High on Life

About High on Life

Justin Roiland brings his chaotic energy from Rick and Morty to this 2022 shooter adventure. High on Life launches players into a universe where an alien cartel plans to harvest humans for their own drug supply. You play as an average person forced to team up with sentient firearms who all have distinct personalities. The game arrived across PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Switch on December 13, 2022. It is a single-player experience that leans heavily into absurdity rather than serious storytelling. You spend your time traveling between planets while managing a squad of guns that talk back to you constantly.

Gameplay

You start as an unemployed teenager thrust into an intergalactic war against the Garmantuous gang. The core loop involves shooting enemies while your weapons provide constant commentary on your aim and decisions. Each gun acts as a separate character with its own weapon type and dialogue tree. You cross different planets to complete missions, solve puzzles, and find hidden collectibles. Combat feels loose and frantic since you swap between multiple firearms that can also attack independently. The game offers no multiplayer modes so the entire focus stays on your solo run through the story. Sessions vary based on how much time you spend listening to weapon banter or hunting down rare achievements like Harper? I Barely Know Her!

What Players Think

Players on PlayPile and IGDB seem divided on the project. The IGDB community gave it a 70.7 out of 100 based on 185 ratings which suggests a lukewarm reception overall. Critics note that the humor lands inconsistently for many users. Average playtime hovers around the time needed to beat the main campaign without rushing. Only 27.5% of players have unlocked all available achievements, indicating some content is quite difficult or easy to miss. The rarest achievement has a mere 1.00% unlock rate showing how elusive certain tasks are. Some users express frustration with the voice acting while others find the weapon personalities entertaining enough to carry the experience through completion.

PlayPile's Take

High on Life works best if you can tolerate loud, repetitive jokes and don't need tight shooting mechanics. The current price of $2.99 makes it a low-risk purchase for curious players despite the historical low sitting at $13.99. You should expect to spend time unlocking achievements since the 44 available trophies are not evenly distributed in difficulty. This title is not for those seeking a serious sci-fi narrative or challenging combat encounters. The game relies entirely on its cast of talking guns to keep you engaged through the single-player campaign. Buy it only if you want something short and silly without paying full price.

Storyline

Fresh out of high school with no job and no ambition, you've really got nothing going for you until an alien cartel that wants to get high off humanity invades Earth. Now, you and a team of charismatic talking guns must answer the hero's call and become the deadliest intergalactic bounty hunter the cosmos has ever seen.