Passage is a strange experience. It isn't really a game, but rather an interactive story. You play a young man who is moving through the passages of time. Along the way, you meet a woman and scenery changes. The game is given a very slim viewing window and blurry preceding landscapes in which you are able to move around. As I moved around, I initially found it difficult to move around, not really understanding what really hindered me (as well as the narrow viewing angle coming into play). As time went on and I traversed the ever changing landscape, the viewing angle became wider and the preceding locales became slightly clearer. However, my characters also began to age, their hair color changing (and for the man, he began balding as well). I also noticed that, as time went on, my characters slowly shifted from the left of the screen to the right (for the most part, the character "moving" is actually the landscape moving). Eventually, the woman died, and my character inched forward at a slow pace, before he himself died, before ending with the title appearing and viewing window closing on it.
The game is quite intriguing, as it represents not the passage that your characters take, but rather the passage of time, invoking many ideas that are inherent in life: ideas of spending your time wisely, time wasting you if you waste it, etc. The story is simple, but somehow creates a strong emotional resonance. The controls are easy to comprehend, although it is somewhat difficult to navigate around in the beginning, due to heavy amounts of obscurity (which is intentional). The graphics are reminiscent of of the 16-bit era; while not particularly fancy, they give it great appeal.
The game finds a way to use all these aspects in tandem to tell a heartfelt story that hits you in the core, while generating questions of how one spends time. It also makes it clear that no matter what, there is no winning or losing, but simply an end that comes for all of us. It's not really sunny in disposition, but it finds a way to bring it's message across simply and effectively.
