High on Life 2: developer notes, design changes, and what the sequel changes
High on Life 2 is the sequel to Squanch Games’ 2022 comedic first-person shooter, and the obvious question for anyone who played the first game is what is actually new. The marketing has leaned on a small set of high-visibility additions: new talking Gatlian guns, a rideable skateboard, and a wider set of bounty-hunter contracts. Underneath those hooks, the team is making a series of smaller design and engineering changes that matter more to how the game plays and how it ships. This page collects the verifiable developer-facing details about High on Life 2, with a focus on design intent, mission structure, combat changes, and the things players noticed but the trailers did not spell out.
Where trailers only gesture, design notes clarify. The notes below are written for a reader who has either played the original or is deciding whether the sequel is worth picking up at launch. Anything that depends on a specific number, mission order, or reward is anchored to the public walkthrough the studio and its publishing partners have published, so a reader can cross-check rather than trust a forum post.
What the sequel is, in one paragraph
High on Life 2 continues the story of a bounty hunter who, by the start of the game, has already become successful at the job. The fame and money that follow are interrupted, and the campaign is built around getting back to blasting aliens with a refreshed weapon set. Mechanically it is still a first-person shooter with talking guns, but the studio added a skateboard for traversal and reworked several of the systems around how the player moves through levels. The full mission list, including every main contract, is documented in IGN’s High on Life 2 walkthrough, which the studio has used as a reference for mission naming and order.
That single paragraph does most of the orientation work, so the rest of this page can stay focused on the parts that benefit from a developer’s eye: how the new traversal tool changes level pacing, how the gun roster was designed, what the difficulty system does and does not tell the player, and what the mission structure implies about the studio’s content pipeline.
Why the skateboard is more than a gag
The skateboard reads as a joke on paper. The studio has been clear in pre-release materials that it is a real traversal tool, not a cosmetic, and the level design has been rebuilt around it. Several of the main missions in the walkthrough list assume the player can reach elevated areas, cut across gaps, and chain speed lines that the original game did not have. From a level-design standpoint this is the single biggest change between the two games.
For designers, the interesting question is what the skateboard lets the team remove. Any system that exists to make the player move slowly through a hub area is now a candidate for trimming, because the player can skate past it. The original game padded travel with dialogue and vending-machine detours; the sequel can use the board to keep movement continuous, then put the vending machines and dialogue in the spaces the player chooses to detour into rather than spaces the player has to pass through. That distinction is what separates a quality-of-life feature from a real design lever.
For animators and technical artists, a rideable skateboard also means a new locomotion state machine, a new camera arm, a new foot-IK pass when the player dismounts, and a collision capsule that has to handle grinding rails and small ramps without launching the player at lethal velocity. Those are exactly the kinds of systems that get patched in the first weeks of a live game, so it is worth paying attention to the first patch notes if skateboard behaviour feels off in the launch build.
Weapon roster and the talking-gun design constraint
Talking guns are the franchise’s signature, and they double as cast members. Each one has to deliver enough lines to justify being a constant companion, but the studio cannot write so much VO that mission scripting becomes unmaintainable. The sequel’s roster is bigger than the original’s, which is the easy thing to announce and the hard thing to ship. The interesting design question is how the new guns were scoped against the existing ones rather than how many were added.
A practical way to read the roster is in three buckets: the guns that replace a first-game role with a more focused version, the guns that fill a role the first game handled awkwardly, and the guns that exist primarily to give the cast a new voice in the booth. The first bucket tends to ship the cleanest because the team has a reference for balance. The second bucket is where most of the patch work happens, because a new role means new encounter design, new cover layout, and new audio mix priorities. The third bucket is the easiest to write about and the hardest to tune, because a gun that is fun in isolation can be a pain to keep alive across twenty hours of campaign.
Mission structure and what the walkthrough tells us about the studio’s content pipeline
The walkthrough lists a chain of main missions, each with its own page, plus a checkbox so a reader can track progress. The structure is mundane, but it tells you a lot about how the team is building the campaign. A linear main-mission chain with named pages per mission is the cheapest possible structure to author, localize, and certify, which is what a studio does when it is shipping a sequel under a fixed budget. The alternative, an open-zone structure with branching contracts, is much more expensive at every stage from greybox to QA.
Two things follow from that choice. First, expect the bulk of post-launch content to live in side content, bounty boards, and possibly live-ops bounties rather than as new main missions, because new main missions cost as much to add in this structure as the originals did. Second, expect the QA pass to lean heavily on encounter-by-encounter testing rather than open-world regression, because the mission boundaries are clean. Both of these are normal for a studio of Squanch’s size and are worth knowing before launch so you can read the first roadmap correctly.
| Main-mission structure | Open-zone structure | What it means for the sequel |
|---|---|---|
| Named per-mission pages, linear chain | Branching contracts, shared hubs | Cheaper to author, localize, and certify; post-launch content leans on side bounties |
| Clean mission boundaries | Open boundaries, shared state | QA pass is encounter-by-encounter, not open-world regression |
| Fixed budget per quest | Shared budget across many hooks | New main missions cost as much as the originals; expect bounty-board refreshes instead |
Difficulty, settings, and what the game does not tell you
The in-game difficulty descriptions are short and do not specify how they change combat, which is a deliberate choice. The walkthrough notes that no achievements are tied to difficulty, which means the player can change the setting at any time from the pause menu. From a developer’s perspective, this is a sign that the studio prioritized accessibility and completion over difficulty-as-mastery, and that the encounter design was tested at a single internal target rather than balanced across a stack of difficulty curves.
The practical advice for players is straightforward. Pick a difficulty that lets you enjoy the writing, because the writing is the part the studio has most clearly spent the most time on, and come back later for a harder run if you want one. For developers reading the game, the lesson is that difficulty descriptions are a design surface in their own right: vague descriptions are a feature when the studio wants to keep the player in the fiction, and a problem when the player wants to know what they are signing up for.
| Difficulty behaviour | What the walkthrough confirms | What is left unsaid |
|---|---|---|
| Setting changeable at any time from the pause menu | No achievement lock per difficulty | How enemy damage or health is actually scaled between modes |
| Short in-game description per tier | Player is not penalized for changing modes | Whether harder modes add new enemy types or only rebalance numbers |
| Single internal balance target | Encounter design is tested once, not per curve | Whether a higher tier changes ammo or vendor pricing |
Combat, encounters, and pacing
The combat loop is still the first-game loop: a talking gun, a movement verb, an arena of aliens, and a way to spend the currency you earn. The sequel tightens each part of that loop rather than replacing it. The movement verb is now the skateboard. The arena layouts lean more on verticality, which the board makes reachable. The currency sink is more visible because the player passes more vendor hubs per hour of campaign, which is a direct consequence of a tighter level design.
The pacing implication is that combat sections are likely shorter per encounter but more frequent, which is a normal rhythm for a sequel that wants to feel faster without raising difficulty. The risk is that encounter variety has to scale with frequency, otherwise the campaign starts to feel like the same room with different paint. Reading the walkthrough, the named missions appear to vary the encounter palette, but a developer should watch for the late-game stretch where a studio under deadline pressure tends to repeat a small number of encounter kits.
Audio, dialogue, and the talking-gun pipeline
Talking guns are the franchise’s most expensive content type, because every line has to be performed, captured, edited, and routed through the gun’s AI so it triggers at the right moment. The sequel’s larger roster multiplies that cost. The way studios handle this is by writing guns that are loud in small bursts and quiet over long sessions, so the player can stand the companion without the studio having to write a full second game’s worth of unique dialogue per gun.
For a producer, the takeaway is that the writing bench for the sequel had to scale roughly linearly with gun count, and the recording budget had to scale with it. That is part of why a sequel with more guns takes longer than a player might expect, and it is also why a smaller post-launch gun addition is more realistic than a big one. For a sound designer, the interesting work is in the ducking and prioritization rules: when three guns can speak, which one wins, and how is the player’s weapon suppressed during a story beat.
Performance, certification, and platform notes
No verified performance data exists at the time of writing, so this section is about the shape of the question rather than a number. The original shipped on PC and consoles with a relatively modest system spec for a first-person shooter, and the sequel’s larger roster of guns and new traversal tool both add CPU and animation work. The honest position is that frame-rate behaviour is unknown until a representative build has been profiled on each target platform, and any claim to the contrary is a marketing claim rather than an engineering claim. Squanch and its publishing partners have published the canonical High on Life 2 walkthrough page that lists every main mission and serves as the studio’s reference for mission naming and order.
Certification and platform compliance for a shooter with mild profanity and a stylized art style is normally straightforward, but talking guns that ad-lib and a skateboard that can launch the player at speed both create edge cases that QA has to cover. Watch the first patch notes for traversal fixes and audio-prioritization fixes; those are the categories that almost always show up in the first thirty days of a live first-person shooter.
What changed from the first game, in a single table
The table below summarizes the design and engineering changes that are visible in the public material. Anything that is speculation is labelled as such; the rest is anchored to the walkthrough and the studio’s pre-release communications.
| Area | High on Life (2022) | High on Life 2 | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traversal | Foot movement plus dodge and slam | Foot movement plus rideable skateboard | Levels can rely on verticality and chained movement, which trims padding between encounters |
| Gun roster | Original set of talking Gatlian guns | Expanded set including new Gatlian guns | VO and recording cost scales with roster size, so expect more banter and more prioritization work |
| Campaign structure | Hub plus linear missions | Linear main-mission chain with named pages per quest | Cheaper to author and certify; post-launch content will lean on side bounties |
| Difficulty | Settings with limited description | Settings with limited description and no achievement lock | Changeable at any time; balanced around a single internal target |
| Currency and vendors | Vendor hubs between major beats | More frequent vendor stops as a result of tighter level pacing | Progression feels more granular per hour, but the per-stop value is smaller |
| Accessibility | Standard options | Changeable difficulty at any time, no achievement gating | Encourages replay at a comfortable setting without locking trophies |
What a developer can learn from the sequel’s choices
Three lessons stand out from the public material. First, a signature mechanic that doubles as a content type is expensive to scale; a sequel that wants to grow the roster has to plan the writing bench, recording budget, and audio prioritization rules at the same time. Second, a traversal tool that lets the player skip past padding is a real design lever, and any system that exists only to slow the player down has to be re-examined once the tool ships. Third, a linear main-mission chain is the cheapest structure to ship and the cheapest structure to add post-launch content to, which is the right choice for a studio that wants to support the game without growing headcount.
For a player, the practical version of those lessons is that the sequel is a tighter, faster, more voice-acted version of the first game, with a skateboard that is genuinely useful and a difficulty system that lets you enjoy the writing at the cost you prefer.
Side content, bounties, and what to expect after launch
The campaign is the spine, and the side content is where the studio has the most room to extend the game without re-authoring main missions. The walkthrough’s mission list is the spine; the side bounties and vendor requests are the connective tissue. A practical expectation is that the first post-launch patch adds side bounties, a small vendor refresh, and a balance pass on the new guns, because that is what the existing pipeline supports without a large content push.
Players looking for reasons to come back should watch for bounty board rotations and seasonal events rather than for new main missions. Developers looking for a model should watch how the team schedules that content, because the cadence of a small studio’s post-launch output is one of the more useful signals for any studio planning its own live-ops budget.
Limits of what this page can claim
Anything that depends on a specific number, reward, drop rate, encounter timing, or hidden mechanic is intentionally omitted, because the public material does not pin those details down. The walkthrough confirms mission names and order, the existence of the skateboard, the expanded gun roster, and the design of the difficulty system, and those are the claims this page makes. Anything beyond that is the kind of detail that the first week of player coverage will surface, and which a future revision of this page can pick up with sources.
Quick reference: what to verify before you buy
- Whether the new guns feel distinct from the originals in the first hour, because distinctness is the hardest property to ship and the easiest to fudge in marketing.
- Whether the skateboard is a real traversal tool or a cosmetic that happens to be rideable, because the level design depends on that distinction.
- Whether the difficulty description tells you anything useful, because vague descriptions are a design choice that you can either accept or refuse to.
- Whether the campaign length matches the studio’s prior games, because the linear structure should make this number stable across players.
- Whether the side bounties rotate after launch, because a rotating bounty board is the most realistic post-launch support model for a studio of this size.
Frequently asked questions
Is High on Life 2 a direct sequel to the first game?
Yes. The story picks up with the player character as a successful bounty hunter whose comfortable life is interrupted, and the cast of talking Gatlian guns returns alongside new additions. Mechanically it is still a first-person shooter, but the studio has rebuilt parts of the combat and traversal loop around the new tools.
Do I need to have played the first High on Life to follow the sequel?
The sequel is written for returning players, and several of the returning guns and characters are part of the writing rather than the mechanics. A new player can follow the plot without playing the original, but the cast’s running jokes land harder with the first game in context, so the original is worth playing first if you have the time.
What is the new traversal tool in High on Life 2?
The studio added a rideable skateboard. It is a real traversal tool, not a cosmetic, and the level design has been adjusted to account for it. The walkthrough lists elevated paths and chained movement sections that depend on the board, so the game assumes you will use it.
How many new talking guns are in the sequel?
The roster is larger than the first game’s, but the exact count and the per-gun role are best read from the studio’s pre-release coverage and the walkthrough, because the public material describes the cast by personality rather than by a clean list. Expect the cast to be the main way the sequel distinguishes itself from the original.
Are achievements tied to difficulty in High on Life 2?
No. The walkthrough explicitly notes that no achievements are tied to difficulty, and the setting can be changed at any time from the pause menu. That is a deliberate accessibility choice and a useful one for players who want to enjoy the writing without being locked into a difficulty curve.
How long is the High on Life 2 campaign?
The walkthrough lists a linear chain of main missions, but the exact runtime per mission has not been published in a verifiable form. A safe assumption, based on the structure and the studio’s prior work, is that the campaign is similar in length to the original, with more side content available per hour of main story.
Will High on Life 2 get post-launch content?
The studio has not committed to a specific roadmap at the time of writing, but the linear main-mission structure of the sequel is the kind of structure that supports side bounties, vendor refreshes, and balance patches rather than new main-mission chapters. That is the most realistic shape for post-launch support from a studio of this size.
Is High on Life 2 multiplayer?
The pre-release coverage has focused on the single-player campaign, and the walkthrough is written for a single player. Treat any claim about a multiplayer mode as unverified until the studio confirms it in a press release or a store page update.
What platforms is High on Life 2 on?
The game is on PC and the major console platforms that the first game shipped on, but specific platform availability, store pages, and any timed exclusives are best confirmed on the official store pages rather than on third-party coverage, because platform lineups can change between announcement and launch.
Should I play the first game before the sequel?
If you have the time, yes. The writing is the part of the sequel that scales the most, and a lot of the writing is the cast’s relationships with each other, which carry over from the first game. If you do not have the time, the sequel is still readable on its own, but the running jokes land harder with the first game in context.