Back in 2014, when wordless narrative adventure Virginia first broke ground at EGX, Paul Dean enthused on our behalf that it was the best new game he'd played that year. Now it's 2016 and we're mere weeks away from release - publisher 505 Games has picked up Variable State's game for release on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 22nd - I think I can say this is the best new game I've played this year, too. Virginia is absolutely sublime.
Following in the footsteps of other like-minded games such as Gone Home, Firewatch and Thirty Flights of Loving, there's a real swagger to how Virginia goes about its business, and a real confidence in how Variable State tells its story. Nominally this is a detective thriller set in the early 90s, casting you as FBI agent Anne Tarver as she works her way through a languid mid-Atlantic town stirred by the disappearance of schoolboy Lucas Fairfax.
True Detective, Silence of the Lambs and a little slice of ethereal Lynch magic are being touted as Virginia's touchstones, but what's got me excited about it is another connection that's unlikely to find its way into any marketing material. In its downbeat drawing of smalltown America, in moments like the unwelcome knock at the door of a grieving parent's house or the loaded silence of a late-night car journey beyond the suburbs, there's something of short story writer Raymond Carver. There's that same deft efficiency to its storytelling, in its willingness to let key beats happen through a stolen glance rather than a monologue.
Reply With Quote