You finished the first High on Life, laughed at the talking guns, and then mostly forgot about it. High on Life 2 is betting that won’t happen again — and after digging through reviews, patch notes, and player feedback since its February 13, 2026 launch, the short version is that Squanch Games fixed more than they broke, but not everything.
What you’ll know after reading this
By the end of this article you’ll understand what actually changed between the two games, why the skateboard matters more than any new gun, what’s still rough around the edges technically, and whether this is a Game Pass play, a full-price buy, or a skip.
The setup: same galaxy, different stakes
High on Life 2 picks up after the Outlaw — the bounty hunter protagonist from the first game — has cashed in on fame from taking down the original alien cartel. That fame turns sour fast: a figure from the Outlaw’s past puts a bounty on a sibling’s head, dragging the player back into a conspiracy tied to Rhea Pharma, a galactic pharmaceutical company turning humans into a drug called Humansa. It’s the same big-pharma satire engine as the first game, just with higher stakes and a more personal hook.
Mechanically, it’s still a first-person shooter built around a roster of wisecracking alien weapons called Gatlians. The sequel adds dialogue choices when talking to your guns, three large hub areas instead of one, and a Metroidvania-influenced structure for unlocking new zones as you gain traversal abilities.
The skateboard is the actual headline feature
If there’s one thing separating this from the first game, it’s not a weapon — it’s a board. The skateboard started as a scrapped power-up idea for the original High on Life and got promoted to the sequel’s central traversal mechanic once the development team kept iterating on movement. Reviewers who played through the campaign described grinding rails, kickflipping enemies, and using ramps built directly into level geometry as one of the most satisfying parts of the whole game, with the sense of speed and the physical feedback of riding called out specifically as standout design choices.
That’s a meaningful shift from the first game, where movement was mostly double-jumping, dashing, and grappling. Levels in High on Life 2 are visibly built around the board: rails appear where you’d expect handholds, and the game rewards chaining tricks into combat rather than treating movement and shooting as separate systems.
What changed without Justin Roiland
Justin Roiland, the original studio head and the creative voice most associated with High on Life’s brand of crude, Rick and Morty–adjacent comedy, resigned from Squanch Games in 2023 and has no involvement in the sequel. Critics who reviewed the game noted the tonal shift directly: the humor is still gross, still violent, still happy to break the fourth wall, but it reads as less mean-spirited. One widely cited example is that an early moment from the first game — where the joke hinges on being able to kill a child and the game daring you to feel bad about it — would feel out of place in the sequel’s tone. The writing leans harder into being a “fun shooter and serviceable send-up of big pharma” than into shock value for its own sake.
If you bounced off the original because the comedy felt cruel rather than funny, that’s the single biggest reason to give the sequel another look.
Where it still struggles
Shooting itself — the core verb of an FPS — is the part multiple reviewers flagged as the weakest link, even in otherwise positive reviews. The guns talk, they’re charismatic, the writing around them lands, but the actual feel of firing them hasn’t kept pace with the movement systems built around the skateboard. Boss fights fared a little better: critics who found the original’s boss encounters forgettable said the sequel’s are more entertaining, with several specifically praised for breaking format in ways the first game didn’t attempt.
Launch performance was the other recurring complaint. Independent of review scores, players reported instability at release — hangs, freezes, and progress-blocking bugs — severe enough that some asked for refunds. Squanch Games has been patching post-launch, and at least one reviewer who initially assumed the game was poorly optimized later found their own loading sequence was the culprit rather than the game itself, which is a useful reminder to update before judging stability on day one.
How it actually scored
Review aggregation came out mixed-to-positive depending on platform: the Windows and PlayStation 5 versions landed in “mixed or average” territory on Metacritic, while the Xbox Series X/S version scored “generally favorable.” OpenCritic put overall critic recommendation at 57%. That split is worth knowing before you buy on a specific platform, since the technical issues at launch hit some versions harder than others.
Common mistakes players make going in
Expecting a multiplayer or co-op mode. High on Life 2 is single-player only — there’s no option to bring a friend along, unlike what some assumed from marketing built around a “team” of alien guns.
Treating it as a kid-friendly game because of the cartoonish art style. It carries a mature rating with blood, gore, strong sexual content, nudity, and drug references, and isn’t recommended for children.
Judging the game by your first hour. The intro sequence is an interactive montage covering years of the Outlaw’s life between games while teaching movement and shooting basics — it’s deliberately slower and more cutscene-heavy than the open galaxy-hopping that follows.
Launching before a full download or patch finishes. As noted above, at least one early stability complaint traced back to starting the game mid-install rather than an actual engine problem.
Should you buy it, and where
If you have Xbox Game Pass, High on Life 2 is included at no extra cost on console and PC, which makes it close to a no-risk way to try it. On PlayStation 5, it’s a standalone $59.99 purchase with no subscription bundling. A free demo is also available on PlayStation if you want to test the movement and combat feel before committing.
For full-price buyers: if traversal, level design, and a more grown-up comedic tone matter more to you than gunplay precision, this is a clear step up from the original. If tight, satisfying shooting is your main draw to the genre, temper expectations — that’s the one area critics consistently called unfinished.
Key takeaways
- The skateboard, not a new weapon, is the defining addition — levels are built around it, and reviewers consistently call it the best new system in the game.
- Comedy is noticeably less mean-spirited post-Roiland, trading shock value for a tone that still earns the mature rating without leaning on cruelty as the punchline.
- Shooting mechanics remain the weakest part of the experience, even in favorable reviews.
- Launch-week technical issues were real; patches have followed, so checking your update status before judging performance matters.
- Platform matters for review consensus: Xbox versions scored more favorably than Windows and PlayStation 5 at launch.
FAQ
Is High on Life 2 multiplayer or co-op? No. It’s single-player only, with no multiplayer mode on any platform.
Do I need to play the first High on Life to understand the sequel? Not strictly — the opening montage recaps the Outlaw’s history — but returning characters and the Rhea Pharma conflict carry more weight if you’ve played the original.
Is High on Life 2 on Game Pass? Yes, it’s included with Xbox Game Pass for console and PC play, plus cloud streaming via Game Pass.
How long is the campaign? Reviewers who focused on the main story finished it in roughly ten hours, with additional side content, hidden collectibles, and NPC interactions extending playtime for players who want to fully explore the three hub areas.
Is the game appropriate for kids? No. It carries a mature rating covering blood and gore, intense violence, nudity, strong sexual content, strong language, and drug and alcohol use.
Why does the game feel different in tone from the first one? Justin Roiland, the original creative lead, left Squanch Games in 2023 and had no role in the sequel. Critics describe the resulting humor as calmer and less cruelty-driven while staying just as crude and self-aware.
Was High on Life 2 buggy at launch? Yes, multiple players and reviewers reported freezing, hangs, and progress-blocking bugs in the initial release window. The developer has continued patching since launch.
Is the skateboard mandatory, or can I just use the grappling hook? The board becomes central to traversal after you acquire it early in the campaign, and level design is built assuming you’ll use it, so while older movement options remain available, skipping the board means missing how the game is meant to flow.
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