Intoxicating

Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland is on a roll lately with everything from NFTs to new TV series. Does High on Life keep this ball rolling?

High on Life
Rating: 4.5/5
Developer: Squanch Games
Publisher: Squanch Games
Platform: PC, XBO, XBS
Price: PC: Rs 1,299; 
XBO/S: Rs 3,249

Let’s face it, video games rarely have a sense of humour these days. Everything is so serious and badly written. Every dialogue is cringe after cringe after even more cringe. The one thing above everything else in High on Life is that the writing is actually good. The humour is on brand for a Roiland creation, if you are into that.

The game starts with a retro-style shooter that looks very similar to Doom, and it has you playing that for an uncomfortably long time. Till finally revealing you are just some gamer from Earth. A few minutes after that revelation, aliens start to beam onto earth and start to consume humans for their hallucinogenic effects. While fighting for your life, you somehow snag a talking gun that helps you beam your house onto another planet. From there, the adventure begins. You enroll as a bounty hunter and have to work your way up to earning money until you are ready to extract revenge.

There are several talking guns that you acquire through the course of the game. There is also a talking knife that craves blood but also helps you swing from one place to the next. Roiland is skilled at taking a simple funny premise and badgering it until it becomes uncomfortable, and then, going past that point to make it funny again. This game is the epitome of that skill. Initially, the constant chatter and low-brow humour may seem tedious, but you get used to it after a while, and then the game layers more situational humour on top of that with excellent storytelling. 

The same goes for combat. At the onset, it seems like another endless shooter with a boring gun that just shoots run-of-the-mill bullets. You are tasked with avoiding the slow-moving bullets to stay alive, then aim at the aliens and shoot. However, within the first level itself, the gun reveals a second ability if you shoot from its “trick hole”: The  shot gives every gun a special ability that can be used in combat and for puzzles. High on Life really clicked for me during the first boss battle—the combat was fun and well thought out. Even though it was a traditional pattern sort of boss, it played out well and gave a deep sense of satisfaction on completion.

The world in High on Life has this main storyline that you can finish in less than 20 hours, but if you really want to experience the game, playing as many side quests as you can is highly recommended. There is a lot of attention to detail here, which adds to the overall experience. High on life may not look the best in terms of today’s cutting-edge games, but it does look like it belongs in the Rick and Morty world. The space city that you live in is vibrant and colourful… almost too colourful. There is something on every corner; even the short quest characters are designed and well-written. The space city is a joy to roam around in, full of gritty areas and bright “rich” areas as well. 

The game also rewards you for replays with loot you couldn’t take the first time, which is interesting. The environmental puzzles, though, are worth only a single playthrough. There are some interesting touches in the game as well, like the old American movie that seems to be playing everywhere, even in the theatre; I suspect that movie is there in its entirety, but I didn’t actually attempt to watch a lot of it… only bits and pieces. The ads on TV are also entertaining, similar to the fun things you would see on TV in GTA, just with aliens. 

High on Life is a fun game. It is loaded with humour but the kind of low-brow variety that might not be for everyone. That said, this game also kills it with gameplay and has plenty of content to keep you engaged for a long time. For a AAA title, High on Life starts at R1,299 for the PC version on Steam, or you can play it for free with a Xbox Ultimate Gamepass subscription. It’s worth the asking price.

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