High on Knife Reviews
High on Knife is a decent add-on for those searching for an excuse to jump back into Squanch Games’ gross world of naughty words and cartoon violence, but it doesn’t offer a whole lot of reasons to stick around for more than a couple of hours. With a disappointingly short questline and an ill-advised focus on some of the weaker members of the High on Life cast, it doesn’t come close to reaching the same highs (pun intended) as it did last year. There are certainly some decent laughs to be had, and more of this shamelessly idiotic world is by no means a bad thing, but there just isn’t enough here for me to be able to enthusiastically recommend anyone clear even this small amount of time on their busy gaming schedule.
After playing through High on Knife (and thus, a much more stable build of the game), I feel like I’m game for a sequel. It’s clear that the team can carry on without Roiland, and I’d like to see them tackle the old-school FPS genre again with all the tricks they’ve learned along the way (and a little more polish).
High on Knife only lasts for a handful of hours, and while it doesn't do much to separate it from the main game, it's still fun.
I didn’t really talk about the story on purpose, and that’s because its extremely short. While I enjoyed my time with High on Knife, that time is only a few hours to see the story and maybe one more to wrap up side quests and things. And as fun as the new pinball type B.A.L.L. gun is, I had hoped for something that would add a new weapon and a new personality to my arsenal. Alas, the BALL gun is worked by three chubby members of the blue man group and only ever talks in ‘meeps’ and ‘oops’. Again, gun is DOPE and adds a lot to the gameplay, just wish it was voiced like the others. The most damning thing here though is the narrative just abruptly ends. I don’t want to spoil it but while the developer’s kind of make a joke about the ending and how it just fades to black; the overall experience just left me with a lot of questions and an unsatisfied feeling in my stomach.
High on Knife is as perfect as a High on LIfe DLC can get. It builds upon the mechanics of the first game, providing a funny and fresh experience.
High on Knife generally stands out in the context of High on Life because it has some of the game’s best overall moments. It hasn’t completely shaken all of the eye-rolling humor that powered the original, but its conciseness and ability to spotlight more deserving characters makes it significantly less grating. Its unique gunplay similarly benefits from a shorter runtime and has also only gotten better with its new pinball-operated weapon. While High on Life showed how Squanch Games has grown over the years, High on Knife demonstrates that there’s still value in brevity.
Outside of length, poorly executed jokes, and a morality virtue signaling campaign, the game’s DLC fails to reacquaint players with the game’s mechanics. In the first few minutes, you will have to figure out how to play again or die trying.
You really, really have to like the kind of humor in High on Knife to enjoy the DLC. You're not going to get any character from the new gun, and Knifey's psycho nature doesn't take long to become grating when compared to the rest of your living loadout. The combat is less enjoyable than before, since the pinball gun is the only weapon you can use to deal any real damage, and the act of collecting everything in the game feels more meaningless since you don't get anything from it. If you're into the rambling nature of the jokes with a sense of humor that's often crude or referential with no real payoff, then you might want to check this out, but anyone who's hoping for good gameplay to balance the humor will be disappointed.
High on Knife is a fun return to the High on Life world Squanch Games created. That said, the adventure seems rather short, taking between 2 to 3 hours to complete. While the post-game does provide players with additional side missions, and an excuse to further explore the DLCs new areas, none of them feel particularly substantial.
I was really looking forward to High on Knife, but it doesn’t hold up to the hilarious craziness of the base game. Roiland’s absence is too significant to ignore. Without the over-the-top, anxious, ridiculous banter, it doesn’t even feel like the same game. I appreciate the writers trying to take the game in a new direction, but this entry just feels a bit soulless. Add in the fact that High on Knife costs $14.99 for a less than two hour experience, and it’s simply not an adventure worth taking.
There are a series of hidden packages to find and slice open, some funny new forums content in the pause menu and, again, that terrific Cheers bit. For fans of the original, High on Knife will hardly disappoint, but granting this short DLC an extended credits gag feels like a bit much. Preceding it is a few good hours of jokes, meta silliness, and gore, prodded along with more excellently odd voice acting, the equivalent of some extra surprise buds discovered at the bottom of the bag. Still, if High on Knife is a taste of more sizable High on Life DLC bounties to come, all the better.
Ultimately, High on Knife‘s tale of a wayward Knifey was full of fun characterization combined with a brief but satisfying story. The new pinball-themed gun is a hit, and Knifey’s special upgrade needs to be seen and experienced for yourself. With any luck, we’ll see some more DLC down the road, and hopefully then, Harper will be left behind.
I had a great time with High on Knife, and I do plan on going back in to clean up some undiscovered items, which thankfully, the game allows you to do, even after completing the main questline. If you loved the off-beat humour, gross body horror and Rick and Morty style humour of the original game, you’ll hardly be making a mistake picking this mini-expansion up. It’s Knifey’s time to shine (or stab everyone)…or both.
Take another stab at life with High on Knife, a slime-squelching and poppers-huffing adventure with everyone’s favorite stabba. Though I experienced some serious performance issues in a very prominent part of the DLC, I’m convinced Squanch Games can and will patch that out before it becomes a real problem. So grab Knifey, new friend Harper and all of your other Gatlians (and don’t forget your B.A.L.L.S) and rip and tear through another wacky and weird adventure.