What a pleasant surprise. Typically you see the synopsis for an experiment like this one, you wait with bated breath for a few years, and then you are promptly disappointed. You think to yourself "ah, what'd I expect anyways? there was no way that was gonna pan out.."

But in the case of High on Life, it panned all the way out. Here, Justin Roiland triumphantly demonstrates all that Squanch Games has learned about game development over the past 5 years. Except now they've moving on from the VR realm to the notoriously fickle land of AAA development.

In a world where subscription services bring us countless new options on a weekly basis, and gamer's attention spans are at an all-time low, new IPs have their work cut out for them when trying to captivate the imagination of the general public. And High on Life has done just that.

The unique blend of of Roiland's trademark humor (delightfully joined by a cast of other comedians, most notably Joel Haver of YouTube fame) and surprisingly slick first-person shooter game mechanics, had me slurping this game up. I found myself wishing I could clone myself so that I could play it twice, and then subsequently kill that clone so it doesn't come after me later.

The laughs really are the center of attention. I've seen quite a few complaints online about the dialogue being annoying, or overbearing, and to that I say that those critics simply aren't this game's audience. They shouldn't even be writing about it. It would be like me trying to write a review for Disney's Dreamlight Valley. Keep that s*** away from me, btw.

If you play the game at a steady clip, keep things slow enough that you don't have characters delivering dialogue over top of one another (which is, admittedly, a frustration I had with it at times) then you're due for pretty consistent belly laughs. The game gleefully breaks the fourth wall in every way imaginable, to the extent that it even drops meta jokes about other properties that do the same thing. It jokes about game design, it jokes about player expectation, it jokes about what can and cannot be done in media today. And in the end? It tells a surprisingly compelling story! I actually loved it. And man, the easter eggs. Everywhere you look, there's something to stop and stare at. Full movies play out in the living room of your house, just in case you're a little TOO High on Life and you need to chill for a moment. Hilarious, clearly improvised animations beam from every screen in the city. NPCs will surprise you with additional dialogue depending on how you interact with them. It's all phenomenal. Prior to the game's release, I'd had it in mind that it may end up being a bit of a throwaway title - played for a few cheap laughs and then forgotten about. But every inch of this journey is lovingly crafted, and it shows.

As for gameplay? It's really polished! A few of the movement mechanics you'll unlock as you go will certainly surprise you. They didn't HAVE to go this hard, honestly. It's no DOOM, but it doesn't need to be. And as an FPS I found it to be more fun to play than most modern offerings. Call of Duty campaigns are becoming rote as hell, and most popular FPS titles forego story entirely for the sake of evolving games-as-a-service playstyles. So High on Life was a breath of fresh air. Almost felt like I was gettin high on a sweet, sweet human.

Reviewed on Jan 03, 2023


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