Why I love "High on Life" and still can't recommend it

Domagoj Belancic

15.12.2022

Translation: machine translated

"High on Life" is the funniest game of the year and a must for every "Rick and Morty" fan. Unfortunately, due to numerous bugs and glitches, I cannot recommend the game in its current state.

"High on Life" is the latest game from "Rick and Morty" co-creator Justin Roiland and his development studio Squanch Games. The crazy first-person shooter primarily impresses with its absurd humour, which will especially appeal to fans of Roiland's other works.

At the very beginning of the game, High on Life gives me a warning: "Any glitches or bugs you will encounter are intentional satirical references to other games with glitches or bugs". Typical Roiland humour. I don't think much of it, click away the warning and start the extraterrestrial adventure.

Yet I don't know that the funny warning will soon turn into bitter seriousness.

Get me out of here

I spent about six hours in the crazy alien world of High on Life. In the process, I blew away countless aliens and survived a few laughing fits. After these six hours, my odyssey in space comes to an abrupt end. Due to a serious bug, I cannot finish the game.

The game should load a mission, but it does not. I am trapped. I restart the game and my Xbox Series X. No use, I'm still stuck. I uninstall the game completely and download it again. Doesn't help. I download the game to my PC and synchronise the memory via the cloud. No chance. My score is ruined.

A quick online search shows: I am not the only one. More and more gamers and players are reporting on Twitter and Reddit because they are stuck at various points in the game.

I have contacted Squanch Games, but so far have not received a solution to my problem. Even the latest patch didn't save my score. It's a pity, because until the devastating bug, I enjoyed the game extremely much, despite some weaknesses in the gameplay.

Drugs, talking guns and alien sperm

The game's story revolves around an alien alien cartel that sells humans as drugs. Yes, you read that right. In the absurd world of High on Life, aliens eat and smoke humans to get high. Your goal is to wipe out all the high-ranking members of the alien cartel.

Fighting at your side is the talking gun Kenny, voiced by Justin Roiland himself. As the game progresses, you will unlock other talking weapons voiced by other comedians, including JB Smoove and Tim Robinson. There is currently no German voice-over.

The crude yet clever dialogue is delivered by the voice actors with great subtlety and humorous timing. I constantly have a big grin on my face while playing. If you don't like the constant babbling of the weapons, you can reduce it in the settings or even deactivate it altogether.

Unfortunately, the music cannot keep up with the high level of the voice actors and actresses. The soundtrack is somewhere between irrelevant lift music and annoying melodies that are used during action sequences. More could definitely have been done here.

The absurd and often ambiguous humour of "High on Life" will not appeal to everyone. If you're not sure whether you'd find the game funny, I've prepared a little test here
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Let me introduce you. This cute alien is called Sam. He's only a minor side character, but he's a great example of the game's humour.

Sam sells alien sperm in the marketplace. He also wants to sell me a gallon of the stuff. What can you do with the alien juice? No idea. Sam doesn't know what his customers do with the liquid either - as a serious and discreet alien sperm dealer, he naturally never asks. You can watch the complete dialogue with Sam in this video:

If you find this clip amusing, High on Life is the perfect game for you. If you find it completely off-putting, it's best to give the game a wide berth.

Metroidvania levels with mediocre gunplay

Unfortunately, the gameplay can't quite keep up with the humorous production. Above all, the handling of the alien weapons is largely unsatisfactory. The shots feel harmless and it is often not clear to me whether I have hit an enemy or not. Because many enemies are real "bullet sponges", I often rely on my murderous melee weapon Knifey. Killing with a knife is not only quicker, but also more fun.

The secondary functions of the weapons, on the other hand, are very satisfying. With the Sweezy fish gun, for example, you shoot bubbles that stop time. This way you can stop the nasty cartel aliens and shoot them away quite comfortably. It's just a pity that you unlock new weapons very slowly. In combination with the same enemy types, monotony quickly creeps in, especially at the beginning of the game.

The level design of the alien worlds is also very successful. The extensive areas are full of hidden branches and collectible items. In the best Metroidvania style, many level sections only become accessible once you have unlocked the corresponding weapons and their secondary functions.

At the end of each world, you will be able to collect items.

A high ranking member of the alien cartel also awaits you at the end of each world. The boss fights are the highlight of the game for me. They're great staged and force me to use all the skills I've learned and weapons I've unlocked.

A technically questionable implementation

On screenshots, the game looks stunningly beautiful in parts and is reminiscent of colourful Pixar films. The imaginative alien worlds are visually captivating, especially with their bright colours and beautiful lighting. Although the alien characters are kept rather simple, their absurd depiction fits perfectly into the typical "Rick and Morty" comic style.
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In motion, the game is not convincing. Both on the PC and on my Xbox Series X, I repeatedly have to struggle with framerate drops. This also has a negative impact on the numerous baller sequences, especially when many enemies are on the screen at once.

And then there are the numerous bugs and visual glitches. Besides the serious bug that prevents me from continuing to play, I encountered numerous other gameplay errors. The whole game feels unstable. Unfortunately, you can't spread your progress over several memory slots. If something goes wrong, your score is ruined. I haven't given up hope of a patch for my problem yet though.

Conclusion: an unfinished game with a lot of potential

"High on Life" is the funniest game of the year - provided you're into the crude "Rick and Morty" humour. The game takes you on a crazy rollercoaster ride through imaginative worlds full of absurd characters. The voice actors deliver the excellently written dialogue with great subtlety and wit and never fail to make me laugh. I love it.

The core gameplay can't match the humorous production. The gunplay is mediocre at best and the never-ending hordes of enemies get on my nerves. Even more annoying, however, is the poor technical implementation. This is noticeable in the form of unstable frame rates, glitches and serious bugs that can even prevent you from progressing in the game.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend "High on Life" in its current state. The game was obviously not ready for launch and needs a few more weeks of development until the worst bugs are fixed. Until then, I'll pass the time with the new "Rick and Morty" series. It's just as funny and doesn't crash.

"High on Life" is available on Game Pass for Xbox and PC and on Steam. The game was provided to me by Microsoft for review purposes.

Domagoj Belancic

Senior Editor

Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.ch

My love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.

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