When I reviewed High On Life, the main talking point was the great voice acting provided for each Gatlian. All were performed by well-known comedians which spiced up the overall gaming experience with their rather colorful dialogue. With that said, there is one stand out, this being Knifey.
He is the 2nd Gatlian you obtain early in the first mission. He is also the only melee weapon therefore making him the only weapon to stay in active use during the entire game. Knifey is extremely vocal in expressing his desire to murder anything that moves. Some of his most comical lines are delivered when used to finish off an enemy.
High on Knife is the first DLC for High On Life and can be played instantly after installation. You will see the option appear in the main menu. So, if you have not completed or played the base game but want to dive right into High On Knife, then you can absolutely do so. In fact, this adventure is rather on the short side with about 2-3 hours to complete the main quest and a couple more to complete some of the side mini-quests.
To avoid spoilers, I am going to dance around the main story mission a bit. All you need to know is upon returning to your house, Gene informs Knifey that a delivery attempt was made but he was too lazy to answer the door. They left a note which he stuck on the fridge. The note says Knifey needs to pick up the package that is on a planet called Peroxis. After reading the slip, Knifey notices the sender is from his home world of murdering knives.
As you may have seen from the DLC trailer, this adventure is more on the horror side but still contains plenty of the over-the-top vulgar humor one would expect. Note: before heading over to activate this mission on the bounty board, I recommend watching the news that is running on the TV. The news anchor gives a complete rundown of the base High On Life game story from beginning to end. It is a subtle way to indirectly fill in the new or returning player.
Similar to how I played the base game, I purposely walked up to every slug / NPC possible just to listen to their meaningless gabber. You are fully equipped with all the weapons from the base game as well as a fully upgraded bounty hunter suit. High On Knife also introduces some new weapons and abilities which I will not spoil, except for the first which is B.A.L.L, what does it stand for? According to the merchant, it doesn’t matter. All you need to know is it shoots out balls and sounds like you playing pinball.
It is a fantastic weapon that has multiple functions, so much so that the game requires you to complete a mini-game tutorial before advancing. Like the other Gatlian guns, this one has two little critters that mumble a lot and occasionally say something understandable but do not expect lengthy dialogue like with the others. You will obtain a few more cool weapons which all serve a purpose and in some cases a requirement similar to how Knifey can also be used as a grappling hook and is needed to reach areas.
The gameplay has not changed outside of the new weapons which is fine. I was never expecting a COD-level FPS gameplay experience, especially since the key elements of the game and High On Knife are the wacky characters, colorful humor, and plenty of laughs.
High On Knife does not stray at all from the base game and feels very much like a fitting DLC and not a last-minute add-on. So, if you are looking for something way out of left field or just need to take a break from another Sci-Fi game like Starfield, then I recommend spending a couple of hours playing this DLC. Just make sure no minors are around to hear the Gatlians.
This review was written based on a digital review copy of High On Knife for Xbox Series X provided by Squanch Games.
