High on Life 2 delivers both excellent moments and severe technical issues
The sequel High on Life 2 delivers both excellent moments and severe technical issues. The first High on Life game released in 2022 provided a new experience through its lighthearted first person shooting gameplay which contrasted with the serious tone of contemporary shooting games. The team at Squanch Games has returned to produce High on Life 2. The sequel presents a more ambitious and gameplay oriented experience which exceeds the expectations of most players. The story maintains its absurdist humor but replaces some spontaneous elements with structured content which establishes a realistic environment that resembles actual locations instead of complete absurdity.
Five years after the events of the first game, you are a famous bounty hunter enjoying the high life. The story moves away from the G3 Cartel to introduce a new enemy, which represents the cosmic version of Big Pharma. A conglomerate is turning humans into a pharmaceutical product called Humanapro, attempting to legalize human testing and livestock practices. The sequel maintains the same level of dark comedy and outrageousness from the previous game, except the antagonists now operate within legal boundaries.
Your sister becomes a terrorist target, which forces you to become an outlaw to save her. Before you begin, the game provides a character creation system which lets you design your face by drawing with crayons that represent human facial features. Your official wanted poster for the game uses this drawing as a permanent display, which creates a humorous element that establishes the games mood from the beginning.
The addition of skateboarding creates the most significant change in the sequel. Although players will instinctively compare this game to Tony Hawk and Sunset Overdrive, the actual implementation delivers better results than expected. The process serves as a core movement system which enables players to travel quickly while engaging in combat and exploration activities. Players can use their skateboard to perform rail grinding, wall kickflips, and board dropkicks that strike enemies.
The game uses this mechanic to create a unique gameplay experience. The system creates design conflicts because players can move at extremely high speeds. Environmental details become unnoticed, which makes the world appear too fast or too shallow for certain players. Certain locations appear to have been created only for high speed travel, which means you must reach them at maximum speed.
The shooting mechanics have seen improvements, though they remain adequate rather than industry leading. The game introduces three new enemy types which include cyborgs who use smaller aliens as pilots and characters that release toxic gas clouds. The game now presents a tougher experience which challenges even players who completed the previous game.
The weapon selection includes both familiar weapons and fresh designs every weapon comes with extra abilities that players can use for exploration purposes.
The shotgun voiced by JB Smoove returns with Gus, while Squeezy serves as the Needler equivalent and Creature returns to the game. The new weapon Sheath functions as a battle rifle which fires three rounds and delivers substantial damage. The new characters Travis and Jan replace Kenny by providing players with a glob shot ability which lets them perform high damage dual wielding attacks. The new bow and arrow weapon Bowie has a soul hole ability which shows critical hit zones for controlling groups of enemies. Players can obtain The Pinball gun by searching for its balls during their expedition through the game world. The game introduces a new grenade system which needs players to charge their grenades before using them, which increases the disorderly events in combat.
The game takes place largely on a ring world called Circuit Arcadia. The environments showcase breathtaking visual improvements which exceed the quality of the original game because they use Unreal Engine 5 to display both downtown areas and beachfront zones. The world presents unusual characteristics which include six complete movies that people can view in theaters and absurd television advertisements which continuously run in public spaces.
Players who explore the world will discover underground fight clubs and skateboarding time trials which require them to collect letters like in Tony Hawk and 8 bit mini games which they can play on arcade machines and a deep Murder Mystery mission which requires players to investigate. There exists an Escape Room side quest which features a complete experience.
The current world design contains several design flaws. The game limits backtracking because players cannot revisit certain locations after they progress through the story. The map now features greater verticality but its size does not match the dimensions of the original game.
The game achieves stunning visual results which include neon lit urban landscapes and intricate texture designs but its performance issues create major disagreements among players. Players face two extreme experiences
- Stability Some players reported smooth experiences on max settings while others experienced over a dozen crashes in a 10 hour playthrough.
- Bugs The game has multiple problems which include T posing characters who block their companions from entering areas and system malfunctions which cause enemies to appear inside walls.
- Glitches A scanner camera glitch occurs repeatedly which shows characters overlapping their dialogue during vital story moments making it hard to follow the narrative.
The game displays visual problems which include noticeable pop in while enemies appear visually appealing but certain NPCs and companion models appear rough or low detail. The shadow settings cause a major frame rate drop which creates difficulties because the game requires a Day One patch to fix its current stability problems.
The humor is subjective—if you hated the first game, this won't change your mind completely, but it is less shouty and improvised. The absence of Justin Roiland in the project resulted in a minor change to the tone. The content still makes fun of crypto schemes and billionaires and YouTubers while delivering multiple dick and fart jokes. The voice cast features multiple talented actors who include Ken Marino and Richard Kind and Ralph Ineson.
The game uses an acid synth wave style as its musical direction. The game now offers more musical variety than its previous version whereas some players will find that the ongoing alien warble sound effect and pitch bending effects become annoying after extended gameplay.
The boss encounters divide into two equal parts. The battle which takes place on a cruise ship and the politician battle which uses UI menus as a combat zone create exceptional gameplay experiences. The other battles which exist in the game suffer from pacing problems and lack entertainment value. Players can navigate through extended battles because the game provides them with frequent checkpoints which prevent them from restarting after experiencing unintentional deaths or bugs.
Pros
- The skateboarding mechanic transforms the gameplay experience into an enjoyable activity.
- The graphics have advanced to an extraordinary level which presents vibrant and detailed visual experiences.
- The game introduces new enemy types who present more challenging encounters for players.
- The menu based battle creates an ingenious boss fight experience which players must solve through menu navigation.
- The side content contains multiple elements which include the Murder Mystery and mini games which offer unexpected value.
- The character creation system provides players with a humorous method to create their own unique characters.
- The sequel to the first game features less repetitive dialogue and musical content than its predecessor.
Cons
- The game has severe stability problems which cause both players to experience crashes and the game to enter soft lock states.
- The Shotgun weapon system creates an experience which makes players think they use a weapon with no power.
- The overlapping dialogue bugs destroy vital moments in the storyline progression.
- The fast speed of skateboarding makes the world experience feel unreal.
- The combination of visual pop in and low detail NPCs creates an experience which disrupts player immersion in the world.
- The game restricts backtracking options because players must complete the basic backtracking mission to access the original backtracking paths.
Recommendation Play on Game Pass or wait for a Sale.
High on Life 2 presents a game which improves its predecessor through more self assured design elements and a wider range of visual effects. The game tries to develop beyond its role as a vector for dumb stoner comedy to become a real shooter which uses original movement skills. The game suffers from major technical problems which result in multiple bugs that decrease its overall quality. Players who enjoyed the previous game should definitely try this new title. The game costs $60 but its current performance issues make it difficult for you to obtain value from your purchase.
Pc Version Tested.
