High on Life didn't set my world on fire, but it sure lit up ??the Xbox Game Pass charts. You could say it was a perfect Game Pass project since joke games aren't exactly flourishing at? the moment, and at launch, it was way too rough to warrant diving in at full price. With a short DLC expansion under its belt, it's a tad bit more alluring, but don't get too excited.

High on Knife (PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S [reviewed on a Series X])
Developer: Squanch Games
Publisher: Squanch Games
Released: October, 2023
MSRP: $9.99

High on Knife picks up two years after the events of the main game, which allows it to cleverly sidestep the powder keg that is the Justin Roiland situation and serve as a standalone story. I don't really need to remind you that Roiland was jettisoned from every project he was attached to in the past few months, and all of them have cleverly found ways to explain his absence. Rick & Morty is employing soundalikes (which are pretty close!), Solar Opposites just replaced him with actor Dan Stevens, and High on Knife eliminated his [gun] character entirely. Aft??er a quick bit of exposition (your player character "lost" the gun that R??oiland plays, and he doesn't voice any side characters), you're on your way.

What starts out as a normal day becomes an errand, then a grand adventure on a new planet with your melee weapon Knifey as the focus. It's more of the same set to a different scene, complete with the familiar janky platforming and repeating enemy types. To High on Life's credit, there have been several stability patches and many bug fixes, so I found the game far more playable than it was at launch. Again, platforming in particular is still very jank??y, but a missed connection results in an instant respawn and no real lost progress, so it's very easy to pick back up and move on.

Note that the High on Life DLC is completely separate from the core narrative. In other words, you aren't able to revisit old areas with the DLC upgrades and items, which works for and against it; depending on what you want out of it. It is nice that newer players can just dive in and ??not be too lost (a brief optional recap will get? you up to speed), but I wish I could have taken everything into the old sandboxes; especially the new "Ball" gun that operates like a weaponized pinball machine. Although the DLC is called "High on Knife" you don't really learn anything particularly mind-blowing about Knifey himself, though writer/actor Michael Cusack is as amusing as ever as a bloodthirsty scamp.

The fact that High on Knife is a more focused experience also gives it a different feel than the regular campaign. There are still plenty of optional rooms, jokes to discover, and collectibles to find, and it feels a bit less aimless as a result. Speaking of jokes: the whole "comedy game" genre appealed to me since the '90s, and I kind of miss it. Not every joke lands, but without Roiland's incessant "smorphy smoogaladoo??!" baby talk shouting at you every few minutes, it allows a wider range of voice actors to shine, especially in some o??f the smaller bit parts.

If you're thinking "Well this is a short review," well, that's pretty much all there is to say about High on Life. It's a few hours of mild fun?? with some optional diversions and then it's over. If you want, you can grab all the co?llectibles and wander around the new planet a bit, which could last you another hour tops.

After playing through High on Knife (and thus, a much more stable build of the game), I feel like I'm game for a sequel. It's clear that the team can carry on without Roiland, and I'd like to see them tackle the old-school FPS genre again with all the ??tricks they've learned along the way (and a little more polish).

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Squanch Games has announced the release date for High On Knife, the first DLC for the comedy-adventure FPS High on Life. Fans won't have to wait long as the release is right around the corner with the High On Knife DLC releasing on October 3. The DLC will be com??ing to PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Squanch also dropped a claymation-style trailer to unveil the release date:

Spookily funny

The DLC will focus on the talking weapon Knifey, which wi??ll take players on an adventure to a new planet with all-new characters, hazards, and spooky s??urprises.

The new DLC features two brand-new talking guns as well. One of the new weapons, Harper, is voicde by Sarah Sherman from Saturday Night Live. Harper is an ex-military pistol with a traumatic past. Players will explore a new planet while being hunted by Mux, a mysterious new antagonist voiced by Gabourey Sidibe best known for her roles in Precious and American Horror Story.

"We really leaned into horror with High On Knife, so it only made sense to launch it around Halloween. The DLC brings more goop, nastier body horror, creepier bosses, and all kinds of strange new stuff to the world we established with High On Life."

-Mike Fridley, Squanch Games Studio Director

High On Knife will certainly look to capitalize on the success of High On Life which has surpassed over 7.5 million unique players wor?ldwide since its release less than a year ago. The c??omical title was the biggest Xbox Game Pass release of 2022 and the biggest single-player game launch on Game Pass at the time.

It will be interesting to see if Squanch can pull off the spooky horror with comedy combination. If so there's certainly an audience?? for it.

The High On Knife DLC for High on Life releases on October 3.

The post High On Life new High On Knife DLC releases ?in one week appeared first on Destructoid.

A little horror with your comedy

Even though the over-the-top humor Rick and Morty-style humor isn't for everyone, High On Life went on to be the biggest 3rd party launch ever on Xbox Game Pass. Well, strap in for more, as Squanch Games has announced the first DLC for their comical first-person shooter newcomer.

Set two years after saving Earth from an alien cartel, the aptly named High On Knife DLC introduces a bit of spooky horror to the largely??? comedy-centric game. We got a brief teaser trailer to show what level of scares we can expect from this new adventure.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZl7wX0KcGE

No more Justin Roiland

Following his departure from the company earlier this year, former Squanch Games CEO Justin Roiland will not be returning to voice the quirky talking weapons you pick up throughout the game. The DLC will feature two new guns: Harper, voiced by SNL alum Sarah Sherman, and B.A.L.L., voiced by High On Life's narrative director Alec Robbins.

Here's a quick ov??erview from Squanch Games Chief Creative Officer Mikey Spano:

“This trailer shows off a portion of the DLC where we’re dropping players ??into a darker, scarier setting ruled over by a mysterious, goopy new boss named Mux (voiced by Gabourey Sidibe.). We’re also introducing two brand new guns: Harper is an ex-military pistol trying to overcome her past and B.A.L.L. is a pinball gun operated by a chaotic gaggle of little gibberish-speaking weirdos. You’ll need both of them as well as Knifey’s hyper-violent new upgrade to overcome the powerful, two-headed, laser-beam-blasting Bloat that hunts you in the dark. This is just a small slice of the DLC - there’s a ton more weird, funny, and surprising stuff we packed in that we think you’ll love so make sure to stay tuned!"

[caption id="attachment_386574" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Squanch Games[/caption]

Are we in space?

Based on the trailer, we might be headed to some sort of space station or even a spaceship, with a setting similar to what we'd see in Dead Space or Aliens: Isolation (long corridors inside of some metal installation with fleshy-looking goo covering the walls). Also, what's with the various massive creatures walking around ??throughout th?e teaser?

High on Knife will be available on Xbox Ser??ies X|S, Xbox One, and PC. No word whether or not we can expect the DLC to come to Xbox Game Pass as well. There's no release date just yet, but Squanch Games assures us it's coming soon.

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"7.5 million unique players"

High on Life felt right at home o?n Game Pass. Even with its technical issues and flaws, it was nonetheless a Game Pass hit. Now, thanks to new info today from Squanch Games, we have more insight into what that actually means.

Apparently 7.5 million unique players have delved into the sci-fi comedy adventure, per an email from developer Squanch Games. This is across "PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, Xbox ??Series X/S and ?Xbox One consoles, with Game Pass on console, PC, and cloud." It's a lot of platforms to amass for the figure for sure, but it's still an accomplishment given the oddball nature of the project.

Here's the full statement from Squanch Games, which includes a few old accolades:

"Today, Squanch Games is thrilled to announce that their latest release, High On Life, now available on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store; Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles; and with Xbox Game Pass on console, PC, and cloud, has surpassed more than 7.5 million unique players worldwide since its launch in mid-December. High On Life was the top sel??ler on Steam during launch? week, the biggest Xbox Game Pass release of 2022, the biggest 3rd party launch in Game Pass history, and the biggest single-player game launch on Game Pass ever."

High on Life 2 is on everyone's mind

Given the bonus ending tease (coupled with a tongue-in-cheek "Sequel-bait" achievement) in High on Life, Squanch Games was likely hoping for a sequel. While the future of Squanch Games' upc??oming slate? unclear, this is good news for peop??le who wanted the s??eries to continue.

As for the short term, Squanch Games Studio Director Mike Fridley reiterated their commitment to the original, noting: "We will continue to listen carefully and are committed to improving, enhancing and growing the experience as we move forward. We also want to thank our amazing friends at Xbox for all of the love and support on the game.�/p>

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Rick and Morty creator also dropped by Adult Swim

Justin Roiland, the creator of popular Adult Swim series Rick and Morty, has resigned as CEO of developer Squanch Games �The studio behind the recently released sci-fi shooter High on Life.

The announcement of the resignation comes less than 24 hours after TV network Adult Swim also announced that it had terminated its relationship with the Roiland, after the producer was officially charged with felony domestic battery with corporal injury and false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud, and/or deceit, as reported by NBC News.

//twitter.com/SquanchGames/status/1618049809256185856?s=20&t=xRyA96fenpaQ?8Qeeqb??wnWg

The charges, which stem from an incident that reportedly took place in January 2020 were first leveled against Justin Roiland in May 2020, with the producer having already faced several court hearings on th?e case. This week, however, has been the first time the events have been brought to light by the mainstream media. Roiland has pleaded Not Guilty to all charges. A date for the trial is yet to be set.

In the wake of the charges coming to light, Kotaku unearthed a previously unreported lawsuit wherein a former Squanch Games employee claims that she was sexually harassed by a male co-worker while at the studio, and later fired for "poor performance" after she filed an official complaint about the incident with management. This case, which took place in 2018, was eventually settled in September of 2019. It should be noted that the co-worker in question is not Roiland.

Adult Swim has noted that it will continue the production of Season 7 of Rick & Morty with the lead characters expected to be recast.

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Sorry, "Space Applebee's"

Waking up in the morning to the phrase "help I'm stuck in an Applebee's" would normally be a terrifying prospect: but since it's taking place in-game in High on Life, it's a little less serious.

As pointed out by PCGamesN, some High on Life players seem to be having issues getting stuck in the Space Applebee's location: one of the many absurd parodies the game offers. Normally you're supposed to go inside the Applebee's as part of the critical path storyline (which is normally closed/locked), then leave (with the option to pay your check). But some folks on Steam are reporting that they cannot exit t?he space, and are doomed to an eternity of eating digital jalapeno poppers and potato skins.

Here's a great recap of one person's predicament:

"I had just paid the bill in applebees and rescued a human in a cage outside of the store in the slums. i jumped into the port??al where the humans go and was jetpacking up the ledges above them when i was teleported into applebees with all closed doo??rs and no way out. i have reloaded save, stuck in applebys [sic] still. Reinstalled, same deal any way to get out of here??"

Not once did I expect to write anything remo?tely like this in 2022, especially since my nearest Applebee's is abandoned.

This is one of many technical issues with High on Life

Jokes aside, I ran into many technical oddities in High on Life, both before the day one patch during the review period, and after. It really helps that it's a Game Pass game, because ?spending $60 on this and having it glitch this badly ??for some folks wouldn't be great! Hopefully there's a patch on the way for the Applebee's fiasco.

The post High on Life players getting perma-stuck in an Applebee’s is a contender for “silliest glitch of 2022” appeared first on Destructoid.

And the "biggest 3rd Party Game Pass launch ever"

Over on the Game Pass charts (on both PC and console), I noticed that High on Life was jumping up quickly after launch. But today, Microsoft fully confirmed my inkling: the?? game is a bona fide success on Game Pass.

The Squanch Games release was apparently "Xbox Game Pass�biggest launch of 2022," as well as "the biggest 3rd party Game Pass launch of all time, and the biggest release of a single player-only?? game in the service’s history." Where does Microsoft actually get those stats? They're based on the "number of hours played in the first five days of release." In both an email to Destructoid and on the Xbox Wire blog itself, Microsoft uses the phrase "millions of players" to describe the userbase playing right now.

Despite my misgivings with the game, as I pointed out in my review, High on Life might be the the most ideal Game Pass game to date (especially since it has a $60 MSRP). It's s?o janky t?hat you'd possibly be pissed if you spent $60 on it, but on a lark as an "extra" on Game Pass, it's great to dive into with no context as patches roll out for it.

Not only that, but given that so much of High on Life is based on Roiland's subjec?tive sense of humor, you may not even enjoy the entire vibe altogether. While many of those joke??s are hit or miss, one of the best things about it is the "90s adventure game" feeling it has, Easter eggs and meta-references and all. I wish it had a bit more polish, but it's great to see Squanch Games getting a win either way.

The post Microsoft says High on Life is 2022’s biggest Game Pass launch appeared first on Destructoid.

It's more than a gallon of Szechuan sauce

High on Life is finally out, and although I had some issues with it, I fully expect folks to vibe with Justin Roiland's newest adventure. They'll be vibing even more once they apply the day one patch, which fixes myriad probl?ems with the base ver??sion of the game, from lock-out glitches to visual bugs.

Straight from a tweet from the official account, we have a laundry list of fixes and optimizations, as well as content updates. Speaking from experience, the general crash and progress blocker fixes are welcome: though in my time with the game, a "checkpoint refresh" was enough to clear them all out. The "improved performance" across all platforms should easily help with some of the visual jank therein, as well as some imme??rsion-breaking stuff like commercials playing early on the in-game living room TV.

A "general collision pass" sounds like a whopper of an update, because it is! It should assist with some general locomotion and gameplay frustrations, and I'm curious to test the "balance pass on all bosses and combat encounters." The final boss also got another bullet point to drive?? home that combat was a focus in this day one patch.

It's an extensive update, s??o make sure you apply it if you're grabbing the game today on Game Pass, or at full price.

High on Life full day one patch notes

Fixes and Optimizations

• • General crash and progress blocker fixes including bad respawns in Douglas Mission and Jetpack tutorial
  • Improved PC performance across various hardware configurations
  • Improved performance across Xbox One, and Xbox Series platforms
  • Improved UI text and button readability
  • Localization fixes for incorrect/missing translations, subtitle timing, and overall readability
  • Fixed combat music playing at inappropriate times and music getting stuck during Krubis and Douglas missions
  • Fixed Blorto’s menu to display player’s warp crystal count accurately and adding a single-purchase limit to Warp Discs
  • Fixed commercials starting before the previous video completes
  • Fixed subtitles from remaining on screen after leaving the area or concluding conversations
  • Improved recommended default video quality settings detection on PC

Content Updates

• • General collision pass throughout to help prevent the player from getting stuck while venturing off the golden path on uneven terrain
  • General lookats, lipflap, and narrative animation polish pass on NPCs
  • General audio balancing and spatialization pass across SFX, Music, and Dialogue
  • General combat and balance passes on all Boss and Combat Encounters
  • Balance pass on the Skate Park Warp Base to earn more points per trick
  • Populated Highway Warp Base to now appear after completing the game
  • Improved visuals on projectiles for the Sweezy Bullet Rewind Mod
  • Improved visuals on Garmantuous attacks during final battle
  • Tuned slide bash to feel less floaty
  • Increased draw distance on environmental assets in Zephyr and Blim City
  • Improved player control over gun and enemy combat chatter within the settings menu
  • TV in the house will now continue to play videos after completing the game
  • Cleaned up dialogue pacing to feel more natural during various conversations
  • Enemies will despawn after their death animations fully complete on Xbox One

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Grab the popcorn

Squanch Games' newest release High on Life has certainly gotten a lot of buzz this year, for better and for worse. The game has been highly anticipated by Justin Roiland fans, and has at the very least encouraged curiosity among the core gamer base. High on Life is finally out today, and there are plenty of ??surprises waiting ahead, including the fact that you can watch four different licensed full-length movies in the game, as well as a bunch of new shorts from Justin Roiland and pals.

Basically, there's a TV in the living room of the player character's house, and instead of just having a blank screen sitting there, the developers decided it would be mor??e fun to create, and license, some content that players could actually watch, if they wanted to. I will say that there is something cozy to me in hunkering down in your house to watch TV while you're supposed to be out saving the world.

//twitter.com/pearsonsmith/sta??tus/1602483788382359554

There are over twenty animated shorts in the game, many of which are parodies of the classic TV commercials and infomercials that we know and love. Executive producer Matty Studivan said that Roiland had been wanted to get back to the popular "Interdimensional Cable" bit from Rick & Morty, and that the game ?was a way to breathe new life into the idea.

The real star of the show here, though, are those four full-length movies. These include the 1994 sci-fi comedy Tammy & The T-Rex, as well as 1978 horror film Vampire Hookers, 1987 slasher Blood Harvest, and we're still waiting for confirmation on what the fourth one is. You can sit down and watch a movie when it comes on, and the movies will change depending on what part of the game you're in. The official High on Life Twitter even issued a warning to streamers becaus??e some of the movies apparently have nudity in them, so I guess there's that to look forward to.

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5mg of Delta-5.5

Oh geez High on Life. You know, like, on one hand I'm keen on the whole "Justin Roiland voice" shtick, especially when it comes to Solar Opposites. But oh man....on the other....it's getting a little old, you know? Especially if most people in those worlds feel like they're just riffing, like everything is a stream of consciousness...like we're all just...part of one big galactic party that never ends? Like how Shrek was mostly just a series of riffs from the actors, and a lot of it didn't work? Look it up! On...Wikipedia...or Bing...or something.

Anyway, yeah, a lot of the Roiland shtick does still make me laugh, but there isn't a strong enough game around it to really hold up High on Life.

High on Life (PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S [reviewed on a Series X])
Developer: Squanch Games
Publisher: Squanch Games
Released: December 13, 2022
MSRP: $59.99 (also on Xbox Game Pass)

High on Life is an irreverent exploration-heavy shooter that's very much inline with a lot of Justin Roiland's prior work. If you've never played one of Squanch Games' releases before, or have never seen Ricky and Morty or any number of his projects: it's a lot of shock (sudden death)/gross-out humor, along with some really insane premises, typically in sci-fi setting. Imagine a Rick and Morty epis??ode where ??Morty takes over the role of a bounty hunter and has a solo adventure, and you're pretty much there.

In this particular game though, you play the role of a random human on Earth, in the midst of an alien invasion. One thing leads to ??another and you (and your house) is transported t?o another planet, and you're making a deal with an ex-bounty hunter for their suit and their former glory. Oh, and you're tasked with stopping an evil organization from taking over, potentially saving humanity in the process. You'll do that by warping to different biomes/sandboxes to take down bounty targets (bosses).

To accomplish all this, you'll be thrusted into a first-person viewpoint, with locomotion options like a jetpack and a grappling hook (which can attach to hooks or grappling lines that you can slide down); as well as sentient weapons that somewhat resemble a ?pistol, a shotgun, a rapid-fire SMG, and an alien-summoning...thing. All of these tools have an alternate fire of sorts, which typi??cally double as puzzle-solving tech.

The weirdness of it all is easily the best part. Like many Roiland joints, High on Life is filled with twists, meta humor, and Easter eggs. There's silly optional menu-based forums to read filled with jokes that you don't actually need to engage with, random alleys that have interesting NPC interactions that serve no purpose other than to make you laugh, and good old fashioned video game secrets. The humor will be hit and miss for many though (just watch some gameplay to see if you vibe), and I felt like Squanch Games' previous effort (Trover Saves the Universe) was funnier: because of the way the game riffs off of the Trover character, r?ather than a blank slate.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCk1__TYksU

Gameplay-wise, High on Life is what I'd call a "serviceable" shooter. The team does a good job at making each weapon unique, from the simple fact that all of them talk (and are all voiced by comedians), to the aforementioned alt-fire mechanics. There is an incentive to use them all, and in nearly every combat sequence I was swapping guns?? and wielding their specific strengths (the "set it and forget it" nature of firing off goons with the summoning gun, then swapping to something else, is fun). There are some cool battlegrounds too, where you can use the grappling hook feature on full display, dashing and jetpacking around like a madman while you aim.

Where High on Life really falters is enemy variety. In any given zone, there's usually standard trash/fodder that slowly fires a pistol with bad aim, some small flying UFO/drone thing, and a bigger elite that make up 90% of the collective you'll be fighting. That formula applies to a lot of games, but none of those three types here are particularly exciting?, or are even that unique from zone to zone. Bosses are sometimes a bright spot, but a bit of jank (more on that later) kind of sucked the spark out of several encounters.

While those high octane moments I mentioned earlier do exist, they're not common. A lot of zones really lack oomph, and just throw enemies from the same few doorways at you until you're allowed to proceed. Other sequences straight-up allow you to skip every ene??my entirely, which is easy to do by the time you get the jetpack. Throw in a really shoddy objective marker and a bit of imprecise area design and you have an annoyance stew goin'.

Depending on your view of puzzles in shooters, the way High on Life handles them is either going to be a bo?on or a burden. They're really breezy, so if you generally hate them on principle, you're going to be happy. I'm sort of on a case-by-case basis, but I would have preferred if the puzzle complexity here was dialed-up just a bit. There's a lot of potential there with the movement options, but a lot of it can be completely bypassed or quickly deduced: since most of them are solved through the same few weapon abilities.

One big issue with High on Life (and where the game mainly slipped for me) is jank. In my run I had multiple critical path doors that wouldn't open, or a delay in a few similar sequences. I was able to sidestep these with a swift checkpoint reload, but in one particular case I wasn't aware that there was even an issue until 20 minutes in. My objective was listed as "???" and I assumed there was some sort of trigger I needed to hit, before realizing th??at I was stuck in a glitch. There is a day one patch coming at launch (December 13) with fixes a??nd quality of life upgrades, but I did not have access to it, and cannot confirm it addresses everything.

As-is, High on Life is great weekend Game Pass pickup, and something to go into with caution if you're a fan of Roiland's work. I appreciate what Squanch Games is doing in the industry as a whole, but Trover Saves the Universe was a much better disti??llation of Roiland and company's humor in a sounder package.

The post Review: High on Life appeared first on Destructoid.

Plus High On Life and more

The December Xbox Game Pass lineup this year is closing out with some pretty notable additions. Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the headliner, but ?several other big December games are on the way too.

With Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, the Lego series got a bit of a tune-up. It's apparently a bit more action-oriented, and yes, even allows for some sick air juggling.

If you're looking for something a little more adult-oriented, the raucous High On Life arrives on Game Pass this month too. ??All your guns will talk, and talk a fair bit if the trailers so far are any indication. That's on December 13.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCk1__TYksU

But as always, some notable indies are hitting the Game Pass in December too. Eastward arrives today, and is a lovely callback to older days of gaming, with an art style that's really worth seeing in motion. And for the RPG fans, the magic-and-mecha world of Chained Echoes arrives on December 8. Here's the full lineup.

December 2022 Xbox Game Pass lineup

• Eastward (Cloud, console, PC) - Available today
• The Walking Dead: The Final Season (Cloud, console, PC) - Available today
• Totally Reliable Delivery Service (PC) - Available today
• Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Cloud, console, PC) - December 6
• Hello Neighbor 2 (Cloud, console, PC) - December 6
• Chained Echoes (Cloud, console, PC) - December 8
• Metal: Hellsinger (Xbox One) - December 8
• High On Life (Cloud, console, PC) - December 13
• Potion Craft (Console, PC) - December 13
• Hot Wheels Unleashed - Game of the Year Edition (Cloud, console, PC) - December 15
• Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan (Cloud, console, PC) - December 15

Leaving Xbox Game Pass in December

• Aliens: Fireteam Elite
• Breathedge
• Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
• Firewatch
• Lake
• One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4
• Neoverse
• Race with Ryan
• Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth
• Rory McIlroy PGA Tour
• Transformers: Battlegrounds

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The gooey alien shooter is taking a little extra time

Squanch Games has announced it's taking a little extra time on its upcoming game High On Life. The cartoonish comedy-shooter will still arrive in 2022, but the team has decided to delay it to December? 13, 2022.

Originally set to arrive in October, the Squanch crew says it is working hard to??wards developing the best experience ?possible. These extra six weeks will provide some time to squash bugs and tune up.

As part of the delay, Squanch published a special animation as an apology. It's basically a short little sketch, which you can watch below.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CdTKrm-_1Q

High on Life is still targeting a launch on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC, with a day one launch on Xbox Game Pas??s for cloud??, console, and PC.

Don't leave me high

Squanch Games is the studio co-founded by Justin Roiland, a co-creator of Rick & Morty and the Hulu series Solar Opposites. So if the h?umor above feels familiar to you, that's probably why.

Given the game's earlier trailers, High On Life looks to be a mix of sci-fi shooter and Roiland's particular brand of comedy, with a l?ot of odd and bizarre humor mashing up with alien ??creatures.

The game's story looks to feature all kinds of bizarre moments, from talking g??uns to an alien ??cartel. Plus, selling humans as a kind of drug for extraterrestrial life.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SUUeakHKTk

Even though the comedy looks to be a big focus, there's some cool platforming, powers, and gun design happening in the trailers for High On Life. It's a bit out of this world, but Squanch is going to use the delay to squash all the bugs it can and make sure the punch?lines land.

High on Life is now aimin??g for a?? December 13 launch on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

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The future is lookin' bright for narrative games

So, that's another year of summer game announcements on the book. There are a few more streams on the horizon, but for now, we've gotten a taste of just about all of the upcoming games we can handle. Developers threw what felt like an endless stream of new titles at us, and while a lot of the space horror games kind of blurred together after a while, there were plenty of titles that stuck out to me as games I'd be lookin??g forward to the most. Natural?ly, most of them are narrative games, and so for my sake and yours, I decided to compile a list of what I think are the best-looking narrative games that were highlighted these past few days/weeks.

Keep in mind that some of these don't advertise the?? story being the central mechanic or the main focus of the game, but the narrative looke?d intriguing enough that it's one of the features that drew me to it the most. Whatever, it's my list and I'll do what I want.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xmx0w-eAoTk

The Invincible �Annihilation meets Firewatch

This one kind of came out of nowhere, and it was one of the most pleasant surprises of the weekend for me. Based on the influential 1964 hard sci-fi novel of the same name, The Invincible follows a scientist named Yasna as she attempts to piece together what happened to a lost crew on a hostile alien planet. The premise alone doesn't sound l??ike anything to write home ??about, but the trailer sent a chill down my spine.

I consider myself a pretty voracious reader, so hearing that we're getting a game based on a novel definitely makes my ears perk up. The trailer had a slow-paced sense of dread that really works, and while I haven't read The Invincible, I imagine it captures the feeling of the novel quite well. I just finished reading the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy, Annihilation, and I think the trailer we saw ca??ptured a similar sense of awe mixed with horror.

Like I said, I had never heard of The Invincible before I saw the gameplay trailer during the PC Gaming Showcase??, but now it might just be the one game I'm looking forward to the most.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpT-74avAR0

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals �a return to an old favorite

This is one of the games I was fortunate enough to play a preview of for the Tribeca Games Fest this weekend, and I am pleased to report that it's everything I want from an Oxenfree sequel, considering the first one is one of my favorite narrative games of all time. It's got the ?same spooky flair and atmosphere you'd expect from the series, but? one of the things I'm most excited about is seeing the series move away from a cast of teenagers to a protagonist in her 30s.

The new player character Riley is returning home and dealing with her past after being away for a long while, which I think is a cool direction to move in after the first game was about high schoolers trying to figure out their places in the world. I've done a lot of growing up myself since I played the first Oxenfree, so having each game relate to me at different parts in my life is a pretty cool thing. I'm looking forward to the creepy, sentimental rollercoaster ride that Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is likely to be.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBgA7zRbhKY

American Arcadia �The Truman Show with a twist

I'm not gonna lie �I love The Truman Show. When I saw that there was a game on the horizon inspired by the film, I knew it was going to be right up my alley, and it turns out, it very much is. American Arcadia is another game I got to preview for Tribeca, and it exceeded the expectations I had going in. Not only does it look absolutely stunning with its colorful-retro-future-70s aesthetic, but it has a ton to offer by way of ga??meplay.

It's part 2.5D sidescrolling platformer, part puzzle game, part first-person stealth game �and while I was worried that it had too much going on, it all fit together surprisingly well to create an experience I've never quite seen before. Sure, any individual element of American Arcadia isn't exactly reinventing the wheel, but it's the final product that I think is going to blow me away. A??s far as narrative games goes, it ticks all the boxes for me so far.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEStlPKIGL8

Immortality �FMV is yet again revolutionizing narrative games

Sam Barlow has been one of games' most creative minds for years, and now he's back with his most ambitious project yet. Immortality is a full-motion video game (a rare breed at this point) that centers on the disappearance of a woman? named Marissa Marcel. Players are tasked with going through old reels of three different unreleased films she starred in to piece the mystery together, and it's one of the most stylish-looking games we got to see this weekend.

I'm always looking for games that are doing things we haven't seen before, and Immortality looks like it's going to give us a newer, even more complex take on the ideas that Barlow masterfully executed in his earlier titles. The writing team includes talent that worked on shows like The Queen's Gambit and Mr. Robot, so I have nothing but h??igh hopes for this narrative?-centric FMV mystery.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXq20gant-4

Pentiment �Ye old video game

Wacky art styles are a surefire way to get me interested in a game, and in that regard, Pentiment had my attention right out the gate. It's a medieval-themed narrative game that looks balls-to-the-walls crazy, and we certainly haven't seen anything like it from Obsidian, the studio behind The Outer Worlds and Pillars of Eternity. They had a smaller internal team break out to work on Pentiment?? �something I wou??ld love to see from more big-budget studios who have the capacity to make some awesome smaller-scale projects.

It's got a painterly, storybook art style that's evocative of the period it's set in, and features classically medieval things like writing beautifully decorated manuscripts, discussing the latest news from Italy, and of course, violent mobs burning buildings down. It looks like an exciting adventure full of twists and turns, and as something of ??a casual history buff, this one is already sitting pretty on my Steam wishlist.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=au_ek16Bm-o

The Alters �Clones? Clones.

The newest title from 11 Bit Studios, The Alters follows Jan, who creates alternate versions of himself to survive on an isolated planet. In terms of gameplay, each one of the clones is supposed to have different powers that the pla?yer can use to their advantage, but each will also have a different personality that's based on different moments and paths in Jan's life.

The announcement trailer didn't give us much information about what it will feel like to play just yet, but on premise and 11 Bit's reputation alone, I can tell that this is going to be one hell of a ride. The studio always does an awesome job of incorporating a well-told story into games that also have really solid gameplay, so I'll be looking forward to hearing more about The Alters as the studio continues its development.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCk1__TYksU

High on Life �The Rick and Morty guys finally got me onboard

Okay, I'm gonna be honest here, I've never seen Rick and Morty. Maybe I just never got around to it, maybe it was the fandom that turned me off, but it was never something I felt drawn to. That's why I was so surprised when I saw the trailer for High on Life, and act??ually thought it seemed like a hilarious, goofy time.

The idea is that you're a bounty hunter who needs to take out aliens who are using humans as some kind of drug. It's got a colorful, eccentric art style, the quippy, zany tone you'd expect from Squanch Games, and of course, the real highlight of the trailer, talking guns. Games like High on Life aren't usually my kind of thing, but it looks so out there and different that I know I'm g?onna be itching to try it. Plus, I'm just a sucker f?or an FPS, and this one looks like it'll have some really unique shooting mechanics.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4l6uWxe-vk

Stray �/em> a cat-centric narrative game