I’m very sober throughout my hands-on preview with Excessive On Life, a quick and loud first-person shooter from Squanch Video games, and for as soon as, that’s a nasty factor. If I confirmed as much as some other sport preview completely blitted out of my thoughts, it may be a problem–however right here, it’s most popular. Once I counsel, half-jokingly, that this sport is greatest performed excessive, artwork director Mikey Spano nods and says, “Precisely. It’s within the title.”
Excessive On Life is a first-person shooter from developer Squanch Video games, the brainchild of Justin Roiland (Rick and Morty) that has a number of video games below its belt (together with 2019’s Trover Saves The Universe). Naturally, as a Roiland by-product, your weapons incessantly speak at you on this sport–a lot in order that the response to its Gamescom trailer was a mixture of pleasure from Rick and Morty followers and cringe fatigue. However these speaking weapons even have quite a lot of totally different talents and makes use of. You’ll have to swap between them with the intention to efficiently kill bounties–and also you’ll have to kill these bounties to assist save humanity from aliens who’re actually getting excessive off of the human race.
Excessive On Life’s sections are organized by the bounties you’re tasked with taking out: the protagonist’s home, now invaded by aliens, is a central hub from which you’ll journey to far-off planets. I’m dropped into the sport in the course of the pursuit of a kind of bounties, however earlier than I step by a glowing purple portal that’s sitting catty-cornered in the lounge of a bog-standard center class American residence, I resolve to discover a bit.
A blobby, slimy alien sits on the sofa watching Tammy and the T-Rex on TV. Sure, Squanch Video games has procured the rights to play the whole thing of a schlocky 1994 flick starring the late Paul Walker as a highschool child who dies and whose mind is put inside a fucking T-Rex. “You get an achievement if you happen to watch the entire film,” neighborhood lead Jordyn Halpern tells me. There are a number of different B motion pictures out there to look at in Excessive On Life, simply in case you get too excessive and resolve really enjoying the sport is a bit overwhelming.
However bear in mind, I’m sober, so I stroll by the portal and am transported to a planet run by an alien cartel; its floor all reddish-brown mud and industrial constructions in varied states of despair, its underground all neon-soaked buildings and freaky-looking aliens spouting off stammering diatribes, as if BladeRunner had intercourse with, effectively, Rick and Morty. “Alex Robbins, our narrative director, did such a very good job penning this grounded story that makes all the opposite stuff funnier, as a result of if all the things is foolish nothing is foolish. That’s the identical with the artwork model, if all the things is loopy colourful you don’t discover it anymore, so we have been very cautious to spend our sources the place it issues,” Spano explains.
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On the floor degree of this surprisingly grounded planet, a set of alien building staff shout curses at me in New York Italian-American accents whereas I platform round. A dude named Ole Moist Grundy (who tells me this moniker was bestowed upon him as a result of he consistently pisses himself) instructs me on easy methods to get to the underground space. Earlier than the gatekeeper will let me down there, nonetheless, I’ve to wash up the floor by ridding it of some alien cartel guys, all of whom have bizarrely juicy butts. “I at all times be sure the characters have cute little butts,” Spano assures me. “In the event that they don’t have butts, I be sure they’ve buttholes.”
The gunlay and motion mechanics really feel surprisingly good and lovingly retro, like an Xbox 360 shooter you picked up at GameStop in 2007 as a result of it had obnoxiously colourful cowl artwork and surprisingly find yourself blowing by it in a whole, hazy weekend. Every gun has a distinct use-case, and as I struggle my method to the boss I uncover that swapping between them makes for some enjoyable selection–and in addition offers you a reprieve if you happen to discover their chatter notably grating (the one which feels like Morty will get previous quick).
There’s a Metroidvania facet to Excessive On Life that the majority jogs my memory of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order. Each gun has a singular secondary hearth that may enable you to platform your method to hard-to-reach loot chests, however you’ll need to return to sure areas after you’ve obtained all the weapons so as to take action. It’s a pleasant added little bit of replay worth that, when coupled with Warp Discs, give Excessive On Life some additional depth.
Warp Discs are little sport add-ons you should purchase from the in-universe black market and use at random places throughout your travels. They’ll warp in a kind of mini sport into the map, like Cutie City, which I encounter throughout my playthrough. Cutie City is strictly because it sounds: a miniature city with a cute little dude hooked up to a number of balloons floating above it–however when you step into that city, chaos ensues. I gained’t spoil it for you, as a result of it really did get a real giggle out of me.
Excessive On Life’s Roiland model of humor transports me again to school within the late aughts, the place I did nothing however get astronomically excessive and play Name of Responsibility: Black Ops or watch early iterations of viral YouTube movies. As I play, I can’t assist however lengthy for the sensation of fuzziness that comes from taking a number of puffs of a spliff, or digesting a scrumptious THC gummy. Despite the fact that a number of shocked barks of laughter escape me throughout my playthrough, I’m positive I’d be simply as hyped as a few of the “rabid followers” Spano tells me about if I used to be a bit bit blitted. This sport has all of the rambling diatribes and random, express asides you’d anticipate from a Roiland manufacturing, which naturally slaps more durable whenever you’re both 21 or very, very stoned.
Sobriety apart, Excessive On Life’s trailers could have really finished it a disservice–you may be wont to dismiss it as yet one more piece of media falling below the considerably grating Roiland umbrella, nevertheless it provides a uniquely nostalgic tackle the FPS style that’s surprisingly impressed. The gun-based platforming that encourages you to return to its freaky little worlds coupled with its rock-solid fight means Excessive On Life isn’t only a sport filled with chatty, cursing weapons and infrequently cringe humor. With Squanch Video games present untethered to any bigger sport developer, the group has a shocking quantity of leeway to make the sport they need–the one “huge man” they’re reporting to is Roiland, who finds all this shit hilarious.
“I simply want there was different foolish, indie stuff on the market, and the one manner that occurs (except Devolver, who does plenty of cool stuff) is that if it’s self-funded,” Spano explains. “In any other case there’s no manner you’re gonna get cash to make a bizarre sport…however we’re not on the hook for anyone, we will make the video games that we need to make. I feel that’s what gonna make this stand out, it may well go up towards one thing like Name of Responsibility by way of graphical constancy–it’s clearly not as polished as Name of Responsibility, nevertheless it’s up there with a few of the AAA video games.”
Excessive on Life drops December 13 for PC and Xbox. Brilliantly, it’s tied to Xbox Sport Cross, which is able to give any members considering its tackle the FPS style an opportunity to attempt it out free of charge. Weed not included.