So I just finished this game mere minutes ago and I am sort of blown away by it. I'm not sure where to start, but I know I'm going to need to reflect on it for a bit. So let's get a discussion going. What did you think about it?

I actually just bought the game and is going to play it tonight. I'm taking a chance on this one since I didn't know, or have heard, anything about it before. But it was pretty cheap so I thought what the heck. The game description on the PS store mentioned Twin Peaks, Fargo and True Detective as its inspirations so... I have to give it a go.

Btw. how's Annie?

It is just under two hours long and completely linear, so it's probably best played in one sitting. It is incredibly Twin Peaksy and it has a scene inspired by it that I absolutely loved. The narrative on the other hand is as non-linear as it gets and takes some insane turns.
I also went into it without knowing anything about it aside from it's inspirations and it's not at all what I expected. I will replay it in a couple of days and see if I can get anything more out of the story.

Haha, actually this game made me really want to rewatch Twin Peaks again.

I really didn't get along with it, and this is from someone who loves Firewatch to death and went in to bat pretty hard for Dear Esther.

It's a brave idea making a game like this without any dialogue but I don't think it works. It's stylistically messy, runs like crap on my decent PC and I didn't even jive with the score, which I found overwrought to the point of comedy.

I see the Lynch comparisons but all I can think of is a student film where you're bludgeoned over the head with effects, flourishes and jump cuts because this is how the movie directors do it, right?

I think the internet and me are at an impasse when it comes to Virginia. :)

@dave_tacitus:

Those are all very valid points. The lack of dialogue felt super off-putting at first but around halfway through it ramps up so much that I stopped noticing. I found the score to be fantastic and it mostly works with the feel of the game.

I changed the FPS to 60 and it ran better, felt super slow at just 30 which was suggested for some reason. Still the camera feels kinda bad and might play better with a controller.

The jump cuts are taken straight out of Thirty Flights of Loving, which was a game I really liked and the game is dedicated to Brendon Chung, but it does mess up the pacing sometimes. When the game decides to fade to the next scene I thought several times that it had locked up.

@geekdown: Yeah, I only picked up on the 30 Flights of Loving reference during the end credits and if I'd known before, I'd probably have primed myself with what to expect - I'm not a massive fan of Chung's work, although I can totally see the merit in it.

I've found that with all these narrative adventures/walking simulators, if the story resonates with me at some level, I'm willing to put up with quite a lot. My engagement with Virginia (we're getting married in 2018 :p) seemed always just out of reach.

One part, however, I really loved: The montage showing Tarver's rise through the FBI ranks was masterfully done.

So with all the Twin Peaks talk I'm seeing here...I need to ask, will this be better if I've seen TP first? I've never watched the show, it's been on my list forever. I've loved True Detective and Fargo, but it seems like Twin Peaks is the main touchstone here.

@dave_tacitus:
Yeah Brendon Chungs games are a bit hit and miss, that's why I have been hesitant to pick up Quadrilateral Cowboy.
Yup, that part was really really good.

@sloppydetective:
It's not necessary, but you will get a little bit more out of it. It's not full of references but there are a few to both Twin Peaks and X-Files that I picked up on. I hope to find more on my second playthrough.

Played through it last night and wasn't a fan. Music is good, but the layout of the story was pretty messy and by the end of it I had no clue what was going on.

I really liked it, and it's gonna be super interesting to see what people make of the whole thing. After playing through three times I think I've got a sort-of-vague general gist of what occurred kind of maybe? There are some contradictions in the story that I can't make sense of at all, and it also feels like enough key pieces of information are missing from the game that it is impossible for it to be fully pieced together, and in those ways it feels very Lynchian.

I feel like the developers were also really inspired by the narrative and editing style of the Coen Brothers, who also use a lot of fade transitions and drawn-out scenes that seemingly don't fit into the plot as a whole. The opening title card stuff is also really really similar to the Fargo intro too.

Regardless, I think the developers did a really great job of blending games and film here in a way that the interactivity does not at all feel inconsequential and unnecessary. It asks a lot from the player in terms of making them seek out and piece together the series of events for themselves, and I found that really refreshing.

On one hand, $10 seems steep for a two hour linear experience. On the other hand, I'd spend more than that for a movie, so a second look it's not so bad.

But more important, I feel like I need to play this quick if I'm going to do it, because I feel like this is one of those games if you wait you'll miss being part of the conversation.

I have the afternoon tomorrow, I might just pick this up and play through then.

@geekdown: The way a couple of shots were framed reminded me immediately of The Parallax View.

I thought it was ass. Deleted the demo after five minutes.

@dave_tacitus: Ok, gonna have to watch that before playing it next time then.

I liked a lot about it but really lost the thread about two-thirds of the way through. No idea which scenes were real and which were dream sequences. There were probably some flashbacks in there too. It was weird. I'm confused and feel kinda dumb.

lol I thought this was about the actual state for some reason. I was born in Richmond, Southern and Western Virginia are not...uh...not great lol

I'll atleast be trying the demo after seeing all the Twin Peaks comparisons here. The graphics style initially turned me off from it.

I also thought this was a random thread about the state lol

It's got some sweet ass Civil War Battlefields.

So I'm not entirely sure if I just played something amazing or an overly convoluted mess, and I'm not sure if it's worth the effort to work through.

Really loved the style and presentation though, except the music seemed unnecessarily intense at a few spots.

I just finished it. I lost the thread about 3/4 of the way through. I have no idea what happened. I want to go through it again in about a week to see what I missed. It definitely is a game with a cool presentation and style. I'm not sure what to think of it though.

Okay, can anyone tell me what was in the box? They foreshadowed that damn box the whole game, and then there was just another box in there. I feel like I'm supposed to know what that was.

@spunkyhepanda: I have no idea, and I don't think the player is supposed to know either. But Anne burns it, so it must be something her father wanted her to get rid of for some reason. Perhaps even something incriminating?

But my real question is, was that Anne's father in that sequence? Was the player Anne there, or someone else? Because before that, in the sequence where you wake up in Maria's home, you can see all the equipment for taking care of a sick person, like the chair-lift and the room dedicated to hospital equipment. Also, the newspaper article in the archives that is praising Maria's mother for her work seems to infer that Maria's father is also in the FBI or some sort of law enforcement position. And there is a dream sequence where you find a police hat in Maria's office. Also, the part with the sick father takes place immediately after the montage of Anne body-swapping through people. So is the player really playing as Maria in that section, and is that Maria's father/box/key? If so, it wouldn't make sense why Anne would have the broken key alongside her for the whole game. Also, a picture of Anne with her "father" is on the bedside table in that scene, but that could also be a result of the nature of the body-swap (i.e., Anne's hands and body still looks the same even when she is in a different body). It almost feels like there is a certain duality to Anne and Maria, or that they may be the same person even? I don't know at the moment.

Sorry for the wall of spoiler-text, everyone! This game sure is puzzling!

@pizzasheets:

So if Maria is following in her mother's footsteps and trying to uncover what happened, maybe Anne is doing the same with her father? And maybe she's burning the evidence he found, for the same reason she swallows that stamp or whatever that was? Everyone's in on it! Also, there are aliens?

@spunkyhepanda: I interpreted the stamp to be a type of drug, since that delinquent kid had them in his wallet - hence the trip Anne has. I'm pretty sure all of the alien stuff is symbolic of something else - perhaps a sense of superstition, a fear of the unknown, or of the truth.

Speaking of symbolism, everything in the game that was coloured of red seemed to me to be indicative of the idea of finding truth - the red door, the red box, the bird, the red room in the Paxton house - they all appear to be in service of discovering what really happened. And there is also the recurring image of the bull (is it a bull? Bison? whatever) that is attracted to the colour red, which probably has it's own little meaning as well.

I like your idea of there being evidence in the box - that is what I initially thought as well. But as to what the evidence and how it would be incriminating I have no idea - nor why Anne would be attached enough to it to keep the broken key.

I wonder if Variable State made Virginia with the intention of eventually making sequels - I feel like the relationships between some of the characters were intentionally not fully explored, and perhaps can be fleshed out in following games set in the same world. I still don't really have a clear idea of what the deal was with that guy running for mayor with the construction van.

The stamp was an LSD Blotter, thus the "PRESS ENTER TO TAKE A TRIP" at the start (I played on PC)

I generally enjoyed playing the game, but it made no fucking sense at all. It's like they wrote a cohesive story with a whole bunch of symbolism, then removed every reference tying a symbolic object to its 'real' meaning. So you end up with something that makes no sense, but is internally consistent, like there's a secret code that you have to use to decrypt the game. It reminds me of Killer7 a bit with this.

@magnetphonics: @pizzasheets: Drugs! Of course. That makes more sense. As for the symbolism, I am very bad at interpreting symbolism, so I'm not even gonna try there.

@spunkyhepanda: I got the impression she (the player) doesnt know whats in the box and the entire game is remorse for just burning it on command.

Anyhow after alot of corridorwalking im feeling a little dissapointed by this "game". Apart from the music score and occasionally some nice looking scenes i didnt enjoy much of it. I also somehow missed the majority of all achievments even though it seemed there was nothing more to do or click on than i did. I did reload a chapter and that seemed to have erased all my collectibles but whatever.

@rethla: I played through it and got only 3 achievements, and wasn't trying to speed through the game.

There's so little to interact with in the environment that once I saw the crosshair change, I immediately headed in that direction.

@magnetphonics: That sums up my thoughts really well. I had no idea what was going on, it seemed like there were three mysteries happening at once, and all of the symbolism felt empty on its own. I have a lot of questions that I feel could only be answered by reading fan theories or sitting down with one of the developers.

I liked playing through the game, but I'm not left with much and it really failed to move me emotionally even though it certainly seemed like it was trying to. I also didn't really get a Twin Peaks vibe outside of the general premise being a mystery. There were a couple things that were probably references to it like the band in the bar, all the coffee and whatnot, but it felt kind of artificial.

I may like it better on a second playthrough but I'm not inclined to play it again anytime soon.

Yeah, I'm torn on it. On the one hand, certain sections were absolutely masterful (like the "rising through the ranks" thing), but I feel like there are so many things unanswered at the end of it that it's hard to say you feel satisfied. I don't have any problem with ambiguity or stories which purposefully making things vague (for instance, I have no problem not knowing what was in the box), but I felt there were several things in the game where I was supposed to understand something and I didn't. Like, what's the deal with Tarver and Halperin getting arrested? It felt like such a random weird thing, and I didn't get at all what was going on there. There were enough things like that where I felt like the creators intended to tell me what was going on, but the message didn't come through on my end. Given that I'm a reasonably intelligent person, things like that feel more like a failure on the game's part to communicate.

I don't know. I love that games like this exist, and I love to experience them and I want more of them. I might even love this game, I dunno. But there's certainly things that could be improved.

I am still unsure if the use of jump cuts is good for games, or if they simply haven't figured out completely what to do with them. Part of me is considering going back to Thirty Flights Of Loving just to see if my mind has changed on that game as I remember that game feeling pretty confusing to play. When it comes to Virgina there were a few moments where I had a pretty bad reaction to the cuts. But other times the cuts were excellent. I think the biggest issue is finding a good rhythm to them so they feel natural so your brain keeps up. I think it works better in films because you're not the one at the steering wheel. Even just ordinary games have pacing issues, doing it like this is even inviting even more pacing issues to the pot. I will admit though that the longer I sat with the game the better I was at both anticipating a cut and letting go of my mind's lock on the specific scene I was in and trying more to focus on the overall story.

Visually the game feels very similar to Firewatch, if that game had actual characters to look at. I'm curious if they could make the same game with a more realistic look to it if that would change how the game feels. I feel like this sort of graphical style is good in the sense that it lets you as a player project a lot of your own thoughts to fill in the blanks. Loved the overall score and especially the Twin Peaks nod. The story was interesting but I felt like it turned itself into a tangled knot at some point.

Much like Thirty Flights of Loving, I find myself appreciating the game for what it's aspiring to do rather than what it's actually doing. I would argue this is an improvement on the formula, but I sort of wish someone would take this concept and apply it to a less complicated story to see if one could perfect the art of the cut before you add variables to the story that adds to the overall confusion. I think therein lies my biggest gripe with this concept so far.

But, as a 2-hour some experience it was fun and I do think the game explores some interesting ideas.

@gkhan:I feel like they were arrested because Anne threw away the file investigating Maria, therefore tampering with/destroying classified FBI information.

I actually kinda loved the jump cuts. I haven't played Thirty Flights of Loving, so they were a new thing for me in games, and I thought they worked brilliantly, they added a real sense of pace.

I guess that makes sense, but it's the police department that arrests them, not the FBI. What does the local PD care about them mishandling FBI files? You're probably right, but it still was a weirdly obscure moment that could have been communicated much better. There were a few of those in the game that kind of annoyed me.

I absolutely loved the game. It hit all the right notes for me in terms of Twin Peaks, X-Files, and True Detective inspiration. While the story did meander a bit, I generally felt like the major mysteries were resolved.

The game seemed to be exploring themes of corruption versus transgression, and I saw Anna's jail cell moment as splitting into two separate narratives. Either she flips on her partner and rises through the ranks of the FBI, eventually perpetuating the cycle of corruption, or she drinks the kool-aid and ends up an alcoholic conspiracy nut cast out by society. The ceremony, as well as the body-hopping scenes, were her fevered imaginings of what was really going on behind the curtain. And I think the box-burning scene actually happened before everything else, and drives her guilty conscience as exposed in scenes like the furnace in the middle of the road.

I think the only thing I really have no clue about is the box burning.

I liked the game, but i thought it was too vague for my taste. I had no time to read the files they were given to Anne, so i was kinda left in the dark at the beginning.

I am still confused that she popped LSD in the cell and everything moved forward with some explanations of Anne's past. I felt so empty at the end, the story went nowhere, just some "What If..."-scenarios.

@gkhan: They were arrested for breaking into scumbag Will Smith as a priest's house.

Buddy and I played through the game in a sitting and really enjoyed it. We were speculating back and forth, constantly, about multiple threads in the plot.

Here's why I liked the use of jump cuts. The designers kept the players speed at a walking pace to maintain immersion but also knew that would create a problem with the overall pacing of story progression, padding out the playtime unnecessarily. The solution of jump cuts, rather than run speed, keeps the players immersed and adds a stylistic approach. You always knew where you were jump cutting to if it was within a reasonable time jump. It also worked well with the score. Though, I have to say, the score never really reached its full potential. I felt that it was always one step away from that. It teased what could be done with it but never fully delivered.

I enjoyed all of the plot threads. The game does a great job at revealing specific clues that warp your understanding of the story, and leads you in a different direction. There is a lot of symbolism, but in our case, it only lead to more discussion between my buddy and I. We kept multiple possibilities of explanations as plausible until further clues were revealed. The very last scene, specifically, was a very powerful piece of symbolism that I absolutely adored. There is so much being said in a matter of ten seconds. When the game finally reveals your true motives to you, everything up until that point ran through my mind as to what it all meant. That rush of thoughts felt amazing.

4/5 for sure. 9/10 if we were going with that. Everything was kept very tight and purposeful; almost no time was wasted. I don't understand every detail yet but I understand enough to know that I really enjoyed this game. I even got a feeling of the movie "The Departed," by the end of it all and wouldn't be surprised if that was an inspiration.

Just finished it. I think you are left to fill in a lot of blanks for yourself. I liked how it messed with my head, the constant switching between reality, dream reality and drugs reality was disorienting in a good way. I got a very strong David Lynch feel from the whole thing. The music was spectacular. Overall it was a nice little chunk of weirdness.

This is one of the coolest experiences I've played in a while, up there with Firewatch for sure. Talk about a crash course in non-verbal storytelling and effective jump cuts.

Definitely felt the Twin Peaks/Lynchian vibes and the scene with the mask-wearing cult must be an Eyes Wide Shut reference, right?

Not enough games play around with LSD or hallucinogens. Far Cry 3 is the only other one that comes to mind. Press A To Take A Trip takes on a whole new meaning after finishing it.

There are a bunch of achievements that I didn't unlock which makes me wonder how much I missed.

I had no problems with the games presentation, the "editing" was unique and inspired, and the lack of dialogue was pulled of well. I was engaged with the game until your character throw the evidence file off the watertower. Virginia lost me completely at that point. The final third of the game feels entirely slapped together, and pieces of the story are entirely unexplained. What was Halperin's relationship with the person in the locket? Who was the medical equipment in Halperin's apartment for? Why were they arrested in the county jail, with the priest present? What's the deal with the father, son, and baby near the end? Was that the locket person that came out of the spaceship? Who was climbing away in the scene after the UFO? I don't mind unanswered questions, and I don't mind having to draw my own conclusions, but the end of this game felt like I was being shown random slides from a Powerpoint presentation.

@hunkulese said:

LOL, that reference is perfect!

I played through the game once through, last night, in one sitting.

I don't think I liked the game...I also don't think I hated it, so my state of ambivalence might be worse than actually disliking it. The only thing I can say I really appreciated was how it cut from scene to scene, but besides that? eh...literally a bit too "walking simulator" in my tastes as it didn't even have the exploration aspect of something like Gone Home. I appreciate the (done to death) "Lynch-ian" approach to the storytelling but its minimalist approach did it more harm than good, in my opinion.

Like others have said I felt that with how there was little to no interactivity and no dialogue that the game goes beyond being a little vague. If I had to review the game I would want to give the game 2/5 stars but that feels a little harsh...I don't know. Being that the game is $10 I think I would just succumb and say 3/5 given that its a short experience and it seems to try and go big with presentation, even if I think the gambles it attempts don't really pay off or work.

Since I've already played through once and it only takes like 1.5-2 hours to complete I will probably just finish the trophies off for the platinum and then delete the game from my system. I was expecting something more severe in its presentation since Jim Sterling took so strongly to defending it online and basically claimed that a bunch of people saying they didn't care for it were actually bigots :|

Added: Started up my playthrough #2 and I fell asleep at some point because I woke up and my character was staring at the mirror.

Like Gone Home and Firewatch, I feel a bit duped by the excitement people had over this game's presentation. In all three instances I've felt the story had little merit. Gone Home kept me the most interested throughout before it turned out to be a very basic story, while Firewatch left me the most satisfied even if I felt it should've put more effort into fleshing itself out, or maybe I mean not been so faux-glib at some points, it's been a while since that came out.

This game just came off as a mess to me. An intriguing and perhaps medium-forwarding mess but a mess nonetheless.

That said, I also had the most fun with it because I used its first half as an excuse to try and teach my girlfriend about the psychology of video game controls (and gained some insight into how the mind of an "invert axis" person works, especially being a non-gamer) and then we used the second half as a quip factory for all the goofy shit that was going on, I honestly think we cut a great lost 'quick look' with all our drunken quips over the revelations.

Just played this last night. I really wanted to like this game - the art style is great, the shows this game is influenced by are some of my favorites - but I just couldn't get into it at all. Thr jump cuts lead to some cool moments, but the plot is so vague that I had no clue what the motivation of the characters was. The third act is an uninteresting mess.

I am in the "disappointment boat" as well. I really like the style of the game and music. They way they affected mouse acceleration, not controlling the cursor fully and the motion blur created a unique cinematic experience. Not like the cinematic cutscenes from AAA games, but actually a game, where cinematic feel felt like a stylistic choice. And it worked.

Music was great too and i did not mind its tenacity and intensity.

However, the story is just a mess. I feel like they finished the game and forgot to have someone who knew little to nothing about the game to play it. Like they made the story, so of course it made sense to them, but i was just lost. I kept waiting for pieces to fit in, and it only got more complicated. And that is sad considering i actually liked how grounded the first thirs/half is. They could have just made a detective case with that style, andt he game would have been fantastic.

And apparently, according to steam achievements and text on store page it has some player choice elements and something almost like side quests? I have never ever felt like i had a choice and the game seems to go out of its way to stop you from exploring, so it doesnt make any sense to me as to why that is in there.