High On Life (video Game)
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''High on Life'' is a comedic
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
game with
action-adventure An action-adventure game is a video game genre, video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements f ...
and
Metroidvania Metroidvania is a sub-genre of action-adventure games and/or platformers focused on Nonlinear gameplay, nonlinear exploration and guided progression with a need to acquire key items to enter certain areas. The term is a blend word, partial blend ...
elements. It takes place in a
science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...
world which features talking guns. It was created, developed and published by Squanch Games. The game was released on December 13, 2022 for
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
,
Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...
and
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. It was later ported to
PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...
and
PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...
on July 22, 2023 and to
Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...
on May 6, 2025. The game received mixed reviews from critics, who were divided on its humor, while criticizing the technical issues upon launch. A sequel was announced on June 9, 2025.


Gameplay

''High on Life'' is a
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
video game with
action-adventure An action-adventure game is a video game genre, video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres. Definition An action adventure game can be defined as a game with a mix of elements f ...
and
Metroidvania Metroidvania is a sub-genre of action-adventure games and/or platformers focused on Nonlinear gameplay, nonlinear exploration and guided progression with a need to acquire key items to enter certain areas. The term is a blend word, partial blend ...
elements. Players are tasked with assassinating select targets, and must fight their way into the target's lair and then fight the targets in a boss battle. Players attack using living alien weapons, five living guns called "Gatlians" and one sentient knife. The guns have primary, alternate, and special "trick hole" firing modes that can be used in combat. The knife has an additional grapple ability that allows players to use ziplines to move around the world. Weapon specials are also used to solve puzzles and gain access to certain areas in non-combat scenarios. Players can gain abilities and upgrade their existing abilities by purchasing upgrades at shops or by finding them in chests. As players get new Gatlians and other equipment it is possible to access previously unreachable areas, as in a
Metroidvania Metroidvania is a sub-genre of action-adventure games and/or platformers focused on Nonlinear gameplay, nonlinear exploration and guided progression with a need to acquire key items to enter certain areas. The term is a blend word, partial blend ...
. In addition to combat, players encounter traversal and platforming sections, as well as puzzles that are solved using the Gatlians' weapon abilities, and social areas where players can interact with
non-player character A non-player character (NPC) is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster (or referee) rather than by a ...
s.


Plot

The game’s plot centers on an alien invasion of Earth by the G3 Cartel, led by Garmantuous ( Hal Lublin), who plans to convert humans into drugs. The player character, along with their sister Lizzie (
Laura Silverman Laura Jane Silverman (born June 10, 1966) is an American actress and the older sister of actress and comedian Sarah Silverman. She acted in '' Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic'' and '' The Sarah Silverman Program'' portraying a fictionalized vers ...
), escapes with the help of Kenny (
Justin Roiland Mark Justin Roiland (born February 21, 1980) is an American voice actor, animator, writer, and producer. He co-created the Adult Swim animated sitcom ''Rick and Morty'', for which he voiced the protagonists Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith from 2013 ...
), a sentient alien weapon known as a Gatlian. Together, they warp their house to the alien metropolis of Blim City. With guidance from former bounty hunter Gene Zaroothian (
David Herman David Herman (born February 20, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. He was an original cast member on ''MADtv'' from 1995 to 1997, and played Michael Bolton in ''Office Space''. He has done voice acting work in hundreds of episodes of '' ...
), the player becomes a licensed bounty hunter and takes on missions to eliminate members of the G3. These include 9-Torg (
Jennifer Hale Jennifer Hale is a Canadian voice actress. She is best known for her work in video game franchises such as ''Baldur's Gate'', ''Mass Effect'', '' Metal Gear Solid'', '' BioShock Infinite'', '' Metroid Prime'', '' Halo'', '' Overwatch'', and '' ...
), Douglas (
Tom Kenny Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He has been voicing SpongeBob SquarePants (character), the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media since its debut in 1999. Kenny has voice ...
), and Krubis ( Echo Kellum). Along the way, the player recruits additional Gatlians, including Sweezy ( Betsy Sodaro), Gus ( J.B. Smoove), Creature ( Tim Robinson), and the bloodthirsty knife-like Knifey ( Michael Cusack). They also recover Lezduit ( Mike Stoklasa), a legendary Gatlian rendered catatonic from experimentation. As the group gains notoriety, Blim City’s Magistrate Clugg Nuggin offers aid and supplies. Meanwhile, tensions escalate at home as Lizzie becomes romantically involved with an alien named Tweeg. The player also learns that Kenny inadvertently exposed his home planet, Gatlus, to the G3, leading to its destruction—a revelation that causes friction within the team. The journey spans from the ravaged planet Gatlus to an endangered Earth. In the final battle, the player defeats Garmantuous by planting a remote bomb inside him, which may require sacrificing one of their Gatlian companions. A secret ending reveals that Clugg was conducting experiments on rescued humans. He is executed by Dr. Gurgula (
Wayne Pygram Wayne Pigram , better known by his stage name Wayne Pygram, is an Australian actor. He is known for his role as Scorpius in the science fiction series ''Farscape'' (2000–2003) and the miniseries that followed, '' Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars ...
), the scientist responsible for the virus that destroyed Gatlus, who hints at further plans before escaping. Clugg’s sons vow to protect the remaining humans in his place.


''High on Knife'' DLC

Set two years after the events of the main game, the Bounty Hunter continues their work on a now-shared Earth with a new Gatlian companion, Harper ( Sarah Sherman). With Kenny and Lizzie absent, the player joins Knifey on a mission sparked by a notice about an undelivered package from his homeworld. Their journey takes them to Peroxis, a salt-covered planet inhabited by slug-like aliens. In Salt Lick City, they acquire a new weapon, B.A.L.L., and infiltrate Muxxalon HQ. Captured by CEO Mux, they are infected with a parasite named Gary and forced into factory labor. Upon discovering that Muxxalon is still trafficking humans, the player rebels and, with Knifey’s new chainsaw blade upgrade, defeats Mux. Knifey returns to his home planet, Australia-II, only to discover he was exiled for excessive violence. Feeling betrayed, he massacres his species during their "Sharpening Day" ascension ritual. The story ends with Knifey reaffirming his bond with the team and preparing to return to Peroxis for unfinished business.


Development

Development of ''High on Life'' began in 2019, a short time after the release of the studio's previous title, '' Trover Saves the Universe''. The initial concept, conceived by Justin Roiland, was to develop a first-person shooter that featured talking guns that would speak to the player and react to their actions. The original ''High on Life'' trailer was released at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase on June 12, 2022, with an anticipated release of October 2022. A two-month delay was announced on August 18, 2022, however that set the release date to December 13, 2022, with the stated reason being to finish improving the game. The game was released for
PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...
and
PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North ...
on July 22, 2023. The game features a large ensemble voice cast, including Roiland, J. B. Smoove, Tim Robinson, Betsy Sodaro, Michael Cusack, Hal Lublin,
Laura Silverman Laura Jane Silverman (born June 10, 1966) is an American actress and the older sister of actress and comedian Sarah Silverman. She acted in '' Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic'' and '' The Sarah Silverman Program'' portraying a fictionalized vers ...
,
David Herman David Herman (born February 20, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. He was an original cast member on ''MADtv'' from 1995 to 1997, and played Michael Bolton in ''Office Space''. He has done voice acting work in hundreds of episodes of '' ...
,
Kevin McDonald Kevin Hamilton McDonald (born May 16, 1961) is a Canadian actor and comedian. He is a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, who have appeared together in a number of stage, television and film productions, most notably the 1988–1 ...
, Mike Stoklasa,
Tom Kenny Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He has been voicing SpongeBob SquarePants (character), the titular character in ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media since its debut in 1999. Kenny has voice ...
, Echo Kellum,
James Urbaniak James Christian Urbaniak (born September 17, 1963) is an American character actor. He is best known for his roles as Simon Grim in three Hal Hartley films: '' Henry Fool'' (1997), '' Fay Grim'' (2006) and '' Ned Rifle'' (2014), Robert Crumb in '' ...
,
Maria Bamford Maria Bamford (born September 3, 1970) is an American actress and stand-up comedian. Her work often uses self-deprecating and dark topics, including her dysfunctional family, depression, anxiety, suicide and mental illness. Her first comedy alb ...
, Joel Haver,
Wayne Pygram Wayne Pigram , better known by his stage name Wayne Pygram, is an Australian actor. He is known for his role as Scorpius in the science fiction series ''Farscape'' (2000–2003) and the miniseries that followed, '' Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars ...
,
Andy Daly Andrew Daly (born April 15, 1971) is an American actor and comedian. He starred as Forrest MacNeil on the Comedy Central series ''Review'', and had a supporting role in the HBO comedy series '' Eastbound & Down'' as Terrence Cutler. He has also ...
, Zach Hadel,
Rich Fulcher Richard Fulcher (born November 18, 1963) is an American comedian, actor and author. He played Bob Fossil and other characters in the British comedy series ''The Mighty Boosh'', and Edward Sheath in the American series ''Jon Benjamin Has a Van''. ...
,
Thomas Middleditch Thomas Steven Middleditch (born March 10, 1982) is a Canadian actor. He is known for his role as Richard Hendricks in the HBO series ''Silicon Valley'' (2014–2019), earning a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in ...
,
Jack Black Thomas Jacob "Jack" Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for roles in family and comedy films, in addition to his voice work in animated films. His awards include a Children's and Family Emmy ...
, and
Susan Sarandon Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actor. With a career spanning over five decades, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award, in addition to ...
. Original music was composed by
Tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
with additional music provided by Morris Borris, Ryan Elder, Sam Houselander, Pete Maguire, Jonathan Peros, Kevin Temmer and Akash Thakkar. Justin Roiland was heavily involved in the creation of ''High on Life''. He has received credit for creating the original concept of the game and taking part in the design and development of it. Design director Erich Mayr has described the style of the game to be "''
Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...
'' meets ''
The Muppets The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an surreal humor, absurdist, slapstick, burlesque, and self-referential humor, self-referential style of Musical theatre, musical Variety show, variety-sketch comedy. Cre ...
''". A paid expansion, titled ''High on Knife'', was released on October 3, 2023. It features the voices of Cusack,
Ken Marino Kenneth Joseph Marino (born December 19, 1968) is an American actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He was a cast member on MTV's ''The State'' and has starred in shows such as '' Party Down'', '' Marry Me'', '' Burning Love'', and ''Child ...
, Sarah Sherman, and
Gabourey Sidibe Gabourey Sidibe ( ; born May 6, 1983) is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the 2009 film '' Precious'', a role that earned her the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead, in addition to nominations for the Golden Globe ...
.


Reception

''High on Life'' received "mixed or average reviews" by critics and "generally favorable" by users according to
review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
. The game's crude and absurdist humor proved polarizing. In a positive review, ''
IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
'' called it "an irreverent, absurd shooter that manages to shine with its outrageous humor, silly setting and story", while ''
Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...
'' criticized that the writing "too often settles into edgelord cynicism and the same tedious, punchdown humour as ''
South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...
''." ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' noted that "the line between entertaining and excruciating here is down to how you feel about listening to a game-length version of ''
Rick and Morty ''Rick and Morty'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated science fiction Animated sitcom, sitcom created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon for Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim. The series follows the misadvent ...
''s Interdimensional Cable ad-libs". Reviewers also noted that the game suffered from a number of technical issues. Squanch Games released a day-one patch addressing these bugs, along with a second patch on December 17, 2022.


Sales

''High on Life'' was the most played title on
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during the week of its release, and was the fourth most played title on the Xbox platform overall, and was hailed as a "breakout hit" by Xbox VP of Marketing Aaron Greenberg. It also became the top-selling game on
Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...
.


Sequel

In June 2025, a sequel titled '' High on Life 2'' was officially announced at the Xbox Games Showcase 2025.


References


External links

* {{Justin Roiland 2022 video games Action-adventure games Video games about alien invasions First-person shooters Metroidvania games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 5 games Science fiction video games Indie games Unreal Engine 4 games Single-player video games Video games about bounty hunters Video games about extraterrestrial life Video games developed in the United States Video games set on fictional planets Video games with gender-selectable protagonists Windows games Xbox One games Xbox Series X and Series S games Squanch Games games