The original High on Life from developer Squanch Games was a pleasant surprise back in 2022 with its combination of solid shooting, Metroidvania style levels and humour that’s not afraid to throw out a few dozen f-bombs in conversation. High on Life 2 continues on from the first game with your character now living the good life as a bounty hunter, chasing aliens and being famous. After a run in with your character’s sister which leads to you breaking the law and going on the run, you find out that once again aliens are looking to turn humans into drugs and it’s up to you and your motley crew to set things straight before you get turned into pills. Along for the ride are a couple of your iconic Gatlien friends – sentient guns with attitude – who help fill in the dialogue between your silent protagonist and the rest of the world.

The game takes place in a number of hub areas that gradually open up as you obtain skills or make progress through the main questline. There’s usually plenty to see or do even if you just wander around but story progression will help open up more to see, do and unlock. The biggest addition which you’ll get access to early on in the game is the skateboard – it effectively replaces a sprint with something faster that has its own traversal mechanics to master. The worlds are built to leverage it and when used it feels like a minor innovation – there’s no stamina penalty to it so you have no concerns of it stopping mid movement and it’s perfect for travelling through the map to areas where the fast travel markers won’t help.

On the presentation side the game really goes all out in giving you everything it can. Visually, the game takes the original designs and gives them a significant boost in quality and detail. Sometimes it feels like you’re fighting bloody battles with Muppets and the game is often not afraid to revel in their violent demises either. The game runs at a fast clip too which combined with the traversal and skating mechanics really makes the experience feel fluid… maybe even a little better than the first game. The audio is a real star here with your Gatlians constantly talking with you, themselves and the world around you both. That it doesn’t get boring is a real testament to the writers and voice actors who’ve produced so much dialog it probably puts all shooters to shame and maybe gives a few RPGs a surprise. There’s a lot of video stashed through the game too, from television advertisements to movies you can watch… some you might recognize and others you definitely would not have seen. A number of VERY obscure retro games from the Piko Interactive catalogue can be found too which may be worth it for the achievements not necessarily for the gameplay!

Is it a better game than the original? In some ways yes because it’s technically a more accomplished game that’s combined with impressively high production values and the excellent skating mechanic really does help with traversal through levels. There is still plenty of laughs to be had too, and the writers are not afraid to throw down even more pop culture references that are at a level rarely see in other games. On the other hand, it doesn’t stray too far from the previous game’s plotline (humans as drugs) and so doesn’t seem as original and parts of the ending really slow down the game’s pace at the worst time. If you enjoyed the first game, you are probably going to have fun again running through High on Life 2 and will appreciate the game’s improvements but if you found that it wasn’t your cup of tea then it’s going to be hard convincing you to give this one a go. Me? I had a lot of fun and the complete insanity of it kept me glued to it through to the end so a hefty thumbs up from me. 😃

High on Life 2 is out now on PC, Xbox and PlayStation. Played on an Xbox Series X via Game Pass.