High on Life

A very funny game, but that's not just a gimmick: It's fun, too, and the humor is woven cohesively into the gameplay and story.

High on Life is essentially an explorer/shooter with a lot of collectibles. To get these you'll have to solve environmental puzzles, some of which require abilities you might not have yet (metroidvania-like). The areas are complex, intricate, and beautiful—or at least fascinating—offering good spaces for both combat and puzzles.

Combat is quite easy on the default difficulty, but it's mostly enjoyable. The weapons, and indeed much of what you interact with in this game, are very "squishy": It's all goo and gunk and slime and splatters. Everything has a satisfying "splorch; thud" sound when it lands. Unfortunately, this experience gets repetitive, and it can become annoying if you're a completionist because enemies regenerate and you'll be having the same encounters again and again as you scour each area for goodies. The good news is that you can just run right past the enemies and avoid combat. The boss fights are decent, though usually it's not hard to figure out the trick to beat them and then it's smooth sailing. As I said, combat is quite easy.

Completionists might generally get a bit frustrated. There is no in-game map, which works great for conveying the sense of confusion inherent in the story, but that makes it quite hard to search for collectibles. You have a little radar to detect them but its range is minuscule. And if you want to chase the achievements, well, some of them entail way too much grind. Getting all of them would not be fun, and I left them behind.

But everything else is so much fun. Oodles of fun!

If you're a fan of Rick and Morty then you know what to expect, as in all but name it takes place in the show's universe. Otherwise, prepare yourself for a goofy and silly science fiction romp. Minus the science. Not for kids, as there's a lot of cussing and positive references to sex, drugs, and violence. Really, there are positive vibes everywhere in this game. Even the super-evil bad guys evoke sympathy, as long as you can put all the murdering aside.

I recommend the High on Knife DLC, too. It's essentially a separate game within the same launcher, offering a whole new area and some new mechanics. Unfortunately it doesn't include Justin Roiland's main character from the main game because ... well, look it up.

Let's go save the humans for some reason! Yay!

I gave it a on Steam. Respond to this review there.