High On Life preview: Plenty of funny business

- There's nothing like a sub-par trailer to play along with your expectations - we merely weren't enthused by the Excessive On Life gameplay teaser proven throughout Gamescom 2022's Opening Night time Dwell showcase.

However, sitting down with Squanch Video games for a hands-on demo at Gamescom itself led to a fairly main reversal. With the sport's profane script and tone, it is really shaping up a lot better than we nervous.

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Our fast take

We're now very curious to see how Excessive On Life sticks its touchdown when it hits Recreation Cross in October - it is a sport with large creativity behind it, and a method of humour that is already conquered the world.

So, if it could possibly preserve its hit charge on the jokes entrance and may current sufficient attention-grabbing weapons and situations to final by a complete sport, it might be an actual sleeper hit.

High On Life preview: Plenty of funny business

Excessive On Life

For
  • Genuinely humorous at occasions
  • Nice voice appearing
  • Funky visuals
In opposition to
  • Can get grating
  • Boss battle wanted some tuning

A vibrant world

Excessive On Life sees you play a silent character thrust right into a bizarre galaxy of bounty hunters and vibrant creatures, all from the minds of of the creators of Rick and Morty. It is an affect that's writ massive all around the sport.

Our demo opened in our character's home, all of the sudden invaded by a bounty searching handler referred to as Gene. He was sitting on our sofa with solely two of his three eye-ended tentacles working. It is a bizarre world on the market, guys.

In the midst of a dialog with our completely baffled older sister, Gene organized for us to tackle a low-level bounty, one that might see us venturing into the slums underneath our house metropolis, Blim.

Then we have been free to stroll over to the underworld, first stopping for a couple of minutes to observe an in-game TV displaying advertisements and reveals straight out of the Interdimensional Cable mould of Rick and Morty. It is this type of consideration to element that actually received us over in the course of the demo - cease and take note of the surroundings and there have been jokes mainly all over the place.

High On Life hands-on preview: Plenty of funny business photo 2

In only a two-minute stroll from our home to the doorway of the slums, we stopped for 2 nice conversations. First, to persuade two useless pipe-snake-things to allow us to into the sewers by selecting who was the warmer, then once more when accosted by a snotty child.

This child gloatingly instructed us to shoot him, and upon making an attempt to take action (sue us), our speaking gun Kenny admonished us for our brutality and stopped us from firing. Attempting once more, although, let it occur - cue Kenny spending a few minutes being shocked on the assured lack of the sport's E For Everybody ranking.

Heading on a couple of metres, the joke's hidden punchline landed when the child's mom greeted us. It was the final in a sequence of escalations that labored beautifully and had us really chuckling aloud, one thing all too uncommon in even intentionally comedian video games.

If Excessive On Life can preserve this hit charge by a 12-15 hour sport, we'll be massively impressed. However, if this slice is something to go by, it'd simply handle it.

Shoot from the hip

The sport's precise core gameplay, although, is not only strolling round watching jokes - it is a first-person shooter with the enjoyable twist that your weapons speak to you.

High On Life hands-on preview: Plenty of funny business photo 3

We solely had entry to Kenny all through our demo on the capturing facet, voiced by Justin Roiland himself and filled with sass and punchlines. Later within the demo, we discovered a speaking knife (additionally Roiland, with a really completely different voice) for melee.

Every had a secondary potential - the knife allow us to grapple onto sure hooks and ledges, whereas Kenny may shoot a squidgy grenade, and fight was one other nice shock.

It is fast and arcadey, a bit like a first-person Ratchet & Clank in the way in which you may usually transfer extra shortly than your enemies' projectiles, however with a heck of much more swearing.

With solely the one gun to attempt, we're counting on the belief that Excessive On Life could have a extra expansive arsenal the additional by you get. If every talks to you as a lot as Kenny although, it's going to be a riot of bizarre characters and personalities.

High On Life hands-on preview: Plenty of funny business photo 4

The demo ended with a boss battle towards our bounty goal, and one bitter word was that she had a fairly inflated well being bar that made it really feel only a tad grindy - one thing that Squanch would possibly have the ability to rebalance earlier than the sport releases in a few months.

That apart, we loved the fight encounters we performed by, which have been good and easy and offered simply sufficient problem to have us transferring round loads.

To recap

Excessive On Life was a shock - we weren't enthused by its trailers, however enjoying the R-rated full product for half an hour stuffed us with rather more hope about how it will prove. In the event you like Rick and Morty, that is going to be a little bit of a certain factor, in impact.

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