Four Things High On Life 2 Must Do Differently

High On Life — a vibrant and comedic, linear FPS — is the latest venture from Rick and Morty creator, Justin Roiland, and his studio, Squanch Games. While High On Life presents itself as an all-round solid videogame — providing a truly unique sci-fi experience, it's still far from perfect. When the sequel eventually rolls around, I hope Roiland and Squanch improve a few aspects.

1. COMBAT

While the varied selection of kooky weapons featured in High On Life is a welcome breath of fresh air when compared to most shooters' more realistic approach, High On Life's combat otherwise feels dated. Ultimately, it's very clunky, limited, and becomes a little repetitive after a short time.

I feel it would benefit greatly from more fluid movement and tighter shooting during combat encounters — currently it's just either too loose or too stiff in all the wrong places. Jumping, dashing, and dodging all certainly need to make a return in High On Life 2, but they need to be slicker; adding in sliding and vaulting would also help maintain pace during combat too, and give the player more manoeuvrability. If Squanch Games is able to amalgamate these movement improvements with some heavier, more weighty shooting, they will have an excellent little sci-fi shooter on their hands.

2. YOUR CHARACTER

High On Life's player character implementation is, well, odd, to say the least; you're a silent protagonist hidden away in a suit, but you're still asked to select an appearance from a range of pre-sets. Choosing your appearance is completely redundant, due to the creative direction and first-person layout present in the game.

In the sequel I think Squanch Games simply need to ditch the bizarre face selection and silent protagonist combination for something better. Honestly, I think they should go all in on character development in the sequel instead, in a style reminiscent of Prey (2017): all the player needs to do is select a gender and everything else is done by the developer. The gender selection would provide a fixed appearance and more importantly, a voice, which brings me to my next point. That stereotypical Justin Roiland ad-libbed, meta banter is rife throughout the game, and having the player character chip in with an actual voice — rather than selecting silently delivered speech options — would be an amazing addition. Throw in a unisex name and a presto you have a character the world can interact with far more effectively.

3. MAP SYSTEM

Any sequel would be greatly improved by a map system; nothing fancy, just something that shows a level's layout would be much appreciated. High On Life has no map feature whatsoever and it's quite frustrating.

It wouldn't matter how they approach it; they could have you unlock the layout as you explore the level, buy maps from shops, or find maps hidden in levels — anything is better than nothing. Going one step further, you could have points of interest marked on said map, so that when you inevitably return to the level later you don't have to re-explore it to find places, things, and people again. Each level has an abundance of chests to break open, but you're not always able to do it then and there — marking a map with where they are and the equipment you need would be a vast improvement.

4. MORE COLLECTABLES

Rather than encountering the same alien chest in every level, I think the game should have more varied things for the player to collect. The pesos chests are great because they give you much needed cash to spend on upgrades, but it would be nice to find other items too.

I would personally like to see some miscellaneous items scattered around levels; alien odds and ends that breathe life into the numerous worlds to better establish the weird and wonderful creatures that live in them. Monetary rewards and weapon upgrades are great Squanch Games, but I need some world building! The well-made, light platforming element is there, so now give me more of a reason to go off exploring. Instead of just dumping the same copy-and-paste chest at the end of my excursion, give me a fetch quest item, a world-building knick-knack, a reward chest, or even an Easter egg.

There are four things that I would like to see in High On Life 2 (and I do so hope we are able to get a High On Life 2 in one form or another, it was good, and you can read our review here). What did you think of High on Life? Is there anything you would alter for the sequel? Let me know in the comments below.