The Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase kicked off with some big surprises. New gameplay debuted for the upcoming co-op shooter Redfall, followed by confirmation of the long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong Metroidvania coming to Xbox Game Pass day one. The biggest surprise of the opening segment, however, was a prize for Rick & Morty fans. High on Life, a new game from Justin Roiland, is confirmed to be coming to PC and Xbox platforms.
The two-minute trailer for High on Life was fittingly absurd for a product of Justin Roiland's strange imagination. High on Life is a sci-fi first-person shooter, that much is clear. It's also based around collecting a strange alien species of gun-creature, each with their own unique powers. Roiland himself voices one of these guns, imploring the player to become a bounty hunter and rescue his gun-alien friends.
The pitch of High on Life focused less on the actual gameplay of the sci-fi FPS so much as the humor of the voiced guns in the game. Each gun has its own ridiculous personality, including one knife alien that wants nothing more than to stab other aliens. Other bizarre powers for the guns include taking control of other aliens and forcing them to fight, one that fires buzz-saws, and another that shoots his own "babies" that latch onto enemies and explode.
One provocative question is how the name High on Life correlates to the game itself. The trailer opens with the warning that aliens are using humans as drugs, including the depiction of a human Hyperbong promising the "high of humanity." A description for the game does also mention the villains of the story using the gun-aliens to get high, which could mean the creatures themselves are manifestations of drug use. That's a mystery Rick & Morty fans will have to wait to find out more about.
For a better idea of what to expect from High on Life, Rick & Morty fans can look at the prior output of Roiland's studio Squanch Games. Squanch has put out tiles including Accounting, Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality, and Trover Saves the Universe. All of these games are as audacious as fans might expect, full of insanity and outrageous humor. One thing that can be assumed is that the trailer is hiding the more offensive and disgusting aspects of the game for later.
Also confirmed in High on Life's announcement trailer is that the game will be launching day one on Xbox Game Pass. It'll be available not just on PC and console, but also through Xbox's cloud gaming offerings. Expect more information soon.
High on Life releases in October for PC and Xbox consoles.