High on Life review

The gags and gunplay are both serviceable but the real enjoyment stems from the exploration of an alien world built of equal parts shiny plastic and grime.

The single-player first-shooter campaign grew a bit stagnant in the mid-2000s, as the genre pivoted toward multiplayer competitions. Innovation emerged with the dialog-driven shooter- where plot was just as important as play. In 2007, BioShock adeptly balanced combat with narrative, elevating the sense of tension as you explored Rapture. Two years later, Borderlands would borrow the basic blueprint, overlaying the dopamine drip of an engaging loot shooter with a steady succession of jokes from your robotic companion, Claptrap.

Success inspired Gearbox Software to mimic the formula so naturally, sequels and spin-offs ensued. But by the time Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands emerged, I was completely fatigued by the formula. Anything that I once enjoyed about the franchise now just annoyed me, like a once-promising relationship that had fallen into a pit of deep dysfunction.

With its talking firearms and mildly engaging action, High on Life certainly recalls the Gearbox recipe of garrulous gunplay. If you’re a fan of Justin Roiland’s (Rick and Morty) style of comedy, you’ll probably be able to overlook some of the game’s design decisions. One of the more evident blunders is temporarily pausing the action for long-winded conversations where you respond via dialog menus. For better or worse, Borderlands let you walk away, turning down the volume on Claptrap’s incessant chitchat.

But High on Life is a bit like that obnoxious high school clique, desperate for you to listen to their affected interactions. One early example is two Muppet-like gate guards arguing over who is the better-looking one. One of Roiland’s techniques is to stretch jokes far past their low-key punchline and then let them linger a bit more. As the game forces you to banter with the pair, I was thinking, “can you just let me pass?” As the game offers quite a bit of fourth-wall-breaking dialog, maybe High of Life is riffing on all those annoying NPCs who won’t let you proceed without a hassle. But even if it’s intentional and condemnatory, it slows the pacing. There’s also a detective mode section that demonstrates many of the problems with interactive sleuthing. Often, High on Life feels like the “angry gamer”, who is perpetually disgruntled by the pastime they can’t seem to quit.

Roiland’s best approach is to toy with the boundaries of what is appropriate; at least what’s considered semi-suitable in 2022. Not long after, the game incites you to commit a marginally heinous act (I won’t spoil it) and then proceeds to guilt you for your actions. From a character-selection screen that takes place on a cocaine-covered mirror to anticipating how the corporate-owned gaming sites will critique the game, a decent amount High on Life is at least mildly funny and sporadically subversive. There are a lot of jokes that are just dumb- ubiquitous, Gen Z-style swearing as well as the malaise of someone who spends too much time online. All these quantities can become tiresome. But intermittently, the game will produce a boisterous laugh that’s insightful enough to make you forgive at least some of the annoyances.

Mirroring satirical efforts like the No More Heroes series, High on Life’s lead is the seemingly slothful gamer burdened with saving humanity. At the beginning of the campaign, he’s playing a mock retro FPS, before being disturbed by his older sister. But the quaint trappings of suburban life receive a much more significant interruption, as an alien invasion launches, and it’s soon revealed that the extra-terrestrials use humans as escapist drugs. As such, it’s your job to play bounty hunter and chase them down.

Thankfully, there’s little finger-wagging moralizing about substance abuse to kill the buzz. But High on Life doesn’t really do much with the premise, either. And if you’re looking for closure, that’s another sticking point, with an ending that states some of a character’s key motivations will be revealed in the inevitable sequel. After sitting through years of cliffhangers in movies and games, I want finality. I don’t want to be treated like a revenue stream.

Your chaperones through High on Life’s world are a quartet of sentient guns. Kenny, who comes closest to being the game’s star, is voiced by Roiland. He’s a fairly standard pistol, that makes you aim down the sights and fire a procession of green goop. Like the other three guns, he has an alt-mode that offers an arcing, grenade-like attack. J.B. Smoove’s Gus is the archetypal shotgun that can also issue buzzsaws while Betsy Sodaro offers a performance as an enduringly exasperated rifle that can also summon time-slowing fields. But the true highlights are Tim Robinson’s Creature, who fires off tiny offspring that chew up enemies, and a knife that receives sexual gratification even time he, uh, enters a body.

Creating an engrossing first-person shooter is a consummate task that even experienced studios stumble on. High on Life’s gunplay is acceptable. Even with the addition of tools like jetpacks, grappling hooks, and deployable disks that function like platforms, it’s not strong enough to stand on its own. At least some of the problems are rooted in rudimentary AI. Although different species fulfill the roles of being an intruding grunt, pesky sniper, or resilient mid-boss, there’s little enjoyment in taking them down. High on Life expects the pursuit of the next punchline to serve as an incentive, which is oddly optimistic.

While the jokes are uneven and the gunplay is middling, High on Life isn’t without appeal. Largely, the game’s world is a thoroughly fascinating place to explore. Sure, the aesthetics lean on the globular-eyed look of its creatures, but body types, archetypical clothing,  and animations are all well-done, evoking the look of the Muppets on edibles. Often grime, muck, and trash are intermixed with polystyrene sheen, giving High on Life a distinctive look. If there’s any game that deserves to be played under the influence it’s this one. Not only might the vibrant palette really pop, but you might just appreciate the jokes just a bit more. If we have stoner movies, why not stoner gamers as well?

High on Life was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.