There’s an previous chorus amongst comedians that no joke survives its retelling, and also you don’t must look any additional than the shoddy monitor file of comedy film sequels to see the reality in that. Fortuitously, humorous video video games are inclined to fare significantly better, from Borderlands 2 to Portal 2, and so you’d hope {that a} bizarre, deeply inappropriate sport about medication and speaking weapons like High On Life 2 may get pleasure from the identical form of evolution. In some methods it does simply that, with a lot of its present vivid spots shining much more brightly – the lovable weapons that function your companions are extra amusing than ever, and motion exterior of fight is enormously improved by radical new skateboarding mechanics. However different areas don’t maintain up as properly, just like the considerably much less polished story, jokes that don’t land fairly as typically, and efficiency points which might be much more shaky than the primary sport. I nonetheless loved my time with High On Life 2, and actually relish the chance to return to a world this goofy any probability I get, however that is undoubtedly nearer to Zoolander 2 than 22 Soar Avenue.
High On Life 2 picks up proper the place our foul-mouthed forged of characters left off… type of. After a dizzyingly quick intro recaps the occasions of the primary sport and will get you again into the motion, you end up on the flawed facet of the legislation and able to start the acquainted means of looking down an inventory of baddies to deliver down an evil group. As a substitute of a drug cartel, this time the villain comes within the type of a pharmaceutical firm that I felt no guilt killing off members of over the course of the roughly 10-hour marketing campaign, now enjoying the function of rogue murderer as I ply my commerce of loss of life illegally – a pleasant twist to the in any other case practically similar setup of the unique.
Sadly, the story constructed round this string of over-the-top homicide missions is a bit sloppy, with a pair huge reveals that don’t actually land and a stunning variety of monologues to clarify motives and applied sciences. There’s a stunning quantity of “inform, don’t present” for a sport that’s sometimes very deliberately about not sweating the main points and following the rule of cool. It sorta jogs my memory of a D&D marketing campaign that’s gone on method too lengthy and begins to really feel just like the DM is twisting himself in knots attempting to get to that cool payoff, lacking the mark too typically within the course of. The excellent news is that the plot no less than strikes alongside at a reasonably quick clip with a gradual stream of foolish gags to maintain you guessing, even when the story will get messy.
Talking of foolish gags, like its predecessor, that is an journey that depends an entire lot on the success of its goofiness and whimsy, and there are many snigger out loud moments available. The excessive factors are extraordinarily memorable, like once you battle an extremely annoying boss who transports himself inside your menus and begins messing along with your sport settings (appropriately voiced by the legendary Richard Sort), or when one mission concludes with a homicide thriller that has you gathering clues and interrogating witnesses as an alternative of taking pictures weapons. Generally the lowbrow humor additionally simply hits, like a facet quest the place somebody needed me to assist them discover a bridge troll and…y’know, I believe I’ll simply go away it at that. High On Life 2 is at its finest when it’s attempting bizarre and inventive issues, and when it manages to tug that off, there’s actually nothing fairly prefer it.
That speaking Aussie blade cuts each methods although, as jokes fall flat a tad too typically on this sequel, and it’s fairly robust to look at once they do. Granted, it’s all the time more durable to tug off gags in a world that has had quite a lot of its juice squeezed out already – we all know in regards to the species of sentient weapons, for instance, and have already had many of the humorous moments we’re going to get out of that surreal expertise – however among the jokes are fairly literal repeats of issues that occurred within the first sport. If I used to be having probably the most enjoyable when High On Life 2 was attempting new stuff, I used to be having the least when it was retreading previous bits or simply throwing a pair curse phrases onto the tip of a sentence in lieu of precise punchlines.
The celebs of the present within the authentic had been the gun companions you met and befriended alongside the best way, and that actually stays true on this follow-up. Assembly a down on his luck pistol named Travis (who has a charmingly dorky voice from Ken Marino) and reuniting him together with his estranged spouse is each a satisfying arc and a intelligent method to introduce the primary dual-wielded weapon when his partner joins the social gathering (I do want they’d make out much less although). All 4 of the brand new gun companions are superior and have useful skills in each fight and puzzle-solving, like Sheath, whose harpoon “trick gap” assault can impale individuals throughout fights and create ziplines whereas platforming. Plus, many of the OG Gatlians make a return as properly, together with my favourite accomplice in crime (actually this time), Gus, the shotgun who appears like a frog and has the unmistakable voice of J.B. Smoove. Hell yeah.
Sadly, a greater variety of weapons hasn’t achieved a lot to make the sloppy and overly simplistic gunplay any higher – the truth is it even feels a contact worse. A number of the new weapons are fairly crisp in comparison with the wonky slugthrowers of yore, particularly Sheath’s burst-fire that jogs my memory of the battle rifle from Halo. However with so many enemies and projectiles flying round, claustrophobic rooms with odd geometry that enemies get caught behind and inside, and weapon accuracy being a bit everywhere, fight leans into chaos greater than the rest. More often than not that’s tremendous since you’re enjoying a sport that’s all about over-the-top nonsense, however once you sometimes die as a consequence of unfair circumstances or when a battle drags on for a bit too lengthy, it could possibly kill the temper. To its credit score, the enemy selection is usually respectable, with a stream of ugly new creatures to blast aside launched at a gradual clip, from flying robotic freaks to spooky, scary skeletons – however when you had been on the lookout for a elegant FPS with gunfights that really feel in any respect coherent, look elsewhere.
The largest and most fascinating change with High On Life 2 is mobility, as you’re given a trusty skateboard within the opening minutes that serves as your journey companion all through the journey. As a substitute of combating on foot, most encounters extremely encourage or outright require you to be grinding on rails, driving on the edges of partitions, and hovering by way of the air in your skateboard. With regards to touring from place-to-place or navigating your method by way of platforming sections, that is fairly superior, and a stunning quantity of your time will likely be spent rolling round such as you’re enjoying Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater. I didn’t actually anticipate the skateboard to play such a giant function, however truthfully I can’t think about going again to the relative sluggishness of operating round on foot.
In fight, the skateboard’s affect isn’t so optimistic. You’re seemingly anticipated to by no means cease transferring whereas combating hordes of aliens, which makes the already chaotic encounters much more noisy and laborious to learn. Many fights happen in open areas the place you’re surrounded by extra unhealthy guys than you possibly can presumably maintain monitor of, and staying put is a loss of life sentence with so little cowl, so that you’ll should take photographs at passersby whereas leaping from numerous elements of the atmosphere to maintain your self going as quick as you possibly can. Mix that juggling act with slippery weapons, enemies that teleport round, and bizarre foes which might be typically laborious to even perceive what you’re taking a look at, and oh boy, the result’s simply an absolute diarrhea of pixels.
These pixels appear to be pushing High On Life 2 to its limits as properly, as a result of I noticed frequent framerate dips (some that triggered my display screen to freeze for a number of seconds earlier than getting it collectively) and progress-hindering bugs that required me to reload the final checkpoint. Developer Squanch Video games did embrace “numerous efficiency points throughout the sport” on an inventory of identified issues with the overview construct that may apparently be addressed by a patch, however it didn’t specify the extent to which these could be resolved – and in my expertise, a day-one patch not often makes all of a sport’s efficiency issues magically disappear when they’re this in depth. Nothing I noticed struck me as sport breaking past a easy reset, however it was constant and egregious sufficient to make me nervous for the stuff individuals will discover when that is out within the wild.