High on Life 2 feels like a game that knows exactly what people are going to show up for, but never quite figures out how to maintain being a fun game around those expectations. If you played the first one, you are probably here for the talking guns, the off-kilter jokes, the chaotic alien worlds, and that very specific Squanch Games tone that somehow blends Saturday morning cartoon energy with deeply online humour. And to be fair, a lot of that is still here. The problem is that almost everything around it feels shakier, messier, and far less confident than the original, to the point where the cracks stop being charming and start actively getting in the way.
At a glance, High on Life 2 looks like a more ambitious game. The environments are larger, denser, and clearly designed to encourage more movement and verticality. You can feel from the outset that there is a real push to make traversal feel like part of the fun rather than just the connective tissue between jokes and... Read more