September 2025: Thanks to Gamescom, there's a solid release date and 42 minutes of gameplay for High on Life 2 now. Ralph Ineson and his dulcet tones has also been confirmed as joining the cast as a new gun. We've added all this information and more below.
With the humour of Rick and Morty and the darkness of, well, Rick and Morty, High on Life arrived on the FPS scene within just a few months of its announcement back in 2022. It was a hit, even if we didn't we didn't particularly care for the shooting or the blabbing. Three years later, High on Life 2 seems set to do the exact same with a quick turnaround from announcement to release—though this time without Justin Roiland's involvement.
High on Life is bringing back the talking gun but adding some new stuff as well—what says cool sequel better than a skateboard? From following the announcement trailer to Gamescom footage, I’ve pulled apart everything I can for High on Life 2 and chopped out all the good parts, much like Garmountous ripping out the spleen of an unsuspecting human.
From High on Life 2's story to its gameplay changes and release date, this is everything you should know about it right now.
High on Life 2 release date and platforms
High on Life 2 is releasing on February 13, 2026 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.
High on Life 2 was originally announced in the June 2025 Xbox Games Showcase, with a release date set for winter. That 'winter' loophole that publishers have been loving so much recently then turned into February 2026 via an Xbox Wire announcement as part of Gamescom coverage in August.
Will High on Life 2 be available on Xbox Game Pass?
Yes, High on Life 2 will be launching on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate day one. It's also part of the Xbox Play Anywhere program, so you will be able to play it via cloud streaming. As noted by Xbox Wire, the first High on Life game was “Xbox’s biggest 3rd party launch in Game Pass history.” So the sequel certainly has some big, weird alien shoes to fill.
High on Life 2 trailers
First (and only) trailer
High on Life 2 was announced with a fittingly bizarre trailer at June’s Xbox Games Showcase. It opens with two aliens on a sofa, with one of them taking some form of human-based antidepressant named Humanzopro—only for the trailer to burst with surrealness and colour.
Our presumed main character skirts around an alien city with some new weapons. There’s an intentional trippiness to the action as they skate through half pipes with a fire-breathing lizard, only to eventually end up in a bottle of humanzopro. Yeah, High on Life 2 is one of those games.
Tellingly, ending up in the bottle of humanzopro touches on the cruel systems at play in the first game and the callous disregard for humanity as a primitive species. An underdog (or should I say underhuman?) in a galaxy indifferent to you, High on Life 2’s trailer hints at that same sardonic tone. Let’s just hope the game’s jokes and gameplay are sharper than the first.
High on Life 2 story
Set after the events of the first game (as you might be able to guess), a bounty is put on your sister, and you have to not only keep her safe but figure out who set the bounty. The only other thing we know for sure (via the gameplay seen below) is that you pick up a bounty to kill Senator Muppy Doo at some point, a politician in league with the evil executives at Rhea Pharmaceuticals who are intent on turning humankind into prescription pills.
This is happening on the planet of ConCon, which is a planet full of floating platforms containing conventions, such as ParkingCon, and (Knifey's favorite) Murder Con. It's here on ConCon that you meet (and decapitate) Ralph Ineson's character, Sheath, and make him one of your chatty guns.
High on Life 2 gameplay
High on Life 2 appears to be building on the Metroidvania, part FPS elements of its predecessor, notably incorporating a skateboarding mechanic. There’s a sense of speed in the official trailer and gameplay footage reminiscent of the likes of Sunset Overdrive.
As seen in gameplay footage from Gamescom, the skateboarding mechanic effectively replaces your sprint button, and also lets you wallrun, grind, and chuck it at enemies for a one-hit kill. Whether or not this new skateboard will revolutionize High on Life’s movement is yet to be seen. I think it's a safe bet that it certainly plays a lot speedier, but footage alone won’t give you a good idea of how it feels, even if we understand how it looks.
Outside of skateboarding and guns (more on guns below) the Gamescom footage also showed us some fun novelty gameplay during a boss fight with Senator Muppy Doo. The senator shrinks down into your suit and you're forced to try and hit him from inside the game's menus and settings, eventually leading you to factory reset your suit and launch a game of "Bible Adventures" in all its 8-bit pixelated glory.
Safe to say more of this weirdness likely awaits us throughout the rest of the campaign.
High on Life 2 weapons
Love 'em or hate 'em, the weapons (officially named Gatlians) are one of High on Life's most memorable components. Apart from skateboarding, using them is also what you're be doing the most in the sequel, so here's a list of all the new and returning weapons in High on Life 2:
- Sheath: This new weapon, voiced by Ralph Ineson, is basically the battle rifle of High on Life 2. The alt attack is an Impaling Spike that can be used to tie groups of enemies together, or create Spike ziplines.
- Sweezy: A returning laser pistol voiced by Betsy Sodaro. It has an alt attack that creates a slow-mo bubble that can surround groups of enemies.
- Gus: Returning shotgun voiced by J.B. Smoove. Its disc shot ability still seems perfect for clearing crowds of enemies.
- Creature - This returning weapon is similar to a grenade launcher, except instead of grenades, it shoots "little freaks".
- Knifey - A returning knife that really likes killing people.
Alongside those, in the reveal trailer, we also got a look at a bow, and a frankly horrible fishy-looking set of dual pistols. There was also a tortoise acting as a flamethrower, but it's unclear whether this was just a "did that really just happen?" set piece for the trailer, or an actual usable weapon.
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