It sounded like a lot of fun when it was announced as a sci-fi first-person shooter game designed by Justin Roiland, one of the creators of the already cult series Rick and Morty. What we saw in the preview suggested quite a unique and colorful talking gun game, and the truth is that I really wanted to immerse myself in the adventure. Something I was finally able to do a few days ago.
To summarize the review, I have good news and bad news, and I’ll start with the former. The fact of the matter is that Roiland has managed to do something few others do, which is to create a truly enjoyable game. For whatever reason, the combination of play and humor rarely works well, but anyone who enjoys Roiland’s other work will surely appreciate this as well. In practice, this translates to some pretty clever and witty humor combined with plenty of politically incorrect elements and a flirtation with drugs (as the title suggests). It’s definitely not for everyone, but like I said, if you like Rick and Morty, you’ll enjoy this too. If not, you won’t like it either. This gets a bit extreme, but there’s no denying that it’s well-written, and there’s nothing quite like it in the world of video games.
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At the beginning of the game, some aliens attack our beloved planet, after which, by a small miracle, our protagonist and his sister are transported into space, to a city somewhere far away in the universe. The talking weapons play a central role and act mostly as a tired narrator throughout the adventure, in which we take on the role of bounty hunter and embark on a journey to try to return to earth and become as powerful as possible with many new skills to do on the way. All this while strange things are happening around us.
One factor that adds to the humor is that the design is absolutely top notch. The worlds are nice to explore, varied and very well thought out. The animations are great too, and on several occasions I found myself staring around for half a minute. It’s a pleasure to keep going and there’s always sour commentary from our quick guns about what’s happening on screen, often stuff that breaks the so-called fourth wall.
But then there’s the bad news. And it has to do with the gameplay itself. Because High on Life is not a good game. If it wasn’t so colorful and well designed, I would have even called it a bad game. There are many problems, but the worst part is that the controls are really mediocre. It’s like there’s honey on my lips and I never feel like I’m in complete control of what’s going on. I’m not asking for everything to feel spot on in Halo Infinite, but in High on Life it’s often so bad that it keeps me from playing the game. It’s also annoying that the level design isn’t very good and you don’t know where to go next, and it doesn’t help that the help function available is usually quite confusing.
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This is exacerbated in melee combat like boss fights. In the first battle, I angrily throw the controller at the wall, not because it’s particularly challenging, but because I’m supposed to swing around with a duck grapple-like function that the game controller doesn’t actually allow. This means I’m never really in control of what I do, and when I get something done I have to attribute it to both luck and skill.
Unfortunately, the various weapons available aren’t much fun either, and the enemies I have to fight are all of the dumb kind known as “bullet sponges”. Sure, they’re well-designed and fun-looking, but they’re not challenging at all, don’t have any characteristic behavior that sets them apart, and mostly just wildly shoot at me while waiting for me to do the same to return. The developers have tried to spice up the mix with combo systems and the like, but unfortunately it all fizzles out as the game’s controls are so poor that it’s not fun to delve into the gameplay.
In addition, the first-class presentation is not accompanied by a suitable soundtrack. But on the contrary. While playing High on Life I grabbed the remote to turn down the volume several times. The music is just annoying and monotonous for the most part, which adds to the need to switch everything off that I feel so often throughout this adventure.
While the presentation and humor are consistently good (again, as long as you like Roiland’s humor or you’ll hate him), the gameplay is so weak it doesn’t help that there’s a pretty decent upgrade system, a nice universe, and many mysteries. Controller entertainment is always the most important quality of a game, regardless of genre, and while High on Life made me laugh from time to time, unfortunately most of the time I just felt frustrated and bored.