High on Life is a clever game. There are loads of hidden triggers that’ll make your butt guns start talking or for various NPCs to take certain actions, or for the game to crash and trap players in Space Applebee’s. That last one might not be on purpose, but still, it’s a neat trick to design a game that traps you in Applebee’s if it crashes.
High on Life is also clever enough to know when the player is trying to speedrun--that’s when they’re trying to finish the game as quickly as possible. At several points, either the Gatlians, Suit0, or some other NPC will comment on your breakneck pacing to either encourage or discourage you, depending on what you’re doing.
As noted by YouTuber Cracking Bananas, High on Life will first attempt to motivate your speedrunning antics. During the mission to investigate the in-game store High on Life, if you take a high-flying but more direct approach to the store, Suit0 will chime in with some words of encouragement.
"Are you trying to speedrun? Are you speedrunning right now?" Suit0 asks playfully. "That's okay, you can do that. That's--we think that's cool! We think that's great. Good luck! I hope you get a world record!"
If that were the only time High on Life notices the player's speed it would be enough for the gag, but High on Life isn't a game to let a good joke go by only once. Skip fighting the ants on your way to investigate Dr. Giblet's base, and Kenny will shout his apologies for skipping the fight in favor of solving a mystery. Then, if you already know where the door to Giblet's base is and you try to skip the part where you scrounge around looking for clues, Suit0 will once again return to tell the player that this part of the game can't be skipped for the purposes of speedrunning.
"Hey, uh, I don't know what's behind that door, but you can't get in there yet," Says Suit0 in an almost apologetic voice. "Uh, maybe, maybe that's where Giblets is, I don't know. We have to scan a bunch of stuff first, so do that and then maybe the door will open. Just lettin' you know."
High on Life is available now on PC and Xbox.