Review: High On Life

To adequately conjure some thought for what to anticipate with Excessive On Life, it is best to look no additional than any of the tasks to which Justin Roiland has contributed. Roiland, founding father of Squanch Video games who developed this title, is co-creator of TV exhibits comparable to Rick and Morty and Photo voltaic Opposites, in addition to a voice actor for a large number of characters in these exhibits amongst others. In the event you’re aware of these exhibits, then you realize what you’re in for with Excessive On Life. If not then buckle up since you’re in for a experience.

Not each recreation wants an exterior level of comparability, however the relationship between these earlier works needed to be spoken for. Your opinion relating to Rick and Morty could not correlate completely with Excessive On Life, however each collection share many qualities. In the event you dislike Rick and Morty as a result of it’s too coarse, graphic, profane, or irritating, it’s unlikely you’ll be capable of abdomen the weather that drive the model of this recreation. However if you happen to can droop that disposition, you could discover the gameplay first rate sufficient to warrant a fast jaunt by way of area. Conversely, if you happen to like Rick and Morty’s signature nihilistic outlook, it’s no assure that you simply’ll benefit from the recreation, because it sidesteps robust philosophical and narrative concerns in favor of the raunchy humor that permeates the present. All that’s to say, this recreation is prone to be polarizing. However as this isn’t a tv present, let’s consider Excessive On Life on its deserves as a recreation.

The gist of the sport is pretty easy. As aliens invade Earth, you (a teenage child) uncover a speaking alien gun on one in all their our bodies. He helps you and your sister teleport your own home out of the suburbs and into the center of an alien area heart. In trade for the possession of your own home within the occasion of your dying, a retired bounty hunter presents his “help” to take down the G3 cartel and lends you his area swimsuit. One-by-one, you are taking down key figures within the cartel’s ranks throughout a handful of places in an effort to avoid wasting humanity.

Supply: Steam.

Fight on this recreation comes down to 2 essential conditions, with differing results. Tight-knit area fights are frenetic slugfests, with a number of the higher moments harking back to Doom and Halo. These fights mandate that you simply shoot from the hip and by no means keep nonetheless in a single place for too lengthy. Swapping weapons right here is rewarded, as you possibly can keep away from reloading. Different fights happen out within the open with enemy pods teleporting out of skinny air, and the fight right here tends to fall flat a bit. Your finest wager is to hunker down behind dependable cowl and shoot enemies together with your beginning pistol from a distance, sometimes launching projectile alien youngsters to whittle down enemies whereas your well being recharges (offered you’ve progressed far sufficient to entry any further weapons).

The speaking weapons are a blended bag as properly. I loved their distinctive personalities, and their interspersed commentary was a pleasant companion to the motion. In addition they offered fight utility by reminding you when their motion photographs had cooled down. That stated, it was sometimes annoying after I particularly didn’t need to use their particular skills. In addition they regularly complained about how I by no means used them, even when solely mere seconds had elapsed since I final had them out.

Their fight effectiveness additionally leaves one thing to be desired. For many of the recreation, I ended up primarily utilizing my beginning weapon, because it was probably the most persistently dependable in a pinch. The shotgun wasn’t efficient past a meager vary, had little in the best way of ammunition, and the shortage of haptic suggestions didn’t let you realize whether or not successful related with the enemy. The pseudo-Needler was fairly helpful, however the myriad strategies you can make the most of to chain collectively assaults had been simply an excessive amount of to trace throughout fight. And whereas the creature weapon that shot small spawn was very useful in battles of attrition, it lacked the oomph to take down swarms at shut vary.

Lastly, there’s your useful speaking knife, used to carry out melee assaults and grapple ledges, which is useful in a pinch however would not present any indication of when it should kill an enemy versus merely staggering them with injury. There’s yet another speaking weapon that’s ridiculously overpowered, nevertheless it’s rightfully saved for the ultimate encounter of the sport the place no different weapon would have been as much as the duty, making for a memorable closing sequence.

Boss fights had been a private favourite of mine on this recreation. They offered probably the most difficult fights and twisted the system simply sufficient to breathe life into an typically repetitive fight system. In these fights you’ll face stinging betrayal by way of a basic bait and change, confront your character’s motivations beneath the affect of area medicine, and fend off waves of enemies whereas listening to a pre-recorded message from the boss who died earlier than the battle even started as he tries to guess preemptively who would have killed him.

Apart from fight, exploration in Excessive On Life is a calming job between fights within the vein of your typical Metroidvania. The weapons you purchase will assist you to delve additional into the worlds you encounter over time. A major variety of chests are scattered throughout these places with a foreign money that you simply’ll have to improve your gear. It is best to get sufficient of those by the way that skipping the collect-a-thon gained’t hamper your potential to maintain up with the tempo of the sport, however if you wish to dig deeper into the environments or play on the harder problem, you’ll be rewarded for doing so.

The worlds that you simply discover are visually attractive if a bit restricted. Over the course of the sport, you’ll go to three essential areas: the introductory metropolis and its slums, a verdant planet being ravaged by mining and populated by indentured teddy bear creatures, and an asteroid segmented right into a rusty wild west city on the rock’s floor, a bustling inhabitants heart beneath, and an artwork deco hookah lounge the place people are being consumed for his or her psychedelic properties. As a result of there are few locations to go to, the maps are usually sprawling and designed with nice verticality. When you have an goal marker that can assist you get round throughout guided missions, revisiting these places could be tedious at instances as there’s no in-game map obtainable. Moreover, revisiting areas gained’t be environment friendly till you’ve unlocked the jetpack, which arrives only a bit too late into the sport for my style.

Whereas the variety of areas is proscribed, constructing out every of those worlds is the place the sport actually excels. Colourful NPCs, televised media, and the occasional standard franchise restaurant all litter every nook of area and ship on the sport’s basic ethos. As talked about earlier, you’ll both discover this model grating or refreshing in line with your tolerance for absurdity and nastiness. Make no mistake, this recreation just isn’t afraid to get downright bizarre and is regularly punctuated by meta-humor, acknowledging design quirks that we’ve come to anticipate from many video video games whereas concurrently capitulating to the time-honored traditions.

All stated, there’s a superb probability you already know whether or not or not Excessive on Life is for you. This recreation wears its coronary heart on its sleeve, even when the schtick sometimes wears skinny. Nonetheless, if you happen to can look previous all of the surface-level traits and unrelenting dialogue, the boss fights could be price sprinting by way of the marketing campaign, because it’s a reasonably brief recreation absent any diversions. General, Excessive On Life is a joyful area escapade that breathes life into its worlds by delivering a definite model of low-brow and observational humor.

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