High on Life (Zero Punctuation) 

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 RU-vid and support our content via Patreon for $2/month. www.patreon.com/the_escapist

AH JEEZ RICK I DIDN'T THINK SHE'D TAKE SCREENSHOTS

For once a game I expected Yahtzee to hate he ended up liking

Figures. Yahtzee FINALLY likes a game, and the creator's now a possible felon. He can't win, can he?

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 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.

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.

‘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.

"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

"Boy that Elon Musk cameo was a mistake in retrospect huh" As was another thing, it turns out.

You know it's going to be a good video when there's a domestic violence disclaimer at the start

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.

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.

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

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?

To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand domestic violence.

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.

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.

“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.”

I appreciate the gag about trying to fire the gun by pressing pause.

I find the jokes that don't involve Justin screaming at you is actually pretty funny

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

Talk about timing lol

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.

You were kinder to this one than I was expecting

0:58 Minecraft basically went through that exact thing over the last 5 years

I'm nominating "Folds like an ironing board in princess Diana's luggage" for the simile of the decade.

The "please I have throat cancer" was a reference to Marge even though he used a picture of Homer 😂

Kudos for the disclaimer at the start. You just told it how it is.

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).

is it sad that the editors note is how I found out about the controversy.

This was one of my favorite end jokes and accompanying credits cards

I watched the whole Tammy and the T-rex movie in-game and I am proud of that

And then he turned himself into a felon (funniest shit I've ever seen)

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!

Yahtzee: "Caring about things is better than not giving a shit about the people around you" *Everyone glances at current events...*

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

I thought Yahtzee was going to abuse this game but I guess Roiland beat him to the punch 💀

Giving a shit also reminds you not to beat your partner.

God bless the moderator of this comments section, my thoughts are with you at this time……..

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.

The thought of a gun talking like that stuttery Roiland type of voice sounds like a awful fate to befall upon someone

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.

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"

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.

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.

I cannot be the only one who is sick to the back teeth with irreverent 'look how much we don't care' humour. If nothing else, it always seems so insecure, like school kids pretending to ironically like something so they can't get bullied for genuinely liking something. I just think that, if you can't take your own writing seriously, why should I give you my time? If you're writing comedy, at least seem like you're trying to make me laugh.

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.

it's amazing how the animators can make a rectangle with circles for hands look like it's crossing its non-existent arms

Lmfao that warning before the video, I was totally expecting yahtzee to mention it in his video as a joke or something

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 RU-vid 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.

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?"_

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.

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

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.

The guys from Red Letter Media also did vocals for the game.

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

So basically it’s tirchwood’s children of earth if turned into a comedy action game

I don't think I've noticed the RU-vid 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 RU-vid movies.

Man, the list of things Hatsune Miku has made just get's bigger and bigger

I was honestly waiting for some kind of “beating” joke when i saw the card come up. Surprised that all there was was praise

Rare case of a game Yahtzee liked that I couldn’t stand

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.

It brought the trope "Silent bounty hunter who let's their guns do the talking" into a literal sense.

I kinda wish the opening disclaimer said "the creator would like everyone to know this came out before the recent news, he would've had so many jokes about it otherwise"

"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

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 find it fascinating the push back against nihilism as of late. Just an interesting observation.

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.

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.

Portal 2 and Futurama are everything this game and Rick & Morty wish they were.

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

Man the timing of this video sure is awkward, given that Justin Roiland has been charged with domestic violence. I really hope this comment will make Yahzee and The Escapist more aware of that.

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

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?

Whats that Skippy? We got a opinion on Borderlands 3 from yahtzee? What great news!

The problem with Roiland's comedy is that he doesn't tell jokes, just has characters ramble or scream about what the joke is. Beating your audience over the head with what the joke is supposed to be isn't comedy.

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.

"Boy that Elon Musk cameo was a mistake in retrospect huh" is a way funnier joke in retrospect, now they have WAY worse problems to deal with.

1:36 - the image of someone tap dancing whilst someone tries to put a sheet of tarpaulin down is hilarious 😂

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.

Fantastic timing

Glad you acknowledged it at least

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!?!

I TURNED MYSELF INTO A WIFEBEATER MORTY

I feel bad for the people like Joel Haver who lent their talents to a now-tainted project

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 👍

1:20 Airplane, The Naked Gun and Hot Shots! Ah, the good old days of spoof movies.

i really liked rick and morty. that said i cant fathom the possibility that yahtzee played more than five minutes of this game unmuted, because dear lord is it aggressively unfunny, and yet here we are, in that possibility, and he /didnt hate/ it

Did Yahtzee hit puberty again over christmas because damn i didnt recall his voice being this deep

4:27 i literally Audibly Gasped

Such unexpected outros every time. This one gets the silver medal

I'm Prison Rick!

the awkward moment when yahtzee finally are pretty positive about a game and shit hits the fan

"Folds like an ironing board in Princess Diana's luggage?" 😂😂

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.

"so I left the game with a disappointed sense of 'Guess I'll just stop, then'" If this doesn't describe my experience with modern open-world games

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!

Your videos make me laugh. And that makes me happy. that is no small thing in 2023. Thank you!

That was a great visual gag with the broom and boarder lands.