Low Five Gaming

High on Life

• Studio Low Five • Episode 19

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Luke and Alex talk High on Life.

High on Life is a comedic first-person shooter game with action-adventure and Metroidvania elements. It takes place in a science fiction world which features talking guns called Gatlians. The game was published by Squanch Games and was released on December 13, 2022 for Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. As of publication, the Xbox Series X version of the game has a Metascore of 67 and a User Score of 7.9 on metacritic.com.

Alex and Luke both played High on Life  on the Xbox Series X via Xbox Game Pass. Both hosts rolled the credits on this one.

This episode is unofficially brought to you in part by that local joint with the fire food.

Sidequestin':

Luke: Slay the Spire, Hades, Vampire Survivors

Alex: Desk Job, Diablo, Warcraft, Warcraft 2, The Sopranos

Other Links: 

National Domestic Violence Hotline
https://www.thehotline.org/


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Low Five Gaming is a Studio Low Five Production.

Alex:

Hey there, this is Alex. Welcome to another episode of Lo Five Gaming, a video game backlog book club, if you will, that I host with my brother Luke. Now we had originally planned to air our High on Life episode last month, but just days before publication, news broke that Justin Roiland, the game's creator and former CEO of Squanch Games, the game's developer, had been charged with domestic battery and false imprisonment. These are serious allegations, and to be honest, Luke and I weren't entirely sure if we wanted to move forward with the episode as not to give Justin any of our time or platform. After much deliberation, we obviously have decided to release the episode, but I want to be very clear that we're not supporting Royland or his actions. The reason we decided to publish is because we don't want to diminish the work of the hundreds of people that worked on this game, nor do we want to diminish the experiences that we or you may have had playing High on Life. If you or someone you know is suffering from domestic abuse, help is available. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 800-799-7233. Again, that's eight hundred-seven nine nine seven two three three. And their website is thehotline.org. You can also text start to eight eight seven eight eight eighty eight seven eighty eight. Advocates are available twenty-four seven. And with that, be good to one another, people. We love you all. Onwards. Another episode of Low Five Gaming. My name is Alex, your host, and I'm with my brother Luke and co-host. This is your first time. Welcome. I'm super excited to have you here. And this, if this is your 18th episode, thanks so much for coming back and giving us a listen.

Luke:

And if you want to get us a birthday present, you can join the Discord.

Alex:

Yeah, holler at us in there. That's where we uh, you know, throughout the month, we we always pick one game per month. Uh, Luke and I go back and forth on this, you know, and we usually end up on a game that both of us enjoy, but yeah, every once in a while, you know, everyone's just six uh yeah, play some vampire games that are really hard. Dude, the more I think about it, the that game was fucking tight, dude. I enjoy it. Curse of the blood moon. Uh yeah, you sure you did. Didn't even get past level five. Yeah, but you know, I had fun. Crunchy music. I'm here for it. Nah, I'm playing. Uh, but yeah, so we pick one game per month, we play it, we talk about those experiences in our Discord, and then we gather and and do what we're doing right now. So thanks for coming on the ride, everybody. It's a backlog book club, dude. Backlog book club, bro. Backlog book club. Old games, new games, all the games. Mostly old games.

Luke:

The occasional new games, not this time.

Alex:

Not this time around.

Luke:

So, what uh what are we going with, dude? What'd you pick? Dude, we got uh we got Rick and Morty shooter. We got we got high on life. Just really wanted to pick a shooter, honestly, because we got the fancy Xbox Boy controllers with the adaptive triggers and uh or not the adaptive triggers, but you know what I mean, where you can adjust the level, the clickety-clackness of the elite controls, the elite, and then uh I was looking through Game Pass and I was like, maybe some Doom, maybe some uh Wolfenstein.

Alex:

I don't know, dude, it'd be still my heart.

Luke:

I know, I know, I know, but then like so. I was looking for like a shorter game that wasn't gonna be too intense, but it was just a fun little romp. And then the internet kept talking about high-end life, and it was all over the place. And I was like, dude, that'd be uh that'd be cool. And my buddy Carter actually downloaded it first, and he was like, Hey man, you know how I never play any games or finish them, I should say. He does ADHD, he's worse than you, he never finishes games. He's like, I'm gonna finish this one. So I was like, it must be fun. And he's like, Yeah, it's pretty great. So I gave it a shot and I enjoyed it.

Alex:

Yeah, shouts out to Carter, homie in the Discord, homie in real life, friend of the pod. Yeah, uh, he beat the game, bro.

Luke:

He beat the game before we did. He did. It was his first and only of 2022. Proud of you, boy. And made me yeah, so it seemed like a fun little selection. And uh, you know, if I pay this monthly subscription fee to the Xbox Overlords, I might as well like take advantage of these fresh titles. And uh 22 was kind of devoid of too many fresh titles from the from the Xbox Overlords. So uh Pentment's been pretty sweet, but I didn't really feel like doing that one on a pod without spoiling it.

Alex:

So here we are, high on life, and it's a good time. High on life, man. Yeah, I've had a good time with it. Let's jump into a little bit of about high in life, right? Sure thing, yeah. This game was developed and published by Squatch Games Incorporated. So it's a uh Justin Royland joint. Uh release date 1212-22. Pretty fresh. It's available on the Xbox, as you mentioned. It's also available on Steam in the Epic Game store. So you can play this game on your Xbox and your PC. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I don't know. They say the console wars are over, but I don't know, man. I see them in the shadows.

Luke:

Now that it has moved to the courts, man. I don't know if it's really in the shadows. Like the FC Federal Trade Commission out here and shit. Like, no, it's pretty salty as ever, but oh, it's real.

Alex:

So that's they've officially said that this game is not coming to to PlayStation. So sorry, all you PlayStation folks, but you can get it on your PC if you've got the PC. Uh and as you mentioned, it is a Game Pass game. So if you know, and uh we'll talk about this a little bit more later, maybe, but pretty good Game Pass game, bro. It's like the perfect Game Pass experience, if you ask me. Right. And as it is a new game, this is not a physical release. I don't know if they have physical releases for it, to be honest, but uh so digital, uh, and therefore no manual. But I did find on squatchgames.com's website a little blurb that I'm gonna read do.

Luke:

I was supposed to say you're such a nerd. I'm like, were you like, where's my game manual as you played this game?

Alex:

Dog, I love game manuals. Uh you know, and I've been digging around the Xbox, and they actually like do show digital manuals sometimes, uh depending on the game, which is kind of cool. But that's neither here nor there. Fresh out of high school with no job and no ambition, you've really got nothing going for you until an alien cartel that wants to get high off humanity invades Earth. Now, you and a team of charismatic talking guns must answer the hero's call and become the deadliest intergalactic bounty hunter the cosmos have ever seen. Travel to various planets and locations across the cosmos, go up against the nefarious Garmantuas and his gang of goons, collect loot, meet unique characters, and more in the latest comedy adventure from Justin Roiland. Navigate dynamic and changing worlds that range from a jungle paradise to a city built inside an asteroid, the hub of the cosmos. Complete hunter challenges, meet weird, fun, and hilarious characters, collect an array of alien technology, and more. Leverage the distinct skills of each gun to defeat a variety of diabolical alien enemies and track down Garmantuas. That's it, man. That's your background.

Luke:

The non-official script on this is it is a shooty-shoty bang bang gun game. Sure is where the guns talk to you. That's like kind of the main leading gimmick. I would say there's nothing particularly innovative about the game other than the game's responsiveness in terms of dialogues and jokes, specifically to you. So it is uh it is very much video game satire, although not like biting. So it I feel like it's a loving, like it's constantly making fun of games and tropes and different things, and in itself, like reinforces a bunch of those tropes as they do it, they call it out. It's pretty funny. That's where this game shines, dude.

Alex:

I'm just gonna come out the gate and say this is a garbage first person shooter.

Luke:

You know, I heard that hate on the Discord, and I was like, it's a fine, like I don't know.

Alex:

Garbage is maybe extreme, dude, but fine, it is a hundred percent fine. Like, you know, it is uh, you know, but that's fine. Uh it's fine that it's fine, and it really shines elsewhere. And you know, it's just not it's not gonna go down in history, like it's not gonna be with your dooms and your Wolfensteins or even your halos or your other first-person shooters that are like, you know, people 10 years from now aren't gonna be like, Oh man, I love High in Life's well, they may like for different reasons though, but like as far as like being a first-person shooter, not the best. It borrows from a lot of different great games, but doesn't really shine in its actual gameplay. That said, and you've already, you know, started to speak to this a little bit, it really does shine in terms of a lot of points that I think Justin Royland brings into it. And that's this flavor that he brings, this like the characters, the voice acting. I'm I'm not gonna go as far to say the story's great, the story's fine, but like you know, those elements, those elements that you don't normally get to see in video games are are there like strongly. Like the stuff that you might pick out from uh oh, I don't know, like a TV show or something, you know, where where Justin Royland, like you know, that's where he's like got his big footing or whatever. That's his fame comes from that Rick and Morty and stuff, you know, like those different pieces, like that flavor comes into this game, and that's super cool.

Luke:

First of all, I'd say it's solid, it's better than fine. Um use your glob shot. Uh shoot out my trick hole. Oh my god, so that's what we're talking about, but like you can, and it didn't bother me too much. I mean, like, especially some people really hate the guns talking in the banter, they like get annoyed by it. The only thing I really hated is the guns reminding me to use their trick abilities, and it's like it's you know, that was stupid, but like it's fine, it felt like an extremely polished 360 uh PS3 era first-person shooter, uh, 3D platformer.

Alex:

I mean, this is beautiful game. Like, I do think like you know, it's it looks great.

Luke:

But like in terms of gameplay and like even just like the feel of how a game was structured back then, like everything you know, now is like a massive open world adventure for 70 plus hours. And this game's like, I'm just a linear, semi-open world platform shooter.

Alex:

Before we get too far into the weeds on our experience, I just want to throw out there that how long to beat.com clocks this game at nine hours for the main story, main and extras, 12 hours completion is 17 hours all styles 10. So about nine hours to beat. I checked my playtime, took me four hours and 51 minutes, so just short of 15 hours to beat this game. And I'm not a completionist. Um, you know, just not as good at video games as some of these folks.

Luke:

You would have shaved a half an hour if you could get you know past one of my biggest grievances. What type of game doesn't come out with a map? A game doesn't have a map. Yeah, you're right. There's never a map in this game. I'm like, and yeah, no, we can get into that later, but it's I was just like, no map, huh? Like, I'm a map guy, don't get me wrong, but like, no map, huh? It's not like this. Uh, are you a Rick and Morty guy? Do you ever watch it? You know, I'm not.

Alex:

I'm not I'm not anti-Rick and Morty. I just uh never really got into it. I've watched a handful of episodes, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't enough for me to really dive headfirst into the series.

Luke:

I like liked it a lot for the first few seasons, and then I was all caught up, and then they came out with I don't know what season it was, where and I was just like, eh, and I never got back into it. And like, of course, it's pretty famous for a particularly um interesting fan base. There's a lot of there's a lot of normal people that are fans, don't get me wrong, but there's a lot of uh cringy internet.

Alex:

The Rick and Morty stands are there, dude. They got gear, they got everything.

Luke:

People love that shit. Yeah, just be causing a public scene and McDonald's and shit and all sorts of awfulness. So, like I would say that uh as someone who is in the middle of it, where like if someone wants to hate on Rick and Morty, I'd be like, you can settle down, it's a good time. But if someone's like it's the most highbrow, like good comedy ever, I'd be like you can also settle down on that. Uh this is the closest I'm gonna get to a good Futurama video game. So it's a good time.

Alex:

Oh, there's rumors about that. I mean, I think it's this wishful thickening. That would be fun, Futurama.

Luke:

Yeah, but anyway, how'd you like it?

Alex:

Dude, the game was fun. Let's so the uh, you know, we've kind of been talking a little bit about the you know, the gameplay is it's fine, the the story, it's fine, but these you know, these other elements that are in there that kind of subvert video games and bring in that that Justin Royland humor, I think that's where it really shines. And that kicks off right at the beginning during your character select, dude. I really enjoyed that.

Luke:

Um your sister comes in and you pick your character's face and gender kind of um yeah, and none of it fucking matters in the end.

Alex:

And that's like and one of the funny things about this game, dude, is there's so many because it brings in all these tropes from video games like it, where you think that you know, as you're playing, like sometimes, you know, I guess you know, like I'll be honest, like that kind of shit gives me anxiety sometimes because I'm like, oh man, how is this choice gonna affect my end game or whatever? Dude, it doesn't fucking matter in this game, like but it's got them there.

Luke:

Voice acting, they say they and them too, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they know it doesn't matter which gender you select, right? But I did like that.

Alex:

Yeah, and then your sister comes in who like apparently has her life together, but she's also about to do a bunch of coke. And she like offers you. And then uh she's clouded too. She's let she makes some comments, she's like, This is gonna last me all weekend because it's like good shit. It's like, yeah, well, I doubt it. But anyways, dude, fucking uh so she gives you, she like hands you this like like makeup mirror or whatever that's got a bunch of lines on there, and as you look into it, you can flip through your your character that you're gonna play as. And I just I enjoyed that. It was like a funny, weird, like aggressive take on on character selection, and that's just like that was it set the it set the tone for the game, and I enjoyed that.

Luke:

Yeah, and then there's like stuff like if in the beginning you like pause, like your gun like will just like make fun of you, and like dude, or if you refuse to do what the game tells you to do, like it's gonna start yelling at you, right? And like there's a lot of stuff where it it interacts with you, like the way it's a more modern game is the it's it's very aware of what you're up to in the moment. Uh, there's some funny YouTube videos of like, oh, you're speed running, that's cute. Hey, yeah, man. I hope you uh I hope you get a high score. Yeah, or if you get a world, you're not yeah, if you get to an area you're not supposed to be like, hey man, you kind of like broke the social contract. Like, clearly you can get here, but you weren't supposed to, and it's cute.

Alex:

Totally. It's a it's a very self-aware game, which is I always kind of enjoy that too. It's it's you know, it's a nice angle on the comedy.

Luke:

You did you did you like the guns? Did you like their personalities and the solid voice acting from them?

Alex:

Yeah, dude, and that's another thing. So I think the voice acting in this game is a lot of fun. They they you know, they brought in some really cool. Uh what's his name? Like the ones that really stuck out is uh uh JB Smoove. JB Smoove was really fun. You've got like Laura Silverman as as Lizzie. Um, I don't know. There's a bunch of names that I just like don't, anyways. Yeah, there's uh Justin Royland, obviously, voicing a bunch of this stuff. He he plays Kenny, uh a handful of different actors. Kenny's your your first gun.

Luke:

I think you should leave. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He plays creature. He's creature, so creature's hilarious. I enjoy creature, and it's very Tim Robinson-esque.

Alex:

Stuff's just goony. Right. So, like you you start basically these guns. What are they called again? What are those? What are the guns? They're um Gatlions, dude. Oh yeah, Gatlions. So like they're they're this alien species from from Gatlius or whatever, uh, which is uh another planet that uh the main uh G3 uh baddies have destroyed. Uh, but you collect these guns throughout, and they all have, like you said, different personalities to talk to you. It's a it's a fun weird spin on like the whole thing, like to to have these guns that are sentient beings like talk to you and stuff.

Luke:

It's it's pretty much whatever you consider knifey, right?

Alex:

Dude, it's funny too. Like, I noticed that that uh did you notice this as the game goes on? So, like knifey's your your second. You so you get Kenny first, he's kind of like your your handgun situation and like the main character energy, and then you get knifey, and knifey like comes in super strong, but as you like pick up more guns as the game goes along, I I mean I still use knifey all the time in close combat, but like he's less like aggressive as as far as like how much he talks to you and stuff. And like I feel like they started sprinkling in jokes about the fact that like you're not using as much anymore as the game went on, which which I enjoy.

Luke:

I think you're referencing like the last scene when you're about to face the main boss and they're like talking his guns, and then at the end, Knifey goes, Yeah, and I'm here too.

Alex:

Right. There's like a few of those different different points throughout the game where Knifey's like, I'm still here.

Luke:

Did you stab Gene early in the game?

Alex:

I did stab Gene, yeah.

Luke:

He goes, Oh, what the fuck? You don't have to do everything interface tells you to do, you asshole. I think that was my favorite, uh that was my favorite joke. Oh, that's like straight up, I straight up giggled at that one. I was like, I yeah, out of it.

Alex:

It was clouding. My favorite joke comes at the end. I'm not gonna drop it. I I might tell talk a little bit about it at the end of this. Uh was it the cameo? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Luke:

That's pretty fucking good, dude. It was great. Uh I read that in a review, so they should have done a better job not spoiling that. But yeah, it was uh it was a very funny one. So really it's like it's so the gameplay, uh, we should put a brief moment to the platformingness of it, because it is a shooter, but you do the the creator compared it to Metroid Prime gameplay, and the only comparisons really there are that there's first-person shooting and some light platforming, and you go back to areas in the Metroidvania style. But I feel like it's a bit of an ambitious comp, uh, especially because like Metroid in general has always got some grueling difficulty slash puzzles. I have not played the Prime trilogy, but I'm gonna assume there's some puzzles and some other nonsense like that. There is whereas this game has like one puzzle that almost makes fun of the fact that games give you puzzles. This couple throughout the platforming is actually kind of cool. I didn't dislike it. You get the jetpack, you get the little tether thing.

Alex:

It's better, it's better than fucking what's that game we played? Uh Half-Life.

Luke:

There's no crouch jump, is what I'm hearing. No crouch jump. I would have killed if they had a crouch jump joke in there. That would be so much. Whatever, it's a game of its age, man. It's yeah, or a product of it's just being older. I respect it. Yeah, sure. Fuck that game. I still have yet to go back and beat it. But anyway, I like the platforming. It felt more like I always told you it felt more like Ratchet and Clank than it did like a Metroid Prime. Sure. And that has to do with like the the environments being kind of a character of themselves and the weapons you use being a character of themselves. Shout out Ace for having the specific memory, but I was like Ace friend of the friend of the Pine for the family. He uh there's a weapon creature you shoot these little creatures out. And side note, when you reload creature and he spouts out more of those babies, the face the gun makes is just makes me giggle every time. So and then they all pop. Yeah. But yeah, he's like, it's the I think I want to say it was like the glove of doom, and that's in Ratchet and Clank. There's like this weapon glove where you throw a bunch of these little mini robots that run around, and so it's like it's not a new concept, but like that type of gun literally did exist to some degree in Ratchet and Clank. So it very felt Ratchet and Clanky towards the end there. Yeah, when the different guns had their own personality and they're kind of zany, and like you're going to different alien planets. So this is uh uh far mess, far more mature, but also incredibly immature version of Ratchet and Clank.

Alex:

Yeah, I suppose if Justin Royland came out and was like, it's a lot like Ratchet and Clank. I know people love that game, dude, but I I think it does like skew towards a younger audience. So like him comparing it to to Metroid Prime probably gets like people a little bit more serious about their shooters and and Metroid type games probably excited. But I don't know, maybe that's that maybe that's not maybe that's a hot take because uh people go also third person.

Luke:

Oh, that's whereas Metroid Prime is first person, so that's true. I just had no that wasn't on my radar, the cop wasn't on my radar at all. And then as I got the different guns going, and the different guns had their own little goofy abilities, I was like, this is starting to feel real ratchet and clanky. Sure. And I think it's also because like do you stick with one gun for a while, or are you just a spaz constantly cycling through?

Alex:

Uh I usually pick a gun for whatever my mood is and stick to it. Like, there are a couple points in this game where it's helpful to for the platforming to switch through guns. Like, for example, I think it's uh is it uh Gus? Gus that shoots out those blades that you can shoot into the wall or whatever, or those you know, they stick to the wall so you can platform up walls and stuff. Sweezy is basically the needler from a halo, but like her her special never never use that too much. Yeah, her special shot was kind of cool. Like there, and there's yeah, there's points where you have to basically it freezes time, so there's a couple different um spots where you can use that to your to your benefit. So it's like, but other than that, like, dude, once I got creature, I pretty much rock creature, you can just cheese it with a rocker. I uh uh Kenny's pretty good too. Kenny ends up being powerful if you upgrade him at the pound shop.

Luke:

Yeah, that's a brief thing to mention is you get little upgrades and buy little things. You can just buy shit that you never can use. I think it's kind of funny the game. Yeah, you're not allowed to use it. Like the the text in the game, like when they're describing items or upgrades, like there's just jokes everywhere. Um, there is so it's that's what this game shines making fun of it.

Alex:

It's birds itself, so birds gaming, and it's uh that's I mean, that's the best part about it. But it's it's it is funny though. Like I said, that gives me a little anxiety because I'm like, well, what am I supposed to do with this gale and alien cum now? You just carry it, you just you just have it in your ear. But there might be dude. I don't know. I haven't got yeah, right. There's uh there's this weird like little dude that it's uh I don't know. You don't even do you even buy it from her or do you just give it to you? I took the alien cub.

Luke:

You uh yeah, you have to spread the word on it, which you're doing a good job of Al. Yeah, you're true, you're true to your word. Indeed. Um so yeah, the story itself is just a vehicle, which every story is, but like they kind of just make fun of it. You just do these bounties, and they're cool. Like the bosses have their own character to them. You know, you can kill that doctor character before you actually fight him as a boss.

Alex:

Uh no. No, I don't which doctor you talking about.

Luke:

Try not to spoil hard and two. Uh he's like little bit. Yeah, I believe so, yeah.

Alex:

Wait, no, is he the he's you get that achievement when he like it's like easiest boss in the game or whatever, and then it goes into the next one. It's not him.

Luke:

It's not him. It's the nippy won? No, you're doing the puzzle with the pipes. And spoiler if you're really into you know the purity of this game's story. Um, this like squid's like, I gotta get to my family, like help me put these pipes together, and like you slowly like kind of start to get the feeling like his story doesn't add up. He's like, Oh, my kids are in there, you gotta save them from the doctor, and like he's like a G3 member you're trying to kill. Right. And then I think it's Gus specifically, the the shotgun Gatlium. JB Ruby.

Alex:

No, no, not Grubis. Douglas. Yeah, Douglas.

Luke:

Douglas, yeah. And then uh you can shoot him and he dies. And then when you go to face the boss, he's just in his suit, and it's like uh an emergency maneuver thing, and you get like a special achievement for it. So it's kind of funny.

Alex:

Oh, so when you think he's an NPC or whatever, you can kill him, kill him then. There's a couple other points at the beginning of this game, but it's not too spoilery, but you run around, you can actually like a lot of times the game will not allow you to kill the NPCs, but there's a couple that it does allow you to kill, and it's it's kind of funny because like the other NPCs will react to you differently depending on what choices you made. Like that little kid in the beginning, you can kill him if you want.

Luke:

But I didn't know you couldn't kill him, I thought they forced me to. And then I did, and I was like, Oh man, and then it's okay, he's not that old, or he's not that young.

Alex:

Yeah, but then his mom's like, Ah, I would have done it too.

Luke:

Yeah, he's like, He's an asshole.

Alex:

Uh, yeah, I kept him alive.

Luke:

Also, like, did you do the side stuff with the little portal? Another thing, like, yeah, a grievance of mine, the warp discs are delightful, especially in the humor like department. But like to find the warp area that you use, the warp discs, is incredibly obscure and like really stupid and hard to find. And I'm like, that was really annoying, especially when you don't have an in-game map to just help you out. I'm like, I'm just gonna wander around this planet until I find it again, huh?

Alex:

Yes, there's a couple different spots where you can do that, but there's one in particular on your um your bounty hunter machine thing or whatever. It's uh there's like a blue icon that if you like, it's the only one in there, and that will bring you like it, it basically like leads you to that spot so you don't have to like search around too much. But yeah, I agree. A pain in the ass. Uh the warped is a good thing.

Luke:

Did you go to cutie town? Yeah. So I won't spoil that because it's probably the funniest thing.

Alex:

Dude, those jokes sent those are some of the best jokes in the game. The warped is stuff. The the thing that's ridiculous, though, is none of them fucking matter, dude. Like, there's no they are pure like side, they're like pure side quests. Uh that not even a quest, dude.

Luke:

It's just like a pure like you want to joke, like come over here. Exactly. Like, here's this goofy little thing. You just no one I like actually like bugged out and tried the skateboarding thing that's making fun of the Tony Haw games from back in the day. I was like, I like actually took like longer than I'm proud of to get the high score, and I like the Google. Well, I Googled, I'm like, what do you have to do? They're like spam, jump, and combo it with this. And I'm like, okay, and I didn't like I don't think you really like putting in the work. No, we're just cool teens, man. It's a very teen thing for you to do. I was like, this is great.

Alex:

You mentioned the you mentioned the in-game uh pipe puzzle, but there's uh a warp disc pipe puzzle too. It's just so ridiculous, dude. It's like two alien homies, one's at the top on a toilet. Have you done this one?

Luke:

Uh the toilet one, yeah. I didn't collect all of these crystals to see them all, but yeah, dude.

Alex:

So that that one's probably my favorite one. One, because I I like pipe puzzles, like that's they're fun for me. You like those.

Luke:

Oh, okay.

Alex:

And then two, very balanced pot. I hate those. Dude, straight up, straight up, this dude just shits in his friend's face. And it's like, what the fuck? And that's like, yeah, that's what it's all about.

Luke:

Yeah. No, and the cutie town one though, uh, the character's like, You should just kill me, and then like you do it, and then your gun's like, Oh god, you actually did it. Like, this is probably for the best, but like, really didn't think you had it in you, and this like a bunch of shit like that all the time.

Alex:

Totally. Those warped discs, those were highlights for me, even though they like it annoyed me a little. I don't know if it annoys, right? It was just like, I feel like this game, I don't want to go as far to say as it's half baked, I just feel like it has all these elements that are like it's just a little all over the place. Like, it's not like super cohesive, but it's uh almost done like that on purpose. You know what I'm saying?

Luke:

Um I would just say that it's more of just like you know, in the terms of satire, it almost reminds me of like when you're watching those old uh who's the Spaceballs guy? Um, Mel Brooks movies where it's like they're in the middle of riffing about a Star Wars make and then there's like a joke about a different movie franchise, and then you're like, what the fuck? They're just all over the place. So yeah, like the warp discs are cool. I I love to use all the different guns. I'd say my favorite voice actor gun was JB Smooth, but I actually thought the shotgun was trash. Um, although I did love doing that little slide kick, and then that was really cool.

Alex:

Um was trash, except for versus nippulon.

Luke:

Which one's nipulon?

Alex:

The dude with the nipples. I mean, he's like the second to last boss. He's the one that like he drugs you and like all that weird psychedelic stuff happens. Oh god, that was so it's one of those tropes where like uh there's like the real nipulon and part of it, one of the phases of that boss battle. He there's like a whole bunch he multiplies, and then the shotgun was nice because it's it splatters out, and like you can kill a few bit before. I mean, you can also just kind of tell that the the orange guy is the real guy, but it takes care of yeah, used a shotgun on that on that boss. It's not dude, it's a spoiler, but it's come on, like the all the rest are bullshit bosses, and he even tells you he's like, maybe one's a different color.

Luke:

Yeah, no, they once again they're constantly making fun. The bosses were a lot of fun, but I actually got like easier, like that final boss wasn't as hard as like the the brothers, where you they're all combined in their ability, and then the easiest boss, whatever, when it's that's actually out who killed him in the recordings. He's like, It must have been, and he's like, uh, you wouldn't have gotten this far, so it has to have been.

Alex:

Dr. Giblitz and Screndel Bros are definitely the two hardest bosses. They were the two hardest bosses for me, and Nipulon and Garmantuas. So, like the the two Garmantuas is like the final boss, and I died maybe once or twice versus him and Nipulon. I've maybe died once. Screndel bros and Dr. Giblitz, dude. I died so many times. It fucking pissed me off how many times, but uh unless. Let's not get into weeds on it too much, but I've been playing a little bit of Fallen Order. Indeed, at least in this game, like when you die, you just drop right back at whatever phase you're just fighting in.

Luke:

Yeah. No. Fallen Order. There's a boss later on where I yes, many, many times.

Alex:

Yeah, the boss fights were good, man. I think that's another thing that, like, although it was frustrating to, you know, to to die so many times on a couple, that also like added to the challenge of the game. And I didn't I didn't really mind it too much. It's it's part of, you know, it's part of that whole metro advania genre of it that you know you just have to learn, learn what they're doing and overcome their patterns and and figure it out. So you can, you know, you can kind of cheese it a little bit on some of them, but it's it's uh there's they're good, but they're good boss fights.

Luke:

Uh yeah, they they have some character and they're just kind of fun. Uh for me, it's more like once again, it kind of brings me back to that gameplay of like when the PS2 to the PS3, where it's just a very linear game, and like I didn't die too many times and really struggle with any of them to like have to learn too much, but it's just like it was kind of a short and sweet experience overall, and just like kind of incredibly solid. So, like, some some good things about it is it's just like a fun little almost like a weekend romp. Discussed that in a previous podcast where like that's why it's kind of the perfect game pass game. Is it's just like do you just want like a pretty mellow, like you don't have to master it or go too hard into it, or you know, uncover 50 million things, but just kind of take it at your own pace. You could beat it in a weekend, it's there, it's free. I think in the Discord, they're talking like I'd buy this game if it was on sale. Um, some others said, like, you know, 30 bucks, but like on Game Pass, it's like fun and exciting to have, and it's just like it's good. It's a cool day one. It was an overstate.

Alex:

And it's surprisingly, I think uh, you know, I read some stuff and on the internet some whatever about uh some bugs. Um, there's some like purposeful bugs, just like jokes and stuff. But um, but overall, like, dude, as a day one game, like it it performed pretty well, I would say. You know, I agree. I think it's a a great Game Pass game for the reasons you mentioned, but also because like it's a good dabbler, right? Like, I think a lot of like this game is it broke records on Game Pass. Like for the amount of people that have downloaded and played it, it's it's gone through the roof. So it's it's part of the zeit ice. Like, I've seen uh and granted, it's the way that you know the Google and the internet works, but I get fed a ton of high on life content now. And you know, and and some of it's like you know, it's interesting, but a lot of people are playing this game, and like it's probably good for the streamers, right? But like the one of the reasons that I think that it is such a good Game Pass game is that you can you don't have to fully commit like 60 bucks or whatever, it's just part of your subscription, and then you're gonna have folks that that get on and they spend I don't know, half hour or whatever, and they get to see some jokes and they're like, I'm funny that's fun, I get it, like whatever, and they'll never return to it. And then you got other folks that are gonna really into it and really enjoy it, and you know, put pour in a ton of hours, and you get people kind of in the middle like us that are gonna, you know, play through the whole game, but but not devote their lives to this game. But uh, you know, I've got some homies. It's it's it's been fun though to play on launch because there have been a ton of people playing this game, uh, because it's available on Game Pass. Uh, for instance, I've got uh a homie Chewy who's he's gone through and done two playthroughs, uh, which is wild to me. But he's he's he's a cheat, he's a Chivo hunting, and and he's also like he spent 15 hours, if not 30 hours, at the alien strip club. Right, that was a good joke, too. Yeah, but um, but yeah, many is trying to collect all the loot boxes or all those like little, you know, and he's trying to he's doing 100% the game, which I'm like, why? But because he wants to, when that's what's up.

Luke:

It's you know, like it's vibrant enough to spend a decent amount of time. Like, I didn't love backtracking, but you want to know why? It's because they didn't give me a fucking map. Yeah, uh, I didn't love backtracking, and like when people say the gunplay is a little stale or not great, like they're not totally wrong. I just like I'm a pretty casual FPS guy, so like I'm not gonna be like, oh wow, drift game probably better, because I really don't play many of them, so like it's kind of great for casuals like myself.

Alex:

I feel that, dude. Uh you mentioned the you mentioned the elite controllers, dude. So I have the you know, the the different joystick sizes and the back pedals and stuff. And this game was uh fun for me to plop in that right joystick, the the long one, because that allows you to you know the physics of it so you can be a little bit more fine-tuned on your aiming. So I I use that in this game, and I actually spy those glob shots, yeah, right? But like, you know, not gonna catch me playing like I don't know what are people like metal honored. Metal Honor is kind of old now. What's the shit that everybody plays for a second? What's that other war shit that people always play? I don't know.

Luke:

Shouts out 2008, dude. I was like, I won't be playing any of them, them hip games like call of the medal of honor was tight.

Alex:

Call of Duty Call of Duty is what I was looking for.

Luke:

Call of Duty, not even like the new ones that he should be referencing. My man, medal of honor, get the fuck out of here.

Alex:

The point is, man, the fucking tall joystick, it actually made it like easier and the backpedals, dude. Like, I'm over L3 and R3, man. If you got back pedals on your controller, oh, it's so nice.

Luke:

Yeah, I should uh I should get those, but yeah, you can get them on.

Alex:

You don't even have to get the official ones, you just get them on Amazon or whatever, and it's a lot cheaper.

Luke:

You want to do like uh like just some last minute spoilers? So here's a spoiler wall. Come back at um time Alex says in post-production to come back at 40 minutes, 10 seconds, dude.

Alex:

Uh yeah, yeah, yeah. We can hit some spoilers. So uh let's give it a better like let's give it like a less dirty fucking transition, though, dude.

Luke:

I like the dirty translation, keep it all in, dog. Terrible nope, nope, keep it just let it happen.

Alex:

End game spoilers, bro. Let's let's let's get some spoilers in here. Uh I'll drop in a little toy time sample.

Luke:

Just so I can do some jokes, specifically, and then you know the spoilers don't matter because the story's kind of dumb, but it also leads to the enjoyment of the game to hear some of the jokes. But Kenny is accidentally the reason that his whole planet has been destroyed and overtaken by the G3 cartel, and they find his old friend let's do it. Yeah, so he has this guilty consciousness, and he, you know, he has to admit to all the other Gatlands that he's the reason that they lost their planet, and they're all pissed at him. And then when they fix up let's do it, let's do it, and that's all he can say. And he goes, Oh man, I never even had to tell any of you is the first thing. Did you catch that?

Alex:

Yeah, it was clowning.

Luke:

I laughed, dude. I was like, That's great.

Alex:

Yep, dude. I also enjoyed when he was like spilling his heart out to you at the Applebee's, dude. And we didn't even talk about this is not spoilers, but um, but yeah, no, the like your sister in the thing, like her whole like side story was really enjoyable to me. She ends up getting, I guess it's spoiler, you're so included in this section, but you know, she ends up dating that alien who ends up like turning her into the G3 for the monies, and then she kills him in the fucking in like in his spaceship, and you go save her, and she's stupid. I don't think she kills him. Yeah, talk she kills him. Are you kidding? Do you not remember this? Like, she's full of blood, and she's like he's dead on the floor. Did this not happen?

Luke:

No, what they're just arguing in the van.

Alex:

Oh, dude, like she's uh interesting. So, like in mind, dude, like for whatever just it might maybe the uh maybe the decisions you make in some of those arguments have a have an outcome. But dude, when I so after the Applebees, like I go, I went and I like took the warp thing to go into her like into the dude's RV, and he's just dead on the floor. There's blood everywhere, and she's just sitting there, like spaced out. She's like, Oh, thank, thanks, thanks for coming to get me. I'm I'm like, you know, definitely not what happened.

Luke:

They're like arguing, and I like oh no, man. You like break up and he leaves, and I'm like, What's good out of here? That's wild. That's awesome.

Alex:

Oh crazy, dude. Yeah, wild. Yeah, she kills him in my she straight up marks him. She's like, I did what I had to do. Like, I don't really want to talk about it. Like, let's just let's go. Thanks for coming to get me.

Luke:

Yeah, yeah, that's that's wild. I'm like, I can't believe I missed that. That's really funny.

Alex:

That's cool. I just assumed that most of the shit in this game didn't have consequence, so that's kind of fun that there is some there is some different outcomes.

Luke:

Because her and Gene always bicker, so I wonder if it's like if you support the relationship versus you don't, or the different things that you tell them to do, or maybe it's totally by chance. Google hasn't fed that to me.

Alex:

It's too much. That's interesting, dude. That's funny, dude. The main spoiler that I main joke spoiler that I really loved is there's it starts to sprinkle out. Yeah, so Gar Gargantuous or whatever, the main G3 boss, he he keeps mentioning throughout the game that he's got your two most important, most favorite people in the world, and you just assume that it's your parents, or at least I did, right? Because you know, they haven't been there a whole game, so you're like, Oh, yeah, the most important person, like it's gotta be the parents. So then when you're in the final boss fight, he he like brings in these two people. It's not your parents, it's Jack Black and Susan Saran. Uh Susan, uh what's her name? Susan um Sarandon? Or Susan What?

Luke:

I don't know. She's got a familiar fame name, but I don't know.

Alex:

I think it's Susan Sarandon, dude. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For real. But that's that should just make I was like, you gotta be kidding me. And then he just kills him because he's like, Oh, what do you mean? What do you mean you don't care? Like, I talked to a whole bunch of people humans, and they all said that these are their two favorite people. Yeah, he's like, everybody loves them.

Luke:

They're like, Well, yeah, but that just blows them up.

Alex:

Dude, that was a great joke. I enjoyed that one. Um, any other any other big spoilers, a little spoiler section.

Luke:

No, I just really just really loved those dumb little things that I had to mention quick. And now that I know the Applebee's scene turned out a little differently than you, that's hilarious.

Alex:

That is kind of wild. Cool. Let's bring it bring it back real quick. All right. Spoilers over. Well, major spoilers. Might have been dropping some tiny bits here throughout.

Luke:

Right.

Alex:

But uh the major spoilers are done. You're safe.

Luke:

Yeah, man. All in all, is it was an enjoyable experience. We always say, would you recommend? I would. If you, you know, if you have Game Pass, especially, and if it's ever on sale for around $30, I think it's short enough and enjoyable enough in that time, and it does not overstay its welcome. I would give it a light seven or a heavy seven to a light eight. Oh, coming in with numbers. The overall enjoyment scale. Yeah, there we go.

Alex:

I dig it, man. It's uh for me, I think it's a no-brainer on Game Pass. If you subscribe to Game Pass, get at it, might as well try it out. I think that's why you know we we alluded to the fact of being a perfect Game Pass game. For me, it's because you know, I think it's definitely worth your anywhere between 20 minutes and 14 hours, it's worth it. Um that said, dude, I did get about in my my playthrough of this game, uh, I probably made it through four or five bosses. I got a little tired of it. Like, not like I wasn't hating it, but I was like, I forced myself to go in and finish it out. You know what I mean? So it's like this game didn't like super captivate me to the point where I was like, oh, I really need to, you know, it's it's because of those places as far as video games where it's lacking, like its story's not great, the gameplay wasn't great, and like you know, you just kind of have to be in the mood for for the jokes and stuff, which uh which do shine, but it just wasn't it would not enough for me to give it like a glowing, glowing review. But uh definitely uh uh check this out. Check this out if you have it on Gate Pass. And you know, like if you got money to drop, go ahead, go get it. Like, I don't think you'll be uber disappointed with it. Uh, but for sure, you know, there's if it's if it drops 50% off on Steam or whatever one of these days, it's a it's a solid pickup, and you're gonna have fun with this game. It's and you know, I do I do think it's cool because it subverts the genre. Like, I think that you know it's different, it's not your run-in-the-mill shooter, like it's it's a different experience than than any other shooter I've ever played. Not a big shooter person, but you know, it's still different than anything I've ever dabbled with.

Luke:

It was good enough where I'm pretty curious as to what Squash Games comes out with next, and that's a compliment. So there we are.

Alex:

There you go, Squash Games. What do you got?

unknown:

Yeah.

Alex:

All right, bro. Let's uh let's take a little break for our Unsection sponsor, and then we'll come back with our side quests.

Luke:

Hell yeah. Unsanctioned sponsor. It's gonna go local on this one. Um, because I live in the Maplewood, uh North Maplewood.

Alex:

Damn, hyper local.

Luke:

Hyperlocal doxing himself. You want to give your address to everybody too, bro? Sure. So I live on no, and I'm surrounded by all these like mid-American chains and fast food restaurants, and like there is I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna give them any love though, because there's the more local places that I that stand out, like there's a there's a ramen restaurant that's right next to a golden corral. So like you literally gotta walk past all these, you know, uh, I'll be generous, all these interesting individuals huffing down the Siggies, getting ready to go back into the troughs at Golden Corral. And then there's just like this chill ass uh Zen Ramen restaurant, and it's a good time and it's tasty food. And like, you know, you could probably get bougie on me and tell me, like, oh, I like to go into Minneapolis through my ramen, but like she's good, it's cute in there, it's nice, and you wouldn't think of it when it's right next to an Aldi and a golden corral. And the other ones, Tono's Pizzeria, and cheesesteak. There's like three of them though. So maybe I live next to one of the other non-maplewood locations. We don't know, but anyway, we had some pizza, and I don't like pizza. I I don't like pizza too much. I like pizza, but like how the fuck do you not like pizza, bro? My butthole and stomach don't like pizza too much. So this is like one of them them brick oven pizza joints, and I got like a taco pizza, I forget what they called it, but like my man, it hit hard as a motherfucker, and uh it was delicious, and I like those two places, and cheesesteaks are really good. Word. There's one with a fried egg on it. Like, yeah, I need some more protein on this Philly cheesesteak, but like god, a runny egg on a cheesesteak is just madness, and I love it. So, yeah, those are mine. What do you got?

Alex:

Yeah, dude, shout out the local joints, shout out the non-chain good ass food eating places.

Luke:

Switch fuck golden crow, unless you want to give me my golden crow. I'll I'll eat at the troughs, bro.

Alex:

There's uh there's a little joint next to my apartment called the fuck. No, I'm gonna that the face straight up dox me.

Luke:

I'm not gonna bring uh there's a little place next to Alex's house, beep where uh you can get a lamb sandwich and uh not too many lamb sandwiches out there, but damn, with the with the Harisa sauce, that that that was hidden. My guy, we got a bonus episode. Shouts out to the hidden bonus episode. Yes, sir. We got a goat release like the joke. Goat. Uh owl's list is whack, but we'll get on to that another time. Get the fuck out of here.

Alex:

It's the best greatest games of all time.

Luke:

This is dope ass list. Shouts out to eating too much, specifically like red meats and such, and then trying to fill like shoot a podcast afterwards. And you know, shouts out to the to the editor who stifles all our burps and probably takes out those heavy sighs and like everybody micro. Do my best, bro. Come on, hit me with that shit sometimes. I'm like, oh but uh hey man, you can't fill me up with lamb sandwich with some tasty aju.

Alex:

That's what I'm talking about. The yeah, ooh, I'm pretty sure I drank the rest of my did you got to drink? Yeah, how you're not gonna finish the a jus?

Luke:

So that's our unspection sponsors.

Alex:

Unspection sponsor, those local joints. Hit them up, hit them up. All right, welcome back, everybody. You've been side questing, bro.

Luke:

Yeah, so we're finally done with Slay the Spire for a little bit. I feel like that's been my side quest like three pods in a row. Um, but now we're just doing Hades when they dropped the Hades 2. I was like, hell yeah, let's get back into Hades. And I started fresh. Like I was gonna ask if you do that. You're doing it fresh, huh? Nice. So I I've beat dad three times now as of last night. Right on. Yeah, it's uh not as easy as I remember. Right on this game is difficult. It's a hard game.

Alex:

You gotta be in that flow, that the Hades flow state to take down dad.

Luke:

And I've gotten there, and then I never thought I'd like it, and I just played vampire survivors for five minutes at your house. So, what you got, dude?

Alex:

You coming at me with that vampire survivors alcohol and shit after all the time you spent telling me how ridiculous I was for 11 Vampire Survivors. Oh, dude, I tell you what, that game is dope. I'm still playing that game, and I take so much joy in the fact that I can tell it's been commanding some of your time as well. Started getting into that shit way more than I thought you would.

Luke:

Yeah, man, it's pretty fire. I'm not any good at it though, but it is pretty fire, it's very addicting.

Alex:

Other than that, dude, I've been playing a little joint called desk jobs, produced by Valve, and it's basically a it's for only the Steam. I think you can play it on your PC, but it's made specifically for the Steam Deck.

Luke:

You're just gonna quit your desk job and work for yourself and then play simulators if you play desk job.

Alex:

Dude, it's it's a fun little joint. Like it basically is it allows you to um it it it's uh it's like showcases the controls of the Steam Deck. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so it's uh it lives in the world, it lives in that portal world. Um and then uh but it's basically like showcases all the controls of the Steam Deck. It's it's short, dude. It takes about like a half hour to beat, maybe even less. But that one uh is fun. Vampire Survivor is still something I'm fucking with. And then recently, dude, I was just feeling nostalgic for some older games, and it was uh you know coming off some some big holiday sales. Uh so I downloaded Diablo, Warcraft, and Warcraft 2. Diablo won, bro, the original Diablo. Uh, so I've been I've been having some fun going down memory lane, playing playing some Warcraft and Diablo. It's one of those things, dude. Especially so Diablo is like it's actually kind of creepy. I have some like really good fun memories of uh going over. I can't even remember their their names, but my uh mom and dad had uh some homies that we'd spent some time over there and down in the base. And this dude had his like work PC or whatever, and he had Diablo on there. And I had to be like, I don't even remember how old I was. I had to be like 11 or something, and he would like I'd just go down there by myself and play this game. Dude, it's fucking creepy. Creep me out back then, like is because it's a scary ass game. I've been you know playing it, you know, as an adult now. It's still creepy, and it's still like you know, it's it's Diablo's a fun one, dude. You just run around, you just click everything, and uh, so it's and that one like I wanna Diablo 4. I'm not terribly concerned about tearing through them before four drops, but you know, it's got Diablo on my mind, so I'm I'm starting at the beginning uh playing some Diablo and then Warcraft one and two. I doubt that I'll spend a ton of time on there, but dude, so much joy just like going back playing the original Warcraft, uh, just like how you know it's a real-time strategy game, and it's just like how far those games have come. It's mind-boggling, just like all the stuff you can do and some of the newer ones, uh, and then this like, but still, dude, like how much joy and how much fun you can have on just Warcraft 1, dude, it's great. Like, and I've been having a bunch of a bunch of fun just like clicking around doing some real-time strategies, Warcraft.

Luke:

I downloaded Age of Empires 4 off of Game Pass. And I still have yet to really get past the tutorial just because it's hard to get up onto the computer with these here babies.

Alex:

Right on.

Luke:

But I I am interested in the RTS as I I need to drive back in.

Alex:

Yeah, outside of the outside of the video game world, uh I I've decided, and I don't know if it'll stick, but I'm three episodes in. I'm I'm giving the Sopranos another shot, dude. Although I did do the math, and if I watch one episode every single night, it's gonna take me three months.

Luke:

So I don't know. It'll fly by. Just don't watch the new witcher. Oh no. It's very like mediocre is uh generous. Yeah, I haven't checked that out. I've been told that I've been generous with my ratings of it, and I said it's incredibly okay to right on, yeah. No Henry Captain, you know that, and it's just like it's cheesy, it's just bad, it's just cheesy. Um, but the action's cool, so you know, there's that.

Alex:

Right on TV, video games, side quests. Well, cool, dude. I think that's an uh that that that's it. That's another episode called a rap. Good times for a year under our belt, official year. Uh yeah, join our Discord. Also give us a rating on your podcatcher. If your podcatcher allows ratings, uh, we would if you stuck it with us as far, put in a little bit of a little bit more and give us you can give us one star if you want. You can give us five stars. We prefer the five stars, but we'll take whatever. Give us a little rating. You got something to say about us, drop it on there. Join that Discord. You can find that link in the show notes. But yeah, low five gaming. Check you later, bro.

Luke:

Much love you all. You as well. Peace. Oh, that was to the audience, not me. I love you too, audience.

unknown:

Oh, this is really swell of you, stranger. This has gotta be the nicest thing that's ever happened to me. Uh, when it's completed, I'm gonna spray my hot, stinky duty all over my buddy. Oh, he's gonna be covered in it. Yum, yum, yum, yum. I can't eat it. Uh, if I eat my own duty, I'll die. I wish I could. Thanks so much for helping with this. I yeah, I wanna eat his shit. Is that so bad? I wanna be covered all over in it. And you're gonna help. Here we go. You ready, pal? Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh yeah. It's coming. Oh God, I I I don't want to watch that stop. Thank you, thank you, traveler. We'll never forget you. You've saved everything. Are you familiar with the butterfly effect? The butterfly will flap its wings, and years later a hurricane will brood. You have no idea the consequences that you've unleashed upon the galaxy. Good luck! Good luck, everyone in a game makes a choice. This is one of those story games where little decisions mean big impacts later. Who knows what NPCs will die because you let me shit into the pipes into my friend's mouth. You're a real savior, unless this is set into motion some kind of a terrible outcome. You'll never know. I guess you'll have to play this again and choose not to let me shit into my friend's mouth. And maybe you won't hear the song.

Head Shot

Alex

Host
Head Shot

Luke

Host