In 2022, the self-aware shooter game High on Life inundated players with gallons of torn-flesh goop, lots of deranged drivel and a cavalcade of talking guns telling jokes about flatulence. So of course, High on Life 2 takes aim at delivering an even bigger dose of that crudely comedic and action-packed stuff.
You play as a nameless and silent hero—with sentient alien weapons that never stop jabbering—who saved the world from the G3 drug cartel, an illegal syndicate that wanted to turn humans into a narcotic. You’re celebrated. You’re on all the talk shows and podcasts. Your image is plastered on sports drinks. Life is good.
However, even though it appears that humans and the many forms of alien life are now blissfully coexisting in this universe, that couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s a new consortium of alien scientists, government officials and corporate entities who are promoting an extraterrestrial pharmaceutical effort to … turn humans into narcotics.
Only this time, you know, it’s legal. It’s different from the last time. And the commercial branding is better, too.
That might not have worried you all that much except for the fact that your sister, Lizzie, is the head of Bleeding Star—an ecoterrorist group that wants to bring down those responsible for this new human-mulching effort. In order to save Lizzie from bounty killers sent by the very people she’s trying to take down, you must become a rogue assassin.
From there you take on a string of absurd quests and kill throngs of deadly alien thugs and bosses in an effort to find the kingpin behind this new threat to humanity. You get splashed with the above-mentioned gallons of goop and an onslaught of jokes about corrupt corporations, greedy politicians, bilious billionaires, religious swindlers, various sexual practices, gross bodily functions and, of course, Jeffrey Epstein.
High on Life 2 is a single-player game that does not require an online connection to play.
The game is colorful and fast paced. And though hit-and-miss, the constantly streaming jokes can be sarcastic and absurdly funny.
However, that humor is also often crass and sometimes disgusting. The cringey language is never-ceasing and profusely coarse—including f- and s-words, abuses of God’s and Jesus’ names and a repeated handful of other crudities.
The violence is cartoony but abundant and frenetic. Players use weapons made of living animals, alien creatures and alien organs. The kills are always gushing with blood splatter. Heads explode; limbs are lopped off. Characters are impaled and sliced in half. We see a character shoot himself in the head.
There’s also an unexpected amount of sexuality in the mix, including exposed breasts and backsides. There are characters with exaggerated body parts and sexual interactions that are obscured from view or used as part of a weaponry attack.
Characters consume drugs. And at one point in the action, a villain repeatedly forces a narcotic on the protagonist, leaving his vision blurred and distorted. In fact, a drug is made from the protagonist’s own body parts and then injected back into him, causing a physical mutation. Some individuals smoke.
High on Life 2 is an M-rated sequel that shoots for a gaming bullseye of lowball humor, crude visuals and cartoonish gory lunacy.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
