High on Life 2 is the sequel to Squanch Games’ 2022 hit action-adventure shooter. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn’t do well, and if it’s worth your money.
High on Life 2 Review Overview
What is High on Life 2?
High on Life 2 is an action-adventure comedy shooter by Squanch Games, and the direct sequel to 2022’s game of the same name. Still set in a fictional universe of human-consuming aliens, High on Life 2 sheds the introductions and tosses the players right in the middle of the life of a bounty hunter. No longer anonymous and teetering on the wrong side of the law this time, it’ll be up to them and their weapon-shaped alien friends to shoot their way out of (or into) trouble.
High on Life 2 features:
⚫︎ 5+ unique, fully-interactable, voice-acted weapons
⚫︎ New skateboarding mechanics
⚫︎ New mid-mission mini-games
⚫︎ Fast-paced, shooter-on-rails action
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 Epic Games |
 PSN |
 Xbox |
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| $59.99 | |||||||
High on Life 2 Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Excellent Continuation of the Narrative More Quality Voice Acting Hilarious Dialogue, Unique Sequences Enjoyable Games Within the Game |
Gets Tiring Before Long Poorly Optimized and Messy |
High on Life 2 Story - 7/10
High on Life 2’s narrative value mostly comes from its masterful continuation of the first game’s story. The character writing and world-building are on par in almost all respects, and the dialogue is as hilarious as ever. Don’t count on anything groundbreaking or award-winning, but do expect a lot of laughs.
High on Life 2 Gameplay - 7/10
High on Life 2 isn’t a very complex shooter when you consider the state of the genre nowadays. The weapon variety is great, but the upgrades for each are linear and not very creative. Adding skateboarding as a means of travel was a great idea, but this game isn’t much more complex than the original.
High on Life 2 Visuals - 9/10
There’s no mistaking this game for any other apart from its predecessor. High on life’s unique take on alien design, spanning megacities, and gross-out visual body humor is unparalleled, if a little overwhelming at times. It looks amazing if your rig can handle its full splendor, but still pretty great if it can’t.
High on Life 2 Audio - 9/10
Although this game’s music is of higher than average quality, the game’s voice-acting is really where it’s at. Although one voice actor down compared to the original, the game’s new additions and returning favorites all play their parts so well that I hardly noticed the change in roster.
High on Life 2 Value for Money - 7/10
High on Life 2 comes in at a decent $59.99, which would’ve been standard-fare back in 2022, but is now on the cheaper end for games that border the AA to AAA quality benchmark. Maybe a tad too expensive to be a steal, but the amount of gameplay and quality of certain features almost make up for it completely.
High on Life 2 Overall Score - 78/100
High on Life 2 is the second ride of our lives that Squanch Games is taking us on, and boy, is it a messy and wild one in every way. Top-tier voice acting and standout visuals bring this game into the spotlight, while middling-at-best gameplay and poor optimization drag it back out. It’s a messy bag of good and bad, so if that’s what you’re into, then we won’t judge (but your guns certainly will).
High on Life 2 Review: Wild and Messy in Every Way
The first High on Life was an unexpected success, at least for me. I’m sure Rick and Morty fans were ready to pounce from the game’s very first announcement, but to me, there were a few glaring problems that were obvious from the get-go. I was never a fan of the relatively simplistic gunplay and comparably poor mobility of the player character, and I feared the game would rely too much on its meta comedy and distinctly Roiland-esque dialogue to succeed.
Well, regardless of my early projections, that game did well, and I did end up liking it when I finally got my hands on it. Now we’re dealing with its sequel, which got a similar eyebrow raise from me when it was first revealed. It looked like more of the same, just with a few new shiny bells and whistles attached. Normally, that wouldn’t be too big a deal, but for a sequel to a game I initially had reservations about, this looked like a bad portent of what’s to come.
Well, I did end up playing High on Life 2, and I’m happy to report that being more of the same worked to its favor this time. It kept what made the first game work and expanded it a little, addressed what dragged it down in addition, though it did hit its own unique snags along the way.
It’s a wild ride from start to finish, messy in the best and worst ways, so let’s start sifting through the gristle and slime to see what makes this game tick.
Living the Highs and Lows of an Intergalactic Bounty Hunter
We’ll begin with the game’s story, because the utter insanity of this game’s overarching narrative can only be matched by its original 2022 predecessor, or any of Justin Roiland’s other creations. The first game saw players take on a cartel of human-harvesting aliens by befriending a unique, gun-shaped alien called Kenny.
These "Gatlians", as they were called, were living weapons who could talk, and there were many of them to find throughout the game, with the one that looks like a farting frog being among the tamer ones among their designs.
Naturally, High on Life 2 continues the story of our intergalactic bounty-hunting escapades a few years after the first game's events, when our deeds of derring-do finally blossomed into celebrity status. As with most sudden rises to stardom, though, this was short-lived, and before long, we find ourselves at the lowest point of our lives, even lower than before the first invasion.
With our sister labelled a wanted criminal for her rebellious acts in intergalactic space, our closest friend gone, and the thrill of fame quickly waning, it would take a whole lot of action to get our bounty hunter blood pumping again. Fortunately for us (or unfortunately), the human-harvesting wasn’t as dealt with as we once thought, and more sinister forces will eventually give us the action we’ve been asking for.
I’m skimming over a lot of context here, but this is the best I can do to explain everything without spoiling too much. This game’s story is one to experience by yourself and is easily one of its strongest suits, at least compared to its lowest lows. It’s a masterful continuation of the original’s story, perfect for a sequel and set with the proper tone and theming.
The game assumes you know everything from the first game and spends very little time easing you in. Heck, the intro sequence is a montage of your rise and fall to stardom, switching between memories and past events seamlessly, while also serving as the game’s tutorial. It’s a genius that doesn’t just lend itself to the intro, though. As you’ll see, this game’s dialogue in general has enough laughs to fill a theater, and enough unique sequences to keep all the talking interesting.
Great Laughs, Greater Sequences
Squanch Games’ brand of comedy has never been universal. I’d even go as far as to say that it’s an acquired taste with how unrestrained, unfiltered, and unbothered it is by most sensibilities. High on Life 2 isn’t any different. The dialogue and even the main story beats of its campaign all read like a Rick and Morty script; with ironies left, right, and center, shock humor bringing up the rear, and the whole ensemble heralded by a vanguard of gratuitous violence.
It’s a bold and outstanding approach that they had to double down on for the sequel, and for the most part, it hits exactly as it should. The dialogue in this game is incredibly candid and hilarious to boot, while the unique narrative sequences give it a personality that many other games quite frankly lack.
My favorite example has to be when we try to impress and befriend the first of many new Gatlian weapons for this game, Travis. The whole thing is staged like a drunken bender, with shots, darts, and DDR marathons all being new mini-games within the quick series of cutaways. It ends with a blackout brawl on the beach, with us not being sure what actually happened.
It’s not even all cinematic, because the gameplay itself can change to fit the narrative for some sections. The game goes from a normal action-shooter to an Agatha Christie-style whodunnit, complete with clues, investigations, and silent movie chapter cards. Heck, it even goes into full Tony Hawk Pro Skater for some missions, making you skate half-pipes and grind railings to collect letters and spell out obscenities. Absolutely brilliant use of design space and parody; a sentiment of adoration second only to the game's amazing voice cast.
Excellent Voice Acting, Even while a Man Down
To say that this game thrives on its voice acting is an understatement. When everything in this setting either talks like a Rick and Morty side character, has line deliveries that sound unscripted but are nonetheless funny, or is a literal gun that talks to you, voice acting pretty much determines the quality of everything.
While that spells trouble for some games, it elevates High on Life 2 as one of the best voice-acted game titles in recent memory. Props to the team, they’re doing this without their star player, Justin Roiland, who played the first game’s main Gatlian protagonist, Kenny.
Though the reason for his departure is not significant to this review, his absence should nonetheless be felt, but here I am, enjoying what the rest of the cast has to offer. It’s honestly a great showcase of talent supplemented by great writing. This, unfortunately, overshadows the most important aspect of a game: gameplay.
Skateboards are Cool, But This Game Could’ve Used More Layers
High on Life 2 is a shooter. I don’t mean that in a technical sense; I mean it in a literal sense. The core combat is shooting the bad guys dead using cool talking weapons. Maybe you get a couple of upgrades along the way, but the progression is usually very linear, and that’s exactly the problem.
For all the narrative and character complexities the game works with, High on Life 2 is actually quite a lightweight when it comes to shooter game design. Apart from an Alt Fire and an ability, each gun pretty much only exists to shoot and talk, with five or so guns waiting for you throughout the game. That might sound like a lot, but when games like DOOM: The Dark Ages exist in the same genre as this, it’s actually nothing. Now, the game does have a lot of minigames thrown into the mix to keep things interesting, but they don't really contribute to the game's shooter identity very well.
That’s just the state shooters are in nowadays: a mess, with a few standouts to make everything else lame by comparison. At least High on Life 2 did get something right with the introduction of the skateboard. This tool works as expected, letting players move slightly more quickly, while also granting them ways to run up walls and grind rails. This is honestly genius, adding some variety to the core gameplay loop, with utility to match. The combat synergizes well with the improved mobility, and some sequences even require the skateboard to be fully realized.
Absolute Mess of an Optimization Job
Apart from being somewhat simple in its shooter gameplay, High on Life 2 is an optimization nightmare. The game crashes frequently, and not just for minimum specs. It also stutters at the slightest provocation, with a significantly long loading screen between each major area to consider.
It’s pretty much all over the place in terms of optimization, at least on release. That much, at least, is fixable throughout the game’s post-release developmental lifetime with a few patches and updates. Until then, though, you're going to have to deal with hearing Sweezy say the same line multiple times because that's where the autosave plopped you down and the game keeps crashing.
Better Than Before, But Not Great Overall
And that’s pretty much High on Life 2 in a nutshell, or should I say shell casing? It’s a better game than the original in scope and narrative, but the shooter gameplay pretty much remains the same apart from a few additions, emphasis on "few".
The game was released with optimization problems out the wazoo, and not enough new things to fully impress, but it was nonetheless a messy and wild ride in the best and worst of ways. I can’t say I expected anything else from one of the minds that cooked up Rick and Morty.
Is High on Life 2 Worth It?
Pricy, But Could Be Worth It Eventually
High on Life 2 comes in at a decent $59.99, which used to be the AAA standard, but is actually quite cheap nowadays. The game’s overall production quality is between AA and AAA, with bombast and core gameplay development being the differenciating factor. For a game of that uncertain caliber, $59.99 isn’t a steal, but there’s enough decent gameplay, enjoyable parody, and peak comedy for you to play to eventually recoup the game’s value in playtime and experiences.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
Epic Games |
PSN |
Xbox |
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| $59.99 | |||||||
High on Life 2 FAQ
What Happened to Kenny in High on Life 2?
Kenny’s fate was explained during the original game’s DLC run, High on Knife. According to the game’s lore, the player character accidentally dropped Kenny during the events of High on Knife, effectively rendering their character dead and being replaced by a similar Gatlian called Harper.
Kenny’s removal from the story was confirmed to be consequential to Justin Roiland's removal from the project, and Squanch Games as a whole.
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High on Life 2 Product Information
 |
|
| Title | HIGH ON LIFE 2 |
|---|---|
| Release Date | February 13, 2026 |
| Developer | Squanch Games, Inc. |
| Publisher | Squanch Games, Inc. |
| Supported Platforms | Steam PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | Action, Adventure, Shooting |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | ESRB M 17+ |
| Official Website | High on Life 2 Official Website |
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