High on Life 2 Review: A Bigger, Slicker Version of the Comedy Shooter It Was Always Meant to Be
Squanch Games returns with a sequel to its like-it-or-not first-person shooter, blending toilet humour and off-kilter characters with even crazier sights to see. High on Life 2 is a delightfully madcap and creative FPS sequel that doubles down on its irreverent humour and fuses it with incredibly slick gunplay and traversal mechanics.
Irreverent Humour and Familiar Sensibilities
I want to start this review by stating the obvious. If you didn't enjoy the first High on Life, then High on Life 2 will do absolutely nothing for you. Packed full of the same crude-spewing gun companions, irreverent toilet humour, and barmy sci-fi sensibilities that returning players and Rick and Morty fans will recognise, it in no way addresses criticisms from its initial release. In fact, in several ways, it doubles down on them.
High on Life 2 purposely goes out of its way to bet on itself by leaning into almost all its outright subjective comedy elements even harder than before. Presumably, this is in the hopes of being funnier, more outlandish, and perhaps a bit more inventive with the talking weaponry it gifts you. It's more successful in some areas than others.
Traditional FPS Structure with Ambitious Flair
In other words, High on Life 2 is an FPS sequel in the most traditional sense. That's not to say that developer Squanch Games is resting on its laurels, however. Only that this equally ambitious and chaotic journey doesn't venture too far from the structure that either worked or didn't work, depending on your perspective, from before.
True, it could have used a bit more overall polish, and some platforming puzzles could've been handled better. But for the most part, this alien-hunting blast through the universe is a creative, often hilarious single-player adventure that understands the allure of big guns and the even bigger personalities frequently jammed inside them.
Story and Gameplay Mechanics
Picking up just a couple of months after the first game, your voiceless bounty hunter is enjoying the high life as a de facto reality TV show star. Experiencing the benefits of superhero stardom after saving humanity from the evil G3 drug cartel, it's all put to a stop when some leftover plot machinations come a-calling to rope you out of retirement.
If you are someone who didn't play the first High on Life and are choosing this as your starting point, fear not. There's plenty of context provided to get you up to speed, most notably via an interactable museum at the start and an incredibly swish opening montage sequence that brilliantly sets the tone for the humour and overall story.
From here, you quickly get to work zipping about multiple planets and worlds, taking down different madcap alien targets in a bid to bring down a shady pharmaceutical organisation. Fortunately, you never need do it alone, thanks to an entire armoury's worth of yapping gun buddies that once again serve as High on Life 2's main highlight.
Gatlian Companions and New Additions
Whether it's the shotgun-like Gus's nature to always egg you on, Knifey the knife's constant thirst for blood, or Creature's willingness to repeatedly shoot out his own offspring, the idea of uniquely styled guns each with their own personalities is still such a good mechanical idea. In the case of High on Life 2, there's a decent mix of both new and fan-favourite Gatlian companions with which to decimate waves of foes.
- New Additions: Jan and Travis, a married couple going through their issues, brought closer together through blasting away at baddies.
- Fan Favourite: Sheathe the submachine gun, voiced by Ralph Ineson, with an ability to spear numerous enemies and link them together during battle.
Acquiring a new Gatlian in your arsenal is always a miniature descent into madness, made even better by how each comes packed with unique secondary fire functions.
Puzzles and Platforming Challenges
Sadly, it's when most of these alternate abilities are required to solve puzzles either back at the metropolis hub or during linear levels that High on Life 2 regularly stumbles. Firing off one of Travis's Glob Shots on a platform only to raise it up using Jan, for instance, simply isn't all that clever or innovative. It's time I would much rather spend swirling around groups of enemies and unleashing hell upon them with a flurry of fire.
Particularly when navigating a stage requires pinpoint first-person platforming, the usual energy High on Life 2 imbues you with always becomes at risk of coming to a screeching halt. Were it not for the wealth of cool gun upgrades and collectible cosmetics littered around that make exploring worthwhile, rarely would I have felt the need to stop and smell the roses at all.
The Game-Changing Skateboard
Speaking of which, High on Life 2's big new central gimmick is the skateboard, and it really is a gamechanger. Against all odds, Squanch Games has found a perfect alternative to sprinting that makes navigating around these rather huge levels a proper thrill. The ability to grind, coast, and hop off almost every surface feels sleek to pull off, in a sense that would even make Tony Hawk come away impressed.
At its best, High on Life 2 sometimes matches Doom: Eternal's level of slickness. More fluid movement speed isn't something I knew I wanted from the sequel, but it really does go some way to make the already fast-paced FPS action have a better sense of flow, offering you a reliable way to have the environment work for you. Even after a dozen hours blasting away at enemies, High on Life 2's skateboarding makes the thought of a replay all the more tempting.
Technical Issues and Performance
If there's a major issue I have with High on Life 2 right now, it's that it's not as sharp or as polished as it should be from a technical perspective. Very much understanding that this is a game made by a small development team by modern AAA standards, there's still no excuse for regular artifacting around character models, poor facial expressions on human NPCs, and just its overall general bugginess.
Whether it's a boss becoming stuck in the floor of a level or my mantling over ledges just not being registered as it should be, resulting in a restart, High on Life 2 is in desperate need of some patches to improve its performance. Thankfully, most of these issues are the sort that could be addressed in a post-launch patch, so hopefully Squanch Games doesn't take too long getting them fixed.
Final Verdict and Rating
Although dependent on your tolerance for its particular brand of crudeness and lowbrow humour, High on Life 2 is an absolute blast to play through. There's simply no substitute for the act of busting out your skateboard, grinding on a rail to pick up speed, all as you encircle that next boss or group of enemies while pummelling into them using all kinds of inventive firearms.
This is honestly some of the most fun I've had with gunplay since Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and it's a sin I've had to wait even that long. Sure, the puzzles can grind the pace a bit, and it's lacking a lot of the usual polish we've come to expect from a mid-budget shooter, but High on Life 2 still manages to be an FPS rollercoaster ride that relishes in the crass vibe it's going for.
Rating: 4/5
