on Xbox Game Pass.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.