Watch this week's Zero Punctuation episode on the games of 2022 Yahtzee didn't get around to reviewing. www.escapistmagazine.com/2022-roundup-of-games-i-didnt-review-zero-punctuation/ Watch it early on TH-cam and support our content via Patreon for $2/month. www.patreon.com/the_escapist
I was expecting a remark about domestic violence. Why the prepology if there wasn't going to be a jab in that direction? Also, ha. An overhyped creator was found out of be a douche. What a surprise
I don't know how, but seeing two little ball hands positioned on the game case tells me instantly "Oh, he's crossing his arms" I want to know what magic you use and how I can free myself from it.
@@divinecomedian2 I'm not sure what you mean. We have a classification for it because of the intent, not the reaction. Do you mean that the act of making a joke is objective, as in you either did make a joke or you didn't, but that the reaction to the joke is subjective? Cause, like, that would at least make sense, but you phrased it kinda weird so I'm not entirely sure that's what you meant.
Well if this game wasn’t getting shellacked for its brand of comedy, Roiland getting sent to the jail dimension certainly gonna hammer that shellacking in.
"I didn't mind that the guns talk, it's a good vehicle for all of that and a fun twist on the silent protagonist dynamic. I do mind that they kind of suck as guns, and that's doubly awkward because they have the ability to take that personally." Brilliant lol
@@zickykane5206 AHEM WE THE INTERNET ARE HYPERBILE INCARNATE, WE SHAAALL NOT HAVE THIS LOOKED UPON FAVORABLY UNLESS IT FALLS UNDER THE DEPP PLAY OF 2020
Gotta love how on the internet you're guilty even after proven innocent and how being accused of something immediately invalidates your work. Mostly because people are afraid they'll be cancelled by association if they don't disown it immediately.
‘The aliens are here to use humanity as narcotics’ was done as a horror plot in the Dr Who spin off ‘Torchwood’. Made slightly more horrifying by them only caring about taking children.
@@majorgnu Glad I'm not the only person who noticed. It would make me suspect they were tapping into headlines about Qanon if the show didn't predate it by 12 years
Describing this game as being "a disciple of the Verbal Dysentery school of humor" is just perfect. Yahtzee is such an incredible writer. We take it for granted because he's been doing it for so long.
@@formorian5 It may be a FMV game but it's actually fairly enjoyable; It's not quite as good, but it gives me a similar kind of vibe as papers please. Besides, his best/bland/worst lists are always based off of his experience with it; it may not be your cup of tea, but that doesn't mean it's intrinsically undeserving of any praise.
@@formorian5 Sure, an FMV game might not appeal to you, but just look at Yatzhee's taste in games, it's hardly surprising a well made one appealed to him.
Damn that ending gag of “why did I think 8 slices of bread counted as dinner” hit WAY too close to home for my poor and “too lazy to make real food” college days. Congrats yahtz you got me good there
@@madeliner1682 if it makes you feel any better, that's an actual recipe with an actual name. "Pasta al Bianco" it's called, tho it usually uses olive oil.
I dunno, I feel like it wasn't that good of an idea at the time, either. A. Because giving billionaires free press is never worth it and B. because Elon was always an idiot, he's just recently decided that he needs to be a very loud and obnoxious idiot.
Saying the writing in this game "isn't trying too hard" is bizarrely at odds with every experience I have had with it so far. Though I've admittedly not watched since the start of season 3 or 4, I enjoyed Rick and Morty quite a bit. That said, everything about the dialogue in High on Life feels SO much more desperate to me, as if it is incredibly anxious you might not notice how much it doesn't give a fuck.
You have to remember that Yahtzee will lower his standards for something that appeals to him personally. Kind of like how he enjoyed Night in the Woods despite its terrible writing too, but if idk David Cage did it he’d call him a hack for going “trash, ugh” with every character
People, the video literally opens with a "white text on black background" silent disclaimer that boils down to "Yes, timing. You're not clever for noticing. Can we perhaps move on?" Maybe listen to it?
One thing I don't like about Justin Roiland games are those jokes where the player will be encouraged to do something immoral to progress, and when the player follows through they are badgered by the other NPCs who proceed to ad-lib 50 different ways to call you a monster. It happened a ton in Accounting and it happens in High Life as well.
@@sempersolus5511 I don't think Undertale ever actually inclines the player to do immoral shit, if anything it goes in completely the other dircection and makes doing the immoral stuff as much of a pain in the ass as possible. A more accurate example would probably Spec Ops the line.
@@TheWrathAbove Spec Ops wasn't doing it to try be funny though. It was doing it to satirise the shooter genre where players just commit war crimes for the sake of level completion.
Gotta love those games where you pay like 40-60 dollars to play a game, then 10 minutes in the game is like "okay now shoot a puppy" cause then it's like "Well I HAVE to shoot this puppy to progress, if I don't then my only choice is to stop playing a game I spent 50 bucks on ten minutes in" then when you DO shoot the puppy, the game (and by extension the devs) call you personally out on it, like "why did you shoot that puppy, you heartless monster"
@@TheWrathAbove It totally inclines the player to do immoral shit. The first character you meet tells you "we're all bastards, trust no one, kill or be killed". The _second_ character tells you to ignore all of that... right after hitting the first character with a fireball. If you're coming into the game blind, it gives you the most f'd up contradictory set of instructions, and then chastises you when you misinterpret them.
6 or 7 years ago I had a substitute teacher who told me about your channel. Been sucked into this void of entertainment ever since. Fuckin legend the both of ya
Perfect game for Gamepass. Played through the whole thing and enjoyed it, but there was absolutely no way I was paying full price for what essentially is a parody of a video game with basic shooting. Also, I completely agree that your enjoyment of this game will ultimately boil down to whether or not you find Rick and Morty funny (I do).
I do like Rick and Morty for the most part and I didn't really find it that funny, and instead it was just lazily drawn out because it had to be in the shape of a video game. The opening section that was like a boomer shooter parody was actually funny and then it ended and the real game began at which point I got bored very quickly. To me at least, I think it kind of shows that Roiland isn't an exceptionally funny writer on his own but rather he and Harmon knows how to bring on some good writers for R&M, and he's only really funny when there are other comedy writers in the room with him.
I tried watching Rick & Morty once, had to stop midway through the first episode. I find it really grating, never been more annoyed at everything in it, from the dialogue to the voices up to the visuals. So I think I'm going to pass on this one.
@@gwen9939 yeah I can see that. I played through it like an hour at a time so I guess maybe it's more tolerable in small doses? Either way, I thought it was ok.
“Y'know, sometimes, bitches get out of line, and y-you've gotta smack them around, right? Y-your fists are like a judge's gavels. Pound down until there's order in the court.”
"Aww, Geez, Rick, th-that's kinda... Kinda based, you know?" "Dammit, Morty, Have you been listening to thst bald British douche on TH-cam again?" "Hey, Yahtzee is NOT a douche!" "No, the OTHER one..."
I remember being so fucking vindicated when minecraft started becoming cool again after being made fun of for continuing to love it through the dark times 😅
Yeah, the guns definitely felt pretty weak. To be honest, I ended up uninstalling it after I realized the whole point was to listen to Roiland's five voices for a few hours and I have more pressing games in my backlog.
@@1IGG I mean, it's on Gamepass so it was more like "I could make toast from the shit bread sitting around in the break room for free or enjoy toast made from the nice whole grain stuff I brought from home."
to be fair, the rest of the guns have actual normal personalities (and luckily are not voiced by Justin), and the game never forces you to whip Kenny out as soon as you get your second weapon
Yeah, Marge was who the reference made me think of too. Her voice varies from slightly off to blatantly "did they make her record dialog when she clearly had a cold?" levels of off, but she has never sounded entirely right for like three seasons now.
I think the real takeaway here is that Vanquish was fantastic Ive Sorley missed the use of a good ole power slide, jetting across the floor like diarrhoea at a McDonalds, i think it needs to be incorporated into all future games. ALL OF THEM
The "we need more comedy games" is something I've been saying for years. The AAA industry in particular has moved so deep into "we must be serious" territory that even their attempts at jokes in games tend to be too serious or half assed. Even the indie game sphere, in my experience, has gotten fewer and fewer comedy games, (or at least fewer that have any effort put in), in favor of trying to be the next "big thing" with serious stories, dramatic tales, or latching onto the Soulslike genera. There's still a few out there, of course. It's just become increasingly hard to find. Meanwhile if you think back, particularly to the PS2 era, there were more comedic games around every corner, as well as a ton of games that had unique gameplay designs that we still don't see more of today. Sure, a lot of them didn't make it big, but a fair few did or at least are well regarded as "classics" of the era. I recently played Katamari Demaci for the first time since its original release, and I'd still take it over most of what we've seen come out in the past five years.
Didn't this exact same thing happen around the time there were earthquakes in Japan and Yahtzee had to put up a disclaimer before his video then too? If I had a nickle for every time Yahtzee wrote himself into an awkward position just before a major disaster then I'd have two nickles, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
this is even longer than his previous mention of Borderlands 3, which was way more than his “review” of Borderlands 3, so i think we finally got a Borderlands 3 Yahtzee review!
I would like to commend the escapist. I first saw this video on the website when it premiered. I usually wait for the videos to come on TH-cam so I can listen to them while I drive but the high on life review I had to watch and right after that the news broke about Justin. The disclaimer at the beginning is a great way of addressing that situation without just pulling the entire video which is still relevant. Thank you.
First I've heard of this bit of news so thanks for putting that bit in the front. Yes I live under a rock and considering that the news is basically people getting angry at each other I'm fine with this.
Really can't be havin' with this type of humor found in the game anymore. This wtype of writing feels so utterly devoid of genuine earnestness and is instead draped in this layer of sarcastic disaffection, ready to deflect any contention with an awkward _"H-haha, why...why would you care? Why would anyone care? We're all just having fun...right?"_
I haven't played the game myself, but hearing second hand about how you can watch full movies in it made me respect it at least a little. Like damn, you've got the whole thing, not just looping scenes? Impressive! Must be murder on the file sizes though.
This was also done 15 years ago in ''The Darkness'', where you can watch the movie ''To kill a mockingbird'' in its entirety, and the game was released on the Xbox360.
The timing of this video release is, IMO, funnier than any of the humor in High on Life. And yes, I found it unfunny *before* the allegations about Roiland came out- or rather, I found it unfunny after about twenty minutes of watching gameplay and realizing they really do just never shut up.
I tried to watch a playthrough. ADHD brain I have, I was watching at 2x speed. You thought Gunty was bad at 1x...hoo boy. I didn't make it past the tutorial either.
My conclusion was exactly the same...I was going to get the rest of the collectibles and just realized how tedious it would be. At least the Arkham games had a minimap for the Riddler challenges.
I wonder if Yahtzee played the same game as everyone else. “High on Life's comedy works because it feels like it isn't trying too hard” is the last thing I expected anyone to say about it.
Why did I think three large bowls of cheap, corner-store chocolate cereal sold in transparent, unmarked bags (the cereal having only averted suspicion by previous ration testing), along with the accompanying three large bowls of milk, was dinner?
Don't insult the game! It doesn't deserve to be associated with that garbage! The game can't be any stupider than children of earth. It's probabely got a plot. And moves forward. And no way can it be as preachy. Nothing deserves to be compared to COE.
@@CommanderViviax what COE is or at least was considered one of the best episodes of torchwood I would understand miracle day but COE Also I was comparing the initial motivations there was no discussion of quality on way or the other
Reviews of this game have left me thinking that this is kind of like if you took the impact of a recent Metroid game (not a bad moment-to-moment cycle but once you're done it just kind of fades in your memory) and just make it a first-person shooter and listen to Justin Roiland do Morty Smith for a few hours.
"Last few stragglers hanging unfulfilled like a disappointed baby on a corpse's tit" is EASILY one of the most shocking, vile, hilarious and creative things I've ever heard omfg!! x'D
I was expecting at least a disclaimer at the start, so that makes sense. But I was hoping for a voiced new intro that starts with Yahtzee just sighing for 30 seconds.
I admit I've been pretty meh on this except for one thing: There's a cameo at the end from Wayne Pygram playing a very iconic role. It caught my attention because it's the only time in the plot where something serious is presented instead of a comedy-filled retread of Roiland's VR game. But despite the cliffhanger it sets up, I know that it will never actually be followed up on because it's completely at odds with the narrative tone of every project Roiland has ever been on. Edit: I should clarify that the role is iconic because it's the kind of role you'd know Pygram for. Not a specific role within Roiland's work or wider pop culture.
At least Yahtzee had the decency to put that disclaimer at the beginning. Gamespot just chose today of all days to post it's updated Rick and Morty timeline video with zero mention of what's been going on.
I think only the second time Yahtzee has needed to include a disclaimer card at the start of his video due to current events rendering it suddenly Too Soon
@@explodingtomahawks7589 pretty sure it was one just post a massive earthquake in japan? was one of the older videos i know but i can't remember the name
@@Slaeowulf I think if you actually cared about responsible discourse you’d already be up on the leaked dms to underage fans and all the industry folks coming out against him I agree that we shouldn’t talk about him like he’s committed a crime if we don’t have a verdict, but even if we can’t call him a felon yet, we have evidence that he IS a creep. I just don’t understand why people are so quick to defend him unless they’re cool with the other stuff he did
I don't remember if you've done darktide yet but i think what I like about it best is that you end up loving the "guns" that make ppl stop killing you. It's a fun take on the shooter genre!?!
@@ShapezPuller64 I don't mean it in a bad way - his sense of humour would work with this. ( rather than a one sided sense of humour of Rick and Morty which is Marmite) Have you read any of Yahtzee's books?
When is Yahtzee coming out with another book?! Just started listening to Will Save the Galaxy for Food and I'm entranced! Great book so far, even better narration!
I've just watched this in awe at how he actually gave High on Life a pretty decent review. But it has everything he hates? The dialogue is painful and the gameplay itself is boring and repetitive. I'm stunned. I was certain that he would have despised it.
Yup. South Park fell deep down the ‘anybody who cares about anything has an ulterior motive so don’t care about stuff’ rabbit hole years ago and became a chore to watch. At least R&M (in its better episodes) acknowledges that not caring about anything is a miserable way to live and makes you an asshole.
Honestly, respect to The Escapist for posting this despite obvious controversy. Yathzee makes good freaking content and it'd be a shame to bin this video for the sake of controversy surrounding a creator 👍
I don't think I've noticed the TH-cam viewtime histogram doing anything particularly useful before now. Suddenly I find it incredibly useful for locating the disclaimer. Anyway, on a completely unrelated note, I'm off to rent 1987's movie Fatal Attraction on TH-cam movies.
so you're saying it went full circle and now its in this weird position to where some people it doesn't look like it tried too hard but to other people it looks like that nose bleed isn't from allergies?
Yeah, the fact he thinks Roiland's comedy doesn't try too hard, AND the fact he actually enjoys Rick and Morty, really makes me question Yahtzee's critical integrity.
Rick and Morty may be a fantastic show, I’ve heard great things. But the voice acting makes me wish I was born without ears. Same thing is probably true of this game
I think the driving factor in this shift in general (though not in yahtzee's case, I think he just got older and became a parent) is that when times are 'OK-ish but not great' as was the broad consensus in the english-speaking world in the 2010s it's cool to look down on the people who care, trying and mostly failing to fix problems, but once things start getting properly bleak - as they have in the 2020s thus far - the need for some spark of hope becomes too pressing to ignore and so people turn away from nihilistic posturing which is now much more likely to induce genuine despair.
Nihilism always leads me to the question, "If nothing matters, why continue living? The fact that I don't have an answer beyond fear of failure and "meaningless" attachments leads me to conclude that the attachments I form and the "arbitrary" meanings I assign to things are in fact meaningful and thus existentialism is the superior philosophy. TL, DR: The things I decide matter actually matter, bite me Nihilism.
I think Yahtzee hit the nail on the head on why I and a lot of other people got tired of Rick and Morty It’s important to give a shit. Sure it was fresh back in 2013 when Rick and Morty premiered of a show with abject nihilism where it’s about being too cool to care. That is not the world in which we currently live All our problems can be traced to “people not giving a shit,” and in times like these, it makes it feel more impactful when the game or show says “yes, DO CARE,” because like Yahtzee said at the end, it makes life better.
Nihilism is just a shitty philosophy for edgy people "too cool" for Existentialism and Absurdism, who still think Nietzsche was advocating for it, despite being firmly against it.
I'm relieved they added that little acknowledgement before the review. Reminds me of that one Call of Duty that starred Kevin Spacey. I bet that hasn't aged well!
I picked up a copy of Will Save the Galaxy for Food! Did not know there was a sequel! It was not in the store or els I would have got both at the same time. It is grate so far. You hummer is literally not matched or repeated anywhere else.. in the world. Going to give JAM a look at next. I really like the cover art for all of your novels too.
Huh. I never expected Yahtzee to actually be positive on the game. I liked it too. A solid 7/10... preferably played in short spurts while high. It's so strange to have played and enjoyed it to completion right before all this awful Roiland stuff came out.
Ya it is nice seeing a positive review coming out. I suppose we don't see many because one of his chief complaints is bland almost copy pasted game design.
The music and art direction are my favorite aspects of the game. I really like both. The gameplay is just solid enough to carry me through. It’s decent and won’t be remembered in the far future for being so blasé in execution.
Comedy is really, really hard to do well. It's a bit of a cliche, albeit a fairly accurate one, but comedy writing and acting are straight up rare talents. Leslie Nielsen, Ronnie Barker and Olivia Coleman were/are superb actors who are amazing because of, not despite their roots in comedy. When talented straight actors who don't have the comedy talent or training try to be funny it's often just painful. That makes comedy film production incredibly risky, because there's not that much comedy writing talent and most of it is in TV. Likewise I don't think there's a really strongly established comedy games writing talent pool to draw from, so any attempt to produce a quality comedy game is really appreciated. Even if the humour isn't really to my taste. And the writer is kind of dodge.
Watch this week's Zero Punctuation episode on the games of 2022 Yahtzee didn't get around to reviewing. www.escapistmagazine.com/2022-roundup-of-games-i-didnt-review-zero-punctuation/ Watch it early on TH-cam and support our content via Patreon for $2/month. www.patreon.com/the_escapist
Shouldn't he have put out this vid before he did High on Life?
I really have an interest in this game now
On one hand, Immortality isn't there. On the other, he kinda semi-reviewed it in the 2022 Awards.
Fun
Do you remember that Games Industry
Fun is what you used to focus on
Make games that focus on fun, and they will sell well
I was expecting a remark about domestic violence. Why the prepology if there wasn't going to be a jab in that direction?
Also, ha. An overhyped creator was found out of be a douche. What a surprise
AH JEEZ RICK I DIDN'T THINK SHE'D TAKE SCREENSHOTS
Read it in Morty's voice.
@@bitemytail And then do it in Cookie Monster's
@@SkeinChug even better
You, sir, owe me a keyboard and a root beer.
Morty Morty lis-listen to me. *bealch* she’s she’s. She’s not going to do shit Morty. She knows what’ll happen Morty
I don't know how, but seeing two little ball hands positioned on the game case tells me instantly "Oh, he's crossing his arms"
I want to know what magic you use and how I can free myself from it.
Context
Pareidolia
You can free yourself from it by freeing the pattern recognition part of your brain from your skull
@@mrwhippy101 2:52
@@an0n-1o1 no as in that's how it's done
Through context
after 16 years of this art style you get used to it
For once a game I expected Yahtzee to hate he ended up liking
Which confuses me. Because I love Yahtzee but I think he has bad taste in games
Yeah, this games only leg was try to be rick and morty except it just wasn't funny
@@divinecomedian2there is no objectivity my guy its not a conspiracy theory
@@divinecomedian2 I'm not sure what you mean. We have a classification for it because of the intent, not the reaction. Do you mean that the act of making a joke is objective, as in you either did make a joke or you didn't, but that the reaction to the joke is subjective? Cause, like, that would at least make sense, but you phrased it kinda weird so I'm not entirely sure that's what you meant.
@@divinecomedian2 classifications are subjective themselves.
Well if this game wasn’t getting shellacked for its brand of comedy, Roiland getting sent to the jail dimension certainly gonna hammer that shellacking in.
Imagine if that was the goal all along
And then he turned himself into a domestic abuser. Funniest shit I ever seen in my life.
he went to jail?
@@alex.g7317 He’s being charged with domestic violence.
@@alex.g7317 not yet i don't think
"I didn't mind that the guns talk, it's a good vehicle for all of that and a fun twist on the silent protagonist dynamic. I do mind that they kind of suck as guns, and that's doubly awkward because they have the ability to take that personally."
Brilliant lol
Figures. Yahtzee FINALLY likes a game, and the creator's now a possible felon.
He can't win, can he?
Being a "possible felon" means nothing lol Can at least wait for the outcome.
@@zickykane5206 AHEM WE THE INTERNET ARE HYPERBILE INCARNATE, WE SHAAALL NOT HAVE THIS LOOKED UPON FAVORABLY UNLESS IT FALLS UNDER THE DEPP PLAY OF 2020
Gotta love how on the internet you're guilty even after proven innocent and how being accused of something immediately invalidates your work. Mostly because people are afraid they'll be cancelled by association if they don't disown it immediately.
@@XH1927 don't forget the fact that even if you're proven innocent, your reputation is permanently tarnished because morons are going to be morons.
@@zickykane5206 Yeah, when you put it that way, I suppose everyone is a *possible* felon.
‘The aliens are here to use humanity as narcotics’ was done as a horror plot in the Dr Who spin off ‘Torchwood’. Made slightly more horrifying by them only caring about taking children.
And don't forget _I Come in Peace....._ although I imagine pretty much everyone has by this point.
Yup... Torchwood: Children of Earth... It's probably my favorite TW thing
Futurama did it too.
The way you described it sounds like someone learned about blood libel, substituted aliens for jews and made a TV show out of it.
@@majorgnu Glad I'm not the only person who noticed. It would make me suspect they were tapping into headlines about Qanon if the show didn't predate it by 12 years
Describing this game as being "a disciple of the Verbal Dysentery school of humor" is just perfect. Yahtzee is such an incredible writer. We take it for granted because he's been doing it for so long.
He should write a book
@@GreekDudeYiannis he's written multiple.
I mean, "verbal diarrhoea" is a pretty common phrase, Yahtzee is great but it's not like he pulled it out of his mouth
Who is we
No we don’t
I get this feeling that even if Yahtzee reviewed this last year, it wouldn't have made it on to any of the lists. At best, a credits mention.
@@formorian5 considering he said it ended anticlimactically I doubt it
@@formorian5 It may be a FMV game but it's actually fairly enjoyable; It's not quite as good, but it gives me a similar kind of vibe as papers please.
Besides, his best/bland/worst lists are always based off of his experience with it; it may not be your cup of tea, but that doesn't mean it's intrinsically undeserving of any praise.
@@formorian5 Sure, an FMV game might not appeal to you, but just look at Yatzhee's taste in games, it's hardly surprising a well made one appealed to him.
wild that your takeaway is that it doesn't "try to hard". My main gripe is that all it does is feel like it tries to hard.
Actually I think his takeaway was that it "tries too hard to look like it's not trying too hard".
@@asphaltpilgrim either way it comes off wayy too kitsch
Damn that ending gag of “why did I think 8 slices of bread counted as dinner” hit WAY too close to home for my poor and “too lazy to make real food” college days. Congrats yahtz you got me good there
yup. Not two hours ago I ate the slightly better but nutritionally equivalent lazy dinner, a bunch of pasta with some butter on it
@@madeliner1682 if it makes you feel any better, that's an actual recipe with an actual name. "Pasta al Bianco" it's called, tho it usually uses olive oil.
@@katethegoat7507 Hey if you're feeling really rich, try Aglio e Olio, it's pasta with olive oil and garlic.
I have a Vegemite cheesecake recipe somewhere, but I'll have to find it again. I've not had the time or stomach to attempt it yet..
@@madeliner1682 butter on pasta?? ... but butter is expensive, wouldn't it be cheaper to get a jar of tomatoe souce?
I appreciate the gag about trying to fire the gun by pressing pause.
"Boy that Elon Musk cameo was a mistake in retrospect huh"
As was another thing, it turns out.
At least the Red Letter Media dudes being in it made up for it.
?
@@FellaGuy2 Kevin Temmer making a cameo was rather nice as well. You really should check him out, easily one of the most talented animators on TH-cam.
I dunno, I feel like it wasn't that good of an idea at the time, either. A. Because giving billionaires free press is never worth it and B. because Elon was always an idiot, he's just recently decided that he needs to be a very loud and obnoxious idiot.
@@davidbinkley4575 yeah if it wasn't for everyone working against him in his companies they would all be bankrupt right now.
Saying the writing in this game "isn't trying too hard" is bizarrely at odds with every experience I have had with it so far. Though I've admittedly not watched since the start of season 3 or 4, I enjoyed Rick and Morty quite a bit. That said, everything about the dialogue in High on Life feels SO much more desperate to me, as if it is incredibly anxious you might not notice how much it doesn't give a fuck.
You have to remember that Yahtzee will lower his standards for something that appeals to him personally. Kind of like how he enjoyed Night in the Woods despite its terrible writing too, but if idk David Cage did it he’d call him a hack for going “trash, ugh” with every character
@@maydaymemer4660 I'll definitely agree the appraisal doesn't seem to align with almost any game design standard he has set forth in the past.
Maybe he's entering the Roger Ebert "fuck it, life's too short, I like everything now" stage of his career
People, the video literally opens with a "white text on black background" silent disclaimer that boils down to "Yes, timing. You're not clever for noticing. Can we perhaps move on?"
Maybe listen to it?
One thing I don't like about Justin Roiland games are those jokes where the player will be encouraged to do something immoral to progress, and when the player follows through they are badgered by the other NPCs who proceed to ad-lib 50 different ways to call you a monster. It happened a ton in Accounting and it happens in High Life as well.
Did you mean _"Undertale"?_
@@sempersolus5511 I don't think Undertale ever actually inclines the player to do immoral shit, if anything it goes in completely the other dircection and makes doing the immoral stuff as much of a pain in the ass as possible. A more accurate example would probably Spec Ops the line.
@@TheWrathAbove Spec Ops wasn't doing it to try be funny though. It was doing it to satirise the shooter genre where players just commit war crimes for the sake of level completion.
Gotta love those games where you pay like 40-60 dollars to play a game, then 10 minutes in the game is like "okay now shoot a puppy" cause then it's like "Well I HAVE to shoot this puppy to progress, if I don't then my only choice is to stop playing a game I spent 50 bucks on ten minutes in" then when you DO shoot the puppy, the game (and by extension the devs) call you personally out on it, like "why did you shoot that puppy, you heartless monster"
@@TheWrathAbove It totally inclines the player to do immoral shit.
The first character you meet tells you "we're all bastards, trust no one, kill or be killed". The _second_ character tells you to ignore all of that... right after hitting the first character with a fireball.
If you're coming into the game blind, it gives you the most f'd up contradictory set of instructions, and then chastises you when you misinterpret them.
I'm nominating "Folds like an ironing board in princess Diana's luggage" for the simile of the decade.
I dont get this joke. I know she died in a car crash, but i dont know what she has to do with ironing boards or luggage
@@devint2409 yeah same, I need a little help with this one
@@devint2409 in the car crash, an ironing board would've folded and broken. It's funny because of how dark of an imagery it is
I'm gonna need some help here too haha
For those who want an explanation: look up the post-crash photos. The car looks more like an accordion than a vehicle.
You were kinder to this one than I was expecting
You know it's going to be a good video when there's a domestic violence disclaimer at the start
Fuckin...choo choo for funs ville
Or a bad one. It's Yahtzee so usually its entertaining
So who violated who in this case.....husband or wife?
@@main_stream_media_is_a_joke Roiland is the one facing charges.
@@rabbitknight87
That didn't answer the question, who did it?
6 or 7 years ago I had a substitute teacher who told me about your channel. Been sucked into this void of entertainment ever since. Fuckin legend the both of ya
Perfect game for Gamepass. Played through the whole thing and enjoyed it, but there was absolutely no way I was paying full price for what essentially is a parody of a video game with basic shooting.
Also, I completely agree that your enjoyment of this game will ultimately boil down to whether or not you find Rick and Morty funny (I do).
I do like Rick and Morty for the most part and I didn't really find it that funny, and instead it was just lazily drawn out because it had to be in the shape of a video game. The opening section that was like a boomer shooter parody was actually funny and then it ended and the real game began at which point I got bored very quickly. To me at least, I think it kind of shows that Roiland isn't an exceptionally funny writer on his own but rather he and Harmon knows how to bring on some good writers for R&M, and he's only really funny when there are other comedy writers in the room with him.
I tried watching Rick & Morty once, had to stop midway through the first episode. I find it really grating, never been more annoyed at everything in it, from the dialogue to the voices up to the visuals. So I think I'm going to pass on this one.
@@JDelwynn yeah def not for everyone. If you don't like Rick and Morty you're def not going to like this game as the writing is not nearly as good
@@gwen9939 yeah I can see that. I played through it like an hour at a time so I guess maybe it's more tolerable in small doses? Either way, I thought it was ok.
@GiRayne fair enough
I find the jokes that don't involve Justin screaming at you is actually pretty funny
I’m sure his girlfriend felt the same way
Yeah like that one joke with the Pacemaker I thought was kinda funny.
Yeah all the Joel Haver jokes and skits were gold.
@@kaydgaming Underrated reply.
I hesitated to call it a "brutal" reply at the risk of incurring another domestic violence joke.
“Y'know, sometimes, bitches get out of line, and y-you've gotta smack them around, right? Y-your fists are like a judge's gavels. Pound down until there's order in the court.”
💀
Oooo, I’m trying to Google which character said that quote because I haven’t played this and boy is that proving to be a chore…
"Aww, Geez, Rick, th-that's kinda... Kinda based, you know?"
"Dammit, Morty, Have you been listening to thst bald British douche on TH-cam again?"
"Hey, Yahtzee is NOT a douche!"
"No, the OTHER one..."
@@jeremyohrt3898 No character in the game said that
It came from a 4chàn post mocking the situation/Justin Roilands writing
@@jeremyohrt3898 It's from 4chan regarding this event, not actually from the game.
0:58 Minecraft basically went through that exact thing over the last 5 years
I remember being so fucking vindicated when minecraft started becoming cool again after being made fun of for continuing to love it through the dark times 😅
This was one of my favorite end jokes and accompanying credits cards
Yeah, the guns definitely felt pretty weak. To be honest, I ended up uninstalling it after I realized the whole point was to listen to Roiland's five voices for a few hours and I have more pressing games in my backlog.
@@1IGG I mean, it's on Gamepass so it was more like "I could make toast from the shit bread sitting around in the break room for free or enjoy toast made from the nice whole grain stuff I brought from home."
@@1IGG I think people expected that because it's a game there'd be some focus on having semi-enjoyable gameplay.
to be fair, the rest of the guns have actual normal personalities (and luckily are not voiced by Justin), and the game never forces you to whip Kenny out as soon as you get your second weapon
I watched the whole Tammy and the T-rex movie in-game and I am proud of that
The "please I have throat cancer" was a reference to Marge even though he used a picture of Homer 😂
I saw it more as a reference to how long they've been at it without a break and the strain on their voice it must cause,
@@ContinuePlayMag oh buddy you've gotta hear what Marge sounds like nowadays
it ain't pretty
Yeah, Marge was who the reference made me think of too. Her voice varies from slightly off to blatantly "did they make her record dialog when she clearly had a cold?" levels of off, but she has never sounded entirely right for like three seasons now.
Kudos for the disclaimer at the start. You just told it how it is.
I think the real takeaway here is that Vanquish was fantastic
Ive Sorley missed the use of a good ole power slide, jetting across the floor like diarrhoea at a McDonalds, i think it needs to be incorporated into all future games. ALL OF THEM
Right? Only other game I've seen with a slide like that is Ultrakill.
@@naransolongoboldbayer8030 Turbo Overkill
The "we need more comedy games" is something I've been saying for years. The AAA industry in particular has moved so deep into "we must be serious" territory that even their attempts at jokes in games tend to be too serious or half assed. Even the indie game sphere, in my experience, has gotten fewer and fewer comedy games, (or at least fewer that have any effort put in), in favor of trying to be the next "big thing" with serious stories, dramatic tales, or latching onto the Soulslike genera.
There's still a few out there, of course. It's just become increasingly hard to find. Meanwhile if you think back, particularly to the PS2 era, there were more comedic games around every corner, as well as a ton of games that had unique gameplay designs that we still don't see more of today. Sure, a lot of them didn't make it big, but a fair few did or at least are well regarded as "classics" of the era. I recently played Katamari Demaci for the first time since its original release, and I'd still take it over most of what we've seen come out in the past five years.
Didn't this exact same thing happen around the time there were earthquakes in Japan and Yahtzee had to put up a disclaimer before his video then too? If I had a nickle for every time Yahtzee wrote himself into an awkward position just before a major disaster then I'd have two nickles, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
Hah, Doofenshmirtz
That was because he started the video saying, "boy! the Japanese are into some weird shit aren't they?"
He also did a joke review for a non-existent Duke Nukem Forever. Then the actual game released soon thereafter.
@@rubz1390 Yahtzee's precognition works in mysterious ways.
@@fillerchannel7136 The best one has to be calling Qatherine, then the hole punch boss in a paper mario game.
this is even longer than his previous mention of Borderlands 3, which was way more than his “review” of Borderlands 3, so i think we finally got a Borderlands 3 Yahtzee review!
I would like to commend the escapist. I first saw this video on the website when it premiered. I usually wait for the videos to come on TH-cam so I can listen to them while I drive but the high on life review I had to watch and right after that the news broke about Justin. The disclaimer at the beginning is a great way of addressing that situation without just pulling the entire video which is still relevant. Thank you.
Agreed. A simple disclaimer without actually making any changes to the material itself. Simple, inoffensive, perfect.
It was perfect but it’ll age like milk whether he’s convicted or not
I was waiting to see if the disclaimer would pop up, and it did, funniest part of the video in a cosmic sort of way
First I've heard of this bit of news so thanks for putting that bit in the front. Yes I live under a rock and considering that the news is basically people getting angry at each other I'm fine with this.
The news is he domestically abused someone
@@thenorthshow3655 Oh great. What's with these big name creators doing really shitty things?
Really can't be havin' with this type of humor found in the game anymore. This wtype of writing feels so utterly devoid of genuine earnestness and is instead draped in this layer of sarcastic disaffection, ready to deflect any contention with an awkward _"H-haha, why...why would you care? Why would anyone care? We're all just having fun...right?"_
I haven't played the game myself, but hearing second hand about how you can watch full movies in it made me respect it at least a little. Like damn, you've got the whole thing, not just looping scenes? Impressive! Must be murder on the file sizes though.
This was also done 15 years ago in ''The Darkness'', where you can watch the movie ''To kill a mockingbird'' in its entirety, and the game was released on the Xbox360.
@@Neolazaro91 The Darkness is also the first Zero Punctuation
@@Neolazaro91 ミ✭ The more you know! ミ✭
@@Neolazaro91 I also recall Destroy All Humans including two public domain 1950's B-movies "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and "Teenagers from Outer Space"
@@CheesecakeMilitia As well as a behind the scenes documentary
The guys from Red Letter Media also did vocals for the game.
Lmfao that warning before the video, I was totally expecting yahtzee to mention it in his video as a joke or something
Yahtzee doesn't have a time machine, the video came out on their website two days before the news broke
The timing of this video release is, IMO, funnier than any of the humor in High on Life. And yes, I found it unfunny *before* the allegations about Roiland came out- or rather, I found it unfunny after about twenty minutes of watching gameplay and realizing they really do just never shut up.
You made it twenty minutes?? You're a tougher man than I. I couldn't get past the tutorial
I think game has an option to reduce the frequency they talk.
I tried to watch a playthrough. ADHD brain I have, I was watching at 2x speed. You thought Gunty was bad at 1x...hoo boy. I didn't make it past the tutorial either.
My conclusion was exactly the same...I was going to get the rest of the collectibles and just realized how tedious it would be. At least the Arkham games had a minimap for the Riddler challenges.
Talk about timing lol
After that disclaimer I was fully expecting the first line to be "Man, I wish Justin Roiland beat more people up in".
I wonder if Yahtzee played the same game as everyone else. “High on Life's comedy works because it feels like it isn't trying too hard” is the last thing I expected anyone to say about it.
1:20 Airplane, The Naked Gun and Hot Shots! Ah, the good old days of spoof movies.
The thought of a gun talking like that stuttery Roiland type of voice sounds like a awful fate to befall upon someone
From what I know, the first gun is even voiced by the fucker. And captures his personality perfectly.
@@techpriestemily Oh god. Wait does that mean he's the one that sticks with you through the whole fucking game?!
@@MaidofRage420 Far as I know, yes.
@@techpriestemily That sounds genuinely awful.
Sounds like that cursed gun in Borderlands that makes horrible noises.
The game definitely gave me the vibe of " we won't make finding collectibles easy, but we will make fun of you if you find them all"
Why did I think three large bowls of cheap, corner-store chocolate cereal sold in transparent, unmarked bags (the cereal having only averted suspicion by previous ration testing), along with the accompanying three large bowls of milk, was dinner?
God bless the moderator of this comments section, my thoughts are with you at this time……..
So basically it’s tirchwood’s children of earth if turned into a comedy action game
Don't insult the game! It doesn't deserve to be associated with that garbage!
The game can't be any stupider than children of earth. It's probabely got a plot. And moves forward. And no way can it be as preachy.
Nothing deserves to be compared to COE.
@@CommanderViviax what COE is or at least was considered one of the best episodes of torchwood I would understand miracle day but COE
Also I was comparing the initial motivations there was no discussion of quality on way or the other
Reviews of this game have left me thinking that this is kind of like if you took the impact of a recent Metroid game (not a bad moment-to-moment cycle but once you're done it just kind of fades in your memory) and just make it a first-person shooter and listen to Justin Roiland do Morty Smith for a few hours.
"Last few stragglers hanging unfulfilled like a disappointed baby on a corpse's tit" is EASILY one of the most shocking, vile, hilarious and creative things I've ever heard omfg!! x'D
Ain't that just Guts?
"Folds like an ironing board in Princess Diana's luggage" is a pretty damn macabre one, too. Yahtzee is a master of simile.
That's disgusting, I apologize.
I'm just happy Zach does some voice acting in this game. That guy is one of the most underrated voice actors of the 00s.
is it sad that the editors note is how I found out about the controversy.
I love they added this little title card after the fact having watched it when it first dropped. Not to mention Justin's charges being dropped
I was expecting at least a disclaimer at the start, so that makes sense. But I was hoping for a voiced new intro that starts with Yahtzee just sighing for 30 seconds.
recording and audio editing take longer then some text slides and by this time yahtzee is already sorting out the script for the next video
I admit I've been pretty meh on this except for one thing: There's a cameo at the end from Wayne Pygram playing a very iconic role. It caught my attention because it's the only time in the plot where something serious is presented instead of a comedy-filled retread of Roiland's VR game. But despite the cliffhanger it sets up, I know that it will never actually be followed up on because it's completely at odds with the narrative tone of every project Roiland has ever been on.
Edit: I should clarify that the role is iconic because it's the kind of role you'd know Pygram for. Not a specific role within Roiland's work or wider pop culture.
it's amazing how the animators can make a rectangle with circles for hands look like it's crossing its non-existent arms
Yahtzee is the sole animator even after all these years.
At least Yahtzee had the decency to put that disclaimer at the beginning. Gamespot just chose today of all days to post it's updated Rick and Morty timeline video with zero mention of what's been going on.
I think only the second time Yahtzee has needed to include a disclaimer card at the start of his video due to current events rendering it suddenly Too Soon
What was the first one?
@@explodingtomahawks7589 pretty sure it was one just post a massive earthquake in japan? was one of the older videos i know but i can't remember the name
@@prcervithat's the one. Yakuza 4 I think
@@bloonface sounds about right
I heard that *"I AM NAILED TO A HUGE WOODEN CROSS..."* text box in morty's voice and am disturbed and amused at how much it fits.
I thought Yahtzee was going to abuse this game but I guess Roiland beat him to the punch 💀
DAMN 💀
JUST LIKE HIS WIFE
@@shitfacejohnson4085 "Thanks Nubnub!"
Let's wait and see if he's actually guilty, shall we?
@@Slaeowulf I think if you actually cared about responsible discourse you’d already be up on the leaked dms to underage fans and all the industry folks coming out against him
I agree that we shouldn’t talk about him like he’s committed a crime if we don’t have a verdict, but even if we can’t call him a felon yet, we have evidence that he IS a creep. I just don’t understand why people are so quick to defend him unless they’re cool with the other stuff he did
I don't remember if you've done darktide yet but i think what I like about it best is that you end up loving the "guns" that make ppl stop killing you. It's a fun take on the shooter genre!?!
If they do a sequel they should have Yahtzee provide voices and scripts for them :)
I know he isn't the most savoury person as a person but damn man - rough comparison.
@@ShapezPuller64 I don't mean it in a bad way - his sense of humour would work with this. ( rather than a one sided sense of humour of Rick and Morty which is Marmite) Have you read any of Yahtzee's books?
Not sure how much range he has. Maybe he can voice just one weapon, like the rocket launcher. He loves rocket launchers.
Glad you acknowledged it at least
And then he turned himself into a felon (funniest shit I've ever seen)
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand domestic battery
It brought the trope "Silent bounty hunter who let's their guns do the talking" into a literal sense.
Fantastic timing
That was a great visual gag with the broom and boarder lands.
When is Yahtzee coming out with another book?! Just started listening to Will Save the Galaxy for Food and I'm entranced! Great book so far, even better narration!
Jam is really good too
@@littlesnowflakepunk855 I had no idea this existed! Thanks for the recommendation. Just bought it on Audible!
1:36 - the image of someone tap dancing whilst someone tries to put a sheet of tarpaulin down is hilarious 😂
I've just watched this in awe at how he actually gave High on Life a pretty decent review.
But it has everything he hates? The dialogue is painful and the gameplay itself is boring and repetitive.
I'm stunned. I was certain that he would have despised it.
Such unexpected outros every time. This one gets the silver medal
Yahtzee: "Caring about things is better than not giving a shit about the people around you"
*Everyone glances at current events...*
Nihilism is gay. To use the parlance of the mid 2000s
@@TheBuckweat33 Worse than that, it's boring.
Yup. South Park fell deep down the ‘anybody who cares about anything has an ulterior motive so don’t care about stuff’ rabbit hole years ago and became a chore to watch. At least R&M (in its better episodes) acknowledges that not caring about anything is a miserable way to live and makes you an asshole.
Everyone who is cool with nihilism needs to read Nietzsche because he hated it more than anyone.
@@andyholstein237 Also Camus. Just because this whole mess might be meaningless that doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile.
Honestly, respect to The Escapist for posting this despite obvious controversy. Yathzee makes good freaking content and it'd be a shame to bin this video for the sake of controversy surrounding a creator 👍
Whats that Skippy? We got a opinion on Borderlands 3 from yahtzee? What great news!
The end of the video really spoke to me, as someone working out a tricky shit while watching this on my phone.
Man, the list of things Hatsune Miku has made just get's bigger and bigger
Yah its wild, what a talented singer. Never expected them to go so hard into game development like this
I don't think I've noticed the TH-cam viewtime histogram doing anything particularly useful before now. Suddenly I find it incredibly useful for locating the disclaimer. Anyway, on a completely unrelated note, I'm off to rent 1987's movie Fatal Attraction on TH-cam movies.
Saying High On Life's writing is not trying too hard has to get the hardest disagree ever from me in any ZP I have ever seen
Yea that how I felt about that bit too.
so you're saying it went full circle and now its in this weird position to where some people it doesn't look like it tried too hard but to other people it looks like that nose bleed isn't from allergies?
@@Soleil_de_Helturel To me it seems like the writers were trying so hard they were at risk of an aneurism.
Yeah, the fact he thinks Roiland's comedy doesn't try too hard, AND the fact he actually enjoys Rick and Morty, really makes me question Yahtzee's critical integrity.
@@MapleLeafAce Yahtzee liked the atrociously written Bioshock Infinite and refused to play Pathologic 2. He's a hack.
4:56 "...folds like an ironing board in Princess Diana's luggage."
Jesus Christ, Yahtzee.
I was honestly waiting for some kind of “beating” joke when i saw the card come up. Surprised that all there was was praise
0:58 you seriously got that dead on. That was the stage I went through, in perfect order.
Rick and Morty may be a fantastic show, I’ve heard great things. But the voice acting makes me wish I was born without ears. Same thing is probably true of this game
Portal 2 and Futurama are everything this game and Rick & Morty wish they were.
Rare case of a game Yahtzee liked that I couldn’t stand
4:56 "folds like an ironing board in princess diana's luggage" ooof
I find it fascinating the push back against nihilism as of late. Just an interesting observation.
the youth are against it because they haven't gone against any problems that every generation fails to tackle. *grumpy old man voice*
I think the driving factor in this shift in general (though not in yahtzee's case, I think he just got older and became a parent) is that when times are 'OK-ish but not great' as was the broad consensus in the english-speaking world in the 2010s it's cool to look down on the people who care, trying and mostly failing to fix problems, but once things start getting properly bleak - as they have in the 2020s thus far - the need for some spark of hope becomes too pressing to ignore and so people turn away from nihilistic posturing which is now much more likely to induce genuine despair.
Nihilism always leads me to the question, "If nothing matters, why continue living? The fact that I don't have an answer beyond fear of failure and "meaningless" attachments leads me to conclude that the attachments I form and the "arbitrary" meanings I assign to things are in fact meaningful and thus existentialism is the superior philosophy. TL, DR: The things I decide matter actually matter, bite me Nihilism.
4:27 i literally Audibly Gasped
Game was a solid 7/10 experience, enjoyed it enough. The one thing I didn't really like though was the soundtrack - found it tedious and repetitive.
The one-liners just get more savage over time!
I think Yahtzee hit the nail on the head on why I and a lot of other people got tired of Rick and Morty
It’s important to give a shit.
Sure it was fresh back in 2013 when Rick and Morty premiered of a show with abject nihilism where it’s about being too cool to care. That is not the world in which we currently live
All our problems can be traced to “people not giving a shit,” and in times like these, it makes it feel more impactful when the game or show says “yes, DO CARE,” because like Yahtzee said at the end, it makes life better.
Nihilism is just a shitty philosophy for edgy people "too cool" for Existentialism and Absurdism, who still think Nietzsche was advocating for it, despite being firmly against it.
I'm relieved they added that little acknowledgement before the review. Reminds me of that one Call of Duty that starred Kevin Spacey. I bet that hasn't aged well!
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand domestic violence.
were still using that overused meme.
@@paulovinasrocha6166 To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand that overused meme.
@@paulovinasrocha6166 It may be an overused meme, but as long as people unironically think that way it's still relevant.
And molesting a minor online, but that one's not in the courts yet.
@@paulovinasrocha6166 it's almost like people have memories and pull from those memories whenever they want. At least he used it in a clever way.
I picked up a copy of Will Save the Galaxy for Food! Did not know there was a sequel! It was not in the store or els I would have got both at the same time. It is grate so far. You hummer is literally not matched or repeated anywhere else.. in the world. Going to give JAM a look at next. I really like the cover art for all of your novels too.
Huh. I never expected Yahtzee to actually be positive on the game. I liked it too. A solid 7/10... preferably played in short spurts while high. It's so strange to have played and enjoyed it to completion right before all this awful Roiland stuff came out.
Ya it is nice seeing a positive review coming out. I suppose we don't see many because one of his chief complaints is bland almost copy pasted game design.
At first, I read that as "preferably played in short squirts".
The music and art direction are my favorite aspects of the game. I really like both. The gameplay is just solid enough to carry me through. It’s decent and won’t be remembered in the far future for being so blasé in execution.
Zach is funny. 8/10
Comedy is really, really hard to do well. It's a bit of a cliche, albeit a fairly accurate one, but comedy writing and acting are straight up rare talents. Leslie Nielsen, Ronnie Barker and Olivia Coleman were/are superb actors who are amazing because of, not despite their roots in comedy. When talented straight actors who don't have the comedy talent or training try to be funny it's often just painful. That makes comedy film production incredibly risky, because there's not that much comedy writing talent and most of it is in TV. Likewise I don't think there's a really strongly established comedy games writing talent pool to draw from, so any attempt to produce a quality comedy game is really appreciated. Even if the humour isn't really to my taste. And the writer is kind of dodge.