Virginia

Virginia is a taut thriller that strikes a fine balance between storytelling and interactivity in a way that narrative-driven first-person adventure games have not accomplished since their inception, thanks to its blend of classic cinema and exploration. It should not be missed.

That little technical niggle aside, Virginia is a fantastic piece of interactive fiction, and a fantastic videogame. It’s rare to see a game that truly innovates on the way a story can be told through this medium, and to have something that doesn’t only push those boundaries but does so this effectively is a real treat.

Virginia takes you on an unforgettable, incomprehensible journey.

An original and personal interactive adventure that breaks with some schemes established in videogames. Virginia is an artistic exercise and a game to be tested, even for curiosity.

What an incredible year: after Inside, here's another software taht will influence and change the way we'll experience a story. Virginia is not a good game. Neither a good movie. It is something different: something new.

Virginia takes the adventure game to new places, and while not everyone might want to join in on the trip, those that do will be rewarded with a thoroughly mesmerising experience that stays with you long after the credits roll.

A perfect enigma is a perpetual struggle between tenable doubt and informed speculation. This is difficult to produce in any creative medium, let alone one that relies on personal interaction. Videogames almost never attempt to do this. Virginia does. The fallout could have been an obtuse curiosity, but it succeeds in throttling tension through subdued parlance, laying out a series of clues and challenging the player to organize them into a cogent (and personalized) picture of the story.

Virginia is a wonderful, cinematic, experience that leaves a strong impression on the player. I'm looking forward to see more games from this developer in the future.

It was only during my subsequent playthroughs that I was able to catch the game’s quiet understatement, and I’m so frustrated that I missed these the first time around. This is a game to be savored and treasured, but its blunt delivery and liberal use of codes and symbols only serve to sacrifice clarity.

All combined, it’s enough to elevate Virginia above PS4’s typical story-led fare, divisive bow-out and all. [December 2016, p74]

A small but mesmerising Firewalk-esque tale inspired by Twin Peaks and The Outer Limits. Just beware: unpicking the ending is a case for Mulder and Scully. [Nov 2016, p.86]

Virginia achieves a level of complex and thrilling storytelling that is difficult to achieve without any words.

Virginia is astounding in many ways. The way it conveys its meaning through visuals, character tics, a few hundred written words and one incredible score without uttering a single line of dialogue is remarkable. Confident and measured use of editing lends a sense of style, but Variable State's swagger turns to over-confidence in the final stretch and leaves Virginia on a befuddling rather than satisfying note.

Virginia is an experience able to catch the player's attention thanks to its thriller style and its narrative resources. A good videogame with an outstanding OST recorded by the Prage Philarmonic Orchestra. One of the best indie projects of its genre.

Virginia is an experimental title that blends cinema and videogame in an unique mixture. The story is rich in mystery and requires a lot of ability in reading between the lines but the experience is worth the challenge.

Virginia is a quality game that isn’t afraid to be itself. While its basic mechanics and emphasis on story over gameplay won’t be for everyone, it’s a unique ride that mature and intelligent gamers should take, especially if they happen to be a fan of The X-Files or Twin Peaks. This is something different, and it deserves to be applauded for that.

Movies and videogames merge in an extremely interesting title which uses the lack of dialogue as a storytelling key point. Virginia is a story that pays a tribute to (and is inspired by) masterpieces like True Detective, The X-Files and Twin Peaks and manages to hold up in front of these great stories.

Virginia’s tale of intrigue and mystery quickly comes full circle. In that time, it will take you to some pretty surprising, extraordinary places, and easily warrants a second playthrough. The closing moments may not be to everyone’s taste, though the journey to get there is certainly worthwhile.

Variable State's first game is an experiment in the storytelling field, using the cinematographic language as its plot axis. For most players it will be hard to swallow, although it rewards those daring to enter its depths, resembling successful shows like Twin Peaks. Perhaps the dream sequences are the least interesting part of the game, although it is a breath of fresh air.

It’s a good thing that Virginia is such a neatly-packed experience, because I definitely needed to run through it twice to get a firmer grip on the story being told.

Virginia wants to tell a story, and that's what it does. It's not an unforgettable one, but if you're happy with it, it's not a bad option.

Virginia is an excellent example of what can be done with the medium – the director’s hand is felt, the approach is unusual and the subject is intriguing. However, “Ambiguous Story” is becoming a widespread disease in videogames, and it’s hitting the indie scene are particularly hard. While occasionally appropriate, it’s a perilous shortcut that leads too many narratives astray, and this game is a victim. I recommend Virginia to examine how it moves a player through its story, but I can’t sign off on the story itself.

Without a single word of dialogue, Virginia still manages to clearly convey complex feelings of friendship, isolation, and betrayal, but leaves it to the player to decipher how much to read into all the symbolism.

Some may dismiss it as just another pretentious walking sim, but this innovative Lynchian drama is one of the best story-based games of the year.

It’s clear that Virginia is supposed to be mysterious, the absence of any dialog helps to keep things firmly planted in the unexplainable, but when there’s no payoff to any of the build up – it all starts to feel a bit meaningless.

An absolutely incredible soundtrack and great environmental art fail to lift the game from a bog of issues. There are some severe technical issues here, but real criticism should be pointed in the direction of the oftentimes incomprehensible narrative, which needed to be much stronger given the general lack of interactivity elsewhere.