High On Life 2

I came into High On Life 2 with low expectations and high hopes: low expectations for technical polish at launch, and high hopes for the manic voice-driven comedy and weapon personalities that made the first game memorable. The sequel doubles down on the absurd — skateboard traversal, sharper gunplay, and a story that actually surprises in a few spots — and still manages to feel like Squanch Games' tradition of weird, smart goofiness. What complicates things is that the launch build is littered with performance quirks on a wide range of hardware, which often turns belly laughs into frustration mid-mission. If you can tolerate a couple of rough edges (or wait for hotfixes), there’s a very good game hiding underneath the stutters.

Skate-to-Slay: Movement That Actually Feels Fun

High On Life 2 centers around a frantic first-person rhythm of shooting, slashing and skating, and the skateboard addition genuinely changes how you approach levels, giving traversal a momentum-driven flow that blends speedrunning lines with combat improvisation. I spent more time than I should admittingly grinding rails and bashing extraterrestrial cops with the deck because the controls are snappy, the jumps feel weighty enough and the level design consistently rewards creative movement. Combat has tightened up since the first game: weapons feel punchier, aim feedback is clearer, and enemy variety forces you to swap tactics rather than rely on one trick. There’s still a heavy focus on scripted, gag-driven encounters that reward timing and improvisation, which made me laugh out loud multiple times while also occasionally facepalming at the absurdity. Boss fights lean into bizarre design and comedy beats, which kept pacing varied between zippy arena scraps and more exploratory segments. Overall, the core loop of skate, shoot, explore remained oddly addictive even when performance hiccups tried to derail it.

When Weapons Have Feelings (And You’ll Talk Back)

What sets this sequel apart is how it expands the personality of the arsenal and the rag-tag crew, and how traversal is married to comedy in service of gameplay rather than just jokes. The alien guns once again have attitudes — and Squanch doubles down: they complain, flirt, and insult your tactics while still being mechanically useful, which made me attach to loadouts in a way I didn’t expect. New additions like nimble Gatlian companions and more interactive environmental gags make exploration less of a checklist and more of a playground for emergent comedic moments. The skateboarding and obstacle-heavy courses create mini-game set pieces that often feel like Ghostrunner-lite sprinting sections with gunplay layered on top, and I loved the variety that opened up for speed-based combat. There’s also an emphasis on pacing through set pieces such as a sprawling convention, a human zoo, and a luxury cruiser — each area has distinct verticality and traversal hooks that encourage experimentation. If you liked the first game's vibe, this sequel feels like a confident expansion rather than a re-skin.

Neon, Noise and Unreal: Presentation and Performance Realities

Visually, High On Life 2 is a feast: colorful alien palettes, polished character animation, and a voice cast that sells almost every line make the world pop, and the soundtrack supports the manic tone with punchy beats. The game clearly benefits from Unreal Engine's visual toolset — the particle effects and lighting sell the chaos — but that same engine also exposes some rough edges: shader loads and micro-stutters are common on many setups, and I saw frequent frame drops and occasional crashes in longer sessions. Audio and writing do a lot of heavy lifting when the visuals hiccup; the cast keeps momentum through moments where the frame rate doesn't. Accessibility options are basic but present, and settings like Nvidia Reflex/Frame Generation can dramatically affect smoothness if your GPU supports them. On Windows the game runs well on high-end rigs with the right tweaks, but mid-range players should probably wait a few updates for polished performance.

High On Life 2 is loud, weird and often brilliant: its improved combat and skateboard-driven traversal make for some of the most fun I’ve had in an FPS campaign in recent years. However, the launch build’s optimization problems are serious enough to temper enthusiasm for many players, so my recommendation is a conditional buy — great for those on powerful PCs or patients who can wait for patches, less so for players on mid-range rigs right now. Keep an eye on updates; the core game is worth the attention.