Vibrant planets, a continuous bullet storm, and psychopathic weapons are a given within the sequel to Squanch Video games’ first-person action-adventure sport Excessive on Life. However I didn’t count on to spend 90% of my time on a skateboard after I began the 45-minute gameplay demo of Excessive on Life 2 at Gamescom. Not that I thoughts it, although.
Bear in mind what a – no offense – uncool human you had been within the unique Excessive on Life sport? Your planet acquired invaded by aliens, you didn’t perceive the very first thing about intergalactic civilization, and also you used your foolish previous legs to maneuver round. In Excessive on Life 2, you’ve lastly grow to be superior – as in “well-known skateboarding bounty hunter” superior. Your life ought to’ve been clean skating from right here, however alas, an incident involving your sister places you on the incorrect facet of intergalactic legislation.
After dropping from a aircraft, efficiently avoiding house visitors, and touchdown within the midst of ParkingCon (on the conference planet of ConCon), the Excessive on Life 2 demo immediately gave me that adrenaline rush I hoped for. Being tasked with discovering a parking spot, which principally means capturing the competitors, I initially grabbed the 2 weapons I’d been given: froggy Gus and fishy Sweezy, who you could bear in mind from the primary sport.
However quickly sufficient, I found a much better option to not solely transfer round, however remove the parking competitors in type: zooming round on my skateboard, bumping into aggressive aliens, and capturing my board away from underneath me and watching it hit them within the face. Sorry Knifey, however it will possible grow to be my new favourite elimination methodology in Excessive on Life 2.
After securing my parking spot, it was time to swap ParkingCon for PoliCon, the place my assassination goal, Senator Muppy Doo, could be. After a little bit of parkour that concerned leaping throughout floating automobiles, using partitions, and grinding rails, I landed proper in entrance of the PoliCon entrance, the place I used to be (understandably) denied entrance. To not fear, by pretending to be a restore man, the close by upkeep alien let me enter a damaged elevator, break it a bit extra, and drop down onto some poor, harmless upkeep employees beneath. Unsure what that claims about me, however that’s precisely the type of sudden, hilariously darkish twist I got here to like within the unique Excessive on Life sport.
No time to really feel dangerous, although; I needed to parkour ahead and resolve some puzzles to get nearer to Senator Muppy Doo. This puzzle part was my least favourite a part of the Excessive on Life 2 demo, as I used to be wanting to proceed the story, see new places, and soar again into motion, however that doesn’t imply I discovered any fault within the puzzle design. I dutifully used Sweezy’s time-slowing skill to cross a fan, used Gus’ wall discs to achieve larger platforms, and grabbed some “lugblobs” to energy a door.
The demo then skipped ahead to the top of a battle with fellow bounty hunter Sheath, who agreed to be became a gun. What adopted was a extremely disturbing gun-crafting scene involving physique components that’ll remind you of different physique components in opposition to your will. When you’re planning to play Excessive on Life 2, beware that you simply’ll want a powerful abdomen.
Utilizing Sheath’s spike skill, which fuses electrical energy sources, I hacked a wall mechanism and acquired into extra fights (should you ask me, there’s quite a lot of collateral harm concerned on this one-target bounty contract), which offered an awesome alternative to strive Sheath’s three-shot bursts. Though his gunplay felt fairly normal, I used to be pleased to have a purple dot sight at hand.
The subsequent cease: MurderCon! I don’t assume I would like to elucidate that one, do I? Getting into a neon-lit, multi-level disco corridor, my activity was to climb the ranks and grow to be the final particular person standing (no worries, each contestant signed a waiver). Of all of the motion sequences within the demo, this insanely chaotic battle was by far my favourite. I acquired to make use of Sheath and Knifey (the stab-happy dagger from the primary sport), in addition to my trusty skateboard. One other satisfying option to take away the competitors was offered by the Hammerbirds, which I might choose up and slam down like a large sledgehammer, eliminating a number of targets directly.
As the brand new MurderCon champion, I used to be fast-forwarded into the ultimate a part of the demo, the place I lastly acquired to battle Senator Muppy Doo. The primary a part of the boss battle wasn’t significantly fascinating to me, as I used to be simply capturing the Senator’s decoys, however then the Senator crawled into my head, or moderately, my stock. Sure, I imply that actually; he invaded my in-game stock. That’s some next-level, fourth-wall-breaking weirdness.
Opening my stock, I needed to knock down the Senator to cease him from messing with my bullet harm and nitrogen sliders, earlier than committing to a full manufacturing unit reset and dropping right into a 2D arcade sport part. When you’re asking about essentially the most sudden a part of the Excessive on Life 2 demo, this was it. In fact, this demo was made for Gamescom particularly, so I’m undecided how a lot of the Senator’s shenanigans Squanch will preserve within the launch model, however individually, the stock invasion can keep.
It’s the artistic, uncommon gameplay bits like these that had been the spotlight of the Excessive on Life 2 demo, adopted by the good addition of the skateboard and the on-brand humor. The one factor I might’ve favored to see extra of, nonetheless, was different planets and the deeper narrative (particularly cutscenes and NPCs). One thing that has all the time bugged me a bit in regards to the unique Excessive on Life is the steadiness between motion and narrative, with an excessive amount of deal with the previous. It’s a matter of style, in fact, however the principle draw is the humor and the wacky story for me – if I need to shoot hordes of comparable enemies, I can discover them in different video games, too. Based mostly on this demo, I’d say the steadiness continues to be a bit off, however so long as I get my fill of improper jokes, I can in all probability stay with that.
Excessive on Life 2 is coming to PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Collection X on Feb. 13, 2026. Will probably be accessible on Recreation Go day one.
