Then things got weird. About three minutes into the game, I realized with surprise that my character had changed appearance. My hair had gotten darker and…hey, was I getting bald? My “wife” also looked older, with white hair.
We continue exploring towards the east and south; the charming but impressionistically vague backgrounds changed color, moving like Picasso-style autumn leaves. But very soon it was obvious that my avatar was getting very, very old. Then suddenly my wife died: a small tombstone flickered in her place. I walked alone for another 30 seconds and then, just as quickly, I died too: another little gray tombstone.
It was then that I realized, with a pang of pain, what Passed is:
It’s a game about life.
“That’s exactly what I was doing,” agreed Jason Rohrer, the game’s creator, when I called him. “I wanted to create something that makes you think about how it seems to slip away from you. People tell me that they don’t even notice that their guy is slowly going bald, because it happens so slowly. And that’s how it works in the real life! You get older and older and then one day you look in the mirror and think: ‘Wow, how did this happen?’
What are you doing? Passed What’s notable isn’t just its charming, intentionally abstract graphics. Rohrer uses game mechanics as a metaphor. It takes precisely what Ebert finds artistically limiting in games (the player’s agency, their ability to “do” things interactively) and uses it to explore the human experience.
Let’s consider just a few of the delightful metaphors at work here. For example, there is the association. Sure, it makes it impossible to go to certain places on the map, but as Rohrer astutely points out, it makes exploration more rewarding. You get points more quickly as you walk.
The world also changes subtly as you “age.” When you start, the East – the “future” – is confusing and the past is clear. When you are near death, this is reversed: the future is clear and the past, now remote, is confusing. As you move east and age, obstacles become more frequent and more difficult to overcome.
