CHENNAI: Allow me to get nostalgic for a minute. About 15 years ago, I obsessively played an online browser game where I, a pigeon, resided in a park that received a number of daily visitors. I, the pigeon, flew above the park in gentle circles, with the very straightforward goal of aiming droppings on the visitors’ heads.
They could be parents pushing prams, kids on skateboards, or just bald men enjoying their newspapers. Yes, I know it sounds disgusting — but I was only a child, and there was something incredibly satisfying about the loud “Splat” when I found my target, and the frustrated groans of the visitors. I realised that in videogames, I tend to like my absurdist humour when it has both cartoon-like art and visceral sound effects.
I finished ‘Thank Goodness You’re Here’ twice in the last week, a game with humour as absurd as it can get. It’s not that difficult to complete, it doesn’t take more than three hours — lesser time than most movies these days if you think about. But I should tell you that ‘Thank Goodness You’re Here’ isn’t a game in the traditional sense of the word.
There is no skill-tree, level progression, or any sense of accomplishment at the end of a “quest”. An extremely strange series of events take place in a made-up Northern English town, and you are kind of just in it for the ride.
In the game, I play as an exceptionally tiny man, whose work takes him to the town of Barnsworth. The residents of the town find themselves in a variety of predicaments.
There’s a pie store that’s run out of meat, the mayor who has his hand stuck in a drain hole, and a convenience store that’s overrun with rats (they’ve taken over all the management positions). They all need help. Although it’s not really my job, I, the tiny man, am coerced into saving them.
So, I do all of it. I churn meat at the meat store, jump into the drain pipe, and I break bread with the rats. But I can’t help but also add a bit to the chaos. I break glasses at the neighbourhood pub, kick at garbage bags, and stomp on flowers in the garden. Running an errand can be a bit tiring, you know. There has to be something in it for me.
I must warn you that this game is very, very British. I find it extremely funny — but I can also imagine why it’s not really for everyone. The language is almost unintelligible for someone who isn’t very used to the Yorkshire accent (if the subtitles aren’t on). The enjoyable bits of the game aren’t also small minigames and puzzle solving — they’re a bit too simple. Why, the only controls are movement and kicking at objects and people to interact with them. That doesn’t sound like much of a challenge, does it?
So, if you decide to get this game, you know you’re really signing up to laugh at the dialogue and wit of it all. There are ducks on the river discussing tax payments, and a cow that is addicted to French fries. There’s weird graffiti scattered around, and always something in the area that you haven’t yet kicked. Try it out won’t you — maybe you cannae figure et all ‘oot!