Squanch Games is an interesting indie game studio that has mainly focused on various VR platforms. Accounting+ and Trover Saves the Universe are playable on most platforms, with the latter also being playable without VR on the Nintendo Switch, while Dr. Splorchy Presents: Space Heroes is only available on Google Daydream. The studio is also famous for being partially founded by Justin Roiland, who has dabbled in voice acting and writing for many animated series but is most known for being the creator of "Solar Opposites" and "Rick and Morty"; it makes a ton of sense when you see the similarities in the art style and humor. The studio's latest title, High on Life, is a little different in that it doesn't employ VR, but it still fits in the studio's wheelhouse thanks to the humor, concept, and everything it entails.

After an opening sequence we've been specifically asked not to spoil, you find yourself in an alien world where you can understand everyone thanks to translation microbes entering your body. You discover that a plan is in place from an alien crime organization called the G3 Cartel to invade Earth to farm human beings as drugs, since they seem to be the source of the latest chemical high. Stopping the invasion means taking out all of the cartel's major bosses, and you'll do so with the help of your small cache of living alien weaponry.

The core gameplay mechanics are a mix of a modern first-person shooter and classic first-person shooter. There aren't exactly a wide variety of living weapons you'll encounter, but each of the guns possesses multiple firing modes and types. You have a melee ability, and you can carry around all of the guns at any time instead of being limited to two. You have to reload each gun, but you have unlimited ammo. The only ammo that you can pick up lets you reload the gun's special ability faster instead of waiting for a cooldown time to expire. You have a shield along with regenerating health, but you can't take fall damage. Infinite lives are a thing, and invisible checkpoints are frequent enough that death won't set you back significantly upon a respawn.

The combat is reminiscent of Halo. Enemy pacing is done in such a way that you're essentially entering monster closets with no boundaries, and foes tend to warp to the area in waves. Enemies employ some tactics, like darting from cover to cover, but they generally aren't hard to take down. Combat feels satisfying; you can see damage being taken by enemies whenever you score a hit. Headshots come with a satisfying pop, and melee attacks vary greatly between quick kills and gory execution moves. Boss fights test your patience, but they're enjoyable, especially when you nail the final shot and go in for the final melee attack. Firefights are fun enough with your default gun, but the other weapons you get are super enjoyable, from the shotgun to one that launches creatures at enemies.

The developers have gone on record stating that most of the game outside of combat is akin to something like Metroid, and that's partially true. High on Life has you revisiting almost all of the game worlds several times over, mostly because the bosses only seem to occupy one of three different areas. The introduction of weapons and traversal tools is gradual enough, and the game opens different areas and routes at a familiar pace. Embedding saw blades into molten rock, using your knife as a grappling hook for swinging, and grabbing anti-gravity boots work well in making traversal feel more open. While the game is semi-linear in terms of who you'll face, you have a choice about which one of the two available bosses you'll fight first.

One disappointing thing about the exploration aspect is that you don't get much out of it. The city gives you a few opportunities to mess around with stuff to get a laugh, but the reward for finding previously inaccessible areas is a chest, which always yields 100 pesos. That's pretty valuable, as you can buy a number of health and gun upgrades, but that's about it. The game doesn't give you anything else for traveling beyond the main path, souring the prospect of revisiting worlds to locate all of the chests.

The game strikes a good balance between combat and exploration. Combat comes in at a good pace, so it doesn't feel like all your time is spent in endless firefights. When you're roaming the environment, but your directional beacon rarely makes a misstep when pointing out where to go. Most of the time, it is very clear how you should traverse large chasms of poisonous liquid. Neither element overstays its welcome, and while there isn't anything new mechanically, it feels so well put together that you won't mind the familiarity.

All of the game mechanics are painted with a thick coat of humor, and this is where feelings can differ wildly. Awkward conversations are par for the course, along with jokes that persist from beginning to end. The world is filled with crass characters, but there are genuinely hilarious moments, such as a construction crew noting how you're going over what should be a bottomless pit. Some gameplay bits and cut scenes exist in the service of a joke, while the game is filled with crass characters and other ridiculous situations. Stick around to watch TV, and you'll see random videos and offbeat ads that are played straight, and unfortunately, movie clips are repeated far too often.

If you're already a fan of "Rick and Morty" or "Solar Opposites," there's no need to convince you of how funny High on Life can get. What you're getting is essentially that style of humor, but it isn't bound by broadcast rules. If you aren't a fan of Roiland's work, this won't change your mind, such as the constant rambling and repetition of things in the same sentence by the same character, jokes about broken mechanics that play for way too long, and breaking the fourth wall. Perhaps the most egregious is the game throwing out curses at an almost nonstop pace. Some of it makes sense, while most of it is simply done just to do it. The sheer volume quickly becomes tiresome. It comes in at such a high rate that it wouldn't be surprising to see it outpace the likes of Rogue Warrior and The House of the Dead Overkill.

High on Life doesn't completely rely on humor to tell the story. There are moments of drama concerning a big character's secret and moments dealing with the main character's sister adjusting to the changes that occur as the game progresses. The moments ensure that there's some character growth for the side characters — admittedly something you don't see too often — but they feel like filler. The latter starts out as simple arguments after every mission, and you need to choose a side, but it ultimately devolves into a side mission. The former spawns from said side mission, and while it leads into another side-quest, it's a shorter affair. Again, your feelings about these diversions will depend on your view of the humor, since these moments don't pause the absurdity.

Whether you love or hate the humor, the overall sound is quite good. The voice acting is well done, and no one phones things in. Every line comes in clearly, and it's commendable that attention is paid to speech volume based on distance. The sound effects are properly punchy, which greatly adds to making firefights more chaotic, but some effects that are associated with movement are missing. The soundtrack is decidedly weird, as it channels a synthwave/vaporwave sound with more variable tempo during combat. It also relies on environmental noise whenever you aren't out on specific objectives. It's unique enough that you wish there were more environments to explore, so you can experience more of the music.

Graphically, the game retains the look of Roiland's previous works while also feeling modern and shiny. The few human models take on something akin to what you'd see in a typical Unreal Engine project, while the aliens look like they came straight out of Roiland's other works. There's a general shine placed on almost all of the characters that feels at home considering the nature of aliens. Movement is generally smooth, but it can get sporadic when some enemies run around. The environments look gorgeous, with loads of detail and objects that contain no resolution textures. The baked lighting is good enough that it shows how good it can still be at a time when some devs and engines are starting to move on to ray tracing. Best of all, the game runs at a smooth 60fps and above with very little stutter from beginning to end.

Those who plan on taking the game on the Steam Deck have good and bad news to contend with. The good news is that the game runs very well on the system out of the box. Without touching anything, the game goes for a native 1280x800 with most options set to low, and the game easily hits above 60fps without much effort. There are noticeable drawbacks, such as foliage detail popping up at a closer distance, but it looks quite nice on the handheld. There are two drawbacks you'll have to deal with. The first is that the battery life averages around 90 minutes, and while you can mess with some of the system settings to boost that, don't expect to spend a ton of time with the game if you aren't near an outlet or spare battery pack. The second issue is that the game doesn't support cloud saves, so don't expect to do any device hopping.

Overall, High on Life is a solid first-person shooter/adventure game. The action is exciting, and the boss fights are frustrating in their difficulty but satisfying once you take down someone. The exploration portions make you want to return to each area to suss out secrets, and you'd just wish there were more environments to explore. All of this is done at a good length, but only if you're a fan of the humor. If you are a fan, add an extra point to the score. Even if you're not a fan of the humor, the adventure is worth experiencing at least once.

Score: 7.5/10