I get that people who run cartoon shows from TV programs like Adult Swim and Nickelodeon does work on games, had games based on their cartoons or would make something entirely different. And I couldn't state it any better when I say that I never felt like finding any reason to play any of Justin Roiland's games, because his humor doesn't always work for me. So what really made me get into High on Life?
As a video game, it kind of falls short because of potential ideas that didn't feel like they invested much in, and it's kind of short for a game of its asking price(60 USD). But I did really have fun, oh man, this is a gem when it comes to games with obtuse, wacky, and profane humor. The kind of humor that takes me back to certain TV shows like The Tick, Invader Zim, Futurama, but also through playing, pays nods to Quake, Saints Row, Heavy Metal, of all among other games.
I think he did nail with this one, on top of it being an interesting goop FPS, where everything is slimy from just how it looks to overblown terminologies being thrown at me, it's like playing a nerd's game, but from someone who was completely high on acid.
And what a great way to start a game, silent protagonist plays a game where a divorced guy named Buck gets lauded by his lawyer over how much of a great action hero he is. He goes non-stop just praising the guy, almost fangirling over him. Just when the epic climactic battle was going to reach the tip of its end, the protagonist's sister wakes him/her up to reality and breaks the news that their parents left the house, disgruntled over their lack of concern.
Right before I proceed to following course of action afterwards, I had to pick my character's face, of which there were 6 options for both genders. Not that I'll be looking at myself much often to remember that, so I picked a male in random.
And just before hopping inside a car, an alien spaceship warps right beside their suburban house in the neighbor, betrays one of their own by shooting em up, before an unsuspecting dementia ridden old man patronizes the orange alien blob thinking it's his wife. But no, the alien sucks him up from downwards and uses him as vape, basically deciding then to enslave the human race for a new drug addiction.
The fun begins when Morty becomes a talking gun, demanding that I mow down the alien crime syndicate that wants to use humanity for their new cocaine addiction. My character teleported himself to a friendly alien planet alongside his sister right inside their house, acting as a base of operations. With the whole goal of saving his species the entire game.
I wasn't shooting down enemies like I did in Far Cry, or Titanfall. It feels scaled back in the first hour or so compared to those games, even if there's cool stuff to do like shooting a secondary grenade that bounces enemies up before being shot repeatedly midair or clean headshots.
Was coming across pathfinding issues when I was told to find a bounty hunter, in the small town acting as my base of operations. But after 10 minutes, I found the has-been amputee making a deal that by taking his equipment to take down the next bounty, if I die, then he keeps my house.
And before finding Rick as a knife speaking in British accent, I had to make a dialogue choice about who looks good, whether to choose door no.1 or no.2, as they're self-aware, the other one scuffs off. There was no difference choosing either, that was the obtuse humor. It gets better when a kid haggles you, pushing you off if you try to pass him, unless you shoot him in the head as per his obnoxious request. His mother accepts what you did because he sort of had it coming, tragically.
I don't know which to write more about here; the ridiculous banter I've heard constantly from all the characters in the most Roiland-esque comedy or something about the gameplay that had so many interesting ideas, part of a unique identity from the world built around it too, but falls short? And that is due to how much creative merit is in both aspects of the game.
Some gripes about things being underwhelming aside, there were things in the game that did keep me somewhat busy. Like finding loot crates for currency, before spending said currency in pawn shops for upgrades. One in particular allowed me to slide blast like I was playing Vanquish in third-person, shooting out enemies as they don't see me coming.
The boss fights are really hectic, I died a couple of times before learning that I had to actively dodge a pool of acid and repeatedly tether to bugs, just to hop away and shoot em like Tarzan, I guess for the first one. The later one granted me a new talking weapon, each one having different personalities and recognized voice actors dubbing them. Also being useful for different reasons.
I like how these new guns, used for puzzle solving, grants me access to newer access out of reach or locked out. Examples being one treasure blocked by a rotating fan, using my new weapon from the 2nd boss, the fan broke off and was safe to go into. The same weapon helped me climb to unreachable heights. Morty's grenade shot pulled up drawbridges.
It doesn't require much brainstorming, just something people who like being challenged through exploration does, which works for me. The backtracking part doesn't, because I've unlocked weapons after going through areas I've already explored.
There are weird stuff to do on the side, just laid on the open-world structures, even if the game is mostly linear structured. Like, I could warp this small city then, if I wanted to, walk over them and destroy everything. Then there's the literal embodiment of the rail-track switch meme.
Furthermore, I came across this floating support unit that just won't shut up and follow me everywhere. He got kicked out of the crime syndicate because of that, and soon as he rejoined again, by brief respite, I finally got to kill him. It's one of the things I admire about this game, is that it really does stand out from Rick and Morty's recognized humor in general, coming from the same writer.
I just wish this game felt more like an actual game, like it did offer much more with the ideas it had laid out. I wasn't always into the dialogues, and it felt like the jokes were crossing my tolerance rate at times. Yet it was dumb, goofy fun when I was turning my brain off. It's also a good-looking game from a visual aesthetics point of view.
