Review for Virginia. Game for PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 22/09/2016
What is reality? For centuries, scholars and philosophers among the most appreciated such as Descartes, Kant and Hegel have tried to answer this question. Could we say, dictionary in hand, that it is a quality and condition that actually and concretely exists? Of course, but when you are faced with a title like Virginia school securities soon tend to waver. Why the work done by Variable State, a study made up of a few heads but all endowed with great genius, it is one of those that lead to wipe out one's house of cards made up of certainties, notions and perceptions.
We already understood in this interview that Virginia would be an interesting product and this hypothesis made its way into our minds like a torrent in flood, with a short but intense life, as the only certainty of a gaming experience full of doubts and assumptions.
Welcome to Kingdom
Kingdom, a fictional town in Virginia, is a postcard place with its boundless forests and breathtaking sunsets. We are at the end of the summer of 1992 and despite the mild and relaxed aspect, this town becomes the scene of a mystery and a tragedy when the unexplained disappearance of XNUMX-year-old Lucas Fairfax disrupts the peaceful lives of the Kingdom's inhabitants. Detective Maria Harpine is chosen for the investigation, flanked by cadet agent Anne Tarver. The latter will be our alter ego within Virginia and will have the dual task of helping the older colleague in the investigation and at the same time investigating her, following an internal FBI ruling against her.
This is the plot of Virginia, intriguing but apparently normal and linear. Once we have taken the first steps in the game, however, we will go to clash in a violent way with a gameplay designed and studied to involve the player in a less intuitive way than you can imagine. Here, inspirations come into play ranging from Twin Peaks' Lynch to The X-Files to more recent productions such as True Detective or Fargo. But the authors' interest in titles like Thirty Flights of Loving is also clear, which, like Virginia, are free of dialogue and with minimal interactions. Our aim will be to advance Anne in her investigations and interact with a few objects useful for the performance of our task and some collectibles that are anything but trivial.
What can be defined as acoustic perception
The absence of dialogues, both spoken and written, is felt initially but gradually an intuition gradually becomes stronger and more overwhelming in Virginia: the soundtrack. Virginia's music is composed by Lyndon Holland, as are the sound effects, and are a masterful work of the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. So, almost spontaneously, it seemed appropriate to wear wraparound headphones to better appreciate this sound and the gaming experience has turned into something unique and priceless.
Of course, the knowledge of the game is not only about the splendid sound but is supported by a graphic sector characterized by soft lines and pastel colors able to accentuate the perception between dream and reality hammering on the player's head in order to put together a puzzle that's anything but simple. It is difficult not to dwell on the splendid sunsets of Kingdom where the immensity of the celestial vault blends in a wonderful way with the green expanses of Virginia, almost to compose a fresco. But this care does not stop only in the external environments, all the chromatic and stylistic choice that characterizes Virginia is designed to immerse the player in a story that opens up different interpretations.
Revealing too many details on the title would distort the discovery of the various narrative strands, characterized by an inhomogeneous montage and, why not, Tarantinian memory if we think of Pulp Fiction. At the end of Virginia's brief experience, which can be terminated in less than a couple of hours, not only will the player be confused but will be prompted to reflect on what he has just seen, or rather glimpsed, through the not always reliable gaze of Anne Tarver . For this the question of what reality is becomes a dominant leitmotiv in Virginia to understand and reconstruct the events we have just witnessed.
If longevity doesn't convince everyone to consider Virginia not bad, replaying the Variable State title will become almost mandatory not only to collect the few collectibles, wisely hidden, but above all to start connecting the various dots that have started to form a mind map in our head.
The trip to Kingdom in Virginia is short but with a growing intensity thanks to the support of both an extraordinary audio and visual sector. Trying to connect the various narrative lines conceived by the Variable State guys for this first work of theirs proves to be engaging beyond all expectations. Could it be said that this title is not suitable for everyone? Maybe, but those who love that kind of narration that pushes not to dwell on the patina of reality but to think about it cannot miss this little gem.
► Virginia is an Adventure-indie game published by 505 Games for PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 22/09/2016
