Raised on life, the latest project from Squanch Games, is hard to recommend. This has nothing to do with the quality of the game – rather it’s a result of the game’s hyperspecific humor. Unlike other comedy games, like Portal 2 – which is filled with a variety of characters, each with their own style of humor – Raised on life draws heavily on the comedic styles of studio co-founder and CEO Justin Roiland of rick and morty celebrity.
But the game is not so specific rick and morty that you can boil down a recommendation to a “yes” for rick and morty fans and a “no” for people who haven’t seen it. Even people who are mostly ambivalent towards rick and morty – like me – might find something to like (or hate) in Raised on lifejokes.
So how do you know if Raised on life will work for you before you drop 60 bucks on it? How do you know your friend will like it if you decide to give it to him? You don’t and you can’t. But that’s where Xbox’s Game Pass service can really work its magic.
Game Pass has earned a reputation as a place to discover darlings and gems you might have missed. (This same section is, in part, dedicated to showcasing them). Beloved little games like The gate of death can flourish there, and niche titles like Signalis can become resounding successes. And it’s obviously the best place to get your fix of Xbox games like the latest Gears of War or Infinite Halo. But Game Pass is also the perfect destination for games like Raised on life.
Raised on life is a game that will either have you cringing so hard that you turn it off within the first 10 minutes, or have you laughing until you reach the game’s first boss. The beauty is that, with Game Pass, one or the Any other of these results is perfectly acceptable. Either you find a new game that you can’t wait to see until the end, or you delete it from your hard drive forever and never think about it again – no harm, no fault.
Picture: Squanch Games
If you decide to stick with Raised on lifeyou will find a comic mixture between Metroid Prime and Loss (2016). The shooting is a little loose and the extended combat isn’t my favorite part of the game (although it gets better as you get upgrades), but it works well enough to not actively slow down the game. ‘experience. The real pleasure in Raised on lifeGameplay is exploration. Roaming around planets and finding the bounty you’ve been awarded offers some nice environmental puzzles where you can use one of your talking guns to help you reach a new area and, presumably, open a chest.
Ultimately, the game lives and dies on its gaffes and characters, both of which are pretty funny. Kenny, your first gun, is voiced by Roiland and looks like Morty from Rick and Morty. He’s constantly gossiping and spitting goofy jokes that swing wildly between charming and slightly obnoxious. The second gun I found is Gus, who is voiced by comedian JB Smoove. Gus is delightfully cold compared to the frenetic Kenny – though he still fits in with the game’s irreverent, haphazard, and often dirty sense of humor.
The game is also quite meta, and your weapons will comment if you pause the game at certain times or try to shoot an innocent bystander. He even mocks “lazy game design” and specifically mentions Polygon. Raised on life also quite often surprises with bizarre and unexpected interactions. At the start of the game, I shot a non-violent NPC and he suddenly gained a large health bar. When I killed him, Kenny congratulated me on killing a secret boss. I didn’t receive any tangible in-game rewards – I just got the joke. And that’s okay, because I’m here for the jokes.
Smaller games excel on Game Pass because they’re relatively unknown until gamers find and love them — like people who browse Netflix just to find a hidden gem. Raised on life is a different breed of Game Pass game: a well-known product that looks like an easy jump but becomes a surprise hit in your house because you have no reason not to try it.
Gamers are often willing to spend big bucks to enjoy something they love – just look at how expensive some MMO subscriptions are – but when a game you’ve paid for kicks you out, it leaves you a bad taste in the mouth. When you remove that financial risk and the only thing you can afford to lose is some time and hard drive space, you can take chances on games that might really surprise you. And for this holiday season, no game is more surprisingly enjoyable than Raised on life.
