High on Life, an upcoming shooter from Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland, has gone viral online for its crass humour.
High on Life is set to take the comedy of Rick and Morty and transpose it into video game form. Whether this sounds like a fantastic idea or an approaching tsunami of cringe will depend largely on how you feel about Justin Roiland’s particular brand of comedy. But either way, the game isn’t coming quietly.
When High on Life was first announced it was met with a reasonable response. As IGN recently reported, the game’s first trailer didn’t receive a remarkable number of views or impressions (348 000 views in 2 months). Which in the grand scheme of things isn’t an abject failure.
That said, expectations are generally high when you have a big name attached to video game; and its fair to say the response to High on Life didn’t live up to the promise of a Rick and Morty associated property.
Fast forward to September 2022, just after Gamescom 2022, and everything appears to have changed. If it’s for better or worse, though, is harder to say.
Since Gamescom, IGN claim their High on Life content has received 56 million impressions – which is a lot. Keep in mind though, these numbers reflect how many people have seen the content rather than actually clicked on it. It is possible IGN advertised these posts, possibly even at the behest of High on Life‘s publisher.
🤌🤌🤌 #highonlifegame https://t.co/aAi3HuYi2E
— High On Life (@highonlifegame) August 26, 2022
Nonetheless, whatever the reasons are for this increased visibility, the response has been anything but unanimous. Essentially, a bunch of people online have voiced their opinion that Rick and Morty‘s brand of comedy has grown increasingly stale and cringeworthy. And that High on Life is guilty by association.
Of course, where there are haters there are haters of the haters, and fans of Justin Roiland’s work were quick to respond in kind.
When you're dealing with profane, talking guns, how much is too much? High on Life's devs told us at #gamescom2022 about how they aimed to strike a balance between comedy and gameplay in Justin Roiland's new shooter. pic.twitter.com/YYuoL54JvB
— IGN (@IGN) August 27, 2022
There’s an old saying that any publicity is good publicity and, to be honest, I wonder if this whole online debate is the machinations of some clever PR work. If it is kudos, I guess. But no matter the narrative surrounding High on Life, people’s opinions will ultimately be decided by whether they think a wisecracking gun is annoying or clever.
I know which camp I’m leaning into, how about you?
High on Life is scheduled for release December 13, 2022. It is coming to PC and Xbox consoles.
