High on Life 2: all the key details on the wacky FPS's squanchin' sequel

With the humour of Rick and Morty and the darkness of, well, Rick and Morty, High on Life arrived on the FPS scene within just a few months of its announcement back in 2022. It was a hit, even if we didn't we didn't particularly care for the shooting or the blabbing. Three years later, High on Life 2 seems set to do the exact same with a quick turnaround from announcement to release—though this time without Justin Roiland's involvement.

High on Life is bringing back the talking gun but adding some new stuff as well—what says cool sequel better than a skateboard? From following the announcement trailer to deep diving into Xbox’s news channels, I’ve pulled apart everything I can for High on Life 2 and chopped out all the good parts, much like Garmountous ripping out the spleen of an unsuspecting human.

From High on Life 2's story to its gameplay changes and release date, this is everything you should know about it right now.

High on Life 2 release date and platforms

Ah, the dreaded ‘coming soon’ release date tease, how we’ve missed you. So, High on Life 2 doesn’t yet have a confirmed release date yet. However, the game is reportedly set to arrive on PC and Xbox Series X|S in the winter of this year. That means High on Life 2 will operate pretty similarly to the announcement-to-release timeline of the first game.

High on Life was originally announced in the June 2022 Xbox Games Showcase, with a release date set for October. It was then quickly delayed to December that year. Maybe the vagueness of the winter release date for High on Life 2 provides enough flexibility for the dev team to avoid the disappointment of a possible delay. Either way, it sounds like we'll be playing it before long.

Will High on Life 2 be available on Xbox Game Pass?

High on Life 2 will be launching on Xbox Game Pass for Xbox and PC. It's also part of the Xbox Play Anywhere program, so you will be able to play it via cloud streaming. As noted by Xbox Wire, the first High on Life game was “Xbox’s biggest 3rd party launch in Game Pass history.” So the sequel certainly has some big, weird alien shoes to fill.

High on Life 2's first trailer

High on Life 2 was announced with a fittingly bizarre trailer at June’s Xbox Games Showcase. It opens with two aliens on a sofa, with one of them taking some form of human-based antidepressant named Humanzopro—only for the trailer to burst with surrealness and colour.

Our presumed main character skirts around an alien city with some new weapons. There’s an intentional trippiness to the action as they skate through half pipes with a fire-breathing lizard, only to eventually end up in a bottle of humanzopro. Yeah, High on Life 2 is one of those games.

Tellingly, ending up in the bottle of humanzopro touches on the cruel systems at play in the first game and the callous disregard for humanity as a primitive species. An underdog (or should I say underhuman?) in a galaxy indifferent to you, High on Life 2’s trailer hints at that same sardonic tone. Let’s just hope the game’s jokes and gameplay are sharper than the first.

High on Life 2 story

Set after the events of the first game (as you might be able to guess), a bounty is put on your sister, and you have to not only keep her safe but figure out who set the bounty. The plot so far sounds a tad contrived, but that’s all we’ve been given via the Xbox and Steam entry for the game. Like the first game's, the story seems to be a vehicle for getting across that world more than anything, and an excuse to quip a couple of one-liners while it’s doing so.

The backdrop remains pretty much the same, with a big and evil pharmaceutical company hooking aliens on shady substances. There seems to be an underpinning of space imperialism and exploitation, linked to the mass dehumanisation of human beings, but the first game didn’t really use that for much more than a couple of jokes and to raise tension. As we’ve only really got the one trailer, a couple of screenshots, and a short description, it seems likely the full game will go a tad deeper than that.

High on Life 2 gameplay

In the official trailer, we saw the return of Knifey (I think you can guess what he is), Gus, Sweezy, and the Creature. If you are normal and don’t remember the guns from High on Life off the top of your head, that is to say, you will be able to use an SMG, bomb gun, shotgun, and melee attack in High on Life 2. Alongside those, we also got a look at a new marksman-style rifle, a bow, and a frankly horrible fishy-looking set of dual pistols.

High on Life 2 appears to be building on the Metroidvania, part FPS elements of its predecessor, notably incorporating a skateboarding mechanic. There’s a sense of speed in the official trailer reminiscent of the likes of Sunset Overdrive. Whether or not this new skateboard will revolutionise High on Life’s movement is yet to be seen. A single trailer won’t give you a good idea of how it feels, even if we understand how it looks.