Virginia Preview – Mundanely Absurd

<p class&equals;"western">For me&comma; the elevator pitch is important&period; With limited time to lend coverage&comma; it honestly can mean the difference between being noticed and obscurity&period; Fortunately&comma; it was hard to not be lured in by a game styling itself after detective series uncanny-valley <em>Twin Peaks<&sol;em> and low-beat gritty <em>True Detective<&sol;em>&period; So&comma; just less than a month away from release&comma; I dived into the demo of <em>Virginia<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western"><em><a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;variablestate&period;com&sol;projects&sol;virginia"><strong>Virginia<&sol;strong><&sol;a><&sol;em> is the first game developed by <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;variablestate&period;com&sol;">Variable State<&sol;a>&period; You play as fresh-faced FBI agent Anne Traver who&comma; alongside her seasoned partner Maria Halperin&comma; must track down a missing boy&period; Except it isn&&num;8217&semi;t really about the mystery&period; It still exists&comma; sat in the back-seat of a smokey Cadillac of a plot&comma; but it isn&&num;8217&semi;t the focus&period; Instead&comma; it is about the people who inhabit the town&&num;8230&semi; I think&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">The reality in <em>Virginia<&sol;em> is absurd&comma; in the same way as it is in <em>Twin Peaks<&sol;em>&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m still not sure if the perspective was done on purpose&period; I felt like I was pushing my face against the glass at what was going on&comma; being distant yet in the room&period; In the corner of the room was a family weeping as Halperin comforted them&comma; and there was I soundlessly walking around them to check out their sweet record collection&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;112043" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-112043" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-112043 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;26093709&sol;Virginia-Pic-1-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Virginia&comma; 505 Games" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"388" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-112043" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em>Virginia<&sol;em>&comma; 505 Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">It didn&&num;8217&semi;t feel like I was spoiling a mood&period; Instead&comma; I felt lost&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;What am I&comma; a FBI agent&comma; even doing on a small-town missing person case&quest;” I could imagine Traver mumbling to herself numbly&period; Scenes felt as though I was playing as someone having an out-of-body experience&period; In an odd way&comma; it rubbed me smoothly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">This strange-nature also extends itself to scene depiction&period; There are naturally scenes like walking around the missing person&&num;8217&semi;s house and a possible lead location&period; Although&comma; like <em>True Detective<&sol;em>&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ve also got some moments like being in a car at night with Agent Halperin then stopping at a petrol station&period; By the end&comma; while the mystery of a missing child is important&comma; the people around the event somehow feel even more important&semi; that whatever has happened &lpar;kidnapping&comma; murder&comma; running away&comma; etc&rpar; has not happened in a vacuum&comma; but rather&comma; instead&comma; contains actual real people with their own still-running lives&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">Although&comma; despite all that&comma; it is the gameplay that is the tricky part of <em>Virginia<&sol;em>&period; The extent of it is walking around the location&comma; poking items&period; There isn&&num;8217&semi;t any dialogue &lpar;which added to the disconnection I talked of earlier&rpar;&comma; and currently no choices&period; I heard claims there may be some decisions you make&comma; just I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t spot any&period; Overall&comma; while it technically works&comma; it is currently so bare-bones as to make you unaware of its existence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;112044" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-112044" style&equals;"width&colon; 690px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-112044 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;26093744&sol;Virginia-Pic-2-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Virginia&comma; 505 Games" width&equals;"690" height&equals;"388" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-112044" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em>Virginia<&sol;em>&comma; 505 Games<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p class&equals;"western">It is hard to conclude <em>Virginia<&sol;em>&comma; as it is such a bizarre beast&period; Another comparison I hear&comma; including by the developers&comma; is <em>Thirty Flights of Loving<&sol;em>&period; Simultaneously&comma; it underlines the potential and the concerns of <em>Virginia<&sol;em>&period; While I found <em>Thirty Flights of Loving<&sol;em> unique in a way that hooked me to the end&comma; it left a raw acidic after-taste due to the lack of comprehension and interactive-powerlessness&period; If <em>Virginia<&sol;em> can deliver a story that I feel like I can contribute to and make sense of&comma; this could be a worthwhile trek to a strange place&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;