After waiting a while for the update. I have finished the game yesterday. So here are my impressions:
1) The soundtrack is just A-MA-ZING! I know that most people who bought Virginia (me too) were probably attracted by the artstyle and the promised mystery but this soundtrack is something else. I SO HOPE TO SEE THE SOUNDTRACK HERE ON GOG as well. In fact the soundtrack is that good that you could close your eyes, play the game and still would get goose bumps ;)
2) The artstyle: I was a bit surprised. Everybody was saying the artstyle is minimalistic. On the one hand that might be true if you look at the missing shadows, blocky sourroundings/faces ect - on the other hand however there are some really nice effects in it like smoke, bloom, light beams. The mix of minimalistic and great looking makes this special.
3) The story: I was so "I saw Lynch movies and interpreted them - I can do this" when I started playing the game. In fact having to find out what every scene means is part of the fun. Because of the missing dialogues every little scene is becoming a little puzzle. What is shown? Who am I? Why am I here? What does it mean? To make things a bit more difficult the devs added a lot of smash cuts so that sometimes you will be desoriented a moment. Not knowing where or even WHEN you are or IF you are in reality or a dream or a vision. If you want to know what gameplay the game actually offers I'd say THIS is it. Find out the meaning, the time, the who, where and why. It's like a puzzle told scene by scene. And again: it's not a whodunit - in fact the "missing person case" is not the real focus here. The game pretty much is focusing on the main characters here. To tell you the truth: I managed to understand the beginning quite well but in the end I was quite puzzled and did not get everything. BUT I was so intrigued to understanmd all the connections that I definitely will play it again. I don't know if I would do this if the game was about 10-20 hours but I don't mind replaying a story of 2 hours (it's really not longer). So imo the playtime is not a problem it's helpful. With a playtime of roughly 2 hours it is as if you are rewatching a movie you just did not get the first time. But to make this clear: this is not a choiced base game in which your choices are influencing the story. The only "choice" you have in the game ist to pick up some special items or leave them be - but thoose items don't change anything! If you want to experience a choice based game like The Walking Dead or Game Of Thrones - skip this one. Really!
So it's the soundtrack, the artstyle, the guessing and .... the first person perspectice with your own pace. 100% of the game is shown directly through the eyes of a character. Making you really feel as if you ARE the character which raises immersion a lot. It feels as if you are IN a movie and it is upt to you when you want to progress the scene. True: mostly "progessing the scene" ist just "clicking on a special spot" but until you do so you could often walk around, look around - as if you are in a freezed frame of a movie (even though there still sometimes is animation it it - so It does not feel dead).
So in the end: I recommend this to everybody who does not mind the relatively short playtime, who likes a good and emotional orchestral soundtrack, who likes unusual and mysterious movies, who likes Twin Peaks/David Lynch, wo likes to interpret things, who likes mysteries, who wants to experience something completely different.
Maybe this helps a bit to understand the concept of the game a bit better. I loved it.
Post edited March 06, 2017 by MarkoH01