Steam Next: The Good Life

 Well I'll be.

And now onto the game that I was excited about. Here's one title that I didn't browse by in a list and didn't hear somebody blurt out over the internet, no, this was a game that I knew was coming, already had wishlisted and was just waiting for the drop date. In fact, the only thing I didn't know was that it would be getting a demo on the Steam Next fest. That was a surprise to me, and a rather pleasant one as it turns out because I got to play the thing which sporadically caught my fancy for a split second and confirm my suspicions about it. (And blossom whole new expectations as I went) So this finale to the Steam Next saga doesn't quite end on 'exploration' like it started, but on 'affirmation'. Something I already hoped and wanted to be good turned to be good, who'd a thunk it? Oh, and this blog is totally redundant because the game has already been out for a week now, but considering the demo is pretty much just the first few chapters anyway, consider this my early thoughts on the game. (I'm probably mid playing the full game when this drops anyway)

This is a game that I've latched onto purely because it is my personal recompense for the death of a game I wanted to come out years ago. That's right, Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro owes me for never bringing me the latter half of the murder mystery game that swept my attention and imagination all those years ago: Dark Dreams Don't Die. (Or D4) I wish I had time to explain to you why D4 was so insane, and needed to have more to it, but unfortunately that would take up an entire blog. (And require me to replay the thing which I'm not entirely sure I have the mental fortitude to endure) Most people know this legendary writer (who seems to always write murder mysteries) for his work on Deadly Premonition, but I'm the outlier, I guess. I want more D4, and The Good Life is going to have to do.

It makes for a decent replacement, given that The Good Life is a game set in my very own backyard for the sleepy English village backdrop that Swery chose. Whatsmore, this game promises to be a charming semi life-simulator game that mixes up the very closely tied concepts of 'big city girl (New York) comes to small town', 'Murder mystery' (obviously) and 'the town's inhabitants anthropomorphise into cats and dogs at night and it's happening to me too'.  (What what?) Yeah, Suehiro is known for his, quite frankly, insane ideas for games and concepts that fuels his creativity and is probably the reason why there are no less than two pictures of him wearing a fake handlebar moustache with an owl on his arm. (That's... that is true. Look it up.)

But what grabbed me about this game was just how English it is, and proved to be. You get your 'anywhere, America' settings all the time in oddball games, Deadly Premonition, Alan Wake, Dead Rising 2's prequel game, but the only 'anywhere, UK' game I can think of is literally just 'Everyone's gone to the rapture'. And that game's boring. This is a title made for me, with all of the questionable affectations which makes us Brits just wince in- appreciation? Let's go with appreciation. And it works so well because, as anyone who lives down here can attest, all our villages do, in fact, look identical to one another, and Swery's studio has done a great job in nailing that eerie uniformity down to a tee. (If I wasn't playing a game, I'd be looking for the nearest flatbed ride out of this obviously haunted town in a jiffy.)

As it stands, the game follows a journalist coming to discover the secret of this sleepy nowhere town whilst simultaneously doing some freelance instagram work to help pay off her- hang on, I can't be reading this right. It says here "£30 million debt". That's correct? What did she do- get caught selling a weapon of mass destruction to a foreign super power? And she expects to pay that off with Instagram money? Is she high? Regardless, here are your driving motivations for the game and seeing as they morph into the paranormal in no time flat, Swery is on his usual crazy A game for this title. Thus the game really set's itself up as a journey of existing in a town full of colourful, sometimes oddly stereotyped, characters (the barkeep seems a bit old to be dressing up like a 90's punk girl) and going on a photography massacre across the pretty bubbly scenery. Bliss.

For me the whole 'routine' aspect of the game actually reminds me vaguely of Persona and a lot more directly of Stardew Valley. Don't get me wrong, there is a central story that the game wants you to attack, but it's built so that you'll remember to wash in the morning, plant something in your garden on your way out the door, wander about for a bit to see a perfect picture waiting to be taken, get a drink at the local pub at some point, kick the local child in the face, (just me?) basically just live your life inbetween the murder investigations. When the main quest does rear it's head, however, it typically comes alongside pressing time constraints that shatter the sleepy atmosphere of the rest of the game quite sharply. (Also, the one's I've seen so far all seem to be basic fetch quests. I assume the main game has a bit more variety. Hopefully.)

And then there's the whole 'animal transformation' part of the game which looks to be pretty significant but I can't for the life of me see how it fits into everything else. I mean, the game itself offers tutorials on stuff like 'some people are more cat people and others are more dog people' and how picking a side will effect relationships or something- all of which feels like it would be main game focusing stuff, but Swery wants it as an addition. Truly this man is on some different stuff. But with all of these moving cogs working in the machine, the effect is a game that feels deep in the most surprising of places and almost endearingly uneven in others.

Of course, these are again just initial impressions from some time playing a demo and the full experience is sure to have a few more surprises up it's sleeve, but when at the whims of a creative mind like Suehiro's it's important to know that on some basic level you're onboard with the mindbending trip you're about to embark on and for this premise I am. That's something you're going to have to come to terms with yourself too before even considering this game, because otherwise you're signing up to a game with a director who has a Yakuza-style tattoo of a monkey on his back. I'm talking whole-back, real Yakuza stuff, must have hurt like hell. Also, given that this game is the first being made by his new indie studio, I suppose we can expect a lot more weird ideas like this coming from the man over the years, like maybe he'll be able to try and make that one game idea that publishers told him he couldn't do because it was too perverted. How bad could it be? Hmm? It was about a high school detective girl who tries to solve a murder my utilising the imagination-power fuelled by her masturbation? I take it back. Swery needs to be stopped.