The incredibly funny Justin Roiland decided to take his talent to the gaming world when he started Squanch Games. As the creator of popular shows like Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites, Roiland is no stranger to foul-mouthed, animated humor, so it’s exciting to see that his upcoming game High on Life appears to play to his creative strengths. There is no question that this game will be funny, especially since one of the talking guns in this first-person shooter sounds just like Morty, but will the gameplay actually be good? According to IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey, the answer is yes.
While playing several hours of a hands-on demo of the game, McCaffrey is already impressed. High on Life is a first-person shooter game where your protagonist is mute, but your weapons are very chatty. In the classic Roiland-style of commentary, each of four guns and one knife have plenty to say for you throughout the game. The weapons are Kenny (voiced by Justin Roiland), Gus (voiced by JB Smooth), Sweezy (voiced by Betsy Sodaro), Creature (voiced by Tim Robinson), and Knifey (voiced by Michael Cusack), and each of them has a distinct personality and a ton of bespoke dialogue to pull from. They also have unique attacks.
In the game, you have four unique guns to choose from but easily switch between them throughout. They each have a few special abilities to use to your advantage, but there are also abilities available to buy in the in-game shops that come in handy later on. Things like dash and forward slide can be combined with each gun’s special attacks. In fact, High on Life offers much more in the way of first-person shooter combat than just point-and-shoot. You can create attack combos using the gun of your choice and Knifey as well. Knifey is, well, the talking knife, but you can wield him in your other hand as you take on enemies. The weapons themselves are upgradeable as well. So when faced with a group of alien enemies, you can combine multiple gun and melee attacks to get the job done.
Besides the combat, the art style is a reason to pick up the game. Unlike most other first-person shooters that have you wading through muted landscapes, High on Life is colorful and vibrant. Powered by Unreal Engine, the alien worlds are not afraid of using bright colors, which is also very much like Rick and Morty.
There is a ton of content written for this game in the form of side quests, NPC dialogue, animated shorts in the same style as the interdimensional cable segments of Rick and Morty, and even full-length movies. You can watch full B-level movies get riffed on in the same style of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Because of all of this, Roiland assures future fans that while this is not a grinding game, it can be enjoyed for multiple play-throughs just because of how much content there is. Every interaction with the NPCs for example can be done four different ways because there are four different guns with unique personalities.
High on Life will be coming to PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on December 13, 2022!
