The original High on Life from 2022 asked a simple question: What would it look like if you took the random, bleak comedic style of Rick and Morty and parodied video games rather than classic sci-fi films and TV? The answer: a first-person shooter with sweary guns, of course.
Although it was good for a few laughs, it felt more like a proof of concept rather than the finished article. The absurd, offbeat humor and the novel idea of guns that trash-talk for you gave it a unique selling point, but the actual fights and exploration got old fast.
It didn’t exactly win everyone over, but the Adult Swim die-hards lapped it up, and the potential was clear to see.
The follow-up does everything that a good sequel should do and raises the bar in every way, ensuring that the crude jokes don’t just carry a decent FPS – they complement a brilliant one.
What is High on Life 2 about?
Picking up shortly after where the first game ended, High on Life 2 is a sci-fi FPS that puts you back in control of the same silent bounty hunter. After taking down the G3 Cartel, who found that humans are like a class A drug to aliens, your heroics have made you a celebrity in all corners of the universe.
However, when your sister Lizzie joins a terrorist organization and a huge bounty is placed on her head, you’re forced to turn on your fellow hunters to save her, making you public enemy number one. Oh, and she’s discovered that a powerful pharmaceutical company plans to round up humans and turn them into pills to be sold as legal highs. Yep, really.
So, you, Lizzie, your mentor Gene, and the Gatlians (an alien race who happen to look exactly like guns) band together to find out who’s behind the plot and save humanity. Again.
It’s exactly as ludicrous as it sounds, and its not-so-subtle mockery of big pharma is never going to win any awards for best narrative, but it’s entertaining enough to drive you from one bloody shootout to the next.
Funnier than ever
Sequels are hard to pull off, and comedy sequels are even trickier once the element of surprise is lost, but High on Life 2’s jokes still hit just as hard. Almost everything you do is rewarded with a fresh gag, whether it’s meeting a deranged new inhabitant of hub world Circuit Arcadia, buying upgrades from the store, or even hunting collectables.
There are plenty of standout lines that I won’t spoil here, from brash toilet humor to clever fourth-wall breaks. If you’re a lover of Rick and Morty’s specific mix of silliness and cynicism, you’ll be right at home.
It’s not all gold, and some conversations go on for far too long, but there are more belly laughs to be found than eye rolls.
Talking guns are anything but nerfed
The stars of the show are, once again, the guns, who all bring their own distinct personalities, in both conversation and combat.
Favorites from the original make a return, like the ever-chill Gus (J.B Smoove), who acts as a shotgun that can suck enemies towards you before blasting them away, and Knifey (Michael Cusack), your melee weapon and grapple hook, who just wants to murder everyone in sight.
There are also some new faces, such as failing husband Travis and his estranged wife, Jan – a pair of akimbo pistols that can launch enemies high into the air.
The standout is Sheath, voiced by the unmistakable Ralph Ineson, whose overly earnest love for killing delivers chuckle after chuckle. He’s also your accurate burst assault rifle, which can fire a harpoon that skewers one enemy before letting you drag them into another with one tap of the right bumper, turning your foes into a screaming shell necklace.
They’re all a blast to use on their own, but the combat really starts to sing once you begin chaining them together. With a bit of practice, you’ll be using Sweezy’s Time Bubble to freeze aliens in place, then using Creature (who fires his own children onto the battlefield to attack enemies) to weaken them, before moving in with Knifey for a flashy finisher. Is it ridiculous, or is it awesome? The answer is both.
The world is your skatepark
The biggest addition this time around is the skateboard, which replaces your sprint function, allowing you to save your breath by hopping on the board to roll, jump, and grind your way from A to B.
It’s needed too, because High on Life 2’s levels are bigger and much more open than the first game. Each one is a maze of carefully placed ramps and grindrails that not only get you to the next objective quickly, but also need to be mastered to reach hidden areas or find collectables.
It feels great when it works, but there’s a clunkiness that never goes away. I often found myself accidentally grinding on surfaces at the wrong moments or getting stuck on random objects, causing me to kickflip my way off the map.
Campaign keeps things fresh
One of the main issues with the first High on Life was that, although the shootouts were enjoyable at first, they quickly overstayed their welcome. The sequel tackles this problem by giving you much more interesting things to do in between fights.
The light puzzles return, but the missions themselves are much more varied, with plenty of stupid but welcome changes of pace.
You’ll fight for a parking space on Con-con, a planet that’s made up entirely of conventions, get blackout drunk with a Gatlian whose down on his luck, and even take part in a surprisingly complex murder mystery evening. And that’s just in the first few hours.
It’s a shame that this variety doesn’t apply to the boss encounters, though. While one early highlight sees you take on an evil senator who shrinks down into your suit and forces you to fight them in the game’s actual menus, the rest don’t hit the same highs in terms of creativity.
Verdict
High on Life 2 is everything you could want from a sequel to the first High on Life. It’s bigger, better, and funnier, finally delivering on what the original promised – a fantastic, over-the-top FPS where the jokes are as sharp as your knife.
New companions like Sheath and Travis prove that the talking guns shtick that worked so well the first time was no fluke, and they constantly leave you in stitches and your enemies needing them.
If you can give in to the weirdness, this is a goofy shooter that’s genuinely hilarious and a hell of a lot of fun to play. With smoother skateboarding and more varied boss battles, it would be perfection, but there’s a lot of life left in this emergent series – we wouldn’t say no to a threequel.
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