New Xbox Game Pass Game Divides Critics and Gamers

By Tyler Fischer

One of Xbox Game Pass' newest games is also one of its most popular to date. If you haven't seen the numbers, millions of Xbox Game Pass subscribers are playing -- and seemingly enjoying -- High on Life, the new game from Squanch Games and Justin Roiland, the creator of Rick and Morty. And this has been surprising for a few reasons. For one, previous games from Squanch Games and Justin Roiland haven't been as popular. Two, there wasn't a ton of pre-release hype for the game. And three, it's not very good according to game critics. On Metacritic, the Xbox version boasts a 65 and the PC version a 68. These are very lackluster scores. Yet, it's popular. Not only that, but the user reviews disagree. 

While the critics' score for the Xbox version is 65, the user score on Metacritic for the same version is 83. It's not very common for the user review score to be higher than the critic score. Usually, it's lower, and if it's higher it's usually not by this amount. Meanwhile, over on Steam, 90 percent of over 3,500 user reviews are positive, giving the game a "Very Positive" User Review rating.  This isn't the first game critics and gamers have disagreed on, but it's one of the biggest examples of the divide in some time. 

Who is right? Well, it is hard to say. At the end of the day, most criticisms of a game -- whether from critics or users -- are purely subjective. Further, this is a comedic game, making it even more subjective than normal. 

"Genuinely one of the most fun and enjoyable games I've ever played in my life. Pretty much every single NPC has its own 1-5 min dialogue of just pure nonsense," reads one of these favorable Steam User reviews. 

As always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think. Have you checked out High on Life yet? If so, do you agree with most critic reviews that peg it as middle-of-the-road or do you agree with your fellow consumer?

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