The main menu of Virginia says “Press Enter to Take a Trip”. That is about as perfect a way to describe the game as I can: “A Trip”. This is like if David Lynch made a game. The whole thing feels like an acid trip of sorts. There is no dialogue at all so the game depends on facial reactions; music; and visual clues to make sure you can figure out what is going on. Luckily for Virginia those three things were the game’s strong points. The music was especially fantastic throughout the game. The graphics stunning but had a very simplistic quality that managed to be more detailed than I expected in it’s own way. I won’t pretend I understood the whole game but I understood enough to appreciate the story and the ability of the developers to intertwine various stories to all flow together without using voice acting. Gameplay wise it is mostly a walking sim as you are finding what objects to interact with.
I played Virginia on Linux using Valve’s Proton. It never crashed on me and I didn’t notice any glitches. The game only has options for resolution; motion blur and a toggle for AA. There is a frame limiter but it only had options for 30 and 60 FPS. I would have preferred a Vsync option. I left it at unlimited rather than 30 or 60. The game has an auto save system but it never tells you exactly when it’s saving so the one time I exited the game and reloaded my game I was further back then expected. I would have preferred a manual save system. Alt-Tab Works. The game’s performance was flawless.
Game Engine: Unity
Save System: Auto
Disk Space Used: 4.04 GB
Input Used: Keyboard + Mouse
Details Used: 1080P; AA on; Motion Blur Off
GPU Usage: 77-100 %
VRAM Usage: 1498-2053 MB
CPU Usage: 35-60 %
RAM Usage: 3.1-3.6 GB
Frame Rate: 79-228 FPS
If you enjoy things like Twin Peaks; X-Files; or games such as Off-Peak or Brothers than you should try Virginia. It has a great story and music. It’s a bit out there sometimes and can be hard to figure out some details but this is one time it works in favour of the game in my opinion. I finished the game in ninety nine minutes and it felt like a natural length for the game, not rushed or dragged out. I paid $1.09 CAD for Virginia on Steam, and full price for it on GOG. It is worth it’s current full price of $10.99 CAD.
My Score: 8/10
My System:
AMD FX-6100 | 16GB DDR3-1333 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 20.3.4 | Samsung 870 QVO 1TB | Manjaro 20.2.1 | Mate 1.24.1 | Kernel 5.10.15-1-MANJARO | Proton 5.13-6