High on Life 2 review: a radical shooter for a radicalized generation

Squanch Games turns contemporary anxieties into sci‑fi satire with High on Life 2, a first‑person shooter that builds on 2022’s original while losing founder Justin Roiland after his 2023 exit. The sequel keeps the loudmouthed humor and ramps up the action, offering a timely cartoon comedy aimed at a radicalized generation even as much of its energy gets funneled into elaborate gags.

The game wastes no time setting its stakes. You play a celebrity bounty hunter whose sister Lizzie has become a revolutionary; rescuing her pulls you into a conspiracy around Rhea Pharmaceuticals, which plans to enslave humans as medicinal livestock. Your objective is to kill five aliens tied to the company and work your way up to the CEO with the help of a growing arsenal of wisecracking sentient guns — a premise that gives the satire clearer targets than the first game’s more scattershot conceits.

With Roiland out of the spotlight, Squanch leans harder on design and spectacle.

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