Video game comparison
After watching the walkthrough for both ‘Journey’ and ‘Virginia’ I found it fascinating that whilst both lacked dialogue, I related much more to Journey and found it a far superior game.
The imaginative script for Journey doesn’t ever feel like it needs dialogue, the theme is completely embodied and understood by the majestic simplicity of the scenery and the use of music. It is so universal in it’s elements that even an alien from another galaxy could see it and understand the symbolism of life, death and rebirth. The figure could be anyone and it could be used as a calling card to communicate what matters to us.
The visual approach used in the ‘Virginia’ created tension and suspense, reminiscent of film noir classically used for investigative narratives. Unlike Journey however, I found the non-existent dialogue meant that I lost interest pretty quickly in what was going on. The detective theme didn’t work as well without dialogue as the more unearthly theme of ‘Journey,’ it made less sense that no-one was saying anything and whilst it did hold my attention with the element of suspense in the first 11 minutes as the player waits to see how the story evolves, it doesn’t seem to evolve very much very quickly, so for gamers with a low attention span, this might not be ideal.
The benefit of this approach should be that the audience can be universal and they can transfer their own meaning to the narrative, but where ‘Journey’ succeeds in incorporating the symbolism of struggling through the void of life, ‘Virginia’ falls flat at keeping my interest in the narrative. Strange then that ‘Journey’ should be so droid of narrative, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. I’ve never been so taken in by so little.
Both games benefit from a calm, single character journey, combined with sounds that compliment and confirm the narrative. A new gamer could use them to get used to the controls without the panic of death, but ‘Journey’ takes you on a journey – a beautiful journey through life, and death and rebirth into both nothingness and everythingness.
