High on Life 2's horrible personality gets in the way of a truly great shooter

The last few weeks have seen the release of a few games with somewhat… interesting… personalities. Mewgenics is a strategy game with an odd sense of humour, Romeo Is a Dead Man is a rather bizarre action game, and High on Life 2 is an FPS game targeting a very specific sort of person.

I’ve been playing Squanch Games’ sequel this week, and I wish it leaned into its shooting more than it does during its early hours. Far too often, High on Life 2 gets distracted by absolute nonsense it thinks is funny.

In just the first couple of hours, there are multiple silly montages – I snorted cocaine with one of my guns, and used a massive laser to circumcize a giant, pixelized museum artifact. Yeah… Over and over again, the game pushes you towards silly NPC encounters, overlong conversations, and physical jokes that made me cringe more often than laugh.

The humor is clearly aimed at a very specific audience, too. Jokes about drugs, drinking, skateboarding, big dicks, and even Avenged Sevenfold are plentiful. There’s even a dude bro Australian knife called Knifey to accompany you. 

I do think some of the humor is intended to be tongue-in-cheek, but High on Life 2 clearly thinks it’s really funny, to the point that it underserves its strengths. Like any form of comedy, the quality of what’s here is subjective, and you might find the barrage of jokes tickles your funny bone more than it did mine, but it undoubtedly negatively affects the game’s pacing.

Squanch’s game would be so much better if it extended the first-person shooter sections and cut back a little bit on the distractions. The tone doesn’t need to change, that’s part of its identity, but be a shooter more than an extended cartoon for South Park fans.

I’ve only scratched the surface of the guns you’ll find in the game, but all four I’ve used so far are wonderfully unique. I’ve got a nonchalant shotgun who sucks enemies towards him and fires a flaming disc ahead of me, a Needler-like SMG who’s confident and has the ability to fire a time-slowing orb, and a divorced drunk assault rifle which can fling enemies into the air. 

Combine that with combat stages that also work as skateboarding arenas as you race around on your newly acquired board, and there’s so much variety in every combat encounter. The action is fast-paced, smooth, and feels great. There’s almost a modern Doom style to the weapon switching, breakneck pace, and melee finisher combination. 

You’re not forced to keep switching it up in combat, but I’ve been getting a lot of enjoyment out of giving each gun time in the spotlight. Depending on where you’re fighting, you might get more use out of one gun over another. Considering what I’ve seen so far, I can’t wait to see what mad contraptions I find later in the game.

The thing is, when the first-person action is this good, why am I spending so much time speaking to obnoxious characters, getting drunk, and arguing? Let the core of the game shine.