High on Life

1. Summary

High on Life is a first-person shooter that most players recommend for its comedy. The jokes and the talking guns are what reviewers write about: 35% of all reviews mention the humor, rising to 61% of longer reviews, and 13% name Rick and Morty, usually as the test for whether you will enjoy it. Players also like the bright alien worlds, the boss fights and the amount of hidden material, from full B-movies on the in-game TV to fake ads and joke achievements. The shooting itself divides people. Some call it surprisingly good, with a jetpack, grapple and gun abilities that open up the levels; others call it a basic shooter that the writing has to carry.

Value is the frustration that comes up most. The campaign runs roughly 8 to 15 hours by players' own counts, and 11% of longer reviews tell readers to buy it on sale, usually saying it is worth playing at a discount rather than not worth playing. Reviewers also complain about repetitive fights against a handful of enemy types, dialogue scenes that stop the game and cannot be skipped, and bugs that stuck around long after launch, including a late-game glitch that wipes weapon upgrades.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

Comedy in the Rick and Morty moldHigh

Comedy is the main reason players give for buying the game and for recommending it. Reviewers describe laughing out loud, listening to background NPCs for minutes at a time and replaying sections to hear different gun commentary. Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites come up so often that the comparison works as the reviews' own buying guide: "If you like Rick and Morty you will like this game." Players praise the self-aware jokes about game tropes, the fourth-wall breaks and how the world reacts to what you do. A number of positive reviews warn that the humor is crude, profane and not for children, as a description of what you are getting. One reviewer summed up the appeal as "Maximum nonsense per minute."

Talking guns with real personalitiesHigh

Reviewers name the living weapons, called Gatlians, one by one: Kenny the starting pistol, Gus the shotgun, Sweezy, Creature, the late-game Lezduit and above all Knifey, the bloodthirsty talking knife. Players like that each gun plays differently and that switching weapons during a conversation changes the commentary. "Lezduit" turns up as a one-word review again and again. Some find one gun or another grating, most often Kenny or Sweezy, which feeds into the complaints about constant chatter.

Colorful alien worlds and art directionMedium

Of longer reviews, 17% comment on the look, mostly with praise for vivid, psychedelic alien cities, strange creature designs and good lighting for a stylized game. A few find the colors overwhelming or the backgrounds flat, and several note that the game reuses its three main areas rather than adding new ones.

Hidden extras: full movies, TV, ads and joke achievementsMedium

Players enjoy how much is tucked away. The in-game TV plays entire real B-movies, including Tammy and the T-Rex and Demon Wind (with RedLetterMedia riffing over it), alongside fake commercials and Rick and Morty style cable shows. One short review simply said: "Includes the whole movie of Tammy and the T-Rex". The fake "15 hours at the alien strip club" achievement, space Applebee's and the chance to shoot an annoying kid come up often as shorthand for the game's sense of humor. Reviewers who explore say this material adds hours to their playtime.

Voice castMedium

Reviewers single out the voice work and the cast of internet comedians and actors: Zach Hadel, Michael Cusack as Knifey, Tim Robinson as Creature, J.B. Smoove as Gus, plus a celebrity cameo late in the game. Several note how much improvised-sounding dialogue there is. "Bought for the voices, stayed for the gameplay," as one reviewer put it.

Boss fightsMedium

Bosses are the part of the combat that even some skeptics like: inventive set pieces, some genuinely challenging on higher difficulty, with the trippy Nipulon fight mentioned more than once. The complaints sit at the end of the game, where some found the final bosses rushed, easy or buggy (see the bugs theme).

Runs well on Steam DeckLow

A small group played on Steam Deck and reports it running well, a few with gyro aiming. One Deck player found it would not load without an internet connection, and a couple could not hold a steady frame rate.

Where players are split

The shooting and movementHigh

Among longer reviews, 21% praise the combat, movement or gunplay, while 9% criticize it. Fans describe a fast, Doom- or Ratchet & Clank-like shooter that improves once the jetpack, dash and grapple arrive, with guns whose alternate fire doubles as puzzle tools. Detractors call it generic, floaty or clunky, with weak hit feedback and simple enemy AI; one called it "Mediocre shooter mechanics, but veeery funny". Several reviews on both sides describe the humor as the thing that has to carry the shooting, and the negative ones say it can't. Other players note that the first few hours are the weakest and the game opens up later.

Whether the humor lasts the whole gameMedium

For some players the comedy that sells the game wears thin. Some who liked the opening say the jokes repeat, that too many bits are a character over-explaining something, and that a style built for 20-minute episodes does not stretch to a full game. "Once the comedy wore off there wasn't a lot left to this game." Others insist it stays funny to the end, and several recommend playing in short sessions so the banter does not grate. Several players who dislike Rick and Morty style humor say they refunded within the first hour or two.

High on Knife DLCMedium

12% of longer reviews bring up the High on Knife expansion, and they split. Some enjoyed Knifey taking center stage, the horror-tinged tone and the new gun. Others call it short (about two to six hours by their counts), too pricey for what it adds and weaker without Kenny, whom the DLC replaces with a new gun, Harper. Players who 100% the game also object that the DLC added achievements, pushing completionists into a purchase. "Original good, DLC bad" sums up one camp.

DifficultyLow

Reviewers who bring up difficulty tend to find it easy on Normal, and a handful say even the hardest mode posed no challenge. Others, especially self-described casual players, appreciate that it is forgiving and that difficulty can be lowered for a single boss.

Story and endingLow

The story gets polite approval as a simple bounty-hunter plot that the jokes carry. Some players found the last stretch rushed: the late-game Lezduit is usable for only one mission, the final boss felt anticlimactic to some, and the ending lacks an epilogue.

What frustrates players

Too short for the asking priceHigh

Price comes up in 20% of longer reviews and length in 14%, and they are usually the same complaint: a campaign players finish in roughly 8 to 15 hours, with little to do afterwards, against the $60 launch price reviewers cite. 11% of longer reviews explicitly say to wait for a sale, and most of that advice treats a discount as the condition for buying rather than a reason to skip it. Typical phrasing is "Worth it on Sale, not worth the full price." Several reviewers name a fair price somewhere between $15 and $30, often with the DLC bundled.

Bugs, including lost weapon upgradesMedium

Bugs or glitches come up in 11% of longer reviews. The one players describe in most detail happens late in the story: you set your guns down for a conversation, and when you pick them back up the upgrades you bought can stop working. "There's a bug towards the end of the game that takes away all the upgrades for your guns." Players who hit it say they found no way to get the upgrades back, and reviews written in late 2023, 2024 and later still report it. Other repeat offenders include the second boss Krubis getting stuck underground ("The Boss, Krubis, becomes permanently stuck underground"), the door to the Slums sitting on "Loading" for 15 to 30 minutes, falling through the floor, softlocks that force a checkpoint reload, a final boss that vanishes, and bugged achievements. Because the game keeps a single checkpoint save, a bug that triggers an autosave can cost hours.

Repetitive fights and few enemy typesMedium

10% of longer reviews call the game repetitive, and 19% of negative reviews call it boring or dull. What they mean most specifically is enemy variety: most fights are against the same goo-armored cartel grunts in arena waves, and areas are reused. "you literally fight THE SAME YELLOW GUYS OVER AND OVER AND OVER," wrote one frustrated Rick and Morty fan. Plenty of positive reviews list the same flaw among their cons.

Long dialogue you can't skip or walk away fromMedium

Even players who came for the talking complain about how it is delivered. Reviewers describe about cutscenes and conversations that freeze them in place, NPCs who keep talking if you stay and cut off if you leave, and side characters talking at length (the sister Lizzie and Gene arguing at home, plus a floating character who follows you through one mission and never stops talking). "Feels like you spend more time waiting for dialog to end than playing the game." Others are glad there is a setting to reduce gun chatter: "Thank god it has the option to make the guns shut up". A few reviewers suggest letting conversations continue over a radio-style channel while you move, pointing to the way Borderlands does it.

Crashes and PC performanceMedium

Crash reports include Unreal's LowLevelFatalError, crashes at startup or every few minutes, and a fatal error on the ROG Ally tied to its lighting sync. Other players report stutter even on strong hardware, resolution stuck at 720p, and 43 GB downloads for small patches. Crash complaints are concentrated among players with little playtime: 5.4% of reviews from players with under 2 hours mention crashes, against about 1% in every other group. Other reviewers say it runs smoothly on modest hardware.

Missable achievements and nothing to do after the creditsLow

Completionists, who make up a visible share of the reviews from players with 20+ hours, describe missable achievements that require a second run, grindy kill counts, RNG-dependent TV ads, achievements that bugged out and DLC-only achievements. They also want a reason to return: there is no New Game+, you cannot refight bosses, and Lezduit is gone once the story ends. "One thing I don't like is that you can't re-fight a bounty without starting a new game."

No mapLow

Mostly raised by players going back for collectibles: there is no map, only a radar, and the portal home is hard to find. "The game badly needs a map tho." A few players liked exploring without one.

Motion sickness, FOV and motion blurLow

A small but intense group could not play. They cite fast head bob, motion blur that does not fully turn off, and FOV options that some found missing and one said break animations when raised. "I was feeling severely motion sick because of the FOV settings," wrote one player who refunded. These reports cluster among players with under 2 hours: 3% of that group raise it, against under 0.5% of everyone else.

Missing languagesLow

A handful of reviews, mostly in Chinese, ask for official Chinese subtitles, and one notes that a fan translation can break the first boss fight.

3. The player conversation

The reviews skew short and upbeat. A large share are a word or a line ("Lezduit", "funny game", "talking guns"), and many of the longer ones list the flaws first and then recommend the game, often adding "on sale" or "if you like Rick and Morty". Negative reviews are fewer but longer and more specific; they focus on boredom, price, combat that does not hold up without the jokes, and bugs. Few reviewers are angry about the core design; the angry ones are mostly writing about the upgrade-wiping bug or the DLC.

What reviewers bring up varies with their playtime. Players with under two hours talk about crashes, stutter, motion sickness and humor that did not click. Reviewers in the 10 to 20 hour range, typically those who just finished the campaign, talk about length and price; 9% of reviews from the 10 to 20 hour group mention the game being short. Players past 20 hours raise the DLC (12% of their reviews), achievements (8%) and the lost-upgrade bug.

Sentiment barely moved across the review period. Every quarter with 200 or more reviews sits between 83% and 91% positive. A burst of short, enthusiastic reviews arrived in late November 2023 (692 reviews in about a week, 97% positive). The weakest month was August 2024 at 79%, a month in which a number of reviewers mention getting the game in a bundle. Interest spiked again in February and March 2026, with 797 reviews in five weeks holding at 89% positive and dozens of them mentioning the sequel.

4. What the developers could do

1. Fix the weapon-upgrade wipe and the other progression bugs. The late-game bug that removes gun upgrades, the Krubis boss sinking underground and the endless Slums door load come up repeatedly, from players who say they found no way to recover.
2. Add manual or multiple save slots. With one checkpoint save, a bug or crash that lands on an autosave becomes unrecoverable, which turns minor glitches into reasons for a negative review.
3. Let dialogue continue while the player moves, or make it skippable. Players describe standing frozen in place through long conversations, and a few point to Borderlands-style radio dialogue as the fix.
4. Add enemy and encounter variety. The repeated waves of the same cartel grunts are what players mean when they call the combat repetitive, and positive reviews raise it too.
5. Address crashes and comfort settings on PC and handhelds. Players with under two hours cite LowLevelFatalError crashes, the ROG Ally crash, stutter and a 720p lock, plus motion blur that cannot be fully disabled and fast head bob.
6. Give players something after the credits. A boss rematch mode or New Game+ that keeps Lezduit, trackable missable achievements and fixes for bugged ones would answer the completionists' main requests.
7. Add a map or navigation aid for collectibles. Players backtracking for chests describe getting lost without a map or a quick route home.
8. Price the game and DLC together where players see the value. Reviewers who raise price judge the length against the $60 launch price and name a fair price of roughly half that or less, often bundled with High on Knife.