High on Life Review

Introduction

One look at High On Life and a player is likely to say, “What the hell?!” But this can go one of two ways.

The first way is that this first-person shooter will likely be too weird – and annoying – for someone to partake in. The second way is that someone will fully embrace its weirdness and go along for the ride, being hammered with all sorts of corny humor and getting the opportunity to do everything from taking on alien bosses to watching Tammy and the T-Rex in full.

No, seriously. It’s here, along with three other movies.

It depends on your tolerance of Justin Roiland, the co-founder of Squanch Games, and the voice talent behind the main characters on Rick and Morty. If you can’t stand him in the least, High On Life is not for you. But if it’s an oddball first-person shooting affair you’re looking for – and you can tolerate the ridiculous humor level – there’s no reason you shouldn’t dig in.

An Alien Invasion Like Nothing Else

You play as a kid trying to enjoy video games when you suddenly find yourself thrust into an alien invasion. It turns out they need to snort up humans like cocaine, and it’s up to you to stop them. Fortunately, you have a talking gun that provides advice and an intergalactic bounty hunter that provides you with some necessary goods when hunting down your prey. (Oh, your sister’s here too, just being your sister.)

The gameplay is pretty well intact. You’ll be able to use Knifey (a talking knife) to not only stab people (to which he giggles ferociously), but also as a grappling hook on certain items. But, of course, the shooting is the thing, and the way you unlock stuff as the game goes on is very cool. Boss encounters are seldom here, but an absolute blast once you get the hang of patterns. Make sure you pay attention to things and you’ll be fine with survival. Otherwise, well, your gun will likely complain.

The rest of the game revolves around looting these living chests, visiting a hub to get to new locations, and ranking up as a bounty hunter. It’s all terrific, though there are technical shortcomings on lower-end systems. Xbox Series S/X, however, runs like a charm. (Oh, and the game’s on Game Pass, by the way.)

Also, um, you may never look at looting the same way again after you wipe out a family of talking loot chests. Just…prepare yourself for it. Even your gun has to question your motives.

This Sounds Familiar

High On Life benefits from the presence of Roiland. So, again, if he’s not your speed, you will be quite uncomfortable here. He voices your main gun and other characters within the game. He’s quite serviceable here, and the jokes land more often than they fall flat (though some fall flat hard after being worn out). The rest of the voice acting is excellent, and the in-game music is fun to listen to.

As for visuals, High On Life isn’t bad at all. Again, there are some technical shortcomings here and there, but the world is impressively built; the weapons are cool to watch as you carry them around, with their demands to kill or maybe not kill (depending on the scenario). They’re cleverly animated and really add a lot to the game – again, provided you aren’t sick of Roiland by now.

Overall, there’s a lot to unpack here, but it depends on your tolerance for weirdness and humor. If you want blood-and-guts action to its core, stick with Doom Eternal. Otherwise, this might be your cup of milk.

High On the Results

High On Life isn’t a game for everyone. You’ll likely either be fully engulfed by it or turned off, and not really in a position in-between. But Roiland and Squanch Games did great work here with the in-game world and the combat; and the talking weapons is a nice touch (to a degree) over the course of your adventure. It just really depends on what you’re in the mood for. But if it’s silly, toilet-based humor you’re after – or you have to watch Tammy and the T-Rex to believe it – this one’s worth getting High over.