Had very little idea what to expect from this one besides the game breaking the fourth wall frequently to apologize for the monotonous design choices, which was super annoying but thankfully I found… something to like, although I’m still not really sure what that something is. The writing is predictably weird for a Swery game, not particularly sharp or clever but it’s somehow incentivizing enough in its oddity to make me want to carry through with the main story. Somehow it’s fallen into the well of huge, empty open-world games with mindless checklists that plague the industry currently, but it also emulates some of Shenmue’s life-sim-RPG mechanics, which is not a bad thing to crib from. Kind o a shame they’re shallow but it was at least appealing for a few hours. “Charming” may be too strong a word for all this, but it’s… quaint? It’s got that PS3-era C-list Japanese dev feel to it, which makes sense given Deadly Premonition.

I dilly-dallied with some sidequests while doing the main story at my own pace, but I checked out pretty quickly after seeing the ending. The main quest is bonkers enough to give the illusion of life to the town, but without it you realize just how banal the game world is. The sidequests are frustratingly dull and the writing isn’t strong enough to make them worth it. There also isn’t much of in the ways of rewards to incentivize doing them, the prizes are usually ass and not much to spend your money on either. Don’t even get me started on 100% completion, which involves dozens of hours grinding on menial tasks with nothing to gain besides saying you did it. Kind of bitterly ironic that the game’s story is meant to persuade Naomi of the value of the town and then when the curtains fall - you realize it really is just a goddamn hellhole.

Beaten: Oct 16 2021
Time: 13 Hours
Platform: Xbox Series X

I could probably have a whole life to think about this game and still not know exactly how I feel about it, but that's the nature of a SWERY game. That's right, this is the newest game from the only man who rivals SUDA51 for amount of cult classics created. SWERY's games are always a bit unpolished, but make up for it by leaning into that feeling of unpolishedness. If you've seen the first season of Twin Peaks, the lack of polish in SWERY games stands in the same place as the stilted, awkward dialogue stands for Lynch. It gets you in a mindset for weird shit to start happening.

Twin Peaks seems to be a huge touchstone for SWERY actually. All of his games (or at least the ones I've played) seem to have it in their DNA somewhere, the peak of which HAS to be Deadly Premonition, which is literally just outsider art Twin Peaks for people who like jank as fuck Xbox 360 games. The Good Life is much less of an homage to Twin Peaks, but it's just as obsessed with small, rural towns, and their secrets.

The town of note this time is Rainy Woods, a small town in rural England. All the buildings are made of stone or brick, and farmland surrounds the buildings, each plot bricked off with small stone walls. The town's got a lot of history to it, and as you're a New York reporter looking to pay off her debt, you're trying to find out all this town's secrets. Surprisingly, almost no attention is spent on the culture shock of an American living in rural England. Instead, the focus is on rural vs city life, particularly from a rather class-conscious point of view.

I mean, Naomi (the DOPE main character) is 30k USD in debt to her employer. That's why she had to take on a job in a small town in another country, right? And that debt traps you in almost every way that you deal with others from the city, but in the setting of this rural town? It's completely abstract, might as well not even matter. You're put up (in a kinda dingy little shack) for free by the town, and everyone is genuinely warm and welcoming to you. The secrets flow like water, and there's really only one dark secret in town.

That's the most unique part of this iteration of SWERY's Twin Peaks-isms: the dark underbelly of the town, that everyone assumes is there from the start, turns out to really just be old history. Secrets are better left alone. It's a much more uplifting take on this theme, and though I suspect it's less true to life, it's pretty heartwarming all the same.

ANYWAYS

IN THIS GAME YOU CAN TURN INTO A CAT AND A DOG AND YOUR MAIN MODE OF TRANSPORTATION IS RIDING SHEEP. THERE'S A RIVAL REPORTER FROM BOSTON WHO SHOWS UP AFTER EVER STORY BEAT AND SAYS "LOBSTAAAAAH"???? ONE OF THE MAIN MECHANICS IS "MARKING YOUR TERRITORY" AS A DOG??????????? AND I'M NOT EVEN GONNA MENTION THE STUFF ON THE MOUNTAIN BECAUSE SPOILERS BUT HOLY HELL WHAT THE FUCK SWERY

like I said i could talk about this game forever, which is funny because it's basically a dreamcast game that came out in 2021. the graphics are very "wow this would look better in 480p", but the game's massively strong (but also pretty baffling) art design and aesthetic sensibility in general just pulls it along.

It's like, a weirdly charismatic game for what it is. There's mechanics spilling out left and right (there's FIVE different bars you have to refill daily by sleeping, eating, and showering basiclally) and the game almost entirely consists of fetch quests, but it's so charming and so relaxing that I didn't even care. Walking out to the lake at 11pm, listening to the genuinely gorgeous (Nintendo DS Pokemon-esque?) night music, and snapping pictures of any wild animals I saw on the way was the best part of the game for me. It was relaxing in a way I wasn't expecting, but absolutely a way I needed right now.

Idk play it if you like weird shit

"The Good Life" has loads of Swerys Goofiness that I've come to love so much and the art style is quite enchanting. The slice of life-ish elements of a farming simulator are inconvinient, but I actually do not mind them too much.

The real problem is that the story here is a choppy and incoherent mess that is clumsily told, hard to follow and seems to be going everywhere and nowhere.

It jumps Genres like it's on crack. It's starts like an Animal Crossing Style slice of life sim, then goes to regular small town mystery crime thriller, then to UFOs and Aliens, then to Government Conspiracy, then to Legend of Camelot and then all the way back to crime thriller again.

... just an absolute clusterfuck.

All in all, the game just went everywhere and nowhere at the same time, making much of the storytelling feel like a pretty meaningless waste of time and energy. And Dialogue.

"The Good Life" has some effective moments and made me smile and even laugh at times, but the overwhelming feeling I had when I saw the credits roll was indifference.

A game that has dog and cat transformations, pee fetish, a surprisingly sincere commentary on fake news and predatory journalism, and an even more surprising well-researched background on British history and folklore can only be a GOOD game despite its numerous flaws - which I couldn't even be mad about because it only made the whole thing such a weird, but memorable, zany and, dare I say, charming experience.

One star docked for that goddam hellh- drinking game, though, which the devs seemed very proud of, for some baffling reason, for them to tack the freaking thing TWICE on the main quest.

Probably the jankiest game from Swery... but still enjoyable despite/because of that?

Very fun compared to the other works, but still has a heart to it. Minigames could be 'better' but I still appreciate the effort to make an 'open world'/'town simulator' that has all these non combat/non-GTA elements to it.

A fascinating mess, but one that I appreciate having played.

The Good Life was a Kickstarter title headed by Swery. The story follows Naomi, a journalist deep in massive debt. She was sent to investigate the mystery of a small British countryside town dubbed, "The Happiest Place on Earth." Early on in her snooping, she stumbles into a murder mystery and then from there, proceeds to solve the the mysteries of the murder and the town.

Unlike some of Swery's past games like the Deadly Premonition series, the murder mystery element isn't a strong focus. It's not even a serial killer on the lose either and it's just that one murder. The tone is also a lot more lighthearted too. In typical Swery fashion, the story gets crazy at times, but overall, it's not that fascinating. The climax in particular was weak.

The graphics aren't very good. Despite the cartoonish art direction, the character models look like they came out of a PS2/PS3 era game. The same goes for the environment textures.

The gameplay has left me a lot of mixed feelings. There's some interesting ideas like taking pictures and uploading to an Instagram-esque website to earn Likes and money.

Like Deadly Premonition, the townspeople live on a life schedule so they will do certain things on certain times/days. However, I don't think their schedules are as dynamic enough since it's fixed for most of the time with very little variation. It's not interesting enough to follow characters' lives.

One thing I'll mention though is that the townspeople can be pretty quirky, but fortunately, it's not all of them. It was an issue I had with Deadly Premonition 2 where everybody seems to have some quirk that's dialed to 10.

The map is fairly large with a lot of space, but it's not very condensed with unique content. The town's center is where most of the activity occurs and it's somewhat small. The outskirts consists of mostly open fields, random houses and unnamed NPCs.

For reasons I don't know why, Swery took Deadly Premonition's character health status conditions and added even more of them. Things like catching cold, throwing your back out or getting a toothache can be randomly inflicted and will last forever unless treated at the medical center or ingest the proper medication. Realism aside, this just isn't very fun to deal with.

The core gameplay involves completing main and sidequests which feels excessive at times. Most of them fall within the categories of taking specific pictures or crafting certain items. They get boring after a while especially crafting. The world has a ton of items and you need large quantities to make quest related items. Most of the rewards just consists of money and aren't worth the hassle.

The main standout gameplay is the ability to transform into a dog or cat. Dogs can dig up treasure in the ground and dig through trash for item. Most importantly is the ability to track people and item scents. It's annoyingly the only way to track people in this game since only one scent can be memorized at a given time. Dogs can also defeat medium size animals, but combat is clunky here.

Cats are mostly known for jumping higher than the dog and being able to climb certain walls. They can also instant kill small rodents and animals.

The Good Life has some nice novelty to it especially with the countryside setting and the life-sim schedules for the NPCs. You even get to transform into animals and ride a sheep as a mount, but the overall gameplay feels clunky and dated. There's also too many things padded out which makes completing quests a chore to do. The story is serviceable, but not really a hidden of gem of sorts.

The Good Life is a rather odd game. It sets itself in a small British town with a mystery to solve, while also attempting to be a “life RPG” similar to games like Stardew Valley and My Time At Portia. It describes itself as a “Debt Repayment RPG”, which doesn’t really fit the game at all – the debt is a reason for your character’s motivation, but it doesn’t have any relevance to the gameplay.

Naomi, a journalist from New York, is sent to “the happiest town in the world” to try and figure out the mysteries and secrets the town holds. Early on you discover that the residents can turn into cats and dogs, then gain the ability yourself to turn into either as much as you want. As you’re getting used to it, a murder happens and you try to solve that.

The gameplay itself is a “crafting” type game. You find items by scrounging around the map (a lot are gained by going through bins) or killing animals. These can then be turned into other materials and then those materials can be used to construct things like outfits or garden furniture. Unfortunately, the drop rate for a lot of things is extremely low. It’s the kind of game where you need (for example) rabbit fur, but only get rabbit meat from the first 20 you kill. Gathering materials is not fun at all, and as it’s only required for a small amount of main missions, you’ll likely just ignore it altogether. I spent most of the game wearing a ruffled dress that was needed for a mission.

You have multiple stats to keep up, like HP, health (this is separate from hit points and determines vulnerability to things like colds), hunger, charisma, stress. Some of it is always on the HUD while other times, it’s completely hidden. Most of this is managed by eating food. You can cook, but the amount of time required to get the resources means you’ll just buy it.

The rest of the gameplay is mainly fetch quests, and the gameplay itself isn’t really fun, it’s just really slow and clunky. Turning into a cat or dog sounds great, but the cat form is barely used (you can jump up buildings but it’s used around twice) and the dog is mainly used for tracking scents. The cat can jump higher than dog/human, but it’s very wonky.

Photography is another important aspect, you start with a sepia-toned camera but can buy a better one, along with a telescopic or wide angle lens. Objects are highlighted so you know what you’re taking a picture of. Some quests will ask for photos of certain objects or people. There is also a “social media” app that you can upload photos to, where your photos will get likes. If your photo matches any of the current hashtags, it will get more likes (and likes translate directly into money).

What makes The Good Place interesting is the intrigue and mystery around it. Something I kind of like is that it’s a view of the UK from a non-British developer. As a result, things are a bit off. The food available in the game included things like hedgehog pie, red squirrel stew, red deer burgers (which some people might have, but it’s called venison), and pork scratchings are described as being great when you bite into them and pork juices flow out. I’m not sure if the food is stuff they think we eat, or if some are there purely as a use for the in-game animals. I also found it fascinating that they added models for grit bins, but seem to be unaware of what they are as they’re marked up as “rubbish bins”.

Then there’s the mystery of what is going on. The story just gets crazier and crazier as you progress, with some amusing moments. For how the game looks, there’s also a surprising amount of swearing. I was a bit let down by how it’s resolved, but the ending was entertaining enough that it didn’t really matter.

The Good Life is a rather frustrating, slow and clunky game that just had an intriguing vibe to it that makes you want to see the story through to the end.

My experience with this game was a constant feeling of, "This could be so good if it wasn't so bad." It has all the SWERY charm you'd be looking for going into it, but is endlessly marred by lack of QOL and endless repetition. I think it's definitely possible to enjoy yourself with this game, but you have to take steps for it.

1. Temper your expectations. The "mystery" elements are more of a pinch of flavor for the setting rather than a central theme, so don't get caught up in trying to solve it or piece things together.

2. Money isn't everything. Your giant debt and the general themes of the game may present money-making as your prime concern, but there really isn't that much to spend on unless you're trying to be a completionist (Do not fucking do this you will go insane.) As long as you accept oracle quests whenever you can along with the occasional sidequest, your only real hurdle will probably be camera parts.

3. For the love of God, do not try to do every sidequest. For some reason, only one quest can be active at a time, so trying to micromanage a dozen at once is hell. Almost none of them have unique rewards either, unless you count a bit of backstory, so you can get just as much by doing passive oracle quests. They also have this habit of making you do tasks in sets of 3, which Naomi will almost always complain about, which I assume SWERY/the devs/whoever I can blame for this thought would absolve them from said criticisms. She does this a lot.

4. Prepare for Naomi to say "YEAH BABY!" every time you dash on a mount. You cannot turn it off. You cannot turn down character voices without lowering the master volume. Accept it now so you can focus on steering a sheep with tank controls through a 3 ft gap in a fence.

I really can't recommend this to anyone but those who know what they're getting into. If you're still not dissuaded, though, you'll find a game with a lot of charm and heart put into it.

Very few of the sidequests in this open-world lifestyle sim are of any real value. And most of the time you'll spend in Rainy Woods will be tied up in fetchy side content that gives you only a marginally better understanding of the characters and the world. The controls are stiff and the graphics don't really stack up against the majority of Playstation 3 games. But all that said, 'The Good Life' is one more fascinating and trippy sci-fi horror fantasy comedy story from Swery65. I became very invested in Rainy Woods, Naomi Haywood, and the personalities around her. I think Swery is best known for his character building and dialogue writing, but his games also tend to have really interesting stories. The story of 'The Good Life' is so oddly specific that it's a marvel anyone would have thought it up. And it has a point to make too, about celebrity culture, social media, and alternative facts. I'll follow Swery where he goes, because even if the game is janky as all hell (and it often is), you are guaranteed to have a unique experience.

This game is really charming and it was hilarious unlocking new things like sheep riding and peeing. However, the main gameplay loop and each of them mechanics are just... eh. So once you stop unlocking new things it stops being exciting.

The thing that made me stop playing is a plot point that requires me to, with no choice in the matter, do harm to the helpful NPCs. I just didn't want to do that just to advance in the plot, like it just sucks the fun out of it. Maybe I'll pick it back up at some point but it's unlikely.

The mechanics don't all work, it runs like butt on the Switch, the open world is mostly empty, and there are other technical issues.

But...

It is goofy and fun and light-hearted in a way that games don't really get to be very often, and it gets points for that. And even with the negatives I listed at the top, I still had a REALLY fun time playing it.

for all the breadth of sim mechanics that would normally be endearing in swery's games for their goofy excess, like a pile of cherries on top of a nothing fancy but lovingly home churned vanilla ice cream, here thats all there is to appreciate with nothing all that enticing centered around it. characters are nothing and the eccentricity feels forced, falling into a largely worsening trend since d4. felt my heart sink when i saw there was crafting materials fetch quests in this one too AND it does the same "protag rolls eyes loudly rpg tedium am i right gamers!" schtick. marginally better than deadly premonition 2 possibly (it does function better), but they also hinted at another incest thing they probably arent gonna do anything interesting or tactful with, so who can say really. im done with this dude