Syfy Insider Exclusive

Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!

Sign Up For Free to View
SYFY WIRE Gamegrrls

When the world gets you down, become an angry goose and shout at some teens

By Laura Dale

Let's be blunt: sometimes life just kind of sucks. Maybe your boss is working you way too hard, maybe someone just pushed you off the barrier at a gig, maybe your landlord is about to increase your rent, or maybe your neighbor keeps putting their trash in your cans so you have no room to throw out your own trash on garbage day.

Sometimes people get on our nerves, and there's not always much we can do about it. You don't want to get angry at your boss, in case they start to dislike you and let you go. You don't want to shout at your neighbor, because you have to live next door to them and they could just ramp up their negative behavior. That person at the gig who stole your spot might be bigger than you. There are usually consequences to retaliating against people in positions of power, so we don't often try.

Still, that frustration at not being able to fight back has to go somewhere, and where better to channel it than Untitled Goose Game.

For those who haven't seen memes about it circulating on Twitter, Untitled Goose Game is a recently released indie game, maybe 2-3 hours long, where you simply play as a goose. You don't have any superpowers of special abilities, you simply waddle, flap your wings, and bite things as you wander around a small English Village.

Untitled Goose Game

While on the surface this might not sound like a good recipe for getting out that pent up frustration, there's one key fact you need to remember. Geese are the most aggressive and terrifying birds around. They'll fly in, flap those wings nice and big, honk as they charge, and hope you drop your lunch so it becomes theirs. They are territorial, possessive, and the perfect animal through which to live out being a jerk.

You can terrorize the villagers in Untitled Goose Game as much as you like, and what are they going to do in response? You're a goose, they can't throw you in jail, dock your wages, or fight back. You rule these streets, and you're going to get what you want.

And, let's be fair, these villagers have each done something deserving of torment. The farmer has locked you out of his garden where all those tasty, goose-friendly vegetables are hiding. That makes him fair game. Steal his keys, drop his rake in the lake, lock him out his own garden, and get him wet using the sprinklers.

That kid down the road, he tried to kick you when you got too close. So, I guess it's time to chase him into a phone booth, steal his glasses, and put his toy plane inside a shop so he has to pay for it a second time.

Speaking of the shop, if you so much as try to politely browse the local shop, the shopkeeper uses a broom to force you outside. So, I think that makes it fair game to break that broom so she can't use it for evil, lock her in her own garage, and lure her out of sight so you can steal some of her goods.

Untitled Goose Game

And each time you do one of these tasks, there's only one way to celebrate. Flap those wings out wide, spin in a circle, and honk victoriously. You're the goose. These are no consequences for you. You can do what you want, take what you want, and get revenge for what you want.

Ultimately, none of the actions you do in Untitled Goose Game cause any permanent irreparable damage. All the villagers are okay at the end of the day, you've at worst done petty crimes of revenge. This isn't a game about reveling in large scale violent crime, it's just a nice outlet when you want to feel like there maybe is a world in which you can respond to annoyances with those petty revenge ideas that pass through your head.

Sometimes in life you just need the catharsis of being a loud, angry, doesn't care about anybody else goose.

Read more about: