High on Knife
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Critic Reviews for High on Knife
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
