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The mind of a detective is a web of troubling images.
Scenes of bodies and blood occupy the same space as justice and determination. Liars and killers are as commonplace as images of crime and its consequences throughout detective fiction. It makes for compelling, entrancing storytelling. The kind of thing that you wouldn’t want to see in real life, but can’t tear your eyes away from through the glass of a television screen.
Virginia understands this. The upcoming title looks to blend the hard-boiled investigations of detective fiction with the first-person perspective of video games. Based off of the game’s recently released demo, it’s as much Twin Peaks and True Detective as it is Firewatch and Thirty Flights of Loving; a blend of the ethereal and investigative that balances game-like wonder with filmic sensibilities.
Through it’s a short demo, the current playable build of Virginia is remarkably satisfying. There’s no dialogue, nor is there any context given to players. It starts and tasks the player with taking an active role in its story while also succumbing to the whims of its film-like editing.
Virginia emulates the best moments of scenes from detective television shows. You’re thrown into a scene with little information to go, but you know that there’s a reason for being there.
Even in its opening scene, as your partner breaks the terrible news of a tragedy to an unknowing family, you serve a purpose. There’s a reason that you are not sitting at the table and delivering the bad news. You can linger and watch the scene if you like, but it changes nothing. Your job is to find some clues and make sense of the scene around you. Rust Cohle doesn’t take time to soak in the scenery.
That’s part of what makes Virginia so interesting. The demo is carried ever forward by slick editing. There’s never any time to stop and wonder what’s going on. Like so many detectives in literature and television, your job is to move ever onward, rarely long enough to even digest what you see.
It makes for a game that feels dreamlike. Similar to True Detective and Twin Peaks, Virginia carries itself in a manner that alludes to the feeling that the otherworldly might be just around the corner. This sentiment is aided by the cinematic edits. Throughout the demo, jump cuts and screen burns transition from one scene to the next without stopping to fill the player in on what they’ve just seen. It’s mysterious and teasing, but utterly magical to experience.
In just twenty minutes, Virginia manages to sell itself on simple aesthetic style alone. Every different scene that you enter has value, be it from subtle character building, general framing, or haunting atmosphere. Interpersonal relationships are shown, washed away, and replaced with something new and interesting within seconds of one another, emulating the constant mental overload of an overworked detective.
Virginia’s demo is a series of moments that connect to make something special that still seems to obscure its true intentions. Despite being a vertical slice of an upcoming game, the playable bit is undoubtedly one of 2016’s most interesting and compelling gaming moments. There’s a whole world of weird to be found in its minimalistic, yet vibrant vision of Virginia, and it’s worth paying attention to.
