Weed Shop 4: Highland

Washed up, broke, and back in business

Weed Shop 4: Highland, launched into Early Access on April 20, 2026 (fittingly) by developer and publisher Weed Games, strands you on a rundown tropical island with no money, no weed, and no idea how you got there. From that setup, it's the familiar Weed Shop formula: grow, sell, flip, reinvest, and rebuild a cannabis empire from nothing, now layered with FPS-style movement and, for the first time in the series, proper co-op multiplayer. Following the beloved Weed Shop 3, expectations were high, and the Early Access launch landed to a genuinely Mixed reception (210 reviews, roughly 54% positive) that splits sharply between patient longtime fans and reviewers who feel let down.

Living in Weed Shop 3's shadow

The single most consistent thread running through the negative review sample, regardless of specific complaint, is direct comparison to Weed Shop 3. Reviewers repeatedly describe having put in hundreds of hours on the previous game and arriving with correspondingly high expectations, only to find Highland's early build feels like a step backward rather than an evolution — several explicitly tell prospective buyers to skip this and go play Weed Shop 3 instead, at least for now.

What actually works

Set against that disappointment, the positive side of the sample is far from empty. Co-op multiplayer, specifically, is repeatedly cited as the single feature that's kept longtime fans engaged despite everything else — building a shop from nothing alongside a friend is described by multiple reviewers as exactly what they'd wanted from the series for years. Several reviewers, including some giving the game a thumbs-down overall, explicitly frame their purchase as supporting the developer through an admittedly rough Early Access period rather than expecting a finished product today.

A launch many call unfinished

The dominant negative theme is simply how unfinished the game feels at launch: reviewers describe confusing tutorials, tedious early-game pacing, crashes, poor optimization, and mechanics that feel more like busywork than meaningful management. One reviewer's very first moments in the game were spent trapped inside an upside-down boat during the opening sequence — a small bug, but one that set the tone for a broader sense that the build needed more time before release. Others describe genuinely broken progression, being unable to determine what to do next, or systems that technically function but offer little satisfaction.

The AI-art controversy

A more serious and better-documented issue concerns the game's loading screen art, which reviewers confirm was AI-generated but not disclosed on the Steam store page at launch. Several reviewers frame this specifically as a trust violation rather than a stylistic objection, noting that a disclosure notice and a toggle to disable AI-generated content were only added after visible community backlash. Some reviewers acknowledge and credit the developer for eventually adding that disclosure and opt-out option, framing it as a genuine, if delayed, response to legitimate feedback rather than dismissing the concern outright.

A setting that unsettles some players

A smaller number of reviewers raise a separate, more pointed concern about the game's tropical island setting itself, with at least one comparing it unfavorably to Drug Dealer Simulator 2 and questioning the taste of a comedic drug-empire narrative built around a struggling Southeast Asian-coded island community. It's a minority view in the sample, but distinct enough from the more common technical complaints to be worth noting for players who might share that discomfort.

The patient counter-narrative

Balancing the harsher criticism is a real, substantial contingent of reviewers extending genuine patience to the developer, several describing a bug they personally reported being fixed within hours, and pointing to a steady, ongoing cadence of monthly patches since launch as evidence the team is actively working through the game's problems rather than abandoning it. This isn't a fringe minority opinion within the positive reviews — it's the dominant framing among them, treating the current state explicitly as a beginning rather than a finished product.

Small bugs worth knowing about

Beyond the broader launch-state complaints, specific reported bugs include missing player nametags and glitching audio in multiplayer sessions, and being launched several meters into the air after minor collisions with scenery like garbage cans. None of these are described as universal, but they're specific and repeated enough to flag for anyone going in expecting a polished experience.

Is $19.99 too much right now

Price is its own recurring complaint in the negative sample, with several reviewers arguing that $19.99 is simply too much to ask for a build this unfinished, especially when the direct predecessor is available for less and offers a more complete experience today. It's a fair point on its own terms: Early Access pricing is always a bet on where a game is headed, not just where it stands, and reviewers frustrated by crashes and thin content understandably don't want to pay full price for the privilege of testing them. Waiting for a sale, or waiting several patch cycles for the roadmap to catch up to the asking price, is a reasonable response the review sample itself repeatedly arrives at.

Who should plant a flag on Highland now

Right now, Highland is best suited to two overlapping groups: diehard Weed Shop 3 fans who specifically want the new co-op mode and are willing to treat their purchase as backing a small team through a difficult stretch, and Early Access completionists who enjoy watching a game evolve patch by patch and don't mind rough edges along the way. Anyone looking for a polished, content-complete weed-empire sim today, or anyone put off by the AI-art disclosure issue on principle, has good reason to wait and watch the patch notes from the sidelines instead.

The verdict

Weed Shop 4: Highland is a genuinely rough Early Access launch that tested the goodwill of a fanbase that loved its predecessor, made worse by a real, self-inflicted controversy over undisclosed AI art. An actively patching developer and a finally-delivered co-op mode have kept a meaningful chunk of that fanbase invested regardless, but this is a purchase to make with clear eyes about what "Early Access" means right now — best approached on sale, or held off entirely until the roadmap delivers on its early promises.