Well, nearly a year on from our last visit to the world of High on Life, we now have the short DLC High on Knife. I wonder how long it took them to come up with that one. As you can gather, High on Knife focuses on your knife companion, Knifey.
It would be great if Knifey was a really interesting character and you wanted to hear more of his Australian twang, but for me, he just wasn’t a character that I would have wanted a DLC to focus on.
Story
The premise is a little flimsy, even by this game’s standards, but here we go. Knifey gets contacted by his home world, which takes you to Peroxis, a salt-covered desert planet that is home to a species of annoying, ill slug-like beings that have no idea why they are ill.
There are fun parts to this DLC, but the story just doesn’t have much of a point. Knifey himself spouts the same one-liners about wanting to stab everyone like he did in the base game; it wore thin then and does so now.
I think my biggest grievance with this DLC is that it ends as abruptly as it starts. The ending is also quite unfunny, unlike in the base game, and is this add-on’s biggest shortcoming.
Before you stump up the cash for High on Knife, be aware that I finished it in around two hours, which is short even by DLC standards.
While it might be short, what you do in that short runtime, like in the base game, is super fun. You will help a giant alien remove parasites from his backside and even invade a space version of an Amazon warehouse, which has some questionable things going on (not like the ones on Earth). There is also the opportunity to take part in a parody episode of Cheers, which even includes a version of Frasier Crane.
The side quests are also pretty enjoyable, like one that involves collecting Pokemon-style trading cards to do battle with a nerd.
Also, the end credits have a neat little addition of Knifey roasting the development team who worked on the game for good measure.
Gameplay
The guns remain the best part of High on Knife, just like they were in the base game. While using them to shoot is still a little generic, the added bits of dialogue they have in this expansion are genuinely quite funny, and I wish an expansion was made for Gus the frog-like shotgun, but I suppose there isn’t a twisted pun there to make it with.
Unfortunately, the new guns are a bit bland though. Harper, an ex-military gun with a chequered past, who replaces the base game pistol, Kenny, in this DLC, is a pretty poor replacement and isn’t as much fun to use. Things get worse when you meet this game’s biggest addition, B.A.L.L. This gun is operated by a trio of Blue Man Group aliens, and the incomprehensible language they speak does nothing but irritate, and it was the only gun in the game I hated listening to.
B.A.L.L does make up for its irritating voice by turning the arena into a big pinball game with the ball it launches, causing a lot of damage as it pings about the place until it explodes.
Knifey does get a neat little addition of a chainsaw ability in the second half of the expansion, which allows him to cut through certain environmental areas.
Final Verdict
If you love High on Life, then this is the perfect excuse to jump back into this world, but the short runtime does leave a bitter taste in the mouth if you stump up the £12.49 to purchase it from your store of choice.
While it is fun and has some entertaining questlines, its brevity and lack of new gameplay elements make this a bang-average addition to what was a fantastic base game.
Developer: Squanch Games
Publisher: Squanch Games
Platforms: PS4/5, Xbox One/Series X, PC
Release Date: 4th October 2023
