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Games pick: Passage
As I wrote in Good Experience Games on January 14, the downloadable game Passage is "a MUST-play. The whole game lasts only five minutes. Just play it."
Play it first, and then read the creator's statement, linked on that same page, which describes what he was after.
My own take is that Passage is one of the most emotionally evocative digital games I've ever played - maybe the most. It's definitely a good experience on a number of levels. Just play it.
And now the Wall Street Journal has covered Passage. Once again, it's a good idea to actually play the game before reading the article.
Below, some screenshots from the game.
See also: All my game picks at Good Experience Games
My seven-year old daughter came over after I loaded this up. We played it through twice together. Her summary was perhaps as poignant as the game itself:
"It's so sad. It's about a man and a woman who fall in love and can't stop walking until they die. So sad."
I played it 3 times before reading the creator's statement and the article you mentioned.
I was "surprised" by reading that the game moved some people to tears. Why?
I wrongly thought that I was the only one.
I am not.
"Emotionally evocative"? A "good experience"? Give me a break.
It's boring, the primitive look is incredibly annoying as is the soundtrack (it sure isn't music), and it crashed my machine (it needed a forced reboot to get my video reset) - the antithesis of a good experience. I was wondering if it installed some sort of trojan horse malware. This is an art statement, not a game. As far as the point it's trying to make, it's on the same dismal par as most high school poetry and prose.
I'm dismayed and vexed that you've wasted my time with this nonsense.
It only makes sense if you read the creator's statement. The primitive graphics left me confused. I couldn't tell what anything was. It made no sense and was hardly a good experience.
Love most of the stuff on Good Experience. This was, however, I very boring experience. I tried to expand my mind, but really couldn't understand anything that was going on. I tried changing the size of the screen to see if I was somehow missing something. It was just too blurry to have any concept of what was going on. I read the creator's statement and for a second thought he was talking about a different game. The music was also kind of annoying. Not sure why anybody would cry at the end except when they realize they just wasted 5 minutes of their life that they can never get back. I'm trying to not be such a downer, but this one just went right over my head.