High on Life

That- uh- That'll do it.

There comes a time in each man's life where whether he intends to or not he'll end up confronted the path of the life he lived and challenge it against his own dreams. He'll ask himself why he is here and not there, how much he deserves what he has and if he deserves something different, and is there ever going to be a point in his life where he can escape the shadow of his successes to rove out in search of something new. I'd imagine it was one of these intrinsic drives that led to the creation of Squanch games, the games company owned and co-created by seasoned entertainment industry creator Justin Roiland attempting to add a layer of intractability to his signature styles of explosive and often crass humour mixed around a swirl of random to create the surprising. I can appreciate that, I can appreciate the visual style and I can certainly appreciate the diversity of the games they make; but my god am I getting a little tired of hearing the Morty voice in every one of their projects. Justin is a voice actor, right? He can do other voices, can't he? Heck, isn't he LemonGrab? Do that voice- anything else! (Never thought hearing something reminds me of R&M would make me roll my eyes so much.)

That being said, I meant the rest of my praise. This really is a studio that tries different approaches and ideas and genres pretty much everytime they sit down to make a game. And whilst that isn't to say they're remaking the wheel with each new project or anything (although they did slide in relatively early to the whole 'VR' thing), you don't have to in order to make an entertaining experience game. Which is how I'd pretty much sum up their style of games. Each are experiences, typically tipped towards random humour. (I would say 'surrealist'; but that term seems a bit strong for their decidedly more focused, yet still absurdist, comedy content.) They don't have the eye-watering mind distorting insanity of 'Cruelty Squad' or even that game which melted my frontal cortex a while back, 'Parasight'; but they do send you on loopy experiences pieces that typically present funny voices for funny looking people having prolonged conversations that get funnier the more you endure them. 

Which is why I'm both quiet surprised that this latest game of theirs is a shooter, and the fact that it took so long for them to get here to an FPS in the first place. Shooters are like the first game ever made by industrial man; you'd have thought this lot would have wiggled their way around to parodying this style of game a tad sooner. But to be fair, if what the trailer we've seen of this work is at all indicative of the scope and scale of the game they intend to deliver; High on Life could very well be their most ambitious game that Squanch games have ever made. Which is to say that this trailer revels in vibrant and diverse environments that look supremely open and encouraging to the 'investigator' style of player, in the same sort of way that odd school level-based FPS' might have been had their design principles made it into the modern era of gaming. I get real old-school Halo 'curated safari' vibes from the footage I'm seeing right now.

Following the showcase of Redfall was a little unfair for Arkane's first bout into multiplayer action given the forced funny of that game clashing against the natural humorous vibe that High on Life enjoys woven into it's very concept. I mean stopping an intergalactic Alien drug cartel from kidnapping and converting humans into their product is morbidly absurd from the get-go, even as an excuse to have the player flit about with guns that speak back to them in unique personalities with their own firing mechanisms. It's a decidedly novel concept that invites creativity in the same sort of way that Oddworld Stranger's Wrath did with it's bug-based weapons that fired similar themed ammunition; I wonder if there might be a bit of the ol' creative inspiration spawning from that end of the development world.  

What I'm immediately impressed by, just watching the trailer of this game, is the quality of the visuals as they are. I mean sure, Squanch games have always had a high quality of visual presentation that matches the best of 3d animation at times, but again those games have always been undemanding from a game performance standpoint. (Barring the ritualistic sacrifices required to get a functional VR set functioning. I always source the wrong breed of goat.) I would have believed that an in-your-face action game might demand concessions but I would be very wrong, the environments pop with vibrant full colours fitting this toy-box aesthetic not unlike how I'd imagine a 3d iteration of Roiland's iconic show looking. And the animation department does the rest of the work to make this gameplay look AAA quality from the visuals alone. 

Though it might seem a little hairbrained to compare the two, right now I'm seeing High on life gameplay and am mentally comparing it to a goopier and cuddlier version of DOOM, albeit in more of a 'broad strokes' sort of way. By that I mean you've got the decent paced action in distinct looking environments, enemies that, from a moment's glance, seem visibly diverse enough to support some decently varied combat encounters and keep the level-to-level play feeling fresh, and there's even a goreless version of that ultraviolence which is sure to make a few people wince regardless of the lack of blood. That shot of the knife digging into that one Alien's giant eye and dragging it out of his skull is pretty much as visceral as your typical DOOM execution as it is. If the developers can live up to that level of FPS gameplay fun then there'll undoubtedly be a very special game on our hands.

What is interesting to me from a business stand point, is that this game is actually going to be a console exclusive to the Xbox, which apparently means it's going to come to everything but the Nintendo and Playstation ecosystem despite Microsoft's apparent great relationship with the big N. And when I say everything, I very much mean the last gen consoles as well because for this moment at the very least Microsoft seem utterly unwilling to leaves the Xbox One behind in any situation where they can help it. I wonder exactly what High on Life is taking advantage of for next gen machines in order to look at good as it does and what of that is going to be sacrificed in order to have a working last gen version. (maybe some raytracing, I did see some pretty reflective puddle technology.)

High on Life looks like another solid game out of Squanch games which is a bit of a slap in the face to me because I fully expected this whole company to be one of those short lived experimental groups who come together to put out one game and then just sort of exist for a while until they get snapped up by a bigger conglomerate and are never heard from again. That seems to be the safer route for a fledgling game company to go, but Squanch really wants to make a go of his whole 'indie' thing and I commend them for it. With every success they put out they're slowly establishing themselves as a high quality alternative to a lot of the big studios and we've been missing sort of disparity for a long time, good on the team and I hope they keep smashing away at hit after hit as their dreams grow to meet their talents.