Virginia Review

It’s funny how we take speech for granted in most games. In story driven titles like Life Is Strange,The Walking Dead, or even the lengthy Mass Effect trilogy, choosing the right dialogue choices is a key gameplay mechanic. Everybody’s Gone To The Raptureimparted its apocalyptic tale through the echoed conversations of long dead villagers. PS4 adventure title Virginia, on the other hand weaves an enthralling and mysterious two hour story without a single spoken word. It’s a surprising (but not unwelcome) choice that, coupled with its stylised art design and 90’s television homages, makes Variable States Virginia a unique proposition amongst other the downloadable games available on Playstation.

Whilst narrative games are often fairly short affairs, Virginia clocks in at around two hours long. For some, this may be outrageous, but for others, who know what they are getting into, its length will be just right. It’s a first person adventure, that, unlike others in the genre, offers no branching paths or quicktime events, and instead focuses purely on story telling. Rookie FBI agent Anne Tarver begins a missing persons case in a small town, whilst simultaneously observing her suspicious partner for an internal affairs investigation. The story is heavily inspired by 1990’s TV classics and many moments will have fans exclaiming “that looks familiar!” The surreal small town town vibe is pure Twin Peaks, whilst the supernaturally flavoured investigation takes its cues from the X Files. Variable States demonstrate their love for these shows through careful homages that stop short of straight rip-off.

The linear action is driven through a point and click system, which offers several interactive elements in each scene. It’s always clear what you have to do to push the story forward, mostly due to the excellent visual framing. Borrowing from the language of cinema, each angle is well framed and composed into a stunning image that guides your progression. However, every once in a while the action is broken up by abrupt jump cuts that whisk you off to the next scene, usually in mid walk. A technique that is so conventional in cinema feels very unusual when used in a game, As the story progresses, it becomes hard to define what is real life and what is a dream, a feeling which the jump cuts are clearly meant to enforce. Although I understood their inclusion in creating a bizarre dreamscape, it often felt jarring, halting the flow.

Each camera angle highlights the beautiful, cell shaded graphical style. Virginia looks fantastic, like a comic book panel or painting come to life. Character models are are also quite simplistic, but their animations are very expressive, which, along with the fantastic orchestral soundtrack, really sell the story. It’s rare for a game developer to trust the player with this level of narrative interpretation, and it’s this level of maturity that sets Virginia apart.