Justin Roiland, co-creator of Rick & Morty, delivers a comical adventure with High on Life. In the first-person shooter, you're tasked with saving Earth from an alien cartel with guns that talk smack as you kill enemies, allies that act more as obstacles, and a fight for your home like no other.
There are quite of few things High on Life does right, but there is a handful it could do even better. From repetitiveness to glitches, there's room for improvement. It can go from a good game to a great game with some simple tweaks.
8 Last-Gen Optimization
High on Life runs well on PC and the current generation. It is an Xbox console exclusive, meaning you can play it on the Xbox Series X/S or also on the Xbox One. If you haven't been lucky enough to upgrade to the current-gen yet, you'll run into some trouble.
The game suffers from horribly long load times, audio syncing issues, and frequent frame rate drops. You might see subtitles for words you don't actually hear or get stopped in a doorway as the other side tries to load into frame. A patch to improve last-gen performance would be incredible.
7 Bug Fixes
There are a few game-breaking bugs some players have come across. This is especially true for the post-game. You can continue your adventure to discover more of High on Life after you've beaten the main story, but bugs prevent you from opening the door to the house or using the portal.
Another bug sees the main character fall into an otherwise inaccessible building. From there, you'll have to reload from your last checkpoint to escape. Some of these are frequent, ruining the experience for players. Simple fixes to prevent these bugs would help greatly.
6 Enemy Variety
The boss fights in High on Life are memorable and unique. Each boss has its own disgusting humor and attack strategy to employ. The other enemies of the G3 Cartel, though, get a bit stale after a while. The game introduces new ones as you progress, but eventually, those are all that remain.
The enemies can certainly provide a challenge depending on the difficulty level you choose, but it gets a bit repetitive. The different weapons give a variety of ways to eliminate them, though that only helps to an extent. More enemies would spice up combat.
5 Character Customization
Character customization is surprisingly lacking in High on Life. Once you start, you are given the option to select a face for your character... that you never get to see. You become the "Bounty Hunter" and that's it.
You can upgrade your weapons and get new suits, but there's nothing else in terms of customization. The opening choice of appearance feels like you'll get more, and turns out to be a bit misleading with the distinct lack of any personality in a game that feels like it should have more RPG elements.
4 More Warp Discs
Warp Discs are a fun addition to High on Life. There are some used as part of story progression and others that you have to go out of you way to obtain. These warp in the likes of a Toilet, a Skate Park, and even a Movie Theater that lets you watch a full-length film if you take a seat inside.
They are a lot of fun even if they aren't exactly necessary. Adding more Warp Discs through future downloadable content would only improve the High on Life experience. There are countless possibilities when it comes to warping in nonsense.
3 A Reason Other Than Achievements To Explore
Collectibles and achievements are something we've come to love, and High on Life is full of them. Without these incentives, exploring outside the main story path is a meaningless effort. There are bounties to hunt, but there's not much reason to do anything other than that.
In between bounties, you can revisit worlds to discover areas you might not have been able to reach before. You can also find things to do in the post-game, but you aren't really given any direction. If it weren't for locating all the Lugloxes or trying out the warp bases, you'd be on a linear mission from start to finish.
2 Additional Knife Animations
Knifey is a talking knife you gain in the early stages of High on Life. The maniacal character just wants to cut enemies open, and you're the only one who can help fulfill that wish. During combat, there are set knife animations for when an enemy is damaged enough. You'll stab them and finish them off in a gruesome, Knifey-pleasing fashion.
Among the different enemies, there are only a couple of finishing knife maneuvers. You lunge it into the eye of a Grunt or the side of a Merk's head. It would be nice to see more knife animations. Add a flip or a vicious combination of slices to make close-quarters combat more enjoyable.
1 Replayability
After you beat High on Life, there are a couple of post-game antics you can get into. It only lasts for a short while, however. There's no option like a New Game Plus or the ability to even redo bounties. There aren't even extra bounties that become available once you've finished the main story.
After you have unlocked every achievement and experienced its comedic events, that's truly all it has to offer. New Game Plus or DLC would solve that easily. There aren't enough in-game choices that matter to make playing it again worthwhile at this point.