Game Review: High on Life

Comedy is subjective right? Well, that’s what a lot of people say. If you don’t find it funny it just means it’s not your style of humour but that doesn’t necessarily mean the comedy in itself is poor or bad…. right? I think I lay more in the subjective category when it comes to reviewing comedy. I can appreciate there are a multitude of different forms of comedy out there and not all of them are going to suit my tastes. I can laugh at some comedians but find others unfunny and boring and that all comes down to my personal taste. I understand when it comes to Justin Rolland and his brand of comedy that the general consensus weighs either way. Rolland has an interesting brand of comedy in which he likes to exaggerate and point out the awkwardness of certain situations with creatively bizarre concepts. His most well-known outlet for his comedy comes in the Adult Swim show Rick and Morty. I myself am a fan of the show and do find it very creative in the way it approaches animated comedy with such a out-there premise. That quick, in your face jokes work well within each episode’s twenty two minute runtime because it’s easily digestible and never overstays it’s welcome. It's well suited to that style of format where it comes and goes and never lingers all that long on one idea. I think while baring that core success in mind it makes all the more sense to me now why I may not have gelled with his video game’ High on Life because of that. 

High on Life is both developed and published by Justin Rolland’s own video game company called Squanch Games. The game plays as an action/adventure first person shooter with small hints metroidvania mechanics. Taking place in a science fiction setting, you play as an unnamed human who has to take down a bunch of alien cartel members in order to save the human race. One of the central selling points of the game is it’s sentient, talking weapons which you collect along your adventure. The whole game plays out with Rolland’s typical brand of humour in which you are subjected to a collection of ludicrous and often obscene jokes and self-referential humour. It is currently only available on Xbox and PC and is touted as one of the highest played games on Xbox’s subscription service; Xbox Game Pass. 

The story of High on Life follows the player character and their sister Lizzie who just get the house to themselves after their parents leave for Paris. Not soon after though you witness Earth being invaded by a group of alien gangsters called the G3 Cartel. After they gun down one of their own members, you come across a talking alien gun called Kenny. Kenny explains that he is from a race of talking alien guns called Gallians who the G3 Cartel kidnapped and are using for nefarious purposes. After teleporting to an alien metropolis called Blim City you soon find yourself suiting up to take down the G3 Cartel as a fully licensed bounty hunter before they can fully enslave the human race as part of their drug empire. 

As far as premises go, this has to be one of the most unique storylines I’ve encountered in a video game. I’ll give credit where it’s due Rolland and his team at Squanch Games capitalised on this storyline and all it’s creative potential. Being a bounty hunter is a compelling enough set up all on its own, but the added element of taking guns and alien gangsters using humans as a drug product all set in a world filled with such much bizarre conceptualisations makes for a truly memorable experience. No single aspect of the games narrative or world building feels repetitive or familiar, it’s all truly original stuff and I can appreciate the effort it must have taken to truly realise this world. 

That’s not to say the quality of the writing within all elements of this game is of a high calibre. It comes back to my initial point about Rolland’s humour working more in short episodic bursts. In Rick and Morty’s case you get just enough of that comedic style of writing to soak it up well enough but not get burned out by it. In High on Life’s case because this is a roughly nine-hour campaign you’ll be working through (seventeen hours if you are trying to do everything) and the quality of the humour dissipates the longer it goes I found. I can imagine with the scope and landscape being far different to a short episodic format, Rolland and his writing team might have been stretched a bit thin when it came to creating original content and that shows with how a lot of the comedy can be hit or miss. I found there were a good chunk of jokes I found genuinely funny throughout my time with this game but then there were equally just as many which I felt fall a bit flat and ran the joke too far into the ground to be reciprocated well enough. It’s definitely a mixed bag of quality and the humour will vary for you depending on your mileage with it. 

When it comes to gameplay, I must say I have very little to complain about in this aspect. As far as gunplay goes each weapon you obtain throughout this game provides you with a unique benefit to utilise. Along with the added aspect of each weapon being sentient and having their own comedic potential (Refer to my prior bit about how well their humour will work for you) you get a nice sense of how they can overcome the firefights you end up in. Kenny for example is your typical pistol, he fire smaller shots but they’re accurate. Later on you come across a weapon called Gus who offers you a more close-combat shotgun style approach.  The number of weapons you obtain in the game is small but they all have the ability to be upgraded with additional aspects and they each provide an alternative fire mode too. They also do nice job in incorporating each weapon as a tool for environmental navigation as well as conflict too. My only complaint when it comes to the weapons is the lack of a weapon wheel to make switching between them less tedious; as your only means of cycling to through them is through the D-pad. 

Open world navigation offers its own compelling attractions. With the creative imagery of the world this team have created, the locations you visit all stand on their own in a lot of ways. What I like about them is all the secrets tucked away int hem too. The game definitely encourages further exploration akin to metroidvania style progression which is always a nice way to add longevity to your game. Though that longevity isn’t always a good thing, especially when you look at the performance of this game. It’s fair to consider it’s not a major AAA team making this game but despite that the game still features its own collection of glitches and issues that turned up during my time with it. It did force me to reset the game a few times in order to fix these issues and it does take it down a notch sadly when it came to a smooth, cohesive playthrough.

High on Life is a fairly flawed game for the most part. Its pros are evenly weighed against its cons to make it a rather mixed experience when all things are said and done. Its comedic potential will only take you so far depending on your tolerance for such prolonged exposure to Rolland’s humour but there’s no denying there is some objective quality to be found here if you really want to give it a go. It’s a game I’d recommend far more if you are picking it up through Game Pass as apposed to paying a full price for it.