High on Life Hands-On Preview: It Might Be Exactly What the FPS Genre Needs
High on Life, the upcoming comedy first-person shooter from Justin Roiland’s Squanch Games, doesn’t take place within the Rick and Morty universe. But it sure seems like it could. It’s got zany and foul-mouthed aliens, fantastical settings, and a sense of humor that’s 100% Roiland – from the interdimensional cable-style animated shorts that act as TV commercials in the High on Live universe to your default talking gun, a pistol named Kenny that sounds exactly like Morty.
I played a few hours of it, with the developers being careful not to spoil the opening minutes but otherwise letting me have free reign to choose any bounty I wanted in any order I wanted during my hands-on time. In short, there’s more to High on Life than I expected, in the best of ways. I expected a funny FPS with some gorgeous game worlds. It’s got that, for sure, but gameplay-wise it also layers in upgradeable weapons and skills, side quests, and literal hours of comedy in the form of commercials, movies, and NPC dialogue that you can simply hang out and be entertained by, should you so choose. Add it up and it’s a refreshing change of pace for a genre that normally takes itself far too seriously.
Let’s start with what will certainly be High on Life’s calling card: its sense of humor. I’ve always vibed with Roiland’s comedy – from Rick and Morty to Solar Opposites to his utterly shocking short made for Seth Rogan’s Hilarity for Charity event in 2018 – and I was laughing repeatedly while playing this.
Combat is more layered than it first appeared. Sure, you’ve got four unique guns, but it’s the abilities you can buy from in-game shops – like a dash, a forward slide, and health and weapon upgrades – that allow you to feel more powerful in firefights the
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