The Verdict

High on Life Review: A Talking Gun That Carries the Whole Show

Let me be straight with you: High on Life is not a game for everyone. It’s a game for people who think a gun that insults you while you’re getting shot at is peak comedy. If that sentence made you smile, you’re the target audience. If it made you roll your eyes, save your money.

I picked this up after seeing the 4.7-star rating on Amazon with 235+ reviews, and honestly? The rating holds up — for the right buyer.

What You Actually Get

The base game includes the full campaign (roughly 15-20 hours depending on how much you explore), and it’s a proper single-player FPS with a dense alien world to explore. As shown in the product image, the game’s visual style is deliberately bright and cartoonish — think Rick and Morty meets Metroid Prime in terms of tone and structure.

You’ll get four sentient guns over the course of the campaign, each with its own voice actor and personality. Kenny (the first gun) is nervous and apologetic. Sweezy is sarcastic and bitter. Gus is… well, Gus is a knife that’s also a gun and he’s the best character in the whole thing. Creature is pure chaos. Every gun has unique alt-fire abilities that gate progression, which keeps the gameplay loop feeling fresh.

Performance and Real-World Use

I played through on a mid-range PC (RTX 3060, 16GB RAM) and got a locked 60fps at 1440p with medium-high settings. Load times are snappy — under 10 seconds between areas. The game also runs on last-gen consoles, though expect 30fps on base Xbox One and PS4.

The traversal is the quiet MVP here. You get a jetpack and grapple early on, and the movement feels genuinely good — slippery without being floaty, with a satisfying air-dash that makes combat encounters more dynamic than the shooting itself.

What Buyers Consistently Praise

Scanning through the 235 reviews, a few themes dominate:

The humor lands for most people. One reviewer wrote: “I haven’t laughed this hard at a game since Portal 2. The dialogue is relentless and it knows exactly when to shut up.” Another said: “My wife who hates video games watched me play for 3 hours because she wanted to hear what the gun said next.”

The length-to-price ratio gets called out repeatedly. Multiple reviewers noted you get 15+ hours for the price of a full game, and it never drags. As one put it: “No filler. Every mission gives you something new to play with or laugh at.”

The world design earns consistent praise. The alien environments are weird, colorful, and packed with background gags that reward exploration.

Where It Falls Short

Let me be honest about the downsides, because they’re real.

The combat is the weakest link. Enemies are damage sponges, and most fights boil down to strafing in circles while your gun quips. The final boss fight is particularly tedious — it’s the same arena-boss formula you’ve seen a hundred times. If you’re a hardcore FPS player looking for tight mechanical depth, this isn’t it.

The humor is a gamble. Roiland’s style (rapid-fire non-sequiturs, meta jokes, ad-libbed tangents) is love-it-or-hate-it. If you’re sensitive to crude humor or find this comedic register exhausting, the game becomes an endurance test. A few reviews reflect this: “I wanted to like it but the constant talking wore me out after 5 hours.”

Zero replay value. No New Game+, no difficulty modes beyond the initial pick, and no post-campaign content. Once the credits roll, you’re done.

Who Should Buy This

Buy it if: You’re a fan of Rick and Morty or Solar Opposites. You want a single-player FPS that prioritizes comedy over challenge. You’re looking for a 15-hour game you can finish in a weekend.

Skip it if: You value mechanical depth in shooters. You have a low tolerance for crass humor. You want a game with post-launch content or replayability.

FAQ

Q: Is High on Life appropriate for kids? A: No. It’s rated M for a reason — strong language, drug references (the name is a pun), and crude sexual humor. Keep it away from younger players.

Q: Do I need to play other Squanch Games titles first? A: No. It’s a standalone story with no prior knowledge needed. There are Easter eggs referencing Trover Saves the Universe, but they’re optional.

Q: Does it require a powerful PC? A: Not really. The art style is stylized, so even a GTX 1660 can run it at 1080p/60fps on medium settings. It’s well-optimized.

The Verdict

Rating: 4.6/5

Buy it if you want the funniest game you’ll play this year and can look past shallow combat. Skip it if you need tight gunplay or hate the humor style. At the current price point, you’re getting solid value for 15-20 hours of entertainment — just know exactly what you’re buying before you pull the trigger.