Life Maze
It was just apt that I played Passage after a good day -a day full of renewed hope and friendly advice that I cannot quantify. This beautiful yet unusually short (can’t help it, though) “life simulator”, as I’d like to call it is wonderful-yet-depressing and sums up life and all of its intricacies in 8-bit graphics and sounds.
Indie game developer Jason Rohrer (whose upcoming game I immediately pre-ordered, thanks to a tweet) has gone above and beyond the normal storytelling norms by making a simple, yet effective game about life, its treasures and its mysteries.
If you played it without reading the explanation, it makes little sense, although it does make you curious. It’s like Tale of Tales’ The Path (another depressing and beautiful indie game), but Passage does not restrict itself to the coming-of-age-ness only.
You play this five minute “maze-game” by exploring the game-world. Early on you can meet with a pixelated soul-mate, fall in love and let her guide you through the world (she will always be in front of you). Or, you can ignore the soul-mate and go deeper and deeper into the maze. You get points for exploring, and 100 points for getting a treasure box. If you walk with your spouse, you get double-points for exploring. It’s a tight-situation as treasure you could have easily navigated to alone are nigh-impossible with your spouse three pixels ahead of you. As the game progresses, your character (and your spouse) visibly ages.
At the end of the five minutes, you die. But minutes before that, your spouse dies. Your old character bends his head and dies soon after, ending the game.
It is tragic. With or without the spouse, you die alone. Yet, the time you have spent exploring with her is that much sweeter because the two of you are in this together.
Brilliant and astonishingly light, Passage needs to be played. And it only takes a few minutes off your day.
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