High on Life 2: Acid Humor and Fast Combat Arrive on Steam Deck, with Visual Trade-offs

Complete review of High on Life 2: unique style, fun narrative, and performance on the Steam Deck with visual compromises. Is it worth it?

Critical Summary

High on Life 2 arrives as a sequel that maintains the original's eccentric spirit but raises the stakes in vibrant visuals, sharp humor, and agile combat. Despite the departure of one of the creative founders, the title delivers a unique adventure that stands out among contemporary shooters.

The story follows the amnesiac bounty hunter who, along with his sister Lizzie, dives into a fight against a corporation that turns humans into medicinal material. The journey oscillates between a parodic tone and moments of intense action, featuring a surprising variety of settings and situations that surprise at every turn.

Design, Humor, and Gameplay

The game maintains the colorful visuals and acid humor that made the first title famous. The narrative branches out with charming twists, keeping the franchise's fast pace. Most of the gameplay is dedicated to shooting enemies, but the experience is enriched by side missions, puzzles, and investigation moments that break the repetition of shootouts.

The talking weapons remain the heart of the gameplay, each with its own personality and unique abilities that go beyond just dealing damage. Furthermore, the return of the skate as a central mechanic adds dynamism to combat and exploration actions — it is fast, addictive, and helps navigate the world fluidly.

Variety of Environments and Progression

The title presents a sequence of distinct locations ranging from a human zoo to mysterious cruise ships and floating hangars. The variety extends to the progression systems: currency, suit upgrades, weapons, and new abilities that expand exploration and combat options as the player advances.

Humor and Accessibility

The humor is an acquired taste, with crude jokes and pop culture references that may please or alienate depending on age and personal taste. Nevertheless, the balance between fast action and well-placed jokes helps maintain the pace without sounding forced.

In terms of accessibility, the game offers speech indicators, subtitle and UI size adjustments, camera movement modulation, HUD adjustment, and support for colorblind options. It is worth noting that the title does not support 16:10 resolutions and lacks HDR, in addition to having cloud saves and controller support.

Performance on Steam Deck

Even with the confidence that it would run well on handheld, High on Life 2 requires concessions to achieve stable gameplay on the Steam Deck. The title runs with predefined settings close to minimum, keeping Global Illumination on High and using FSR 3 upscaling in Ultra Performance mode, resulting in frame drops during intense combat moments.

With these choices, the framerate stays near 30 FPS during fights and can drop even lower in open areas when exploring the world, especially while skating. Visual quality is somewhat compromised by rendering via upscaling, which may appear more pixelated to some players.

Optimization Options

• Reducing Global Illumination to Low increases the framerate beyond 30 FPS, peaking at 40, but with a loss of visual detail.
• In open areas and extensive sections, the framerate can still drop below 30 FPS, even with adjustments.
• The title remains technically playable on the Deck, but it is not the best experience for those seeking maximum graphical fidelity.

Conclusion

High on Life 2 exceeds expectations as a sequel, offering an engaging story, fast combat, and a visually captivating world. The positive points — pacing, variety of environments, and the personality of the weapons — outweigh the small flow issues at the beginning and the humor that might not appeal to everyone. On PC, the game seems to shine brighter, and on the Steam Deck, it is fully playable, provided one accepts visual compromises.

This review was based on the PC version of the game, with observations about the Steam Deck experience taking into account the limitations of the portable hardware.

Let's Talk

Curious to know if High on Life 2's humor works for you? Tell us in the comments which aspect of the gameplay caught your attention the most and if the Steam Deck concessions change your desire to play. Do you prefer the more acidic style of humor or do you prioritize visual fluidity during combat sessions?

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