Review – High On Life 2

The universe is infinite. This means that, mathematically speaking, all probabilities are in play, all possibilities materialize somewhere. Because of this, it is possible to believe that there is, somewhere in this vastness, a corner where aliens consume human beings to get high. I prefer to believe that there is a corner where it gets the recognition it deserves.

Squanch Games’ first title sought to bring the verbose insanity of Rick & Morty animation to the world of video games, but ended up receiving heavy criticism and a lukewarm reception. The sequel does not seek to please either the Greeks or the Trojans, but doubles down on provoking extreme laughter and moments of delight for the crowd at the back of the room and other weirdos.

From zero to hero and from hero to zero

Is it possible to start the franchise with the second title? I am the positive answer to that question. I turned my nose up at the first game at the time, after watching a gameplay video, but High On Life 2 fell into my lap and I decided to take a chance. I don’t regret a single second spent in this absolutely crazy corner of the universe.

The adventure starts at maximum speed, with an opening sequence that is a heart test for the loading speed of your SSD and your GPU, alternating between disconnected situations and scenarios with the cadence of a squirrel with ADHD on caffeine. It’s the way the developer chose for you to get on this train: our protagonist is a celebrity, after the events of the first game, and that means an intense schedule. When the opening finally pulls the handbrake, we are dropped into a kind of museum packed with references and summaries about what happened before, for you to consume at your own pace, in your own time, or simply move on, because the place of the past is in the museum (literally, in the case presented).

From there, the game builds a central narrative: our protagonist becomes an outlaw to protect human beings from the ambitions of a mega pharmaceutical corporation, supported by politicians and tycoons. Still, the plot is not afraid to take the most unexpected detours possible. At each stage of the game, at each advance of the plot, I had no idea of ​​the madness that would await me next and to go into more detail here would be to reduce the impact of the meteoric verve of High On Life 2. Let’s just say that the game addresses divorce, fantasy RPG, politics and the most desperate fourth wall break I’ve ever seen.

Squanch Games’ sense of humor is present in every line of dialogue, in every plot twist, in every character that is introduced into your troupe of allies. It’s the Mass Effect of zueira, no stone is left unturned, there is no taboo topic, even though the game does not descend into bad taste at any point. The great merit of the title is that its mockery is not only manifested in the text and lines, but is present in every detail of the scenarios. It’s a chronic nonsense that appears on magazine covers, on simple passersby with their own unusual stories, on posters, in fashion, in architecture, in object design… there isn’t a square centimeter of High On Life 2 that doesn’t work to build this atmosphere of total fun.

On the other hand, this is where High On Life 2 makes a mistake that has always bothered me about the Borderlands franchise: the cacophony. All the characters speak very quickly and often speak at the same time, which creates sensory overload. At several moments, the ideal was to stop the character and wait for the dialogue to finish, especially because the chances of me laughing were high. However, this hubbub becomes annoying in combat, when crucial information to defeat this or that opponent is lost in the chatter. Considering that the game is not dubbed, but only subtitled, the difficulty only increases. Or maybe this is just a reflection of the generational gap and I’m the old man shouting at the clouds, while the TikTok generation will read this paragraph with pity.

High On Life 2 making your head

If the immersion is plugged into 220v, the mechanics of this sequence also take a leap in intensity. The main highlight is the introduction of a skateboard in the protagonist’s movement, which brings the speed and flexibility of combat closer to the frenzy of a , but without abusing complexity at any point. Fun is the keynote of High On Life 2, if that hasn’t already been clear by this point in the analysis. We have a skateboard, we move faster on the battlefield, we stick to rails and that’s it, added to the rope and hook system, which already existed before.

However, the fusion with skateboarding goes beyond faster-paced combat and also extends to traditional skateboarding challenges in the levels, including blatant references to Tony Hawk, and the introduction of very strong verticality in the levels. As the game works with open world hubs, it is possible to revisit different stages and use all of its locomotion resources to find additional content, side missions, collectibles or simply perform crazy maneuvers and be happy.

And the additional content is really wide and varied. The player who searches the corners will find entire areas that were hidden before, with subplots, new challenges or just a good laugh. It is possible to play minigames in multiple arcades spread across the universe, it is possible to watch entire films (!) of questionable quality in a cinema, it is possible to customize the appearance of weapons and the protagonist, it is possible to carry out taxi missions with passengers, fish for strange things and much more.

And here it’s worth rebutting one of the prejudices I had regarding the franchise: High On Life 2 is not primarily a shooting game. The best parallel would be with the GTA franchise: we have wide open spaces full of optional activities, we have a story loaded with dialogue that moves the plot forward and we occasionally have an intense action sequence, involving combat.

The game’s new and old weapons also allow for unconventional puzzle solving, including alternative fire, charged fire and, of course, a hilarious personality for each of them. Travis, from now on, is my animal spirit, my patron saint on this great journey of life.

“Take this guy’s skateboard…”

I received High On Life 2 a few days before launch, with a clear warning that the title was not yet optimized and could present performance problems. Considering my setup is far from top-of-the-line, this set off red flags in my mind. It was an unfounded fear: by setting the DLSS mode to Performance and leaving some options on Medium, the title ran smoothly. This performance improved even more here at home after the launch.

Still, there are many performance complaints on the internet, from players with vastly superior configurations. If you’re planning on playing everything on Ultra, in 4K, chances are the title won’t measure up. On the other hand, with lowered expectations, I can say that the game is just as beautiful, fast and loaded with visual effects. It’s a graphic leap compared to the first title.

No, the game didn’t crash. The graphic for this part is THIS SAME!

Furthermore, I can also testify that there are no serious bugs. In the pre-release version, my character fell off the map once, but was automatically restored to the last checkpoint (and the checkpoints are quite generous). Also in the pre-release version, I saw an NPC sitting in the air sliding in front of me, which was still funny, in its own way. The last bug I saw was in a boss battle, when a certain weapon’s ability, essential to beating that boss, stopped working, forcing a checkpoint reload (and the game has mid-battle checkpoints!). At no point did the game crash or return me to the desktop. Obviously, the experience may vary depending on each PC configuration.

Unfortunately, High On Life 2 is hampered by an almost zero marketing campaign, poor memory of the first game and performance reviews on Steam, which should push this gem to the bottom of most players’ lists. Somewhere in the universe, High On Life 2 is Game of The Year. In my little corner of the Earth, comprised of my desk, my PC and me, High On Life 2 is a pleasant surprise.