Look, I would really rather not be a hater. Itâs nice to like things. It makes life simpler, and we can all be happy together. Plus, humor is a highly subjective thing; whatâs funny to you may not be funny to me. But, woof, man. The latest trailer for High on Life had me cringe so hard, my soul withered away from my body.
The premise of Rick and Morty creator Justin Roilandâs upcoming sci-fi shooter is as wacky as youâd expect: An alien cartel invades earth because they like to literally get high on humans. You become a bounty hunter and set out to stop them. To accomplish this heroic feat, you team up with two talking guns who like to comment on nearly everything you do in-game.
And of course, the guns have Roilandâs signature voicesâif you close your eyes, sometimes the weapons sound like Rick and Morty themselves. Possibly, if you are of a certain age, that by itself is worth the price of admission, and extremely funny on its own, without it mattering what, precisely, Roiland even says. It never matters if itâs vaguely Rick and Morty adjacent. Thatâs why these Nickeledeon slime-ass Rick and Morty shoes existand thatâs why there are people out there who legitimately think they look great.
Living in a post-Szechuan Sauce world has made me weary, though. Rick and Morty was pretty good, and then it got played out by that fervent fandom, except years later Iâm still being subjected to the same thing.
Itâs the same shtick, but crossed with everything that makes Marvel dialogue so damn bad. Itâs almost like modern media is so afraid to let you sit with your self that it has to insert constant quips in there to make sure not just that youâre getting it, but that you understand itâs quick-witted and in this case, edgy. Whedon by way of Borderlands. Maybe in my teens or early twenties this would have been the height of comedy, but now itâs just uncomfortable.
Some of that discomfort is by design, of course. Roiland loves his gross-out fun, and the guns themselves are a little ugly. The base mechanic, however, is clearly meant to be funny but instead veers into flat-out annoying for me: I donât want something commenting on everything I do. Thatâs like asking your clingy little sibling who wonât leave you alone to aggravate you on purpose. Why?
Likely, I am not the target audience. As of this writing, one of the top-voted comments on GameSpotâs YouTube upload of the trailer, by the distinguished RageCrazeGamer, says, âlooks sick and i was laughing hard looking forward to this one.â
High On Life is out for Xbox and PC on December 13th, 2022.
