A game so right, I played it twice.

Thank goodness you were made.

As an expat living on the other side of the world from the UK, it can be hard to describe British culture to others.

Their view is the standard stuff. Posh accents, Big Ben, a monarch, and odd foods like spotted dick.

But that’s not the lived experience of someone living in the UK, and this applies to any country. What you can easily summarize about a place, is not necessarily the truth.

When I lived in the UK, I had about as much connection to the Monarch as I do here in NZ. I visited Big Ben as a tourist, I had a very not posh accent, and I never touched Spotted Dick, Haggis, or a scotched egg.

Instead I lived in a small town, where every house on my street looked the same. Everyone I knew had a different accent and a way of talking. I ate Fish and Chips, Yorkshire Pies, Toad in the hole, pasties, and my weight in Cadbury. The local pub is where I held my fifth birthday because it had a bowling lane, and we made bonfire in the town square for Guy Fawks every year.

I never thought I could accurately show someone what British culture was truly like until Thank Goodness You’re Here came out.

I had heard many great things about it, and thought I would check it out as I love a small indie experience, but I was floored when I played it, as it made me homesick for the first time in twenty seven years.

It opens with some real footage of a typical British town, then hits the accelerator and goes into a series of adverts that are so quintessentially British, the tongue was no longer in the cheek, it was half way down the street.

I giggled non stop for the eight or so hours the game runs, around every corner is another little reminder of what it’s like to live in the UK. From neighbors arguing, to teenage store clerks, to the traditional pub go-ers, it consistently kept hitting the ball out of the park.

Even when the game went into directions that aren’t realistic at all, it was the humor being delivered that was so… English, it landed perfectly.

So of course, once I finished it, I made my partner play it in front of me, because not only did I want to see the game again, I wanted to give my significant other a taste of what my home country is like.

It served as a helpful reminder that British culture, is at its heart, quite unique and joyfully human.

I’ve been away from home long enough that I’ve fallen into the group think about the UK. Focussing only on it’s negative traits, and while it’s important to keep British racism and colonialism conversations relevant, it’s also worth remembering that 70 million people live there and its a vibrant friendly culture with its own unique quirks.

Because, after all “what is she like??”