High On Life | Review

Initial Release date: December 13, 2022

Publisher: Squanch Games

Mode: Single-Player

Developer: Squanch Games

Engine: Unreal Engine

Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows

Genres: First-Person Shooter, Metroidvania, Action Adventure, Comedy

Introduction: High On Life is a comedic first person shooter Metroidvania adventure game developed by Justin Roiland’s Squanch Games game development studio. And guess what? It just might be my sleeper hit game of 2022.

If you don’t know or care Justin Rolland is the guy behind the hilarious Rick and Morty animation. Now I know, I know, that humor is subjective but is it really? Some people just do not have a sense of humor. We all know a person who doesn’t laugh at anything cause nothing is ever funny to them.

Those people have no sense of humor in my opinion. High On Life which is currently a Xbox and PC exclusive on Gamepass. I hope this game eventually goes multiplatformed. I loved High On Life for it’s first person Metroidvania style gameplay. The Gatlians and the laughs throughout. I haven’t laughed this hard at a game in years.

Presentation: I am reviewing High On Life after it’s day one patch. I did play it a few minutes at launch pre-patched and there was this weird skipping, stuttering screen going on. With that said, the rest of my experience was smooth as butter post patch on the Xbox Series X.

High On Life is a single player story driven Metroidvania action adventure game at it’s heart. It has some Bioshock gameplay loop vibes. It also has some of those old Rare adventure game vibes. I keep writing the word Metroidvania. Metroid was a game I played in 1987 while in the 4th grade on my NES.

Metroidvania originates from the latter 1987 Nintendo Entertainment System game. Basically, Metroid was a game that featured a gameplay loop of collecting weapons to progress further into the campaign. High On Life uses that same gameplay mechanic. Visuals, sound, comedy, story and gameplay vary in High On Life but all decent at the very least.

Story: High On Life is about Earth’s invasion by the G3 Cartel, an alien organization bent on harvesting humans to create a new drug for alien consumption. If The story reads funny that’s because it is and I think that’s what High On Life was targeting with it’s audience.

You play the role of a young teenager known as the Bounty Hunter. Through no fault of his own is thrusted into an intergalactic interplanetary hunt for all members of the G3 Cartel. With the help of Bounty Hunter’s sister Lizzie and ex alien bounty hunter star Gene success is guaranteed.

So yea, the story is about you as the player hunting down the G3 Cartel main members. G3 Cartel members comprise of 9-Torg who’s the first boss you fight. Krubis is the second bossfight. Douglas is the third boss. Next up is Dr. Giblets who accidentally kills himself by falling off a chair.

Skrendel-Bros Bro Tron is the fourth boss and a bullshit bossfight I must say. Nipulon is second in command and has a Psycho Mantis bossfight sequence. Boss of bosses and final game bossfight is Garmantuous. The story is about saving earth plain and simple.

Gameplay: High On Life’s gameplay as well it’s comedy centers around the Gatlians. Gatlians are sentient guns that perform various Metroidvania gameplay mechanics. Gatlians are comprised of Kenny, the first Gatlian you acquire and played by Justin Roiland. Kenny’s special Glop Shot let’s you flip platforms for traversal.

Next is Knifey played by Michael Cusack who’s job is to stab aliens and to open luxloxes (chests) for pesos (in-game currency). Knifey like other Gatlians has really funny dialogue sequences. By the way, you acquire the majority of the Gatlians after defeating G3 Cartel bosses. However, some Gatlians are acquired by other means.

Next Gatlian is Gus played by JB Smoove who might just be the most normal Gatlian out of the bunch but still funny nonetheless. I’m a fan of JB Smoove he did a great job playing Gus.

Creature is the next Gatlian played by Tim Robinson who shoots out mini aliens who can crawl through pipes to activate switches or gang up and take down a alien enemy. Betsy Sodaro plays Sweezy the Gatlian who can use time bubbles to slow down fans and shoot through cover.

Combined, the above Gatlians create a Metroidvania gameplay loop for returning, backtracking and collecting items and chests. Later on in the campaign you will acquire Mag Boots to walk on magnetized surfaces. Knifey also has a tether ability that let’s you latch on and swing from alien insects. Near the end of the story campaign you acquire the most powerful Gatlian, Lezduit!

I enjoyed High On Life’s shooting, juggling aliens, tethering around, walking on magnetized surfaces all the while shooting aliens. Combat was seamless but did take some getting used to considering the Gatlians do very different things in regards to shooting and traversal.

G3 Cartel bossfights and each planet’s map had different themes. For instance, Dr. Giblets mission involved detective gameplay sequences. Douglas involved you helping him solve pipe puzzles as he plays a different character altogether tricking the player.

Collectibles Include Warp Crystals which are used to buy Warp Disc which let you unlock new areas within planets. Other collectibles include card packs. Pesos are the currency in High On Life. You spend your pesos at Mr. Keeps & Sons Pawn Shop in Blim City.

At Mr. Keeps Pawn Shop you can buy a plethora of suit and weapon upgrades. You can buy unused game assets from High On Life for what reason I have no idea.. You can buy jetpack boosters, a special slide ability. You can purchase extra health and energy. There are random shop stands across other planets in missions.

Visuals/Graphics: I played High On Life on my Xbox Series X via Gamepass. I really liked the artwork and visuals in-game. Overall, I thought this game looked really good which is surprising for such a colorful game. As far as I know it ran at 60 frames per second.

The vistas were standouts visually. High On Life has some pretty amazing locales. You have Downtown Blim City which likes a typical sterile looking sci-fi city. Then you have Dreg Town which looks like Night City from Cyberpunk 2077 or that city from The Fifth Element. Old Town was a futuristic spaghetti western town with it’s own saloon of NPCs.

Sound/Music: Sound design was decent but not great. What was great was the voice performances by the actors and actresses playing Gatlians and Knifey. The actress who played lizzie did a good job as well. Like I wrote before I haven’t laughed this much from a video game from a long as time. I had a great time listening and reacting to at east 90% of the jokes and quips in High On Life.

Final Verdict: High On Life is my sleeper game of 2022. This shit came out of nowhere. This comedic metroidvania had me cracking up like I was at a comedy standup. The gameplay was really good as well.

I can see how people will hate High On Life due to it’s humor. I’ll just type if you think High On Life’s humor is “cringe” you have no sense of humor and you are a child. See, now THAT is my kind of humor. Anyways, my take is just laugh more people. Learn how to laugh more. If so inclined check out my High On Life Video Playlist if you want to watch gameplay videos of this game. Thank you for reading – Jason