High On Life 2 is a superior comedy FPS with skateboarding

High On Life 2 stands among many game sequels that surpass the original, but this is an especially tough achievement when comedy is involved. In film, rarely do comedy sequels manage to be better than the first, exceptions being “22 Jump Street” and “Addams Family Values” to name a couple. While I enjoyed the humor in the prior game (and this’ll be his only mention), the lack of Justin Roiland does actually make this a better game and experience. I was surprised at how many laugh-out-loud moments there were, and tons of surprises I’d never seen in a game before. High On Life 2 is funnier, has better gunplay, and offers the right amount of levity that we need right now.

Picking up roughly after the events of High On Life and it’s DLCs, we see through the passage of time via a montage of your bounty hunting exploits to catch us up to modern day. Each cutscene has a TV or movie-style quality to them in the way that they are shot and play out that you don’t get in other games. Now, a new enemy has emerged, Rhea Pharmaceuticals, who once again are threatening the human race’s existence. It’s then you’re having to save your sister, who’s labeled a terrorist. In reality, she’s on the right side of history. You’ll then team up to bring down this network, in a reverse bounty hunting kind of way to ensure humanity’s survival. Heavy stuff, right? Well the game never treats it that way, and that’s awesome.

These events serve as a character reset for you monetarily, your skills, and even weapons. This is a structurally different game. At times, it felt like you were working through a long list of bounties, taking you from place to place to place. Here, there is a list of people to take out, but High On Life 2 really takes its time to make the places you go be more meaningful, and allow you to get familiar with them. Much like the previous game, High On Life 2 is a mix of first-person shooting with light puzzle solving, all wrapped in humor that works on every level.

I don’t know how I got this far without mentioning the fact that traversal is infinitely more enjoyable this time around thanks to the skateboard. It replaces what would normally be a run or a sprint, it’s extremely intuitive and immensely fun to use. You’ll combine jumping, double jumping, air dashing, grinding, and wall riding so effortlessly, you’ll feel like Space Tony Hawk as you cross each map with ease and style. Squanch Games are the first ones to incorporate first-person skateboarding into a shooter (I’m pretty sure, I didn’t check, but it feels right to say that). It’s definitely gonna be hard to play other first-person shooters without it.

Weapons are obviously a large part of the game, offering analogous weapon types like pistols, shotguns, and SMGs into the fray. However, they’re not just guns, but living beings who have thoughts and feelings, and aren’t afraid to share what’s on their mind. These characters are essential to the game, and fill in for the fact that you’re mostly mute of a character. Old friends return like Knifey, Gus, and Sweezy. Knifey does knife things, Gus shoots like a shotgun and can create platforms, and Sweezy is a pistol (both actually and in personality), who can shoot time bubbles to slow enemies. Though new friends are made like Travis, a guy who is getting divorced and is down on his luck, is able to shot powerful rounds. Or Sheath, a former gun-for-hire turned gun who fires three-round bursts and can solve puzzles where electricity is involved. You’ll amass an arsenal weapons in no time, and I never ran out of ammo. In fact, I found myself playing this like it were DOOM Eternal and swapping weapons constantly while circle strafing, grinding rails on my skateboard, and dodging. This is a proper shooter, and it acts like one, too.

Missions often derail from the main objective you’ve been sent there to do, often as a result of spats and other conflicts that link to your primary task in some way. These side quests you go on can be frustrating in other games, but here it feels organic, funny, and is forgivable. They are so good, like when the first mission of the game closes with feeling like “The Maw” level from Halo: Combat Evolved. Attending a murder mystery party that is hilariously small, but you’re actually tasked to find clues and interrogate suspects to discover the real killer was a highlight. I was able to find all clues and find the killer perfectly (according to the achievement I got). Another mission will send you to a convention planet with tons of weird and wonderful surprises to see.

The game has some of the cleverest boss fights with their own mechanics are so fun to take part in. Some bosses run away for a larger battle later, some bosses have a hard time dying, but it’s so fun learning their patterns and outwitting them. One boss fight didn’t end because I got their health to zero, but a indigenous creature hilariously finished the job for me. My favorite boss fight was a gauntlet of killing a cult leader over and over before escaping the planet I was on. They’re ridiculous, but every boss fight is memorable.

The jokes are just really good, from fourth-wall breaking story beats to an unexpected Rodney Dangerfield reference, to even the alien cum, there’s something for everybody. I especially appreciate how enemies and your friends are reactive to your actions, such as not waiting for an enemy to finish explaining something to you or your friends commenting how you’re walking away mid-sentence. The game elicited everything from a smirk to an outright laugh with its humor.

The runtime for High On Life 2 is on par with the last game, with credits rolling at around ten or twelve hours. This time is certainly more if you seek out all the collectibles, or want to acquire every upgrade available.

You’ll once again earn pesos, the currency in High On Life 2 for being paid for the work you’re doing. You can spend this money on upgrades that enhance abilities, increase ammo capacity on certain weapons, add damage output, or even increase your health and shield pool. How you spend the money is up to you, but there are many ways to earn it or find it.

Now, you can’t have skateboards in a game without being able to customize the decks, trucks, wheels, and grip tape. There are many outfits to acquire, and other costume elements to equip. The game also has cards to collect, and hidden places to earn money. Going out of your way to seek these out will only help you.

This time around, High On Life 2 runs on Unreal Engine 5.5.4, and the realistic cartoonish look is gorgeous. There’s tons of color and. With the previous game, I ran into a lot of bugs, both big and small. I can count on two fingers how many minor bugs I ran into that never hampered my experience or hurt my progress. It’s in a much better state. I had everything maxed, though I enabled NVIDIA Reflex, Frame Generation, and DLSS (on DLAA). Performance-wise, I found that open spaces during combat will often dip to around 50fps, but on average I was getting 80-90fps in tighter spaces. Unreal Engine 5 is still demanding, but overall the combat looked and felt great.

If the previous game didn’t grab you, I do think High On Life 2 is superior in every way that makes it worth playing. Squanch Games largely plays it safe, but still manages to introduce new ideas never before seen in other games. Comedy is very subjective, but I think the humor in this game is right up your alley if you enjoy the likes of Tim Robinson. High On Life 2 is more High On Life, but in a more polished, focused, and refined space adventure where it’s crass humor is befitting the universe it exists in.