Not quite as high on this one.
The original High on Life felt like a breath of fresh air. The game hit all the right notes for me with its solid game play and quirky humor. When the sequel was announced, I couldn’t wait to see what they came up with next. It would obviously be a step up from the original game. Well, here we are, and things are not as bright as I had hoped. While there are some game play advancements and of course new jokes and characters, they don’t land quite as well as the original. What we end up with is a sequel that fails to capitalize on what made the original game special.
The game kicks off with a montage of what our character has been up to since the ending of the original. As a first impression, this nails it. I loved how it felt like one of those comedic montages where we see a journey intermixed with hilarious dialogue. It really sets the stage for what should be an improved sequel. Sadly, this is as good as the humor gets and it falls off significantly afterwards. The story puts our hero from the first game back to square one as mistakes are made, and now you are being hunted by the bounty hunters you used to work with. It is a good premise, that just never finds its footing.
MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $29.99
The sequel follows the same idea as the first game where your weapons are actually sentient beings. Without spoiling the end of the first game, the second one kicks off with a couple returning faces, but the game spends most of its time introducing new ones. This is great as each one has a story you unwind for them to join your party. This is where High on Life 2 excels. For example, the first gun you run into has lost his wife, and your goal is to reunite them. This introduces the first duel-wielding gun to the series. It is a neat quest that has some truly bizarre interactions. Also, the guns make out a lot, which is awkward.
The new guns are interesting and fun, and once again voiced really well. I have always loved that dialogue is dependent on which gun is selected. Sadly, even with the new weapons, which are fun to use, combat ends up being a mess that really never clicks. The first game was simple in its action. Everything felt designed well, and easy to understand. The sequel is riddled with messy interactions that feel more like chaos than a bullet ballet.
I found myself getting frustrated with enemies getting caught on geometry, ending up out of the world when I needed to kill all of them. They try to flank, but it rarely works out. There are so many particle effects flying around and it can be confusing what are attacks, and what are environmental objects. I felt more times than not that the game was relying on luck than skill when it comes to gun fights. The boss fights don’t suffer as much, and they are really fun. There are some really cool designs here that I won’t spoil, but it is clear that the developers saved their best mechanics for these encounters.
The big addition to this game is the skateboard. This is how your character gets around now, and it works surprisingly well. My initial thought was how can this possibly work in first person, but they nailed it. The control feels great, and grinding and jumping is simple and intuitive. This makes traversing the larger levels much easier, and I commend the developers for making this work.
The original game was one of the most unique-looking titles I have ever seen. I loved the design of everything from the characters to the world. Sure, it pulls a lot from that particular template of Rick and Morty, but in video game form it really sets itself apart. The sequel carries that over and adds larger, more vertical environments, but it comes at a cost. This game is blurry on the high-end consoles. It has a very soft image quality that really detracts from the style. The frame rate is also sporadic, it never drops into unplayable territory, but you can definitely feel the dips. It is also not a good sign when the roadmap of the game is mostly performance and visual quality updates. These are things that should be ironed out before launch.
The audio is a mix as the voice work for the guns and characters are good. However, some of the writing definitely feels like a step back from the original. There are some genuinely hilarious moments, but other times it feels like they just added some profanity in place of a punchline. The music is…fine. Honestly, after playing the game I forgot most of it. It feels like background noise, and that is a disappointment.
High on Life 2 capitalizes on what made the original interesting with its guns and boss fights and falls apart on almost everything else. It feels like it isn’t quite finished when it comes to performance and image quality, and a lot of the humor falls flat. I really loved the original game, but the sequel is much harder to recommend. Thankfully it is on Game Pass, so if you subscribe the barrier to entry is low. Otherwise, I have a hard time recommending this one at full price.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
