Virginia

[Full disclosure: My copy of Virginia was supplied by www.pcgamesnnews.wordpress.com]

There’s something to be said for being bold and creative when it comes to video game development; be it mechanics, what is expected of player input, visual style, storytelling and so on. This of course often leads into the trap of being called ‘hipster bait’ or ‘art house garbage’ if these creative angles end up being too far straying from the ‘typical’ game design path, though that’s an argument in itself depending on who you ask. That said, Virginia ends up being one of those cases where the liberties with being too creative ends up kneecapping itself to the point of feeling obnoxious and too smart for its own good - I can certainly imagine this wasn’t the developers intent, but Virginia’s desire to be clever and bizarre makes me hold utter contempt against it, especially when it runs flashbacks into the ground assuming that the player has the memory of a goldfish or transitioning between scenes that make little to no sense. It’s been a long time since I’ve played something this inadvertently atrocious, which is an incredible shame despite some of its aspects actually working.

The elephants in the room that will likely turn off some is the lack of any dialogue or player control. To address the former, the animation and information supplied visually achieves its goals well enough in communicating what characters are going through during interactions - Facial expressions and subtle movements go a long way. Player control however is extremely limited; when the game is advertised as a cinematic experience, understand that you’re not playing this for fun or getting success or fail states from your input. Excluding limited instances where you can divert the path to find collectibles or small events for worthless achievements, the game practically plays itself once you walk Anna, the protagonist, to a point and are prompted to click to proceed the scene. You can look around during these cinematic events, but often times there isn’t anything to see other than what’s directly in front of you, and even if you try to examine your surroundings, the scene will often transition elsewhere without your consent, leading to missed information if any happens to be there - For example at the very beginning, Anna (a member of the FBI and the player character) is handed a file regarding her partner whom she is meant to investigate during a missing person case. Before I could finish reading it, the scene leapt elsewhere and I was lost on why Anna’s partner needed to be investigated at all.

These transitions are initially jarring at first, but they grow to be expected as they help keep the game moving even if it means robbing the player of information. However, the use of flashbacks feels almost insulting at times, cutting back to memories that had occurred twenty or so minutes earlier as if the audience hadn’t seen these moments for hours on end - The game is just under two hours long, so needing to remind the player of something so recent is needless and arguably rude. These transitions work as the art style lends itself nicely, being something of a visual shock as Virginia has a full, ranged color palette that makes effective use of shading - The game may resemble a cartoon, but its color and tones cement it in reality (despite later plot elements), making it a prime candidate for spamming the screenshot button since the lack of a HUD means that there are loads upon loads of fantastic scenes to snap. The visuals are only rivaled by that of Virginia’s soundtrack, which I dare say could its own when stacked against other evocative film scores. The orchestrated music excels when it makes itself known, putting heavier impact on events transpiring near the finale or being an eerie companion in the earlier acts. Virginia looks good and sounds good, but then we get to the critical deal breaker that made me loathe it in the first place: The story.

The initial plot involves FBI investigators Anna and Maria going to the town of Kingdom to investigate a missing person, with a side element of Anna needing to investigate Maria for suspicious activity that could harm the bureau. The story puts a greater focus on uncovering Maria’s secrets, but both of these are generally shelved when Anna has to go through her hallucinogenic, time-hopping and body-swapping dream sequences. I wish I was kidding. As a means of separating chapters, Anna will have these vivid and bizarre dream sequences that occasionally muddle themselves into the real world. These dreams serve little purpose other than to confuse you and perhaps(?) give clues as to where Anna should look for her next clue even if the game plays itself for you in terms of direction. Eventually the game devolves into a series of events where reality is nigh-impossible to decipher; transitions jumping around rapidly, viewing the world through the eyes of another character only to jump cut and be watching that character from a different angle. Or when Anna apparently can leap through time, going years ahead in her career or back in time to events experienced by the other characters. Or when she’s suddenly a member of a cult, or staring down a buffalo at a gas station or when aliens get into the mix somehow - Now imagine all of this coming at you rapidly with no explanation or clarification whatsoever, other than Anna is absolutely losing her mind via drug trip. The climax and conclusion to Virginia is so deranged, weird and infuriatingly nonsensical that I grew physical angry, and don’t get me started on the ending that manages to be a series of empty resolutions where nothing truly is resolved, more brushed aside and ‘left to interpretation’.

Virginia tried to do something unique, creative and well intended as a storytelling game, however it’s the fact that it takes so many weird twists and turns with nary explaining an ounce of itself that makes the game come across as pompous and ‘too smart’ for those not able to deduct its hidden meanings. Analyze and break it down all you want, Virginia tries to get away with being weird because it has a legitimately interesting tale to tell based in reality, but that’s being masked with supernatural events and a muddled timeline, and none of it works in any way whatsoever when combined - More specifically, mashed together in shoddy fashion. If the game focused entirely on its mystery thriller angle and ditched the frustrating weirdness, Virginia’s two hour game length would’ve been much more enjoyable, especially with its lack of dialogue and sole use of visual communication. This has been one of the worst things I’ve had to sit through in a long time, and under no circumstances can I recommend it, even if you, the reader, have gotten a tickle of morbid curiosity. Virginia tries to be weird for the sake of being weird, not that it has any point, purpose or idea to get across come the credits roll - It’s a shame such great art and music is lost on this nonsensical, obnoxious excuse for a storytelling game.