Some of the best combinations sound pretty sketchy on paper: pineapple on pizza, Robert Pattinson as Batman, Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart's friendship. High on Life 2 is aiming for that same unlikely alchemy by turning its comedy FPS into a full-blown skateboarding game.
If you've still got reservations about that blend, you're in good company—multiple senior devs at Squanch Games felt exactly the same way at first. In a new trailer premiered during the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted, the team describes the iterative journey of turning this "huge swing" from a "dumb idea" into the "coolest new thing" in the game.
Lead artist Colby Wahl estimates the team has "gone through probably 100 different variations of the skate mechanic," a process that led chief creative officer Mikey Spano to actively push to "cut it" despite his love for the idea. Now, however, he "can't imagine the game without it" as the skateboard has become central to pretty much everything you do in the sequel.
You can grind rails to get around faster, slow to a halt and dropkick the board into your enemy's face, and just generally get around faster and flashier while still shooting with your expanded alien arsenal. It effectively takes the grapple gun traversal of the first game and makes it much faster, more fluid, and dynamic. Making all this feel satisfying is the final piece of the puzzle, which audio director Pete Maguire explains is all about making every movement, from pushing and jumping, to grinding or doing tricks, sound "beefier than life."
When it feels like so many studios take a risk-averse approach to sequels, you've got to commend a team taking such an enormous swing. If the first game was anything to go by there'll be plenty more surprises when High on Life 2 hits PCs on February 13 next year. Wishlist it on Steam now.
Grind your way over to the rest of the announcements from the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted Powered by Xbox Game Pass.
