High on Life, PC, Xbox Series X (gamepass)

[Lebowski]

i think its best to start with two quotes

God is a Geek
High on Life is filled with some fun mechanics and great writing, and while it doesn't reinvent the genre, it makes it more enjoyable.

Kotaku I’m about four hours into High On Life and I have a migraine. It’s unfair to say that the game has given me one—I am, after all, notoriously prone to them—but it certainly isn’t helping. The brightly colored, gloopy, blobby alien worlds and incessant chatter from NPCs, enemies, and my weapons aren’t exactly a soothing salve for an aching head, but I’m determined to forge on.

I think these two quotes perfectly sum up how most people will react to this game your either gonna love it and have a blast or your gonna absolutely hate it, reviews are all over the place for this I'm seeing just as many 8-9s as i am 4-5s

I Played this for a good few hours last night, its a hybrid platform shooter with some great level design a bizarre world to explore and some pretty nice platforming thanks to some tight controls and a satisfying little in air dash move. Gamepay reminded me of Metroid prime in that you get new weapons and ability's that help with traversal and combat and help you get to new areas, all rounded off with a boss fight. Shooting is pretty satisfying with some nice feedback, weapons all seem to have multiple modes of fire, the first weapon you get is like a space handgun with a grenade launcher style second ability. Early on You also get a mele weapon that acts as grappling hook Theirs a hub area to choose bounty's and spend you cash on upgrades so it has a nice progression loop that sees you acquiring new weapons and ability's as well as upgrades for your current kit.

For me the writing is spot on, even the tutorial had me laughing, it teaches you how to play the game via a retro doom style space shooter that's narrated by your divorce lawyer telling you you have to kill your ex wife's new boyfriends. things like

->Open Spoiler<-

it telling you how to do a double jump only to literally pull the rug form under you and make you fall in a pit saying "no no double jump the dev's couldn't afford to program it" is the sort of stuff i love to see in their games.

I've only had a few hours with it and so far Ive killed a load of ants who thought they where a lot tougher than they where and who slowly come to the realization that their starter enemy's. Found a talking knife called Mr Stabby who loves stabbing and talking about stabbing people. I saved a village of horny care bears style creatures form being enslaved in a mine and i cant wait to see whats next.

[Tobal]

I enjoyed the 2 mission bounties i did and chuckled a little here and there, the 1st mission and i choose to take on the drill guy, but i did feel alittle ill at the end of the 1 and bit hours i put into it, like a motion sickness, probably the intense colour and noise in your face most of the time. It feels like marrying a old school PC shooter with 3D movement options so you can go search all sort of nooks and crannies for well hidden chests.

Do wish it would like me have a little more freedom on killing aliens, some of these ungrateful buggers deserve it, most of the bears would be dead.

Not sure what others did at the end of 9-Trog bounty (1st mission) but

->Open Spoiler<-

i stabbed the tied up 5-trog to death which got me an achievement, long with the stupid alien kid earlier

[nonny]

I've done the 9-trog bounty last night and I'm basically loving it. I hear it's only 8 hours long if you don't side track which sounds just about the perfect length for this.

I saw a lot of complaints about performance issues but a day one patch hit late in the evening which seems to have cured most problems. I see DF were doing a piece on this and then cancelled it as a result.

Anyway it's definitely a marmite kind of game.

[Lebowski]

I'm three bounties down and on to the fourth now, One thing i was surprised at was how fluid the platforming bits are, Eurogamer pulled it up for having janky platfoming but im yet to fall of anything and it all seems realy smooth especial with the in air dash, I've found a few secret hard to reach areas too, which are well worth seeking out for the trading cards you can collect

->Open Spoiler<-

the riff on "garbage pail kids" had me chuckling, Trash Bag Babys is the right kind of horrible and im defiantly gonna seek out all the cards just to see how horrible they get

[Tobal]

I did not know red letter media are in it, ended up watching a 1hr 20/30 min B-movie with commentary on

though it really could have done with fixing the sound levels, could barely hear what they had to say.

[wakka]

Just checked a clip of that out on YouTube, that’s really cool!

[MartyG]

It's a very average FPS with a gimmick IMO. Didn't think it was particularly good and that gimmick gets old very very quickly.

If you think Roy Chubby Brown is the haute cuisine of comedy, then it might appeal to you.

[Lebowski]

Not of fan i see I'll admit the humor is a big part and if your not feeling that then your probably far to mature and should go read the guardian or the Times or something and nod at it Knowingly.

I've been enjoying the rich cast of characters and the variation in combat exploration and platforming, the new guns and upgrades keep things fresh and I'm happy to play on even if it isn't the game of the year as im enjoying the world the cast and the story and humour. It's ten hour playtime means you can plow though it in a couple of evenings. where it dose stand out for me is it has some pretty fun boss battles that require a fair bit of strategy with some really nice mechanics. The first boss sees you combo-ing the boss with the juggle mechanic and swinging about the room to avoid the acid floor then dodging and jumping over lasers to stay alive, if you dont engage with these mechanics you will find yourself dead pretty quickly too so its not a game you can just plow though without engaging with the full bag of tricks it gives you.

you wannna buy some alien cum

[Tobal]

nearing the end, Last C3 boss to do, maybe 2 bounties left if it decides chuck a surprise at me, i don't trust what's going on with the saved humans...

anyway, you get bunch all extra movement options by the time the 5th bounty starts, i really like the slide boost and the jetjack is great for sequence breaking puzzle chests... i've glitched the game and the bugged out the A.I. a couple of times platforming around the levels, specially the city with the C3 underground base.

The humour doesn't gel with me much, but as said i've chuckled a few times, and raised a smile here and there, also like that they try to react to some of the players decisions (not all the time sadly) when killing or answering questions.

Now im nearing the end, i would say it reminds me most of Turok 2, with a grapple hook and jet pack.

[fishbowlhead]

This is pretty dull on the whole, the saccharine sick colours can’t hide the average game underneath, shame.

Also it’s absolutely nothing like Strangers Wrath.

[Neon Ignition]

About half way through and I'm enjoying it enough but it's a classic example of how getting a game for 'free' via Game Pass can carry a title much further than it would otherwise get.

Humour wise it's not funny, it's okay but the best moments would land better if the rest of the time it would shut the **** up. It's like GOW Ragnarok, characters just endlessly spout rubbish which robs the better moments. Having more moves is improving things and it's worth going through but if I'd paid specifically for it I'd much more likely be disappointed as it's a thoroughbred 5/10 game.

[nonny]

I'm enjoying it, for what it is.... it's not a game I would pay full price for, maybe £20?

The humour is very hit and miss but I do like the general mechanics and skill unlocks.

My advice to anyone who doesn't like the constant chatter is to turn it down, there's an option in the menus for it. Overall it's probably a7/10 for me... good but not great.

[gware]

Is it just me or do the sounds effects from the guns sound like the ones from Halo, not to mention the way enemies really n away…I’m getting all kinds of Halo vibes from this game.

[Lebowski]

I know exactly what you mean, theirs a lot of chatter from the Aliens, the little dudes remind me of Grunt in Halo. Speaking of enemy chatter the first areas enemy's the ants are great the way they talk about how strong they are and how they must be end game enemy's only for the reality to hit that their quite weak and that this one guy has decimated them all. it reminds you how sillly most shooters are, one guy with a kill count in the thousands by the end of most campaign's.