why i Love virgiNiA’s siLeNT sTory

If words are cheap, the makers of Virginia are the richest of all, telling a gorgeous story with no need for dialogue kimberley ballard

Publisher 505 Games / develoPer Variable state / format xbox one / release date september 2016

In classical Latin, an ‘expression’ denotes an action of ‘pressing out’, or of a ‘projection’. In late Latin, it also represents ‘vividness’. It was only in the 15th century that ‘expression’ became synonymous with ‘putting into words’. This is a shame because too often, expression is only seen as the act of speaking. In cinema and games, characters must say how they feel because how are we expected to know otherwise? The only expression that really counts is the kind that comes wrapped in quotation marks.

The debut game from Jonathan Burroughs eschews this obvious form of expression, creating a mysterious, multilayered narrative with a complete absence of dialogue. Instead of what characters say, it becomes what they It’s curious that on a day where she don’t. And instead of the words that should be celebrating, Anne lingers in come out of their mouths, it becomes the bathroom, alone and dejected. a nuanced study of body language, In the next scene, it’s years later facial features and what simmers and Anne is travelling from Virginia quietly beneath the surface. It’s a to investigate the disappearance of bold move in a culture that relies on a young boy in the town of Kingdom. dialogue as a tool of understanding. Despite the jump in years, the game

At the time of its release, Virginia is perfumed with loneliness. We know was divisive: tantalising critics from Anne’s empty, airy apartment that who applauded its similarities to she lives alone. Her rumpled bed exists Twin Peaks and art-house style of for one person, and she navigates storytelling, while alienating players every location alone, whether it’s who found it long-winded and a long ride in an elevator or a slow pompous. But beneath Variable descent to a carpark. State’s arguably contrarian approach to videogames is an experience you animate your fate In a game without words, every object is ripe with symbolism. A locket with won’t find elsewhere. The game’s low-poly art style was inspired by Glen a picture inside becomes

When Virginia begins, Keane, who helped create armour, of guarding we’re introduced to a variety of Disney movies. someone against our the main character, Fitting, as Virginia plays heart. The recurring Anne Tarver, during a out like a fairy tale. image of a dead bird formative moment: she’s becomes about fragility; the about to graduate from the death of innocence. And the FBI Academy to become a fully pursuit for a lost child becomes about fledged agent. From a single scene, the search for self. Colours, which we know she is riddled with doubt typically denote emotion, also have a and insecurity. But how? All we have role to play. Anne believes something is her blank expression as she stares is bubbling in Kingdom, a mystery that into a mirror and puts on her lipstick. is as red as blood and fierce as rage, But there is much to unravel. Make-up which is pierced with an ice blue: a means artifice. The act of applying melancholy that tinges every scene. make-up could be like putting on a For the investigation, Anne is paired mask, either for protection or to try to with an older and more experienced convince others she is someone else. agent, Maria Halpernin. A brittle enigma

“Their relationship isn’t sexual but it is intimate, their feelings unfurling in basements and cars” ABOVE Sitting in diners alone and drinking coffee is very in fashion.

who treats Anne frostily, she reluctantly begins to thaw as friendship develops. Anne and Maria are two misfits who over the course of the game become a single entity. Their relationship isn’t sexual but it is intimate, their feelings unfurling in small, tight spaces like basements and cars. Driving back and forth to Kingdom means being in a state of constant transit, and so each woman becomes the other’s constant. Their cocoon is shattered, however, when Maria discovers Anne has been investigating her: a betrayal that cracks them in two. What is fractured cannot be brought together again.

Broken dreams

This relationship becomes the silent but pulsating heart of Virginia. And the lack of words between the two women is telling. You get the impression that bruises bloom where their tongues should be: they can’t speak because if they could, they’d be screaming.

Expression, then, isn’t what these characters say, but what their actions reveal. The state of Virginia itself is an expression: not a land mass but a metaphysical land of wishes, dreams, longing and regret. Accentuated by Lyndon Holland and his gorgeous soundtrack, Anne fills the landscape with how she feels, and it ripples around her with tumultuous force.

Despite a staunch divide in opinion, critics and players loved to pick apart Virginia’s final act, where present and future crash together in an extended, dreamlike sequence. It’s striking, yes, but it’s the quiet moments that sing: the recurring image of a clock ticking down a life, an apartment that ripples with loneliness, and eveyday objects that become portals into the heart. n