The Good Life is an intriguing new adventure from SWERY (Deadly Premonition) and Yukio Futatsugi (Panzer Dragoon) which sees you taking on the role of a New York photographer who moves to ‘the happiest town in the world’ and discovers there’s more than meets the eye in the quaint looking British town.
In The Good Life you take on the roll of Naomi, a journalist/photographer from New York who has moved to the backwoods British town of Rainy Woods to escape from her massive debt and earn enough money to pay it off, This large debt makes you quite mercenary with your photography skills – with you happy to accept pretty much any job as long as the money is right. While accepting these jobs it soon becomes apparent that the the self proclaimed ‘happiest town in the world’ has some pretty big secrets – chief of which is that once a month everyone transforms into cats and dogs!
Unfortunately there’s no cat/dog transformation going on in The Good Life’s prototype, but it does offer a nice introduction to the quaint town of Rainy Roods and it’s quirky inhabitants. There are three photography missions to complete, which include taking a picture of a truck for a man who is in love with it, plying a vicar with drink and taking a photo to blackmail him and attempting to track down someone having a secret rendezvous. All the missions offer some insight into the town and its inhabitants, but completing the secret rendezvous mission gives you a glimpse of the darker side of Rainy Woods.
The Good Life’s prototype is still very early in development, buggy and a little confusing at times, but it shows a lot of promise. The idyllic British town is a perfect place for Swery’s brand of surreal mystery and the inhabitants propensity for turning into cats and dogs is very intriguing. It’ll be interesting to see how your picture taking actions affect this picture perfect backwater town.
Check Out The Kickstarter Page Here
Check Out a Gameplay Video Here
Download The Good Life Prototype Here (Control Pad Required)