Developer White Owls, Grounding Inc

Publisher Playism

Format PC (tested), PS4, Switch, Xbox One

Release Out now

Journalist Naomi Hayward has two catchphrases you’ll hear throughout The Good Life. “Goddamn hellhole,” she snarls, unable to hide her disdain for the isolated village in the north of England where this New Yorker has been posted for her latest assignment. “Yeah, baby!” is the other, as she speeds giddily through its idyllic pastures while riding a sheep. The contrast is apt for a game that initially appears to be director Hidetaka ‘Swery’ Suehiro’s spin on the wholesome-lifesim genre, before swinging back to his preoccupation with murder and conspiracy.

The village name is a clue that dark matters are afoot: Rainy Woods is a reference to Deadly Premonition’s original title. That game was fascinating for providing an outsider’s perspective on smalltown America and pop culture. The Good Life does much the same with rural England, from the surface details of street signs and red phone boxes to capturing the British love affair with the pub, which includes a drink on the menu called The Brexit (we presume, as with the real thing, it’s a punchline that lands better for outsiders). In contrast to these mundanities is Swery’s magpieing of British cultural touchstones, from Arthurian legends to Stonehenge, while we count this as the third Japanese release of 2021 to plunder from the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.