Passage is a 5 minute long game (if that) that produced more emotional response from me than 95% of the media I've read, watched, played or listened to.
Firstly go here, download the game, and play it. You might need to press B a few times to reduce (increase?) the resolution of it as today's monitors blow it up a bit too big and make it a little blocky to see whats going on.
After playing it, if you didn't really get it, try playing it again.
Then and only then read what I thought:
This is an incredible piece of art that takes a theme and explores it in a way that wouldn't be possible in any other media. At first it's confusing as the graphical style just looks a mess and you can't tell what's going on. Then you notice it. You see the way the character's position has moved relative to the passage. You notice how the the compression of the pixels has subtly shifted.
Seriously, if you haven't played it yet, play it before you carry on reading this.
At first you start near the left of the screen at the beginning of your journey. Ahead of you is everything you will experience, compressed together in a tight pattern. Gradually as you move through the passage, you encounter these things & events. You might meet someone that will accompany you through this passageway. As time goes by your position on the screen has moved further right, and the things you have encountered have become compressed in a tight pattern behind you.
The passageway represents life. This is you travelling through life. Behind you are your memories, ahead of you is your future.
Eventually you notice the characters starting to age, soon you notice that there are more past events behind you than there are future ones in front of you. That's when I started feeling a little apprehension but there was nothing to do but carry on. Older and older, less and less to encounter ahead. The girl I was travelling through the passage way changes into a gravestone. My character can do nothing but carry on down the passageway, now travelling in a much slower way until he does the same.
I cried. I started crying again when I wrote this. I think I need a drink.
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Oh god I think I must be dead inside, I felt nothing :( I've heard of this guy, and he is causing a lot of debate in the industry at the moment though, which is good.
ReplyDeleteIt's a theme that always has a strong effect on me (and I'm a bit of a wuss), so don't worry about being some kind of dead inside robot from teh future or anything ;)
ReplyDeletePete, please help me play. My laptop is being an impenetratable fortress again. Windows Vista is like the strictest parent ever, it won't let me do anything!
ReplyDeleteWhile I didn't shed a tear it's amazing that so few pixels can be so effective. I saw us aging and then my partner passed away (kicked the bucket, croaked, or died for those of a less sensitive nature, Pete) and I had to carry on towards my own inevitable death. Poignant.
ReplyDeleteWe're different though, the singularity will save us and we're all gonna live really long extended lives. We've just gotta survive until 2029!!
ReplyDelete