Virginia Reviews
An interesting idea that has flashes of brilliance, but is hampered by baffling and counterintuitive design decisions.
Virginia needs to go back to film school
Virginia might appeal to those looking for a more artsy gaming experience, but in terms of actually being a game, it falls decidedly short. There is very little to do here, little to interact with, and even fewer things to experience. All of this is likely intentional and not necessarily bad on its own, as the game wants the focus to be on its story and storytelling. Unfortunately, though, it botches this as well, and the game fluctuates between being dull and confusing, with very little that is enjoyable in between. Some of the design choices appear to have been done to make the game artistically memorable, and on that front it succeeds, but overall, Virginia suffers because of it. Virginia may be for lovers, but Virginia isn't really for anyone.
Virginia is, at its best, a gaming mechanism that provides slightly more immersion than watching a movie -- and at its worst, a failed walking simulator with a convoluted ending. Because it is a scripted experience light on interaction and choice, I'm not entirely sure I can recommend it as a game. There may be an inkling of promise in its budding story, but for many I imagine it will be hard to read between the lines and even harder to consider it a worthy experience.
Variable State's Virginia is by and large an unsuccessful attempt to make something interesting. 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.
I wanted to enjoy Virginia, but the nonsense ending left me annoyed and puzzled as to its meaning. Even playing a second time, I still am not sure what really happened. Some aspects I understand, such as a scenario in which the player character ascends to her bosses rank and basically becomes him down to both the smoking and tossing a file to the person at your desk. I had someone else play for any insight, but the continual edits and metaphysics left them confused as well. There may be something there for others, but for me it was simply a good mystery gone wrong, and not one I enjoyed upon completion.
Virginia is the only thing which prevents itself from achieving greatness, as it tries to imitate a TV show, while attempting to abandon the fact that it’s a videogame. As previously stated, a combination of videogame mechanics, with a structure and direction of a TV series, is borderline impossible and Virginia is a great example of that.
Virginia is one of these labours of love that's hard being… hard towards. From the realism-meets-surrealism visuals and the passionate orchestral tunes, to the great way the whole thing is directed, it's pretty obvious that the developer shows lots of promise. Unfortunately, everything crumbles under the complete lack of interactivity, and the initially enjoyably nonsensical… "plot."
Virginia's extensive use of jump and match cuts makes it the meeting point of games and film, though it's not the most successful of experiments.
Virginia invokes breathtaking visuals to tell a story about... Something.
As a piece of art, I quite appreciate Virginia. but I certainly won't be revisiting Virginia in the future.
It's rare for a game to make me swing back and forth a full 5 points on the score, but Virginia managed exactly that, and that's probably a sign of exactly how divisive this short piece of interactive story-telling is going to be. Let's settle around the middle.
Variable State’s title offers a different way of storytelling, but relies heavily on unrelatable and abstract imagery
If a virtual museum of chekhov's guns is your thing then there might be something to it.
This was a hard game to score because I really wanted to love it more than I did. The unique storytelling format and intense musical score carry what is an otherwise perplexing narrative that tries very hard to be profound but ends up feeling a bit muddled.
If 90's thriller is your bag, Virginia does it magnificently. Loaded with surreal coincidence and unsettling theatrics, its deliciously David Lynch. In another medium, this thing could’ve been great, but its allegiance to film form ultimately restricts its potential as a game.
Virginia is extremely well made and a sight for you to behold, a well-developed drama that should be experienced by all. There are issues I found with it, which detract from the experience, but outside of the controls I can see why they were used.
A surreal love letter to detectives and David Lynch.
Virginia is an interesting title that offers more than meets the eye. At first, the player is presented with a simple FBI case, but ultimately it evolves into something more.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
Players are offered no real choices within this tersely edited walking simulator, and yet the contemplative nature of the game keeps things feeling unusually satisfying. That’s because you’re given the imaginative freedom to engage with what they’re seeing, more so than in Dear Esther, such that the game feels like an interactive studio tour through a detective’s dreams.