The Good Life

“The Good Life is another flawed yet fascinating gem from Swery65. It's a weird world full of unforgettable characters, and even when the gameplay grows a bit tiring or repetitive, it's worth all the photo quests and fetch missions in the world to see that next bonkers twist in the story.”

“The Good Life is a charmingly silly RPG with a little too much daily grind.”

“While The Good Life has its charms, most of the gameplay just feels really sluggish. Many of the story quests will have you making your way to a point on the map to watch a cutscene, you'll then have to make your way somewhere else to watch the next one, and so on until the quest ends. The side quests also end up feeling repetitive and while it can be pretty relaxing to go through all the quests and slowly tick them off, for many players this will get tiresome pretty quickly.”

“There is a ton of stuff to do in The Good Life, even multiple main storylines to pursue. Unfortunately, completing them and fulfilling the side missions is not very fun. Between the constant back and forth across the huge map and the fetch quests, I feel that more in-depth gameplay features would really help me enjoy this game.”

“For those who relish bizarre interactive experiences, The Good Life is an essential oddity that can't be missed. For everyone else, this is a barely functional chore that is all but guaranteed to frustrate and bewilder.”

“The Good Life knows where its strengths lie. Its functional open-world model and mostly-dated gameplay systems sit quietly in the background and allow its quirky charm to take the spotlight. That charm is piled on thick, with absurd characters (and absurd accents), a plot that digresses so wildly it seems unable to remember where it started and, lest we forget, the whole dog/cat transmogrification thing. The charm and atmosphere have to be seriously compelling if they are to excuse the well-worn mechanics, repetitive tasks and frequent slowdown and pop-in. If Japanese old-school gaming whimsy × twee Englishness isn't for you, then neither is The Good Life. But if you're a SWERY fan and that sounds like your cup of tea, get dunking.”

“While the daily ongoings of Rainy Woods and its surrounding environment can rustle up a brief oddity or two, Swery and co's latest round of eccentric antics with The Good Life sadly doesn't go far enough in its set-up to feel all that compelling.”

“A surprisingly generous and deep life sim from the mind of Swery, but a frustratingly creaky one too.”

“Weird, good natured, and pretty funny with it, The Good Life stands apart, like most SWERY games.”

“When everything is flowing in The Good Life, it feels like a touch of Animal Crossing with alternatingly quaint and irreverent British pastoral television, all with a burgeoning murder mystery underneath. Unfortunately, some of its rougher edges seem possibly related to the Switch itself and, although loading times are usually on the shorter side, their frequent appearance interrupts the flow even more. The Rainy Woods residents are charming and strange and there’s a numbingly pleasant feel to smalltown life and chores, but stiff controls and muddled design make it hard to find a good rhythm in The Good Life.”

“The Good Life does many things, but they never felt like they coalesced together into an experience that could stick with me. I certainly enjoyed parts of it, and some of its stranger moments really do land as big, enjoyable peaks. But there’s a lot of valley in-between, and while I arrived in Rainy Woods eager for a pleasant countryside escape, I didn’t feel like making a return trip after the credits had rolled.”

“The Good Life is a bit of a mess, trying to be too many things and getting very little right, with weak characters and an unpolished plot.”

“The Good Life is Swery's first take on the Life simulators genre. While it incorporates all the features that made him a cult creator it also shows a disorienting mix of elements and mechanics that just don't work well together. The thin narrative line and the histrionic cast of characters fail to fully flesh out the social commentary that the creator intended to convey. The whole experience ends up feeling more like a list of chores rather than a smart and enjoyable experience in Swery's characteristic Troma-like fashion.”

“‎The Good Life is a play by Swery, for better and for worse. His personality emanates and shares particularities: outdated technical and mechanical problems, but with that magical aura. If you like the author, jump in without fear. Important: it is not translated into Spanish.‎”

“This surreal, multifaceted experience has its charms; but technical and storytelling snags that hold it back”