The unique Excessive on Life was an honest sufficient title, however one which I’d by no means take into account overly memorable. Its humor typically missed the mark, with primary gunplay leaving every encounter feeling overly samey. Excessive On Life 2 needs to vary this, however has it gone far sufficient?
A Acquainted Story
Excessive On Life 2 takes place years after the Bounty Hunter’s profitable journey to cease humanity from being enslaved and smoked by aliens. After a whirlwind victory tour, they discover themselves in a rut, going by the motions every day. They even begin off of their outdated house, which has since been transformed right into a museum exhibit.
Issues go south when their sister Lizzie – now a freedom fighter – will get a bounty on their head. Heading out to save lots of them, it begins one other journey with the lives of humanity on the road.
The fundamental premise is similar to that of the primary sport. Take out unhealthy guys, gather new weapons, save humanity. Actually, I’d go so far as to say that it’s mainly only a weaker retread relating to the intense aspect of the story.
At the very least Excessive On Life 2’s humorous aspect is a slight enchancment, slicing down on among the pressured chatter that plagued the unique. There’s nonetheless loads of it, thoughts you, with a number of jokes that simply boil right down to a easy bit that’s dragged on for a lot too lengthy.
Most of the stronger jokes are ones that make use of this being a sport moderately than a TV present. Messing with the UI, having you draw your personal face (that you simply’ll by no means see because of the sport being in first individual), and letting you discover loads of elective scenes in case you stroll off the overwhelmed path.
I wouldn’t say that I discover Excessive On Life 2 to be laugh-out-loud humorous more often than not, however it’s not less than bearable even at its lowest. On the identical time, the concentrate on trying to be humorous does imply that any time issues are made to be extra critical, it falls utterly flat.
So-So Gunplay, Now With A Skateboard
Common gunplay is one thing that I hoped Excessive On Life 2 would massively enhance upon. The primary sport’s fight had little actual affect and received extremely stale by the top. Sadly, it’s usually the identical within the sequel.
Whereas your Gatlians – sentient speaking weapons – take the place of standard weaponry, they don’t truly really feel that completely different from different sci-fi shooters. You may have SMG, a shotgun, and burst rifle equivalents to call a number of, they usually act usually as you’d anticipate. Every has entry to further talents equivalent to time stopping bubbles or electrical spikes, however I didn’t use them a lot exterior of platforming and puzzles.
The principle concern is that you simply’re hardly ever required to modify weapons on the fly throughout a shootout. Enemies don’t require particular methods (not even boss fights) and all Gatlians have infinite ammo.
Excessive On Life 2 tries to shake issues up as an alternative with the skateboard, “borrowed” from one other bounty hunter early on. Whilst you can dash round, you’ll normally as an alternative skate from location to location. It strikes at an honest velocity, and areas function a number of jumps and ramps to utilize your new mobility.
Whereas removed from a practical tackle skateboarding, it does add a singular dynamic to motion. It serves as a velocity enhance, wall trip, and even an extra assault throughout firefights by launching it at your enemies. Exterior of fights, you may also make use of it in skateparks and races for some further money and collectables.
It may be finicky at instances, equivalent to killing your momentum after barely clipping a rock, however it’s total Excessive On Life 2’s finest addition over the unique. Add within the air dashes you unlock later, and it turns into a enjoyable approach to get round each out and in of fights.
A Buggy Launch, Once more
The primary sport’s launch was fairly tough, bringing with it a whole lot of efficiency points and bugs. Excessive On Life 2 repeats this as soon as once more, with a framerate that goes in all places and loads of softlocks.
Taking part in on a comparatively excessive finish system with an RTX 5070 Ti, it could nonetheless wrestle to hit a secure 60fps in some areas at 1440p excessive settings. Body era clearly helps, however even then, there’s nonetheless noticeable stuttering. Many textures additionally take a very long time to load in, staying partially (or totally) low decision till a superb 10 seconds later.
The evaluation construct additionally broke on me loads of instances, one thing that has solely gotten barely higher since launch. Crashes are nonetheless current, together with different issues just like the UI breaking or enemies not spawning in.
A few of this might be chalked right down to the same old points with Unreal Engine 5, particularly the stuttering. Nonetheless, the present state of Excessive On Life 2 on PC (and certain consoles) is much worse than regular.
Excessive on Life 2 Evaluation | Last Ideas
Excessive on Life 2 is a slight enchancment over its predecessor in some methods, however it’s onerous to advocate proper now in its present state. Unhealthy efficiency and bugs which may by no means be totally fastened get in the way in which of what would in any other case be an inoffensive expertise.
Excessive on Life 2 was reviewed on PC utilizing a code offered by the writer over the course of 20 hours – all screenshots had been taken through the strategy of evaluation.
