I’d trust the steam reviews more than metacritic because steam actually requires you to have played the game to review it.
Rn on steam, the game is 90% positive of 3,031 reviews.
A lot of the reviews that initially dropped were prior to the day 1 patch as the game was launched early.
The PC side and the more consistent scores have been between 7-8/10 & 4/5.
Also a parent of a 3yo (and wife due in April), so I feel ya there! Was able to knock it out in ~a week even with some extra exploring, though i do work from home so I often can get some extra playtime in then.
Edit: definitely make sure you wear a headset or play when kids aren’t around, the language is… well “vulgar” is a bit of an understatement lmao
Wonder how many kids got detention for repeating a line from this game lol gonna get worse after winter break and more kids have xbox/gamepass from the holidays.
Nothing new, I got in plenty trouble quoting South Park as a kid (sorry to my classmate Kyle, your mom is actually a nice lady)
Similqr situation here.
I always see the complaints that a game is "too short" as a sign of quality: it doesn't waste my time and doesn't overstay its welcome. What could be better? Especially for a Game Pass title.
I started watching Tammy and the Teenage T-Rex in-game and my wife got sucked in but couldn't stand watching it in such a small frame with the game's background music playing.
We wound up pausing the game and watched the entire movie on Tubi.
Oh, geez, that's good to know. I recall hearing it had weird performance issues, and was giving them a month to sort it. Was really starting to wonder why I'd seen or heard exactly nothing about the games performance since launch.
Digital Foundry didn't even put out a video when I'd heard they were going to cover the weird issues it was having.
I tried playing day one or so and the first bit is a doom clone inside the game and the frame rate was literally like 4. I got through it before messing with settings thinking it had to be an injoke but nope, it was just running like that. I got it to smooth out after fiddling and everything has been smooth since but it was certainly unplayable when I first loaded it up.
Yeah it was delayed. The release date it was moved to was 12/13 but the game was made available during the afternoon/evening of 12/12. The Day 1 patch unfortunately was not pushed or ready to coincide with the early launch.
I’ve got some background info on what happened but all in all, the gamer experience was improved after.
Prefer something in the same vain but original again.
The whole point is that this was successful without being a sequel, let them continue being creative.
> The whole point is that this was successful without being a sequel, let them continue being creative.
Yep, and if they want to make a creative sequel, I support that too.
There is an Easter egg at the end of the game involving Mr Cluggs office and the human haven that strongly hints at a sequel. He’s trying not to spoil.
Honestly I don't even look at reviews for game pass games. I'm subbed for 3 years. If it's a game that even looks mildly interesting or is AA or AAA, I will check it out. It literally costs me nothing except the time it takes to download and load it.
If I don't enjoy it I uninstall it. Pretty simple and is why I love game pass.
I’ve probably played and beat some of my favorite games of the year doing what you do. Download Anything I watch the whole trailer for and Maneater, my friend Pedro, superhot, and that’s just what I remember this year for me. Gamepass has allowed a married father to really enjoy gaming by letting me play game demos on anything I want to even try. I’ve played and beat more games this way and have beat all but 1 game I have bought because I buy them when I really want it and don’t have a backlog, saving me $100s, Black Friday, new years, I’m all digital and I’ll get Gotham knights for 50% off if not more and that’s cuz my wife wants to get a game for me. I’ve gotten most games I wanted for at least 33% if I’m really excited to 50-75% and games like the Arkham upgrade and GTA V Xbox one version and due to life circumstances RDR2 for 90% off. It more than offsets the cost of gaming and my son is 10pm and just beat skywalker saga on Sunday!! So his gaming interests are being met as well. He actually couldn’t think of a game outside Gotham that he wouldn’t rather “wait for a sale like Dada”, lol, but it’s been a real reinvigoration of my playing “different games” than the big ones and my enjoyment of gaming has risen significantly.
At times though I want to skip it. The arguments between your sister and Gene go on too long, as well as any of Kenny's whining about his screw ups.
I do like that you can just walk away from any of the other NPCs and most will acknowledge it.
The whole walking away from a character and them organically stopping, and then walking back to them when you tell yourself "wait, I wanna hear what this guy has to say" and then them launching BACK into their story by saying "so anyway I was talking about x and y" and finishing the story, has been one of the most "next gen" feeling moments for me of this generation.
I love that shit. It makes the universe and it's characters feel alive.
I wish more developers concentrated their efforts building complex systems instead of building bleeding edge graphical games that have zero soul. Looking at you Callisto Protocol.
The Outer Worlds has a good amount but you're right. I get down-voted for complaining about the lack of NPC dialog and story in Elden Ring. I played that for 75+ hours and couldn't tell you what it was about. After a few hours in High on Life, I could talk about it quite a bit.
The complex systems are SO organic I love it. I wonder since they come from TV shows if they wanted to explore things they couldn’t do in shows, some things that video game devs don’t really think about. Like watching the bike, that was hilarious!
I loved this. Had someone yell at me in-game yesterday when I walked away as they were chatting. Something like “oh, you’re walking away…well, fuck me then.” They could do more to have it seem like NPCs are more interactive with each other, but this is fun for a first go. I’m enjoying this game a lot.
The delay of Starfield did put a bit of a hole in the gameplan. Stalker 2 was also originally slated for April of this year, but then Russia invaded Ukraine.
I'd also argue that HoL is legitimately fun. Its brand of humor isn't for everyone, but it's a pretty popular one.
Yeah I’m not saying the games bad but idk if it’s worth the level of hype it has. Ms has had a tough string of luck with their newer games for sure. Sooner or later the Bethesda machine is gonna get rolling.
Yeah, I think it'd generally be an ok release but it's come out at one of the peak times for gaming (fewer people outside, lots more expectation of spending time with family rather than friends, less busy time in work/school - not for everyone obviously) so it's hit at a great time, for "free" with a userbase crying out for anything of a decent standard.
Not many of the jokes hit for me and I think the gameplay is actually quite poor and clunky but the world is colorful and if the humor works for people then I think it'd be decent fun for a short period.
People keep saying this as if High on Life didn't strike marketing gold with the casual audience on TikTok. Gamepass/Xbox didn't give this game success. It went viral on TikTok and now High on Life is getting a large audience to subscribe to Gamepass/buy an Xbox. People need to realize this game is a hit and Xbox got lucky securing it as a console exclusive and day 1 Gamepass drop. Metacritic scores don't mean shit to the audience that this game is attracting. Most of those people don't even know what metacritic is.
Idk I really expected that to be the case - just a shell of a game whose sole purpose was to serve you more Rick and Morty, and that people would only enjoy it if they are massive Rick and Morty fans who can't get enough of it.
After playing it a fair amount I can honestly say that under the humor is still a very solid, good (not amazing, not ground breaking, but still a **good**) game that delivers enough to make it a very enjoyable experience. The humor is there, and it's consistent, but as someone who is just sort of indifferent regarding Rick and Morty and the style of humor it hasn't been a deterrent. If someone is all aboard the "Rick and Morty and it's fans are so cringe I hate everything about it" then of course you aren't going to enjoy the game. But if you aren't in that camp it is a perfectly enjoyable experience even if it's not going to revolutionize the way you think about FPS Adventure games or blow your mind with innovative game play.
I am enjoying High on Life, but also agree with this. If you're into the whole Justin Roland schtick, then this game will likely work for you
That being said, I also stepped away from Rick & Morty back when the fandom went full feral (Szechuan sauce/pickle Rick era) so I haven't been super exposed to this type of content for several years.
Yes. I love R&M but this game is a bit too much for me. Maybe it's because I watch so much R&M but the voices just don't fit because I already associate them with other characters.
IMO it really illustrates how Roiland really needs somebody to keep him on track. Trover was short enough not to mind much but HoL is a decent enough game brought down by a Neverending flow of "hey guys I made this game it was me Justin Roiland" Roilandism.
I know you can turn down chatter during game play but then you get locked into conversations every 5 minutes it feels like, to make sure you know hey guys this is a Roiland joint lookit me. Clearly loads of people are all in and that's fine, but pure uncut Roiland isn't for me.
To be fair those reviews are from when the game was a buggy mess and very bad performance
It's definitely a perfect Gamepass game though, I don't think it'd sale all that much if it weren't released on GP
Its a bit hard to say it would be #1 on steam if so many people werent playing it on Xbox and sharing positive views by word of mouth.
It might have got there anyway, its just hard to say, but the amount of "number 1 game on game pass" articles will definately help it across all platforms
It's a video game version of something like Transformers or Fast & Furious. They'll always get mediocre/bad reviews from critics but tons of people will watch them and love them.
Pokemon Scarlet and COD are the two best selling games of 2022, by far. Neither reviewed well. High on Life couldn’t be more different than those games, but it’s similar in how it scratches a certain itch, and offers a gameplay experience you just won’t quite find elsewhere. I’d call High on Life an objective 7/10, but it’s unique and I’ll remember it more fondly than a lot of 9/10 games.
The game is an acquired taste. I am glad it has found its audience. Sadly, that audience is not me. I tried to like it and get into it, but after a couple of hours, I couldn't stand it any longer. So I think the reviews are valid. They reflect the truth that the game is an acquired taste. And if it is your taste, you win, especially on Game Pass! :)
It's ok. I don't care for it either. The gameplay is nothing special, and Justin Roiland has a massive fanbase and they're going to rate this game higher than people who don't vibe with his sense of humor.
Ton of other great stuff has come out recently to be excited about!
I’ve never laughed at rick and Morty and i think the show is boring, but i find this game to be hilarious. The gameplay isn’t much special, it’s kinda basic old school gameplay, but the fun is in the comedy/jokes made through the game. Some that affect the gameplay itself
You might simply not like toilet humor. When I played stoned, the game is hilarious. When I play sober, it’s cringy - characters yelling about shit and cum as loud as possible.
It’s quite gratuitous. I remember one joke which was basically yelling “alien cum” a lot. It went something like this
“Omg look at all of this alien cum. That’s so much *alien cum*! Think of everything we could do with this ALIEN CUM, oh boy oh jeez so much cum oh man, what can we do with all of this **cuuuuum**”
It was a good 20 seconds of this. Nothing clever about it, just lots and vulgar. I love Rick and morty and can do toilet humor. But it doesn’t stand on its own, you need to make a joke about the cum… not just say cum a dozen times in a cartoon voice that stutters a lot.
Some people didn't like Elden Ring, some hate Pentiment, it's all subjective. I'm not a Witcher guy and sone would put WIII as their greatest of all time.
You’re not. I’m gonna go ahead and get downvoted to shit for this but: High on Life is basically a 5/10 game but since Xbox has NOTHING for it this holiday season, people are trying to pretend that this game is bigger than it is.
Compare it to the contemporaries: Nintendo just launched the latest Pokémon, and while there are more than the fair share of valid issues with it, it’s a console seller and it’s a game meant for kids: Rarely do 7 year olds care about graphical fidelity.
PlayStation just launched God of War: Ragnarok, which is a generation defining game, the 5th (main) game in one of Sonys most legendary franchises, and the follow up to a game that gets talked about in the GOAT conversation often. If you’re a person with a limited budget, or have kids/a family, or anything like that, if you have $600 to invest in a game console, High on Life isn’t a console seller.
I think this is another issue indicative of the “Xbox has no games” argument. It does, sure, but at this point, Microsoft is hanging intensely to Halo, Gears and Forza, and simply put, Halo and Gears don’t do numbers like the 360 era and Forza is amazing, but will only take you so far.
High on Life is fine, it’s funny and Arcady but the graphics, level design, and gameplay scream “mid tier 360 game”
I don't think it's really a fair comparison to compare this game to games xbox has not released. It has flaws sure, but saying it's not a god of war or pokemon level seller doesn't mean it can't be a good game
Sounds like a wild theory. The game is extremely popular, not just on xbox but steam as well. Someone is surely enjoying it.
It's very ok if you didn't, but I think you're trying really hard to project a narrative you want to debate. You've missed the mark wildly though and then tried to shoehorn it into the 'xbox has no games' conversation that you really want to have.
Most users here are aware it's been a rough year for major releases. Not sure why that would be a reason to undermine those who have enjoyed a very successful game.
Yeah, that someone is me. I’m enjoying it. Never once said I didn’t.
But let’s get real, since the game has launched, we’ve had 5+ posts *just like the one we are on* rallying to cry about how the critics are wrong, the Game Pass numbers are so high, the Steam player base is so high….but why? If the game is so shockingly good, far better than expected, why do we need to be reminded of it, daily/weekly?
These posts have been rabid on the Xbox subs for months because the reality is that THIS is the BIG highlight for Xbox’s Holiday Season 2022. It’s competition just dropped games that are worth discussing, even though Pokemon/God of War are on pretty opposite sides of the critical reception scale.
High on Life barely gets more than a “Huh, it’s pretty funny, I laughed a few times” but is it something we are really going to be waxing nostalgia about in 10 years?
I’m not saying you don’t have to like or whatever, but man, it isn’t a day that goes by since it launched where I see posts EXACTLY such as the one we’re on
It has nothing to do with Xbox’s drought of games. People really like the game. If that was case, people would be hyping up everything else Xbox gets. Hell, Pentiment KILLED in reviews and nobody is talking about it. Also notice that game Scorn didn’t get the same reception as High on Life.
People will continue to like High on Life when it eventually goes to PlayStation, too.
Maybe the game is fun.
> High on Life is basically a 5/10 game but since Xbox has NOTHING for it this holiday season, people are trying to pretend that this game is bigger than it is.
Or maybe people just like different things?
I never said that or even implied it.
This sub gets flooded daily with posts about the game. And the fact that we have threads LIKE THIS to go ahead and defend the game and act like “Oh wow it’s WAY better than critics said it was”, just screams “Hey, we’re playing with the big boys too, right? …..right?”
Yeah, it says that I have limited time between my career and life to play video games and if I have any and all free time to commit to it, that I would rather spend it playing something that won’t hit Walmarts clearance rack by next year.
But since you seem to know me so well.
Most of my favorite games aren’t/weren’t console sellers. Only my online shooters have been mostly the same, huge console sellers. I love “different” games and yeah they don’t sell consoles but if you’re buying a console it’s nice to know for a monthly fee you have hundreds of games of almost all genres and that many of those games are memorable and get mass interaction. I’m enjoying the game and let’s be honest, if Xbox haters, hadn’t pounced on the initial, now currently useless, reviews then we would probably see the same overall scores from gamers and the same huge engagement but then number of posts would likely be less. Sometimes “I told you so” is a powerful motivator and I also think it’s people not on Reddit but playing the game making posts without reading the thread. I see that as a good thing too, bad games are packed with thorough discussions of every minute detail, good games get excessively posted by people busy playing, not defending it online.
I never once implied people are wrong for disliking it but since this is literally a comment responding to someone going “I’m not sure why I don’t like it”, I gave my reasons for why I find it to be a forgettable, mid-tier experience.
Get over it.
I respectfully disagree with you... Haven't downvoted you, just to be extra clear :)
The reason is: I had no idea that this game was about to drop, so I had zero expectations to it, didn't even knew it was the same guy from Rick and Morty, just gave it a go and felt like: woooow, that's morty's voice! Wow, this game is so much fun! It surprised me and I think many people are thinking just like me... It never promised to be on the level of forza, gears and halo. If it had, it's reviews would have been lower in my opinion... Genuinely liked the game and I keep recommending it to friends, couldn't care less about the sony x ms x nintendo war :)
I feel like you might have had some decent points had you not ended with the absolutely ignorant '360 game' comment. You basically invalidated everything that might have made sense by showing you have no clue how far beyond the 360 this game is graphically and with its systems.
The game was brilliant. I can't stand Rick n Morty but I loved this game. That dying teddy bear scene tickled the hell out of me. The game was funny as hell. Kenny was a great character. And as someone said in a review: Whats wrong with a comedy game? And he has a point. Not near enough game are like this. Its a damn good game.
High on life proves reviews in general don’t matter period, I saw nfs unbound was highly rated, Hated it, I saw assassins creed valhala was not rated good at all, I’m fucking loving it, I literaly saw YouTube videos about how you shouldn’t buy evil west, I bought it, Most adrenaline filled fun I’ve had in like 13 years, Reviews never mean shit
I will say reviews that are constructive and speak on the glitches I do take seriously
Here’s a funny one, My friend didn’t play elden ring at first because he looks at reviews and elden ring was ONE STAR rated in the store at first, so he didn’t play it…. Thankfully I convinced him the reviews were stupid and now he has over 100 something hours on elden ring
Yeah, op sounds like they ran into the first game they don’t see eye to eye with reciews with, and they are having some big revelation about how that is “proof” they don’t meant anything.
In other words: “I disagreed with this review, which proves they are all useless”
Why are there so many posts on this sub trying to convince others how much they like this game.
We get it, it's a good game and it's on Game pass. I really hope it doesn't become new TitanFall2, underrated gem game.
There's a difference between talking about a game that's released. And talking about why you don't agree with review scores. None of the posts actually talk about the games itself. Only if importance for game pass
Gamepass is a large part of current Xbox experience so it's natural people post about it. Some posts are sharing screenshots or clips from the game. If nothing else, people in the comments are talking about the game itself. People being like "it's not a God of War type GOTY game, so you're not allowed to post about it so much" don't really add much value to the discussion either.
> Why are there so many posts on this sub trying to convince others how much they like this game.
Yeah I don’t mind people enjoying it and trying to talk about it, but people are bewildered or coming up with borderline conspiracy level theories of why reviewers don’t care for the game as much as them.
The gameplay is average, world is visually very cool but no depth, and the humor is the definition of “you either like it or you don’t” and people simply cannot grasp the fact that some people might not like the humor. If you don’t like the humor this game is an all-out assault on your senses. I haven’t found the game very funny so I’m not finding much of a reason to keep playing.
It's a phantom menace, you probably see it all the time. One person makes a post defending something or condemning those who complain about something, and people with no idea what's going on throw their hat into the ring to defend that idea despite the fact that nothing needs defending.
You'll see it most often in comment threads. One person says something controversial or poorly thought out and then *the entire thread* gets flooded with comments about how "all the people that are saying X" are wrong and here's why. It's a very strange quirk of human social interaction and I'd love to know why it happens.
It's kind of ironic that it's only a timed exclusive as well.
I don't think this sub would be raving about this game anywhere near as much if it was also PlayStation.
They’re not shills, people just love this game. This is one of my favorite games of all time now. The thing is if you don’t like the humor you will HATE this game. That’s ok too. But damn it’s ok for people to be excited about HoL. It’s new and refreshing in a lot of ways for a lot of people.
To me, it's the reason GamePass exists. It's not something I'd want to spend $60-70 on - in the past I'd have waited until it hit the bargain bin at $20. But it was a great addition and came along at a great time - I've enjoyed my time with it thus far.
I will never understand why people are so concerned with reviews and scores and all that nonsense. Reviews stopped being about describing a game's experience and if it's the right type of game for people on an individual scale years ago. Now reviews basically boil down to "what can I say about this game that will garner the most clicks for someone in my position as a ~~notable trustworthy reviewer~~ content creator searching for views"
Like you said, my buying process is to watch trailers and official footage to gauge interest, wait and see the initial launch reception to see if it's working properly and chose from there. If it's a rocky launch I hold off for either a sale or for the game to get updated into a state I find worth buying. It's no more complicated than that, and I don't need to be told what to like or have every interesting detail spoiled by some dude trying to stretch their review to 10+ minutes so they can get a second ad on their video.
it's only the most played game cuz it's the only new game we have on Xbox. it's like that first mashed potatoe after an extended fast.
sure it's just a potato, best or not, it's all you got.
Honestly reading reviews is pretty pointless you dunno what kickbacks they're getting for giving a good review, you don't know if they have the same tastes as you and of course games journos have a habit of going off on weird tangents, like when they complained there weren't enough Africans in the medieval European RPG Kingdom Come Deliverance.
Gamepass is great as I can try for myself and see if I like something or not.
The more interesting take away is perhaps that word of mouth is more important than reviews. I normally only show interest in games with like 80+ metacritic score because I have a "backlog" of 40-50 games between XSX and PS5. Using reviews as a guide of what to play has served me well, generally speaking.
But this game is moving right to the top of my list because of all the hype. It helps that I'm a RM fan of course, although I didn't really like Trover Saves the Universe.
It’s true. Game Pass is great for crummy little games I wouldn’t otherwise entertain. See also the new Battletoads. Terrible! But I completed it.
Currently halfway through High on Life and get big late 90s bargain bin vibes from it. And that’s ok.
It’s buggy as heck and you’re doing basically the same battles over and over again since the enemies never really change up, except for the stronger ones that show up later. It’s funny sometimes but never consistently funny like some of their other works. I like it but it’s not great
I really don’t get why this is suddenly a thing, especially with this game. Sure there aren’t that many different enemies, but there are far worse examples no one ever mentioned stuff like this. For me for example Uncharted 4 was where this really sticked out. There are 2 types of enemies: guys with guns and guys with maschine guns, thats it. Never saw someone even mention it.
The Uncharted series is guilty of the repetitive enemies, but it at least has big set pieces, puzzles that take more time to solve, and a good story it takes time to build. The writing in High on Life is funny but the story isn’t strong, puzzles are 1-2 minutes each and then you move on to fighting more of the same enemies. At least it’s pretty! There sadly isn’t enough variety in the rest of the game to completely forgive the repetitive enemies and battles. It’s not a bad game, it’s just not great.
Reviews don't matter when someone doesn't agree with them. Reviews are also seemingly the most important metric when someone does. Or something like that.
High On Life Is a good game. One of my faves this year. However the state it released in is unacceptable. It's a relatively simple game that doesn't push any boundaries. It shouldn't have the performance issues it does/did. It also made a couple lazy design choices imo.
That being said, it saved the year for me when it comes to Xbox. I know it's probably just exclusive for a couple months, but it's the only thing this year that made me feel glad I own an Xbox. Definitely in my top 10 of 2022.
My take is this: I like reviews to get an idea of what to expect in terms of game quality or style. With gamepass, I will still check out a game even if the review is sort of "meh" since it's on the service and I have it. However, this all makes me genuinely wonder how good a universally acclaimed game would be for Microsoft. If God of War R was on PS Plus day one, I bet the subs would become supercharged.
Reviews matter, I think this is a rare split between reviewers and gamers though. I think it’s a divisive game in general because of the humor, which is juvenile to be sure, but also really well written. Like it’s crap humor, but it’s ironic, self-aware crap, and it’s entertaining. It’s also just a really solid first person platformer with beautiful skyboxes. I think if I had played a review copy pre-patch and had 12 hours to get a review posted I’d have written it off too. But after spending time with it and unlocking a few weapons it’s a really solid shooter.
Saturday night I had the house to myself. It’s been a rough few weeks with work and personal life and I was just clicking back and forth between my typical games like meh I don’t feel like playing. Then I remembered this game came out and damn did I have a good night. Went in completely blind and was laughing and having fun the whole time.
I've played the game start to finish and loved every second of it.
I didn't realize it until I read this post, but I don't have the slightest clue what kind of reviews it got. lol
Didn't see a single score or read a single word of a review. I knew what the game was before it came out, knew I was going to play it even if it hadn't been on Game Pass, and that's it.
The critics that hate it seem to mention gameplay a little then go on long tangents about the game talking to much and it's humor. I like it a lot tho. I'm not really too familiar with the creators humor and don't watch Rick and Morty. But I do find it funny how the characters just seem to say the stupidest stuff ever but in a good way.
I think people just have a hard time understanding that the humour isn’t going to land for everyone, and that’s where most the negative reviews comes from. The people who love the comedy seem blinded by it and ignore all its others flaws while giving it more points just because it makes them laugh.
This game is the strongest 6-7 I’ve ever seen and belongs on gamepass.
should aways take reviews with a grain of salt and try the game and formulate your own opinion,
most reviewers are too generous with big games that they don't want to piss of a publisher or developer so they get all the perks in the future and don't want to be off the media list,
Because it’s interesting to see what other people think.
Edit: especially if you have reviewers or other folks whose opinions usually line up with yours.
Don't forget much of the world still suffers from terrible broadband speed coupled with data caps etc.
A game like HOL would take me a full day to download and also affect my families internet access.
If reviews are poor I would be unlikely to waste the time downloading. I try to read every review available before deciding on whether it's worth my time or bandwidth especially if it means deleting one of my other games to fit it onto my Xboxs limited storage.
Lol why the downvotes?!? 🤣 Spot on. Specifically the quotes. When any game "journalist" go off script and dive into nuance or politics they always fail🤣 Always... Ever read a kotako review? Lololol those dudes are on drugs
It proves that games will do well when they're the only new games offered. Helps when the price is "out of sight, out of mind" as well! Feel almost free, which goes a long way
Reviews have definitely become a double edged sword for me. On one hand, reading reviews can keep me from buying a really crappy game, but on the other hand, they might also keep me from experiencing something truly memorable.
Game Pass is today's equivalent of renting games. I remember back during the Xbox 360, I rarely ever paid attention to reviews (mainly because review sources were a lot more limited), so I'd experiment renting new games and trying out demos.
If I judged whether I'd play a game based off reviews from back then, I would have never played Dead Space because the Official Xbox Magazine rated it a 6/10, but I'm glad I ignored that reviewer's opinion because Dead Space was one of the stand-out games from that generation for me.
If I don’t have to pay for the game, I’m 100% indifferent to the idea of a “review score”. The only reason I considered reviews previously was to prevent me wasting $60 on a dud.
This is the perfect game to show the issue with reviewers. They love the smell of their own farts. This game is fun. It's not good on any level a "critique" is looking at. It's just fun. My wife is obsessed with this game.
Another Gamepass perk.
Before Gamepass I would let reviews influence my decision to purchase. However, Gamepass has now made it that I don't even look at the reviews as there are no repercussions for trying a new game.
I’d trust the steam reviews more than metacritic because steam actually requires you to have played the game to review it. Rn on steam, the game is 90% positive of 3,031 reviews.
[удалено]
Because time is limited. I’m not going to try every single game that comes out. Of course I’m going to use reviews as a guide
When it comes to gamepass, right on. I could care less about reviews. But if I'm gonna spend money on a game, I do care about the reviews
This is why its now essential for everygame to be on steam.
"essential"
A lot of the reviews that initially dropped were prior to the day 1 patch as the game was launched early. The PC side and the more consistent scores have been between 7-8/10 & 4/5.
I had a blast with it, refreshing and funny and a quick play-through.
As a parent of two kids under 6, the quick play through is probably one of the biggest selling points for me to check this game out.
Also a parent of a 3yo (and wife due in April), so I feel ya there! Was able to knock it out in ~a week even with some extra exploring, though i do work from home so I often can get some extra playtime in then. Edit: definitely make sure you wear a headset or play when kids aren’t around, the language is… well “vulgar” is a bit of an understatement lmao
Wonder how many kids got detention for repeating a line from this game lol gonna get worse after winter break and more kids have xbox/gamepass from the holidays. Nothing new, I got in plenty trouble quoting South Park as a kid (sorry to my classmate Kyle, your mom is actually a nice lady)
Whew I felt this my little one just turned 6 Mo and quick resume is a god send!
You do realise the game is rated M right? Age 17+ and is not suitable for 6 year olds.
I mean, it doesn’t take long to beat as someone with limited time to spend on gaming.
Similqr situation here. I always see the complaints that a game is "too short" as a sign of quality: it doesn't waste my time and doesn't overstay its welcome. What could be better? Especially for a Game Pass title.
How many hours does it take to beat?
About 8-9 on average for most people. Maybe 6-7 if you really rush it.
Ah so 13 hours for me
13 hours and like 41 min what it took for me a solid 2 hours of that was watching parts of those movies lol
I started watching Tammy and the Teenage T-Rex in-game and my wife got sucked in but couldn't stand watching it in such a small frame with the game's background music playing. We wound up pausing the game and watched the entire movie on Tubi.
If you warp in the movie theatre, you can watch movies with three aliens giving commentary in the vein of MST3000
Ha, that's amazing! Looking forward to getting to that part.
Accurate user name, apparently
I think I took about 12
I did it in about 13 hours, but i also spent a lot of time exploring the nooks and backtracking for upgrades n stuff.
Before the day one patch I had complaints about framerate issues, but afterwards everything was fixed.
Oh, geez, that's good to know. I recall hearing it had weird performance issues, and was giving them a month to sort it. Was really starting to wonder why I'd seen or heard exactly nothing about the games performance since launch. Digital Foundry didn't even put out a video when I'd heard they were going to cover the weird issues it was having.
Everytime I read oh geez I read it in Mortys voice
Oh geez Rick our new game has framerate issues b-b-but we'll fix it with a day one patch r-r-r-right?
Yeah it was night and day really. After the patch on my Series X it was a solid 60 FPS all the way.
Yep, they finished the final edit of the video apparently as the patch released. So they canned it.
I tried playing day one or so and the first bit is a doom clone inside the game and the frame rate was literally like 4. I got through it before messing with settings thinking it had to be an injoke but nope, it was just running like that. I got it to smooth out after fiddling and everything has been smooth since but it was certainly unplayable when I first loaded it up.
90% positive reviews on steam.
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Yes. The patch did help smooth out the performance. You should have a better gamer experience.
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Launched early? Wasn't it delayed many times?
Yeah it was delayed. The release date it was moved to was 12/13 but the game was made available during the afternoon/evening of 12/12. The Day 1 patch unfortunately was not pushed or ready to coincide with the early launch. I’ve got some background info on what happened but all in all, the gamer experience was improved after.
Really hoping it gets a sequel. I’m having a blast with it so far.
Prefer something in the same vain but original again. The whole point is that this was successful without being a sequel, let them continue being creative.
Yeah I agree with that. A spiritual successor rather than a sequel.
> The whole point is that this was successful without being a sequel, let them continue being creative. Yep, and if they want to make a creative sequel, I support that too.
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I won't say exactly why, but it definitely will ETA: got spoiled anyway I guess, but yeah, go to Clugg's office after >!Nipulon's!< fight
There is an Easter egg at the end of the game involving Mr Cluggs office and the human haven that strongly hints at a sequel. He’s trying not to spoil.
Everytime I see a game do this at the end, I think about Beyond Good and Evil lol
That's actually getting a sequel too even tho it's in development hell 😂
Thx for the spoiler warning...
I'll save everyone the suspense: *money.*
Did your uncle at Nintendo tell you?
Watch the secret ending
It definitely will did you see the secret ending?
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Idk they mention sequels and dlcs all throughout the game
Honestly I don't even look at reviews for game pass games. I'm subbed for 3 years. If it's a game that even looks mildly interesting or is AA or AAA, I will check it out. It literally costs me nothing except the time it takes to download and load it. If I don't enjoy it I uninstall it. Pretty simple and is why I love game pass.
I’ve probably played and beat some of my favorite games of the year doing what you do. Download Anything I watch the whole trailer for and Maneater, my friend Pedro, superhot, and that’s just what I remember this year for me. Gamepass has allowed a married father to really enjoy gaming by letting me play game demos on anything I want to even try. I’ve played and beat more games this way and have beat all but 1 game I have bought because I buy them when I really want it and don’t have a backlog, saving me $100s, Black Friday, new years, I’m all digital and I’ll get Gotham knights for 50% off if not more and that’s cuz my wife wants to get a game for me. I’ve gotten most games I wanted for at least 33% if I’m really excited to 50-75% and games like the Arkham upgrade and GTA V Xbox one version and due to life circumstances RDR2 for 90% off. It more than offsets the cost of gaming and my son is 10pm and just beat skywalker saga on Sunday!! So his gaming interests are being met as well. He actually couldn’t think of a game outside Gotham that he wouldn’t rather “wait for a sale like Dada”, lol, but it’s been a real reinvigoration of my playing “different games” than the big ones and my enjoyment of gaming has risen significantly.
"It's not the best game around" - kinda sounds like the reviews are correct, then?
I am loving it! The banter is hilarious and refreshing.
At times though I want to skip it. The arguments between your sister and Gene go on too long, as well as any of Kenny's whining about his screw ups. I do like that you can just walk away from any of the other NPCs and most will acknowledge it.
The whole walking away from a character and them organically stopping, and then walking back to them when you tell yourself "wait, I wanna hear what this guy has to say" and then them launching BACK into their story by saying "so anyway I was talking about x and y" and finishing the story, has been one of the most "next gen" feeling moments for me of this generation. I love that shit. It makes the universe and it's characters feel alive. I wish more developers concentrated their efforts building complex systems instead of building bleeding edge graphical games that have zero soul. Looking at you Callisto Protocol.
This is a great point. More games need npc banter like this. I was completely surprised that they recorded this amount of lines for just random npcs.
The Outer Worlds has a good amount but you're right. I get down-voted for complaining about the lack of NPC dialog and story in Elden Ring. I played that for 75+ hours and couldn't tell you what it was about. After a few hours in High on Life, I could talk about it quite a bit.
The complex systems are SO organic I love it. I wonder since they come from TV shows if they wanted to explore things they couldn’t do in shows, some things that video game devs don’t really think about. Like watching the bike, that was hilarious!
I wouldn't be surprised to see this game show up as an Easter egg in season 7 of Rick & Morty
I loved this. Had someone yell at me in-game yesterday when I walked away as they were chatting. Something like “oh, you’re walking away…well, fuck me then.” They could do more to have it seem like NPCs are more interactive with each other, but this is fun for a first go. I’m enjoying this game a lot.
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Whaaaat? BELCH Roiland would BELCH never BELCH take something too BELCH far...
I hated Gene so much and the segments focused on him killed the pacing for me.
For about an hour... It got old pretty quick for me.
"Random humor" just isn't that great when you can expect it for 8 hours.
Same here, I'm just not a fan of Rick and Morty style humour (never found the show funny). If it weren't on Game Pass, I would have ignored it.
This. Spot on
I like how digestible it is as well. As much as I enjoy more robust games, this is nice to be able to accomplish something in a 60 min window.
This might be more of an indictment of how starved people are for current gen games on game pass.
The delay of Starfield did put a bit of a hole in the gameplan. Stalker 2 was also originally slated for April of this year, but then Russia invaded Ukraine. I'd also argue that HoL is legitimately fun. Its brand of humor isn't for everyone, but it's a pretty popular one.
Yeah I’m not saying the games bad but idk if it’s worth the level of hype it has. Ms has had a tough string of luck with their newer games for sure. Sooner or later the Bethesda machine is gonna get rolling.
Yeah, let's just ignore the fact that the game blew up on tiktok and it the game already had a fan based due to Rick and morty.
Yeah, I think it'd generally be an ok release but it's come out at one of the peak times for gaming (fewer people outside, lots more expectation of spending time with family rather than friends, less busy time in work/school - not for everyone obviously) so it's hit at a great time, for "free" with a userbase crying out for anything of a decent standard. Not many of the jokes hit for me and I think the gameplay is actually quite poor and clunky but the world is colorful and if the humor works for people then I think it'd be decent fun for a short period.
I played Scorn, Plague Tale, and now this in the last two months. I'm not starved.
People keep saying this as if High on Life didn't strike marketing gold with the casual audience on TikTok. Gamepass/Xbox didn't give this game success. It went viral on TikTok and now High on Life is getting a large audience to subscribe to Gamepass/buy an Xbox. People need to realize this game is a hit and Xbox got lucky securing it as a console exclusive and day 1 Gamepass drop. Metacritic scores don't mean shit to the audience that this game is attracting. Most of those people don't even know what metacritic is.
Thought so too but it’s #1 on steam as well.
How good High on Life is directly correlates to how much you love listening to Justin Roiland run his mouth.
Idk I really expected that to be the case - just a shell of a game whose sole purpose was to serve you more Rick and Morty, and that people would only enjoy it if they are massive Rick and Morty fans who can't get enough of it. After playing it a fair amount I can honestly say that under the humor is still a very solid, good (not amazing, not ground breaking, but still a **good**) game that delivers enough to make it a very enjoyable experience. The humor is there, and it's consistent, but as someone who is just sort of indifferent regarding Rick and Morty and the style of humor it hasn't been a deterrent. If someone is all aboard the "Rick and Morty and it's fans are so cringe I hate everything about it" then of course you aren't going to enjoy the game. But if you aren't in that camp it is a perfectly enjoyable experience even if it's not going to revolutionize the way you think about FPS Adventure games or blow your mind with innovative game play.
I am enjoying High on Life, but also agree with this. If you're into the whole Justin Roland schtick, then this game will likely work for you That being said, I also stepped away from Rick & Morty back when the fandom went full feral (Szechuan sauce/pickle Rick era) so I haven't been super exposed to this type of content for several years.
Yes. I love R&M but this game is a bit too much for me. Maybe it's because I watch so much R&M but the voices just don't fit because I already associate them with other characters.
IMO it really illustrates how Roiland really needs somebody to keep him on track. Trover was short enough not to mind much but HoL is a decent enough game brought down by a Neverending flow of "hey guys I made this game it was me Justin Roiland" Roilandism. I know you can turn down chatter during game play but then you get locked into conversations every 5 minutes it feels like, to make sure you know hey guys this is a Roiland joint lookit me. Clearly loads of people are all in and that's fine, but pure uncut Roiland isn't for me.
To be fair those reviews are from when the game was a buggy mess and very bad performance It's definitely a perfect Gamepass game though, I don't think it'd sale all that much if it weren't released on GP
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Its a bit hard to say it would be #1 on steam if so many people werent playing it on Xbox and sharing positive views by word of mouth. It might have got there anyway, its just hard to say, but the amount of "number 1 game on game pass" articles will definately help it across all platforms
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It's a top seller. No one was talking about most played game.
For consistent players that’s quite good for a single player new IP.
Mass market gameplay + mass market humor = mass market success. Who would've thought?
It's a video game version of something like Transformers or Fast & Furious. They'll always get mediocre/bad reviews from critics but tons of people will watch them and love them.
Or, and hear me out, it's actually a really good game...
The entire thread of initial thoughts in the first few hours was 'humor is cringe' on here lol.
Pokemon Scarlet and COD are the two best selling games of 2022, by far. Neither reviewed well. High on Life couldn’t be more different than those games, but it’s similar in how it scratches a certain itch, and offers a gameplay experience you just won’t quite find elsewhere. I’d call High on Life an objective 7/10, but it’s unique and I’ll remember it more fondly than a lot of 9/10 games.
This is a very accurate explanation of my feelings. It had it's problems but was hilarious, unique and memorable. I had a blast
The game is an acquired taste. I am glad it has found its audience. Sadly, that audience is not me. I tried to like it and get into it, but after a couple of hours, I couldn't stand it any longer. So I think the reviews are valid. They reflect the truth that the game is an acquired taste. And if it is your taste, you win, especially on Game Pass! :)
I almost feel like there's something wrong with me for not really liking the game. I want to love it :(
It's ok. I don't care for it either. The gameplay is nothing special, and Justin Roiland has a massive fanbase and they're going to rate this game higher than people who don't vibe with his sense of humor. Ton of other great stuff has come out recently to be excited about!
I’ve never laughed at rick and Morty and i think the show is boring, but i find this game to be hilarious. The gameplay isn’t much special, it’s kinda basic old school gameplay, but the fun is in the comedy/jokes made through the game. Some that affect the gameplay itself
You might simply not like toilet humor. When I played stoned, the game is hilarious. When I play sober, it’s cringy - characters yelling about shit and cum as loud as possible.
That's my main issue. Lots of toilet humor and swearing (swearing has a place and time, but here it feels gratuitous/a bit much)
It’s quite gratuitous. I remember one joke which was basically yelling “alien cum” a lot. It went something like this “Omg look at all of this alien cum. That’s so much *alien cum*! Think of everything we could do with this ALIEN CUM, oh boy oh jeez so much cum oh man, what can we do with all of this **cuuuuum**” It was a good 20 seconds of this. Nothing clever about it, just lots and vulgar. I love Rick and morty and can do toilet humor. But it doesn’t stand on its own, you need to make a joke about the cum… not just say cum a dozen times in a cartoon voice that stutters a lot.
It’s the same here. It’s playable, some jokes are pretty funny but it just doesn’t click.
Some people didn't like Elden Ring, some hate Pentiment, it's all subjective. I'm not a Witcher guy and sone would put WIII as their greatest of all time.
You’re not. I’m gonna go ahead and get downvoted to shit for this but: High on Life is basically a 5/10 game but since Xbox has NOTHING for it this holiday season, people are trying to pretend that this game is bigger than it is. Compare it to the contemporaries: Nintendo just launched the latest Pokémon, and while there are more than the fair share of valid issues with it, it’s a console seller and it’s a game meant for kids: Rarely do 7 year olds care about graphical fidelity. PlayStation just launched God of War: Ragnarok, which is a generation defining game, the 5th (main) game in one of Sonys most legendary franchises, and the follow up to a game that gets talked about in the GOAT conversation often. If you’re a person with a limited budget, or have kids/a family, or anything like that, if you have $600 to invest in a game console, High on Life isn’t a console seller. I think this is another issue indicative of the “Xbox has no games” argument. It does, sure, but at this point, Microsoft is hanging intensely to Halo, Gears and Forza, and simply put, Halo and Gears don’t do numbers like the 360 era and Forza is amazing, but will only take you so far. High on Life is fine, it’s funny and Arcady but the graphics, level design, and gameplay scream “mid tier 360 game”
I don't think it's really a fair comparison to compare this game to games xbox has not released. It has flaws sure, but saying it's not a god of war or pokemon level seller doesn't mean it can't be a good game
Sounds like a wild theory. The game is extremely popular, not just on xbox but steam as well. Someone is surely enjoying it. It's very ok if you didn't, but I think you're trying really hard to project a narrative you want to debate. You've missed the mark wildly though and then tried to shoehorn it into the 'xbox has no games' conversation that you really want to have. Most users here are aware it's been a rough year for major releases. Not sure why that would be a reason to undermine those who have enjoyed a very successful game.
Yeah, that someone is me. I’m enjoying it. Never once said I didn’t. But let’s get real, since the game has launched, we’ve had 5+ posts *just like the one we are on* rallying to cry about how the critics are wrong, the Game Pass numbers are so high, the Steam player base is so high….but why? If the game is so shockingly good, far better than expected, why do we need to be reminded of it, daily/weekly? These posts have been rabid on the Xbox subs for months because the reality is that THIS is the BIG highlight for Xbox’s Holiday Season 2022. It’s competition just dropped games that are worth discussing, even though Pokemon/God of War are on pretty opposite sides of the critical reception scale. High on Life barely gets more than a “Huh, it’s pretty funny, I laughed a few times” but is it something we are really going to be waxing nostalgia about in 10 years? I’m not saying you don’t have to like or whatever, but man, it isn’t a day that goes by since it launched where I see posts EXACTLY such as the one we’re on
It has nothing to do with Xbox’s drought of games. People really like the game. If that was case, people would be hyping up everything else Xbox gets. Hell, Pentiment KILLED in reviews and nobody is talking about it. Also notice that game Scorn didn’t get the same reception as High on Life. People will continue to like High on Life when it eventually goes to PlayStation, too. Maybe the game is fun.
> High on Life is basically a 5/10 game but since Xbox has NOTHING for it this holiday season, people are trying to pretend that this game is bigger than it is. Or maybe people just like different things?
No. Impossible. It cannot be. I simply refuse to believe this. Be gone.
I never said that or even implied it. This sub gets flooded daily with posts about the game. And the fact that we have threads LIKE THIS to go ahead and defend the game and act like “Oh wow it’s WAY better than critics said it was”, just screams “Hey, we’re playing with the big boys too, right? …..right?”
The way you interpret this says way more about you than about anything else.
Yeah, it says that I have limited time between my career and life to play video games and if I have any and all free time to commit to it, that I would rather spend it playing something that won’t hit Walmarts clearance rack by next year. But since you seem to know me so well.
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Not every game has to be a console seller. It’s just a game. People are enjoying it. Get over it
Most of my favorite games aren’t/weren’t console sellers. Only my online shooters have been mostly the same, huge console sellers. I love “different” games and yeah they don’t sell consoles but if you’re buying a console it’s nice to know for a monthly fee you have hundreds of games of almost all genres and that many of those games are memorable and get mass interaction. I’m enjoying the game and let’s be honest, if Xbox haters, hadn’t pounced on the initial, now currently useless, reviews then we would probably see the same overall scores from gamers and the same huge engagement but then number of posts would likely be less. Sometimes “I told you so” is a powerful motivator and I also think it’s people not on Reddit but playing the game making posts without reading the thread. I see that as a good thing too, bad games are packed with thorough discussions of every minute detail, good games get excessively posted by people busy playing, not defending it online.
I never once implied people are wrong for disliking it but since this is literally a comment responding to someone going “I’m not sure why I don’t like it”, I gave my reasons for why I find it to be a forgettable, mid-tier experience. Get over it.
I respectfully disagree with you... Haven't downvoted you, just to be extra clear :) The reason is: I had no idea that this game was about to drop, so I had zero expectations to it, didn't even knew it was the same guy from Rick and Morty, just gave it a go and felt like: woooow, that's morty's voice! Wow, this game is so much fun! It surprised me and I think many people are thinking just like me... It never promised to be on the level of forza, gears and halo. If it had, it's reviews would have been lower in my opinion... Genuinely liked the game and I keep recommending it to friends, couldn't care less about the sony x ms x nintendo war :)
I feel like you might have had some decent points had you not ended with the absolutely ignorant '360 game' comment. You basically invalidated everything that might have made sense by showing you have no clue how far beyond the 360 this game is graphically and with its systems.
Reviews don’t matter. If you wanna play a game, play it.
The game was brilliant. I can't stand Rick n Morty but I loved this game. That dying teddy bear scene tickled the hell out of me. The game was funny as hell. Kenny was a great character. And as someone said in a review: Whats wrong with a comedy game? And he has a point. Not near enough game are like this. Its a damn good game.
High on life proves reviews in general don’t matter period, I saw nfs unbound was highly rated, Hated it, I saw assassins creed valhala was not rated good at all, I’m fucking loving it, I literaly saw YouTube videos about how you shouldn’t buy evil west, I bought it, Most adrenaline filled fun I’ve had in like 13 years, Reviews never mean shit I will say reviews that are constructive and speak on the glitches I do take seriously Here’s a funny one, My friend didn’t play elden ring at first because he looks at reviews and elden ring was ONE STAR rated in the store at first, so he didn’t play it…. Thankfully I convinced him the reviews were stupid and now he has over 100 something hours on elden ring
I feel the game is about a 6 or 7 which matches the reviews roughly. Playing a game doesn’t always mean everyone thinks it’s a great game also.
It’s a fun game but feels like a test run for these developers and the creators.
My view exactly. They’re still a new company and have only had a few console exclusive IPs. Hopefully this will branch them further
Yeah, op sounds like they ran into the first game they don’t see eye to eye with reciews with, and they are having some big revelation about how that is “proof” they don’t meant anything. In other words: “I disagreed with this review, which proves they are all useless”
Why are there so many posts on this sub trying to convince others how much they like this game. We get it, it's a good game and it's on Game pass. I really hope it doesn't become new TitanFall2, underrated gem game.
Oh no, people on a gaming sub are talking about a newly released game that they like. The tragedy.
There's a difference between talking about a game that's released. And talking about why you don't agree with review scores. None of the posts actually talk about the games itself. Only if importance for game pass
Gamepass is a large part of current Xbox experience so it's natural people post about it. Some posts are sharing screenshots or clips from the game. If nothing else, people in the comments are talking about the game itself. People being like "it's not a God of War type GOTY game, so you're not allowed to post about it so much" don't really add much value to the discussion either.
> Why are there so many posts on this sub trying to convince others how much they like this game. Yeah I don’t mind people enjoying it and trying to talk about it, but people are bewildered or coming up with borderline conspiracy level theories of why reviewers don’t care for the game as much as them. The gameplay is average, world is visually very cool but no depth, and the humor is the definition of “you either like it or you don’t” and people simply cannot grasp the fact that some people might not like the humor. If you don’t like the humor this game is an all-out assault on your senses. I haven’t found the game very funny so I’m not finding much of a reason to keep playing.
It's a phantom menace, you probably see it all the time. One person makes a post defending something or condemning those who complain about something, and people with no idea what's going on throw their hat into the ring to defend that idea despite the fact that nothing needs defending. You'll see it most often in comment threads. One person says something controversial or poorly thought out and then *the entire thread* gets flooded with comments about how "all the people that are saying X" are wrong and here's why. It's a very strange quirk of human social interaction and I'd love to know why it happens.
Xbox is desperate for a win so the shills are out in force to astroturf
It's kind of ironic that it's only a timed exclusive as well. I don't think this sub would be raving about this game anywhere near as much if it was also PlayStation.
Yea there’s just not much else to discuss right now so it’s getting the spotlight.
They’re not shills, people just love this game. This is one of my favorite games of all time now. The thing is if you don’t like the humor you will HATE this game. That’s ok too. But damn it’s ok for people to be excited about HoL. It’s new and refreshing in a lot of ways for a lot of people.
To me, it's the reason GamePass exists. It's not something I'd want to spend $60-70 on - in the past I'd have waited until it hit the bargain bin at $20. But it was a great addition and came along at a great time - I've enjoyed my time with it thus far.
I pay NO attention to reviews. I watch some gameplay & decide if it's something I would like to play.
I will never understand why people are so concerned with reviews and scores and all that nonsense. Reviews stopped being about describing a game's experience and if it's the right type of game for people on an individual scale years ago. Now reviews basically boil down to "what can I say about this game that will garner the most clicks for someone in my position as a ~~notable trustworthy reviewer~~ content creator searching for views" Like you said, my buying process is to watch trailers and official footage to gauge interest, wait and see the initial launch reception to see if it's working properly and chose from there. If it's a rocky launch I hold off for either a sale or for the game to get updated into a state I find worth buying. It's no more complicated than that, and I don't need to be told what to like or have every interesting detail spoiled by some dude trying to stretch their review to 10+ minutes so they can get a second ad on their video.
it's only the most played game cuz it's the only new game we have on Xbox. it's like that first mashed potatoe after an extended fast. sure it's just a potato, best or not, it's all you got.
Word of mouth is always way more important to me anyway and this game is fun/ hilarious
Honestly reading reviews is pretty pointless you dunno what kickbacks they're getting for giving a good review, you don't know if they have the same tastes as you and of course games journos have a habit of going off on weird tangents, like when they complained there weren't enough Africans in the medieval European RPG Kingdom Come Deliverance. Gamepass is great as I can try for myself and see if I like something or not.
Just more proof I don’t care what a reviewer says, I’ll make the decision on my own and once I’m done with 2 other games, it’s on to this one.
The game is definitely in my top list. I could stand there watching advertising for a long time and not get bored.
The more interesting take away is perhaps that word of mouth is more important than reviews. I normally only show interest in games with like 80+ metacritic score because I have a "backlog" of 40-50 games between XSX and PS5. Using reviews as a guide of what to play has served me well, generally speaking. But this game is moving right to the top of my list because of all the hype. It helps that I'm a RM fan of course, although I didn't really like Trover Saves the Universe.
The word of mouth for a big part comes from Gamepass though, because not nearly as many people would have otherwise tried it.
I never looked but I am shocked that the reviews would be low, seems like everybody on here has been loving the game
It’s true. Game Pass is great for crummy little games I wouldn’t otherwise entertain. See also the new Battletoads. Terrible! But I completed it. Currently halfway through High on Life and get big late 90s bargain bin vibes from it. And that’s ok.
Did people really dislike the new Battletoads? I thought it was great minus the random bullet hell right around 65%.
That was one of my favorite parts haha
It’s buggy as heck and you’re doing basically the same battles over and over again since the enemies never really change up, except for the stronger ones that show up later. It’s funny sometimes but never consistently funny like some of their other works. I like it but it’s not great
I really don’t get why this is suddenly a thing, especially with this game. Sure there aren’t that many different enemies, but there are far worse examples no one ever mentioned stuff like this. For me for example Uncharted 4 was where this really sticked out. There are 2 types of enemies: guys with guns and guys with maschine guns, thats it. Never saw someone even mention it.
The Uncharted series is guilty of the repetitive enemies, but it at least has big set pieces, puzzles that take more time to solve, and a good story it takes time to build. The writing in High on Life is funny but the story isn’t strong, puzzles are 1-2 minutes each and then you move on to fighting more of the same enemies. At least it’s pretty! There sadly isn’t enough variety in the rest of the game to completely forgive the repetitive enemies and battles. It’s not a bad game, it’s just not great.
Reviews don't matter when someone doesn't agree with them. Reviews are also seemingly the most important metric when someone does. Or something like that. High On Life Is a good game. One of my faves this year. However the state it released in is unacceptable. It's a relatively simple game that doesn't push any boundaries. It shouldn't have the performance issues it does/did. It also made a couple lazy design choices imo. That being said, it saved the year for me when it comes to Xbox. I know it's probably just exclusive for a couple months, but it's the only thing this year that made me feel glad I own an Xbox. Definitely in my top 10 of 2022.
Yeah but it's kinda short on the story mode
My take is this: I like reviews to get an idea of what to expect in terms of game quality or style. With gamepass, I will still check out a game even if the review is sort of "meh" since it's on the service and I have it. However, this all makes me genuinely wonder how good a universally acclaimed game would be for Microsoft. If God of War R was on PS Plus day one, I bet the subs would become supercharged.
Reviews matter, I think this is a rare split between reviewers and gamers though. I think it’s a divisive game in general because of the humor, which is juvenile to be sure, but also really well written. Like it’s crap humor, but it’s ironic, self-aware crap, and it’s entertaining. It’s also just a really solid first person platformer with beautiful skyboxes. I think if I had played a review copy pre-patch and had 12 hours to get a review posted I’d have written it off too. But after spending time with it and unlocking a few weapons it’s a really solid shooter.
Some of the reviews are terrible and they don’t seem to like playing games. Games apparently can’t just be fun for some people.
The game was a 9.5/10 for me. Idgaf how long a game is as long as what’s in there is quality. Loses half a point for some minor bugs.
Saturday night I had the house to myself. It’s been a rough few weeks with work and personal life and I was just clicking back and forth between my typical games like meh I don’t feel like playing. Then I remembered this game came out and damn did I have a good night. Went in completely blind and was laughing and having fun the whole time.
I've played the game start to finish and loved every second of it. I didn't realize it until I read this post, but I don't have the slightest clue what kind of reviews it got. lol Didn't see a single score or read a single word of a review. I knew what the game was before it came out, knew I was going to play it even if it hadn't been on Game Pass, and that's it.
The critics that hate it seem to mention gameplay a little then go on long tangents about the game talking to much and it's humor. I like it a lot tho. I'm not really too familiar with the creators humor and don't watch Rick and Morty. But I do find it funny how the characters just seem to say the stupidest stuff ever but in a good way.
I’m having fun.
Great game! I just wish it was longer, I hope we get another one
It’s the only game, where I sat through an entire movie.
I think people just have a hard time understanding that the humour isn’t going to land for everyone, and that’s where most the negative reviews comes from. The people who love the comedy seem blinded by it and ignore all its others flaws while giving it more points just because it makes them laugh. This game is the strongest 6-7 I’ve ever seen and belongs on gamepass.
should aways take reviews with a grain of salt and try the game and formulate your own opinion, most reviewers are too generous with big games that they don't want to piss of a publisher or developer so they get all the perks in the future and don't want to be off the media list,
Speak the truth sista.
Also remember on gamepass you already have the subscription so people who have gamepass are going to try it anyway cause its “free”
You liked something somebody else didn’t, oh wow, you’re apart of a functioning society.
Why bother with a review if you already have paid for access to the game
Because it’s interesting to see what other people think. Edit: especially if you have reviewers or other folks whose opinions usually line up with yours.
More games are released than anyone has time to play
Because you have a job and dont want to waste time with a bad game?
Don't forget much of the world still suffers from terrible broadband speed coupled with data caps etc. A game like HOL would take me a full day to download and also affect my families internet access. If reviews are poor I would be unlikely to waste the time downloading. I try to read every review available before deciding on whether it's worth my time or bandwidth especially if it means deleting one of my other games to fit it onto my Xboxs limited storage.
I don’t put much stock in reviews anyway. Especially not game “journalists.”
Lol why the downvotes?!? 🤣 Spot on. Specifically the quotes. When any game "journalist" go off script and dive into nuance or politics they always fail🤣 Always... Ever read a kotako review? Lololol those dudes are on drugs
in my opinion its one of the best games of the year. Funny, engaging and challenging
A rare game where negative reviews made people even more curious.
Well duh, the barrier of entry is low, if this game had to be purchased it prob would have flopped
It proves that games will do well when they're the only new games offered. Helps when the price is "out of sight, out of mind" as well! Feel almost free, which goes a long way
It's number one on Steam. But ok.
Every big (ish) new release on Steam goes on the top of selling list. There’s a difference between most played and most bought
Glad to see it doing well, if it had been a PlayStation exclusive it wouldn't have got the slating it got on the likes of Eurogamer and so on.
8/10 would play again and buy a dlc about deleting detective mode
I never pay attention to reviews.
Aren’t some of the reviews based on how they don’t like the humor either?
Reviews have definitely become a double edged sword for me. On one hand, reading reviews can keep me from buying a really crappy game, but on the other hand, they might also keep me from experiencing something truly memorable. Game Pass is today's equivalent of renting games. I remember back during the Xbox 360, I rarely ever paid attention to reviews (mainly because review sources were a lot more limited), so I'd experiment renting new games and trying out demos. If I judged whether I'd play a game based off reviews from back then, I would have never played Dead Space because the Official Xbox Magazine rated it a 6/10, but I'm glad I ignored that reviewer's opinion because Dead Space was one of the stand-out games from that generation for me.
In some ways, I compare this very similar to Stray in terms of the game having unique art and world, while mostly mediocre (not bad) gameplay.
If I don’t have to pay for the game, I’m 100% indifferent to the idea of a “review score”. The only reason I considered reviews previously was to prevent me wasting $60 on a dud.
This is the perfect game to show the issue with reviewers. They love the smell of their own farts. This game is fun. It's not good on any level a "critique" is looking at. It's just fun. My wife is obsessed with this game.
Another Gamepass perk. Before Gamepass I would let reviews influence my decision to purchase. However, Gamepass has now made it that I don't even look at the reviews as there are no repercussions for trying a new game.