Review: Passage

Passage
Jason Rohrer - Independent

Released in 2007, Passage is an experience that everyone interested in the videogame medium should play, plus it is free (although I recommend you support Rohrer by purchasing the IPhone Version) so before reading this I recommend you download it here, play it, read my review and then play through it again, I promise it is worth the time. Also if you are still interested I recommend you read; Anthony Burch's Article as well as listen to Robert Ashely's A Life Well Wasted Episode "Why Game", in the second segment they go in depth on Rohrer and the creation of passage check it out.

Continue Reading AFTER reading the above...

At a glance Passage is a really simple game. Passage is a 5 minute game, you control an unnamed male character who can walk in 4 directions and explore a pixelated world that changes as you progress forward. But to merely look at Passage at a glance would be missing the purpose.

You can appreciate Passage on many levels. My first time through I had a basic perception of what I felt the game was trying to portray, then upon further thought and reading about the game and the game creator Jason Rohrer himself I began to appreciate the game even more.

Passage, shares similarities with Memento Mori, a form of artistic expression from the 17th century that basically reminds the viewer that they are going to die and asks the question what will you do about it. It is effective in that Passage acts as a self contained expression of life, you begin life with a narrow field of view, your future is blurry and far into the distance and you must make the immediate choice of whether you will proceed in life with your partner (your wife in this case) by your side. If you choose to proceed with your life with your wife by your side it become more difficult to progress, narrow paths are now inaccessible but you gain twice the amount of points for every step you take forward. This decision varies the game significantly, I personally resonated far more with the lonesome protagonist, yet for my first time through I decided to take the journey alongside a partner. As you progress your character begins to age alongside your wife, and as you age your future becomes increasingly clearer, but at the same time your past begins to blur, it is these tiny metaphoric touches that make this game such a beautiful commentary on life. You continue your progression and suddenly your wife dies, there is no avoiding it, you must accept it. Suddenly you begin to put the entire experience into perspective and you probably begin to realize that your own time is numbered. Suddenly the points you had sought throughout the experience felt meaningless. In my experience I allowed my character to dwindle right there, motionless I stood there beside my Wife's grave until I died.

Looking back on each individual experience a lot of parallels can be made to life. Many people merely move left to right and never move up or down, you could not move at all, you could seek every box along the way or you could just rush through the experience, but every single one of these experiences is equally as meaningful. Passage uses every single one of the video-game mediums strengths to its advantage in order to deliver a message. Passage is genuinely interactive in that it reflects meaning from both the participant and creator, rather than being purely reactive like a book, film or many video-games. Passage represents a colossal step forward in video-games, an experience I hope to look back on in twenty years and say had a tremendous impact on the medium.