Virginia

I remember hearing about Virginia a long time ago in the same sentences as words such as ‘original’, ‘good’, ‘amazing’ and ‘easy Gamerscore.’ I played the game through twice, still didn’t get it, read an internet plot synopsis and still didn’t get it but it turns out someone sort of did. So I realised that Virginia wasn’t to my tastes so if you liked it, take the rest of this review with a pinch of salt.

Virginia is classed as a Point and Click adventure game but it may as well be a visual novel for the level of pointing and clicking you need to do. The story is told through speechless scenes where some kind of overly complex multi-layered story plays out in front of you. You play as Anne Tarver, an FBI agent who is tasked with carrying out an internal investigation on Maria Halperin for no real reason. You partner up with her to try and solve the case of missing child Lucas and then some arbitrary stuff happens like you become friends with Maria, then she finds out about the investigation and falls out with you, then you make up and bin off the FBI… so they throw you in jail? A lot of this would have been easier to understand had they put speech in, but whatever.

The article I read provided some insights into the plot holes but essentially it’s just guess work from someone who liked the game. I’m not sure if the developers had the idea at the outset that their story was so disconnected (and they throw in an unnecessary acid trip at the end) that the players would be expected to make up their own ending and answer the unanswered questions themselves but that’s not why 80% of people watch TV and it’s not why I play games. I’m all for using intelligence to figure stuff out for myself but not to this level. It feels like lazy story telling.

Gameplay wise, all I have to say is that Anne has got zero pace and zero options for faster movement. You have to walk around and click on various things to progress through scenes. There are optional collectibles but even these are bizarre and I’ll cover them below.

Graphically, it doesn’t look good. It’s blocky an unappealing on the eye however some people have praised it so this is clearly personal taste.

In summary, it doesn’t look good, it doesn’t have dialogue and the music it does have is irritating and the story is a clusterfuck of shit followed by an acid trip. I have no idea where the good opinions came from.

Achievement – 1,000 Points – 17 Achievements

Viriginia requires two playthroughs to complete for the simple reason that one of the achievements is for completing it twice. The rest can be gathered in a single two-hour playthrough but you need to know where the collectibles are to do this.

You get one for default by playing the game through for the first time. There are ten feathers and ten flowers to collect throughout the adventure and a load of other random stuff too.

All of the other stuff you have to collect doesn’t actually unlock anything. After you collect them, you need to see said items in situ. An example of this is where you pick up a pair of glasses. These glasses will then appear on another character and you have to see the other character wearing them for an achievement. This is where it gets stupid because, obviously, why can pick up a pair of glasses only for them to appear on the face of another random character?

I used a guide to ensure I didn’t miss anything and some of this stuff didn’t unlock at the same points for all players. Mine were pretty much all delayed until the end of the game. With the collections, once you have all ten flowers and all ten feathers, you then need to view them in your apartment towards the end of the game for the achievements to unlock.

This is a minor point but the achievement names and descriptions don’t tell you anything about what you have to do to unlock them so in effect, they are all secret achievements.

Downloadable Content – N/A

I didn’t enjoy Virginia and if this is 505 Games’ idea of a game, I won’t be playing any more of their titles. It is less than a four-hour completion for achievement hunters but it’s an unengaging, unrewarding, uninteresting completion.