Edge magazine once famously lamented, "You can't talk to monsters." Well, somewhere along the way, the paws of a King Kong-class monkey must have curled their fingers. From the exhausting cutscenes of "Dying Light 2" to the unwelcome hints of Atreus in the PS5 exclusive "God of War: Ragnarok," 2022 was generally the year of video games that talked too much. High on Life" takes this trend to a maddening extreme, causing such acute verbal diarrhea that it could result in facial prostration.

If you sit there and say, "Well, of course. It's a game developed by a studio co-founded by the co-creators of Rick and Morty, so of course they're going to talk a lot." you're thinking, "Well, of course they're going to talk a lot. Rick and Morty is a 20-minute animated feature in which Justin Roland's rapid-fire words unfold through a script that is (usually) sharper than a scientist's tongue. High on Life is 15 hours of "interdimensional cable," a meandering flood of word salad, constantly searching for jokes, usually covered in gooey stuff, and offering them only occasionally. It's the difference between drinking expensive balsamic or sticking your head in a tub of white vinegar.

That's not to say that "High on Life" is never funny. At times it is. But this is the problem with "High on Life". It's a first draft of a comedy script, a handful of good jokes, a generic sci-fi world, a couple of decent levels, a mediocre shooter, and a handful of funny gimmicks stretched to the limit.

Examine the bodies before you dismember them. In High on Life, you play a teenager of no particular age who is away alone with his sister, who is of a similar age. But with the help of an invader weapon (which turns out to be a sentient weapon called a Gatrian), you escape to an extraterrestrial metropolis called Brim City. Here you learn that humans have become the hot new drug of the interstellar underworld, and with the help of an unlucky bounty hunter, you decide to assassinate the head of the G3 cartel, the organization that invaded Earth.

All in all, a strong introduction. While "High on Life" doesn't quite live up to the dashing look of "Modern Warfare 2," there are some impressive areas, especially when you move from the boxy suburbs to the dense, colorful alien hub of Brim City. The idea of the hook shot, where the gun is also a character, is also interesting, and when you pick up the pistol, a non-morty character speaks out of the pistol, which is fun.

The novelty lasts about an hour. Then the rot sets in. The problem is not simply that the guns talk too much, but that everyone talks too much. Almost every NPC spouts dialogue as if they've eaten a moldy thesaurus, and either the characters point out the obvious and go, "Yeah, uh, well, that sounds kind of weird, but you'd do it," or you get a rotten sludge of radio-friendly, obnoxious improvisation It's either.

If you want to listen to a non-branded Mario Goomba try to sell you alien semen for 10 minutes, High on Life is the game for you. No jokes. The joke is that he sells alien semen, but it's a little awkward. Especially when the game keeps saying "alien semen" over and over again, with some hesitation added in. Alien semen. That's what this little alien goomba is selling. Now that's a joke. I've already explained it, but I'll repeat it again just in case.

There is some genuine laughter in the constant tsunami of words. In one area, a gag develops about an organization called Mothers Against Violence. The humor also floats off the floor when it revolves around characters that the screenwriters go out of their way to give depth to, like Gene, the no-good bounty hunter who helps the G3 track him down. Rick and Morty may have a belly and dumb alien names, but they are good at using them to explore the many neuroses that humans suffer from. Such is rarely the case in High on Life. The accompanying Gatrians are particularly underwhelming. Only one creature manages to transcend the familiar comedic archetype, and his incessant positivity is a refreshing contrast to the game's unrelentingly caustic tone.

There is no doubt that some people will find "High on Life" hilarious. But even if they do, the humor remains scattered throughout the thoroughly middling first-person shooter. It's not terrible, but it stays dangerously close to it for a long time. For the first three hours of the game, you can only use one weapon, Gatlian's Kenny. The Kenny is a standard pistol and has an alt shot called a glop shot. The idea is to juggle enemies to do more damage, but this is more trouble than it's worth, since you have to constantly look up to shoot enemies to see their movements around you.

Since Kenny is the only ally, the gunfights are surprisingly flat and lack any sense of tempo or momentum. It doesn't help that the game's battle music is some of the worst I've ever heard. It's a toneless, repetitive sci-fi rasp that does nothing to enhance the action. A lullaby or two would have added more spirit to the fight. It is truly reprehensible.

Having other Gatrians on board makes the battle more interesting. The chameleon-like Gus works well as a shotgun that can take extra hits with the disc's alt-fire. The Sweezy, on the other hand, is a fun recreation of the Needler from "Halo" and is the most effective weapon in the game. But the creatures are another favorite of mine. The small, colorful imps attach themselves to enemies and bite them to death. There is also the handy alt-fire that temporarily turns enemies into allies. Proxy weapons are always difficult to satisfy, but the creature is a good example of how to do it right.

By the time you get the creature, your high-on-life arsenal is in good shape. But other than the last Gatrian, which is unlocked at the final level, and the melee weapon, the knife, this is the only weapon you get. Even if "High on Life" is a great shooter, five guns are not enough to keep you entertained for more than 15 hours. High on Life" is hardly a great shooter, always prioritizing gimmicks over tight gunfights. Many enemies are covered in glop, which melts away and becomes like armor when damaged. It's a nice way to visualize damage, but the act of killing an enemy is loose and rubbery, and melee attacks in particular are so awkward that you feel like you're controlling a puppet from afar. Enemy variety is also spotty, with half of the registrants consisting of pesky insects scurrying around on the ground or floating drones that are also a pain to fight.

The lack of diversity in weapons and enemies is indicative of a broader problem. The first couple of missions take us to an impressive location. One is a sprawling cyberpunk city built on the far side of an asteroid. The other main planet is an ugly purple forest world full of legitimately alien Care Bears that won't stop chattering like the others in this haunting game. Still, we're ready for some wild planet-hopping adventures. Ultimately, however, you'll only be shuttling back and forth between these two planets (and Brim City), and you'll find yourself returning to both of these places repeatedly throughout the second half of the game. The new areas that appear in the second half of the game are much smaller than the areas that appeared in the first half and rely more on fighting in the arena as the game progresses.

At the very least, these spaces are fun to navigate. Many of the weapons' alt-fire modes also serve as navigation tools. Gas disc shots can be embedded in certain surfaces to create platforms, and the Sweezy can create time-decaying bubbles that slow down spinning fans. These tools allow the three planets to unfold over time, revealing new passages that lead to ruglox chests that can be carved out to obtain coins. None of this is spectacularly original, and there are ambiguities in the characters' movements that speak to the limitations of the budget. Still, "High on Life" excels as a first-person platformer rather than a shooter. Nevertheless, "High on Life" excels as a first-person platformer rather than a shooter.

I would say that "High on Life" is excellent. Not only because I love "Rick and Morty" and want to see a game version of that show at its best, but also because "High on Life" has a weirdness to it that I would like to see more of in a game of this scale. Having a living alien gun talking to you is a cool concept. There are moments of vision in the sci-fi world depicted, and glimpses of a fun shooter when the game is at its most intense. But the whole thing is undercooked and crushed to death under a mountain of excruciating dialogue.