High On Life
The creators behind the absurdist series Rick & Morty have already used some games in VR, such as Accounting and Trover Saves The Universe. Now they have ventured into a first-person shooter with the same wacky humor they are known for. Read our review of High On Life.
The story of High on Life revolves around a teenager with a motivation problem and a sister who cocaïne uses and going to parties. When a sudden alien invasion arrives, you find a talking gun with which to exterminate the invaders. You teleport with your entire house to another planet. There you are then given the necessary missions to kill various creatures for money. During these adventures you gain more skills and learn more and more about the reason for the invasion.
As you slaughter different monsters, you’ll also find more guns, each of which has its own personality and unique abilities. As such, the shooter sometimes feels like a little metroidvania: you can use some of the new pieces of equipment in places you’ve passed by before. Still, it’s always clear which direction to take to progress the story, so you’re not challenged to explore on your own.
In terms of gameplay, you choose a mission and run around in your victim’s world. You meet a group of enemies that you shoot with one of your weapons and then you can move on. You do this often enough until you get to a final boss, the creature you’re hunting, and then you move on to the next mission. In between, you are doing small missions with which you mainly walk back and forth between places. Content-wise, this makes the game part of the game feel somewhat superficial.
The battles you experience with simple soldiers do not amount to much: you point your weapon at enemies, shoot a few times and dodge where necessary. Some enemies are stronger or larger, requiring slightly different tactics. Final bosses genuinely feel like an endgame as you need different approaches to take out the creature. Especially here you encounter a real challenge as you have to watch out for danger from different sides.
The power of High on Life is still the wacky humor you are constantly bombarded with. A live knife that wants nothing more than to rip the guts out of everyone it encounters, a kid who challenges you to shoot him dead and the game tells you that Fallout that does not allow, a holy prince who does nothing but sit on the couch and watch soaps, conversations between guns and us as protagonists, constantly and everywhere you come into contact with over-the-top characters, absurd events and strange worlds.
Although the game is very shallow in terms of gameplay and you rarely really have an in-depth fps game, it does offer a spectacle from start to finish. Surely the humor of the game is largely what makes you High on Life would play. Other than that, you are mostly walking around and shooting enemies, meeting colorful creatures, having strange experiences, defeating strong monsters and moving on to the next mission. During this experience, it largely feels like you are under the influence of one thing or another, as you often don’t believe what is happening. In a nutshell is High on Life mostly an average shooter with a hugely bizarre story, which nevertheless keeps inviting players to keep going.