Virginia

As video games, as a medium, have progressed, we're increasingly faced with more and more difficulty of defining just what a game is. In the old days, it seemed pretty straightforward. A games is a game is a game, and if it is played on a TV or computer, a game is a video game. However, games have slowly taken on more and more story elements and deemphasized the gameplay to the point that there are quite a few games now that have more in common with the cinema than a board game. Indeed Virginia is a good example, and even the developers don't seem to be completely sure about just what they've made, as the credits refer to it as a "Picture," not a game. Regardless of what you want to call it, though, Virginia is certainly a bold effort.

Visually, Virginia has a very striking style. At a glance, the character designs are angular and could almost be called blocky, but upon closer inspection there is a lot of detail, and undoubtedly, the style was a deliberate choice by the developers. It could be a bit of an acquired taste, but after spending a bit of time in the game, it had certainly grown on me, and it's an aspect that could really make or break the game, as style is arguably the biggest thing that Virginia has going for it.

While the visual style is unusual, the storytelling style of Virginia is downright daring, and not even just for a piece of interactive fiction. While there is no doubt that this is a narrative-based game, its story is told through visuals alone with no dialogue and minimal on-screen text. Further, the action is not necessarily presented in chronological order, and there are psychotic and surreal breaks that complicate the narrative further still. It almost feels like what might happen if one were to mash-up Eyes Wide Shut and Twin Peaks, with a roadhouse scene that particularly seems to be a nod to Lynch's iconic series. By the end of the game, the player will be questioning what exactly has transpired, and ultimately, there are many different ways that one could interpret the story, and it's practically begging to be played multiple times.

Despite the intellectual aspect of the game setting it apart from much of its competition, Virginia is arguably too cerebral for its own good. While there is certainly a mystery to unravel and puzzle through, I'm not sure how compelling this story would be if it were not told in such an unusual manner. Variable State seem to have been so wrapped up in obscuring the plot that they forgot to create compelling characters, To varying degrees, I was able to follow Virginia's plot, but its character development felt a bit thin, and I never gained much of a sense of what drove these characters or who they would be outside the context of the scenarios presented. In brief, there wasn't a strong emotional core to the story, and I'm not sure how much of that can be forgiven based on the storytelling style.

LIkewise, while I would like to ignore that this is a game, and treat it as the movie it seemed to want to be, there are interactive elements to Viriginia, and they feel clunky. Although the player has some degree of control over moment, there's no real action here, and the player has no agency over the game's outcome. While I can usually forgive works of interactive fiction for not fully taking advantage of the medium, Virginia's gameplay elements feel poorly integrated into the game and often left me scratching my head for what to do. There were several times when I wandered around an area aimlessly looking for something that I could interact with for several minutes, and these were undoubtedly a detriment to the overall experience.

While it's far from perfect, I really do appreciate what was attempted in Virginia. It provides a dreamlike experience with many provocative images and a mystery that was gripping from start to end. Even now, several days after completion, I'm still wondering just what I witnessed in the game, and there's a good chance that I'll play it again despite the lack of traditional replay value. However, in the ongoing debate over what constitutes a video game, I think it may do more harm than good. While the end product is very interesting, I fail to see how it benefited from being presented as a game, and indeed, what elements of play it does have just seem to get in the way. While I wish it were stronger as a game, Virginia still has more to recommend it than not, and Variable State does enough here to make them someone to watch.

If David Lynch would ever make a game, I imagine that it would be like Virginia. While the end credits mention the influence for the game was Thirty Flights of Loving (which I will definitely play next), the game feels like a tribute to Twin Peaks. This adventure game has no dialogue and speaks a lot more with its images than most dialogue would ever do. One way to usually spot a great film is when the story events are shown with images rather than an dialogue telling the obvious. This technique makes the viewer think about what is shown and figure out the story from there, and this is one of the great things about cinema. Also why the silent movie era is still praised to this day, because it's full of those, something that dialogue took away and it took many years before certain directors realized it. Anyhow this game definitely feels that it's aimed for the art-house movie fans, those who prefer more complex narrative then a popcorn blockbuster like Guardians of the Galaxy.

To put it short: I was blown away by this game. Yes it only took me 2.5 hours to complete it and it wasn't very challenging at that, but it's a game that stimulates the mind much more than some puzzle or RPG battles would ever to. It's a game that you look at everything and you have to figure out what the hints in the story are, filled with surrealism and back and forth into past, present and future. The sound design is amazing, from the beautiful soundtrack to each and little sound effect used as they really set the atmosphere. The art is pretty good too, perhaps except the blocky human characters that's reminiscent a little too much of the polygon era of PS1/PS2 games, but in general the visual design is well done. The strength of the game lies obviously in its story, or it's unusual way to express the narrative, which just keeps you glued to your screen despite not having to make any complex dexterity control measures, The story leaves the interpretation open so that the player has to figure what the elements mean, and I'm sure that's many different ways that one can conclude the story despite the game's linear gameplay.

The mixed reaction from the game is a little unfortunate, but some reviewers really really love it and that's what prompted me to give it a try. I'm glad I did so cause this is pretty much the best adventure game I've ever played (take it with a grain of salt, I'm not an expert in this genre). This one does bring up the whole debate of what is a video game, when the gameplay is minimal like this and the focus is much more on the story. In the end for me it doesn't matter for me, I would probably rate this thing the same way as it was released as a film. The gameplay aspect out of it however let's you explore a little bit more than a film would, like you can walk around some of the rooms and look at the objects and get more of a glimpse into the characters and what they are like. However for those who are looking for more traditional challenging gameplay mechanics, well better look elsewhere cause this isn't the game that's going to give you that. I do think that this game deserves to go down as a classic, or at least a cult classic, because it does things that video games rarely achieved before.

Virginia is a game that practically demands a second play through, but I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing. I can't call this an official review for a variety of reasons (primarily I find it odd I only earned 7% of the trophies in what seemed like a very linear game, and thus I wonder if there isn't Another Thing somewhere in there) but let me say it: Virginia has an emotion problem. The graphics convey the characters as best they can, and the Prague Philharmonic are a professional orchestra and all that implies, but without any speaking parts Virginia leans on two hours of imagery and hopes you glean meaning from it.

Spoiler alert: it's a 50/50 shot you do at best, and I'm putting my money on the negative.

I played this with my girlfriend, a non-gamer, and the most fun we had was during the second half, when she relinquished the controller to me and we could speed through the set dressing, mocking the "romance" and the "intrigue" with one-liners and extended jokes meant to mask how utterly uninterested in the actual game we were. For my part, I thought a lot of the jump cuts were interesting, but pair them with a player who's unfamiliar with how games control and you're suddenly missing a lot of contextual work because the game has a clock ticking in the background that's going to change everything about what you're looking at when the hands meet at zero. On the other hand, pair them with someone very familiar with how games work and it becomes a little frustrating when the jump cuts are a flight of stairs or pair of doorways further apart than seemed necessary.

If I play Virginia again by myself (and I think this game could easily be completed in closer to an hour if you were completely uncurious about it) and realize there's more there, or less, or some combination of the two, maybe I'll try to do a full write-up. But I really don't think this "game" had much going for it other than the initial weirdness of the jump cuts, maybe-probably dream sequences and a shoddy reference to Twin Peaks that makes Deadly Premonition look like a masterstroke.