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Review | Game review: Virginia – a completely wordless yet fascinating experience

First-person interactive drama game, with its unashamed nods to 1990s TV shows such as Twin Peaks and The X-Files, provides highly immersive and incredibly memorable entertainment

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Virginia tells a fascinating, constantly engaging and deeply heartening tale.

Virginia

Variable State

4 stars

Gaming geeks like us get pretty excited when the media world shows interest in a small-scale video game.

It only happens very rarely and, more often than not, when it comes to coverage by big news outlets it’s usually about the negative effects of games such as Grand Theft Auto. But the indie release Virginia has recently caught the interest of the media largely because of the influences it wears on its sleeve: The X-Files, Twin Peaks and other 1990s TV shows that have recently witnessed a nostalgic resurgence.

However, there’s even more going on in this game than in those often weird-for-weird sake shows. For starters, Virginia (for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows and OS) is unlike any game you’ve ever played: a mostly silent, completely wordless experience where you have no influence on how the story progresses.

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