Virginia

 PC
User Score
5.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 151 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 39 out of 151
  2. Mixed: 52 out of 151
  3. Negative: 60 out of 151

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  1. TenchuuKhan
    Sep 24, 2016
    0
    The game works like this:
    You are in a scene. You walk a bit, click. Game jumps to the next scene.
    This can feel awkward at times but it works and so the game starts to tell the story of a young FBI Agent being sent on a case together with a colleague that is under internal investigation... by her. So far, so good. So we are on this case about a missing boy... and I have no idea what    The game works like this:
    You are in a scene. You walk a bit, click. Game jumps to the next scene.
    This can feel awkward at times but it works and so the game starts to tell the story of a young FBI Agent being sent on a case together with a colleague that is under internal investigation... by her.

    So far, so good.
    So we are on this case about a missing boy... and I have no idea what happened to him because suddenly it's all about that internal investigation thing. So our colleague finds out that we are investigating her, she gets pissed, we become friends again... sort of.

    Then we get locked up for absolutely no reason. Like... wtf is happening?
    And from then on the game just spits random scenes at you of a fictional life, then we're back in the cell throwing in an acid trip... why are we even doing this?
    Then more random trippy scenes.... The End

    Bottom line - the game promises to tell a story in a unique way... and then it decides to not tell a story.

    So it's a non-game non-story experience - can't even give 1 star for that because that would mean the game does something right... which it doesn't.    … Expand
  2. KamenRiderDark
    Sep 28, 2016
    0
    Speaking as a movie lover, Virginia is a pretty fascinating story. Imagine if David Lynch directed the pilot episode of The X-Files. It has some great visuals and a soild score. It's worth it to at least watch a stream if you're into this kind of story.

    As a gamer, and as someone who loves "walking sims" and artistic games, there is no reason that this should have been told as a game    Speaking as a movie lover, Virginia is a pretty fascinating story. Imagine if David Lynch directed the pilot episode of The X-Files. It has some great visuals and a soild score. It's worth it to at least watch a stream if you're into this kind of story.

    As a gamer, and as someone who loves "walking sims" and artistic games, there is no reason that this should have been told as a game instead of movie. You have no agency, there is no sense of exploration, you can't affect any outcome, and you never have any option to choose. You pretty much walk through a series of very linear levels with usually only one object to interact with at any given time.    … Expand
  3. Tubey
    Sep 24, 2016
    0
    You're thinking this is a "troll" review, right? No, it's not. See, I never give a zero to a game. I always give at least a one, as a game, at the very least, usually lives up the bare minimum standard of attempting to be a game.

    The reason this gets a zero from me is because I'm being asked to review it as a game, when it is not a game - it is an interactive movie. And in this case,    You're thinking this is a "troll" review, right? No, it's not. See, I never give a zero to a game. I always give at least a one, as a game, at the very least, usually lives up the bare minimum standard of attempting to be a game.

    The reason this gets a zero from me is because I'm being asked to review it as a game, when it is not a game - it is an interactive movie. And in this case, the interactive part barely exists.

    I challenge anyone to answer me this - what would be different, at all, about this 'game' if you just watched a YouTube longplay of it? You'd get the same visuals, largely the same pace, the same story, the same music - indeed, the same everything except you don't press a button every so often.

    That's not a game! I'm really not trying to be an elitist douche about this, as I'm just stating a fact - a game is interactive and allows a player agency to make their own decisions. Going back as early as Pong, the player had the option of moving up and down to guess the direction of the ball and bounce it back a certain way. This game is just a movie. Honestly, that's all it is. If you played this in a cinema, and invited people to press a big red button every time they saw an object on screen, it'd be the same game.

    So, as a 'game', it gets a zero. As a movie, it's actually not that bad and I'd score it a five or whatever, as despite being pretentious, the story that they have chosen is well directed for the most part with a "show don't tell" structure. It has infinitely more in common with a movie than a game, so why isn't this in the movie section as a direct to DVD movie? The 'gameplay' aspects could be done by a DVD remote control.

    I'll never understand why review sites cream their pants over this type of thing. It really isn't new - remember the Phillips CDi? Night Trap? Plumbers Don't Wear Ties? Virginia is in every way a classier version of those with up to date graphics and somehow less gameplay!

    If Titanic had QTEs that said "Press X to grab the wooden door", "Tap Y to shag in a car", would that be a game? A discussion needs to be had about how these things are classified, because while they are still being marketed as full games, they are conning people into buying a thing they didn't expect from a game. At the very least, it'd be nice to see, as a standard, these things put the sentence "An Interactive Movie" on the front cover.    … Expand
  4. Pendrodamus
    Sep 25, 2016
    1
    There's not enough video game, especially when the product is being sold as a game. Your interaction is so minimized that the game doesn't even ask you to walk around. You'll barely be allowed to move around a single room before it decides to jump cut yu to the next part of the plot. Your actions also have no bearing on the plot, and at no point is your skill ever required to actuallyThere's not enough video game, especially when the product is being sold as a game. Your interaction is so minimized that the game doesn't even ask you to walk around. You'll barely be allowed to move around a single room before it decides to jump cut yu to the next part of the plot. Your actions also have no bearing on the plot, and at no point is your skill ever required to actually progress. My advice? Watch it on youtube, you won't miss a thing.

    Does it hold up as an experience, though? No, not really. Though it attempts to be minimalistic without telling you anything through words, it still leaves too many questions unanswered, and because we never get to know the characters, there's no reason to care about them. Thus when the experience asks us to feel sad, there's no precedent, so you're left feeling nothing. The worst part of it all is that there's nothing inherently wrong with the story. It's not so bad that I can at least laugh at it. It's actualy boring, which is worse than being offensively bad.    … Expand
  5. Thilus
    Sep 27, 2016
    3
    Not a game, not an experience, not really a walking simulator either. Hard to categorize this title, but one thing is for sure - it's awkward.

    There is some story, but Virginia won't allow you to follow it, because it will chaoticaly jump from scene to scene before you could even read half the text written on files. The characters are bland, and not only because they won't say a word,    Not a game, not an experience, not really a walking simulator either. Hard to categorize this title, but one thing is for sure - it's awkward.

    There is some story, but Virginia won't allow you to follow it, because it will chaoticaly jump from scene to scene before you could even read half the text written on files. The characters are bland, and not only because they won't say a word, but because it's very hard to follow on who? where? what? why? The visuals are fine, but the world is as lifeless as it could be. You basically wander around empty spaces looking for a next spot to click (which is incredibly easy, considering that the mouse cursor changes after you hit a live spot).

    The only strong point is the score played by the Philharmonic Orchestra from Prague. That's why I'm giving this game a 3. Other than that, I'd tell you to stay away from this one. If you have to, watch it on youtube or something. It takes around two, two-and-a-half hours tops, and you'll be able to rewind the boring parts. For me it was a no-no.    … Expand
  6. aditya1101
    Oct 5, 2017
    3
    I thought I would like this game a lot as I've liked a lot of similar games. But I just really did not like the way that the story was presented in this game. The lack of any dialogue whatsoever seems cool at first, but it ends up becoming a major hindrance because in order to compensate, the game goes really overboard in trying to get you to understand what's going on. This makes a lot ofI thought I would like this game a lot as I've liked a lot of similar games. But I just really did not like the way that the story was presented in this game. The lack of any dialogue whatsoever seems cool at first, but it ends up becoming a major hindrance because in order to compensate, the game goes really overboard in trying to get you to understand what's going on. This makes a lot of the game feel really cheesy, which really cheapened the experience for me. Also, I thought the art looked great, but I was underwhelmed by it while actually playing.… Expand
  7. horrido
    Oct 2, 2016
    0
    The problem with this game is, well, i's more an interactive story than a video game. That, and it violates rule #1 in video games - leave your politics at home.
  8. zybch
    Dec 9, 2016
    0
    Avoid at all costs if you actually want a 'game'. This is NOTHING even slightly resembling a game.
    And on xbox the controller lag is almost a second, and framerate jumping between 10 and 15fps.
    Its a mess, and those idiots and sites drooling over it must either have been paid to gush, or are on some pretty strong acid. This is the absolute worse game I've played in years, and I    Avoid at all costs if you actually want a 'game'. This is NOTHING even slightly resembling a game.
    And on xbox the controller lag is almost a second, and framerate jumping between 10 and 15fps.
    Its a mess, and those idiots and sites drooling over it must either have been paid to gush, or are on some pretty strong acid.
    This is the absolute worse game I've played in years, and I generally like the so-called 'walking simulator' type experiences. This was just pretentious hipster trash!    … Expand
  9. Trunkis
    Sep 28, 2016
    0
    Atari's ET 2600 has more narrative falling down a pixelated well than this mess.

    This is the problem with hipstery creators... they don't get that they don't get what videogaming is all about.
  10. Tractorhands
    May 6, 2018
    1
    Not sure where to start with this one!
    I'm generally a big fan of the 'walking simulator' genre; story is important to me in gaming, and this genre often seems the most effective at communicating a narrative. This is not the case with Virginia.
    Tonally, it's a bit of a mess. Initially it gives the impression of being a procedural investigation where you are inspecting the disappearance    Not sure where to start with this one!
    I'm generally a big fan of the 'walking simulator' genre; story is important to me in gaming, and this genre often seems the most effective at communicating a narrative. This is not the case with Virginia.
    Tonally, it's a bit of a mess. Initially it gives the impression of being a procedural investigation where you are inspecting the disappearance of a boy along side an internal investigation of another FBI agent. Then things get a bit weird, a non-linear narrative comes out to play, along with some dream sequences; two things that normally wouldn't cause an issue, but due to Virginia lacking any kind of dialogue at all, it just causes confusion.
    A lack of dialogue isn't necessarily a bad thing, however you're going to need something consistent and reliable to replace this, and Virginia fails to deliver heavily on this front. There are files and items that contain text that you hope will contain clues to help the story make sense, however the game doesn't give you chance to fully read a file before you are forced into the next scene.

    As other people have said, the music is the only saving grace of Virginia, however the score tends to get subconsciously pushed aside as you attempt to work out what is going on, which is a waste,

    The final scene attempts to explain what the game is actually about by somehow combining heavy-handed metaphors with the vague "story" elements.
    I'm still not sure what it is about.    … Expand
  11. Oznerol
    Mar 20, 2021
    4
    I have nothing against mostly narrative walkie experiences, indeed I love them.
    But I think you have to know how to do them, otherwise... trying to be brilliant and get boring .. it's really a snap.
    Too short, gameplay absent and a sense of nervousness at the conclusion of the game.
    I don't recommend it. To avoid.

Awards & Rankings

89
#89 Most Shared PC Game of 2016

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
74

Mixed or average reviews - based on 36 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 36
  3. Negative: 3 out of 36
  1. CD-Action
    Jan 12, 2017
    70
    By constantly comparing their game to “Twin Peaks” and “True Detective” the developers set the bar so high that they could not fulfill expectations. Nevertheless Virginia is an interesting experiment worth your time (especially that it only takes two hours to complete). [13/2016, p.58]
  2. Edge Magazine
    Nov 15, 2016
    80
    One of the most quietly devastating moments involves a character simply shaking their head softly. [December 2016, p.110]
  3. Games Master UK
    Nov 9, 2016
    79
    An interactive story that blends dreamy police procedural with Lynchian nightmare to intriguing effect [Nov 2016, p.78]
See all critic reviews »