The Good Life

GamingTrendDavid Flynn

80/100

While The Good Life still has some annoyances carried over from Deadly Premonition, it’s still a great time with some wacky characters. The transformations and photography are a lot of fun to mess around with, and the life simulation aspects compliment the more relaxed pace nicely.

PC GamerTom Sykes

79/100

It’s a dog’s (and cat’s) life.

WayTooManyGamesOliver Shellding

7.5/10

It’s important to treat video games the same way that you would treat other forms of art and entertainment. When someone walks out of a David Lynch film, the reaction is usually very polarizing, either loving the insanity or disdaining the disjointed madness. Would be fans who listened to the likes of Fear, Tool, and GWAR, three very different bands, all had similar reactions. So why should gaming be any different?

KeenGamerLaura Speller

7/10

If you enjoyed the original adventure in The Good Life, a fun RPG by SWERY, you should consider getting the DLC, Behind the Secret of Rainy Woods, which adds 12 new side quests. But is it worth returning to Rainy Woods with photojournalist Naomi Haywood for these bonus quests?

TheSixthAxisMiguel Moran

7/10

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.

GameSpotDavid Wildgoose

6/10

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

Playstation LifestyleJenny Jones

6/10

The Good Life is a weird and—most of the time—quite relaxing game made by Hidetaka “SWERY” Suehiro who also made cult classic Deadly Premonition. The Good Life is part-debt repayment sim and part-RPG, as well as being a bit of a murder mystery. It’s a quirky mash-up of genres and definitely has a unique sense of humor that helps to carry it through some of its less polished aspects.

DestructoidEric Van Allen

6/10

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.

Gamer EscapeLaura Borrayo

6/10

Tedious amounts of fetch quests, clunky controls, sloppy presentation/execution, outdated visuals, and a mediocre soundtrack are really hard things to ignore, especially when considering the $29.99 price point. All in all, I’ve heard a lot about SWERY’s games and was looking forward to this experience, so it’s a bummer it fell short.

Checkpoint GamingTom Quirk

5/10

The Good Life is a crowdfunded photography/detective/”debt repayment RPG” title by Hidetaka “SWERY” Suehiro, the wild mind behind Deadly Premonition and D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die. A quirky and rather charming tale involving a murder, aliens, ancient mythology and sheep, The Good Life is just as much of a mixed bag narratively as it is in the gameplay department. Similar to this creator’s previous efforts, its ambition and imagination is counterbalanced by technical flaws and a myr...

Hardcore Gamer Jordan Helm

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. Let alone, excuse or perhaps mask the otherwise unpolished and mechanically-rough controls and design alike. But where the primarily-marketed pitch of cat-and-dog transformation seldom goes anywhere beyond the briefest of requirements, it's the reliance on overdrawn fetch-quests -- not to mention the ill-measured cost to access resources and landmarks...

RPGSiteCullen Black

4/10

Despite an interesting setting, tedious gameplay and poor performance makes The Good Life a disappointing outing for Swery.