The Good Life follows American journalist Naomi Hayward as she travels to the little English village of Rainy Woods and attempts to unravel the mystery behind the so-called "happiest town in the world". With life-sim features, detective/journalist elements, lots of secrets to uncover, and more - there's plenty to keep you busy.
This game offers fleeting tutorials on various aspects, but there's a lot of things that go uncovered and you learn about as you just sort of stumble upon them. So with that in mind, here are our top tips to help you get started in Rainy Woods.
8 Look After Yourself
Don't worry, if you see the Game Over screen, you won't actually have to restart from your last save. You'll be transported to the village hospital (the veterinary clinic, actually) where you will have paid a hefty fee to get you back on your feet.
It's important to take care of yourself, staying well-fed, rested, and avoiding high-stress levels. Failing to keep yourself in good health can result in a costly game over, as well as a variety of illnesses that can be expensive to treat, some of which have negative side effects, such as limiting your stamina bar.
7 Additional Benefits To Your Animal Forms
When you first get access to your animal forms, you'll be taught the basics of climbing and catching animals as a cat, while you'll be taught how to track scents and attack animals as a dog. However, there are additional benefits to each form that you should also be aware of.
As well as being generally speedier while in animal form, there are extra things you can do. For example, you can jump into cardboard boxes as a cat to prompt the option to groom yourself - looking after your hygiene. As a dog, you can scavenge in bins and find some rather useful items.
6 Gather Everything
As you travel around Rainy Woods and the surrounding areas, there are lots of little arrows pointing to items that you can gather. Make sure you grab these as you pass them by as they will be needed later on for quests, crafting, cooking, and more.
As you unlock additional forms, there are lots of new ways to gather as well - for instance, some items are found in high areas that only cats can reach, such as rooftops. You can also kick various critters to obtain items, though some of the wildlife will evade you unless you use your cat form, while others - like badgers - can only really be defeated while in your dog form.
5 You Always Get A Do-Over On Failed Urgent Quests
Throughout the storyline, there will be times when you are given an Urgent Quest to complete - this means you have to finish it within a certain timeframe. Don't panic though, should you fail, you will get a short cutscene about how you weren't successful but then you will get the chance to try it again.
Sometimes your progress will carry over in terms of collecting items or photos, giving you a little headstart, whereas other times you'll need to start afresh and do everything again.
4 Some Side Quests Need To Be Active To Progress
You'll collect many different kinds of quests as you play, but one thing we noticed is that some quests won't progress unless they are your current active quest (the one shown on your screen). For example, for the quest chain where George Fakhoury asks you to fall ill with different ailments, you must have the quest active when you speak to him with the illness or you won't get the response you are looking for.
If you've been having trouble completing a quest or fulfilling a certain objective, make sure you switch to that quest from the main menu and try again. Chances are, it will register properly once it is the active quest.
3 Interact With Every Shrine You Come Across
Shrines are the way you can fast travel all over the rather large map. However, you first need to activate each one. The first shrine that you encounter as part of the story is automatically unlocked, but after that, each shrine you come across you need to donate £1.00 in order to be able to fast travel to and from it.
At night, shrines you have yet to unlock have a red beam shooting out of them, while activate ones have a blue hue. You can also see shrines you have unlocked on the map as they are more of a yellow color, while locked ones are darker. Shrines have additional uses as you progress through the story too, so make sure you unlock them all.
2 Visit Special Merchants For Rare Goods
As well as being used for crafting and cooking, certain items you gather can be used to trade at the various "Merchants" you discover outside of town. These are all marked on your map, but each one offers different wares and takes a different type of currency - your actual money is no good here.
For instance, one merchant might trade the bugs you can find for some rare cooking ingredients, whereas another might take herbs in exchange for some special vegetables.
1 You Need To Withdraw Your Cash
If you've been ensuring you click "deposit" on the Flamingo app to retrieve your hard-earned cash but your money doesn't seem to be changing, it's because you need to go to the ATM in town. Any money you earn from completing quests or by submitting photos on Flamingo will automatically get deposited into your bank account, so you need to withdraw it from there.
You can also deposit money into the ATM to have some savings, especially helpful if you find yourself hitting the game over screen a little too often and needing to pay up for those dreaded hospital fees.