Vibrant planets, a non-stop bullet storm, and psychopathic guns are a given in the sequel to Squanch Games’ first-person action-adventure game High on Life. But I didn’t expect to spend 90% of my time on a skateboard when I started the 45-minute gameplay demo of High on Life 2 at Gamescom. Not that I mind it, though.
Remember what a – no offense – uncool human you were in the original High on Life game? Your planet got invaded by aliens, you didn’t understand the first thing about intergalactic civilization, and you used your silly old legs to move around. In High on Life 2, you’ve finally become awesome – as in “famous skateboarding bounty hunter” awesome. Your life should’ve been smooth skating from here, but alas, an incident involving your sister puts you on the wrong side of intergalactic law.
After dropping from a plane, successfully avoiding space traffic, and landing in the midst of ParkingCon (on the convention planet of ConCon), the High on Life 2 demo instantly gave me that adrenaline rush I was hoping for. Being tasked with finding a parking spot, which basically means shooting the competition, I initially grabbed the two guns I’d been given: froggy Gus and fishy Sweezy, who you may remember from the first game.
But soon enough, I discovered a far better way to not only move around, but eliminate the parking competition in style: zooming around on my skateboard, bumping into aggressive aliens, and shooting my board away from under me and watching it hit them in the face. Sorry Knifey, but this will likely become my new favorite elimination method in High on Life 2.
After securing my parking spot, it was time to swap ParkingCon for PoliCon, where my assassination target, Senator Muppy Doo, would be. After a bit of parkour that involved jumping across floating cars, riding walls, and grinding rails, I landed right in front of the PoliCon entrance, where I was (understandably) denied entrance. Not to worry, by pretending to be a repair man, the nearby maintenance alien let me enter a broken elevator, break it a bit more, and drop down onto some poor, innocent maintenance workers below. Not sure what that says about me, but that’s exactly the kind of unexpected, hilariously dark twist I came to love in the original High on Life game.
No time to feel bad, though; I had to parkour forward and solve some puzzles to get closer to Senator Muppy Doo. This puzzle section was my least favorite part of the High on Life 2 demo, as I was eager to continue the story, see new locations, and jump back into action, but that doesn’t mean I found any fault in the puzzle design. I dutifully used Sweezy’s time-slowing ability to pass a fan, used Gus’ wall discs to reach higher platforms, and grabbed some “lugblobs” to power a door.
The demo then skipped forward to the end of a fight with fellow bounty hunter Sheath, who agreed to be turned into a gun. What followed was a highly disturbing gun-crafting scene involving body parts that’ll remind you of other body parts against your will. If you’re planning to play High on Life 2, beware that you’ll need a strong stomach.
Using Sheath’s spike ability, which fuses electrical power sources, I hacked a wall mechanism and got into more fights (if you ask me, there’s a lot of collateral damage involved in this one-target bounty contract), which provided a great opportunity to try Sheath’s three-shot bursts. Although his gunplay felt quite standard, I was happy to have a red dot sight at hand.
The next stop: MurderCon! I don’t think I need to explain that one, do I? Entering a neon-lit, multi-level disco hall, my task was to climb the ranks and become the last person standing (no worries, every contestant signed a waiver). Of all the action sequences in the demo, this insanely chaotic fight was by far my favorite. I got to use Sheath and Knifey (the stab-happy dagger from the first game), as well as my trusty skateboard. Another satisfying way to remove the competition was provided by the Hammerbirds, which I could pick up and slam down like a giant sledgehammer, eliminating multiple targets at once.
As the new MurderCon champion, I was fast-forwarded into the final part of the demo, where I finally got to fight Senator Muppy Doo. The first part of the boss fight wasn’t particularly interesting to me, as I was just shooting the Senator’s decoys, but then the Senator crawled into my head, or rather, my inventory. Yes, I mean that literally; he invaded my in-game inventory. That’s some next-level, fourth-wall-breaking weirdness.
Opening my inventory, I had to knock down the Senator to stop him from messing with my bullet damage and nitrogen sliders, before committing to a full factory reset and dropping into a 2D arcade game section. If you’re asking about the most unexpected part of the High on Life 2 demo, this was it. Of course, this demo was made for Gamescom specifically, so I’m not sure how much of the Senator’s shenanigans Squanch will keep in the release version, but for my part, the inventory invasion can stay.
It’s the creative, unusual gameplay bits like these that were the highlight of the High on Life 2 demo, followed by the brilliant addition of the skateboard and the on-brand humor. The one thing I would’ve liked to see more of, however, was other planets and the deeper narrative (specifically cutscenes and NPCs). Something that has always bugged me a bit about the original High on Life is the balance between action and narrative, with too much focus on the former. It’s a matter of taste, of course, but the main draw is the humor and the wacky story for me – if I want to shoot hordes of similar enemies, I can find them in other games, too. Based on this demo, I’d say the balance is still a bit off, but as long as I get my fill of improper jokes, I can probably live with that.
High on Life 2 is coming to PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on Feb. 13, 2026. It will be available on Game Pass day one.
