Hurrr Durrr Gaeems is artz!!
By MDlax43 1 Comments
I wrote this almost two years ago, I thought it might be worth sharing, still. It's also cool to see the way your writing's gotten better over the years.
For the first time, i got more than just fun out of a video game. Im sure every one whos tried it knows im talking about Passage. Im late to the party but holy shit i am glad i showed up.
For anyone who doesnt know, Passage is a FREE indie game made single handedly by Jason Rohrer. From what ive read about it, he made it to cope with the death of a friend and entered it into a contest to make a game thats less than five minutes long, and won of course. I heard about it when watching a Rev Rant video on Destructoid (ill put a link to everything im talking about at the end of this.) Ive always heard journalists and other people talk about video games having the capability of being an art form, especially when there was a lot of talk about Six Days In Fallujah, but never really took it too seriously. Then I played this game.
Im going to talk about the actual contents of it as little as i can to avoid spoiling it for anyone. But seriously the game is like a virtual poem in that everyones going to have a different interpretation of it, and theyre all just as valid as the game maker's interpretation when he made it. And the thing that shows gaming as a completely different medium is that you can make multiple decisions to influence your experience.
You may not understand it at first, but KEEP PLAYING. You probably wont regret it. Its exactly five minutes long anyway so even if you dont like it, which can be understood, its not to much of a commitment of time. Theres also a good chance youll learn something about yourself in this five minutes.
This is MY interpretation of my first playthrough for the people who have played it, i would really love for you guys to share your interpretations as well, just remember to hide spoilers. Spoiler: In the beginning when you are at the left edge of the screen you have nothing but options ahead of you, like a person would fresh out of high school. The woman i didnt recognize as a woman on my first playthrough so i passed by her. I think this shows that you have to really get to know somebody and take the necessary steps with that person to fall in love.
So i walked for a while, not really knowing what to do. This, at first glance, was just a metaphor for somebody getting to know the world around them, but after further thought i saw it as somebody TRYING to find a purpose for direction. Which, for me, was the treasure chests. I think this is the option to make money at first chance and miss out on the many things life has in store for you, or look further and see whats in store.
After progressing further i noticed i was beginning to age. This i dont think really requires any explanation. Soon after i realized i was getting closer to the edge of the screen, and my first thought was, oh god please dont tell me im going to die. But as i got closer to the right edge, i noticed things were much more clear ahaed of me, i think this shows that at that point in life, youve made most of your major decisions and there isnt too much confusion on where its going to take you. As opposed the the beginning where knowing what situation youd end up at was impossible to know. And the music kept playing, with the steady, pounding beat of the drums. This shows that no matter what you do, life keeps going, and the beat goes on. Then after limping to the edge of the screen, i died. This shows that in the end no matter what decisions you made you end up at the same place.
Game: http://hcsoftware.sourcef...sage/
Rev Rant: http://www.destructoid.co...phtml