Klutz Cop! (Virtua Squad 2 (PS))

Member Name: martial_loh

Product:	Virtua Squad 2 (PS)
Date:	22/09/01 (144 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Arcade gameplay...

Disadvantages: best left in the arcade stalls!

I'm reviewing a title called Virtua Cop 2..... I have no idea what Virtua Squad is, but I'm assuming it is VC2 (Virtua Cop2)!!

Basically, this is a direct conversion from the Sega Saturn version of this game. The graphics look really dated, the music is not too good(except for one song) and the control system is questionable.
Basically this game is a standard arcade shooting game. The gameplay can be described as "point a gun at the screen and shoot".
First off, the controls. You can control the targetting crosshair on the screen with the mouse.......it is SO easy to target your enemies in this mode! The only difficult thing about the controls are that you tend to shoot everything that moves - even civilians......which isn't very cop-like eh?
You could substitute the mouse with a joypad, although this gets frustrating very quickly! You don't control which way you move - the camera moves by itself, although you do get the choice of which path to chase your enemies down (about once per stage).

There are 3 stages plus one (lame)final boss encounter. THey are labelled easy, medium and hard, although they are all easy using the mouse. The stages are set in different scenarios - 1) a street chase scene, 2) on a cruise liner, 3) in a railtrain and a warehouse....

THe graphics are crude. The 3d models often cut (i.e, the man/woman's arms go through their bodies etc.) and the textures are very ugly. Having said that, this game is quite old, so i suppose we can overlook the graphical aspects for now...
The variety of criminals is astonishing... all the badguys are either dressed in black, or in an army cossy....how original eh? The civilian suffer from this cloning disaster too...all men are in brownish/grey suits and all women are in red jumpers..... gah!
You'd have thought Sega would have been able to fit on more data onto them darned CDs?!!

Gamepla modes. On the PC there is "Arca
de mode" and "Proving Grounds". The first mode is a straight on "play-through-the-stages" fest and the second mode is just a sharpshooting fling. The music to Proving grounds is the only song in the game that is catchy or good. Every other piece of music/sound effect is very bad.
There are only a few weapons to use in VC2. There is the standard handgun (carries 5 bullets), the machine gun (carries 20-odd), the shotgun (6 bullets) and the magnum (7 bullets i think). Each weapon does exactly the same thing (yes - kill people), making no difference to the gameplay. The machine gun cannot be reloaded, the shotgun does not wreak havok and the magnum is just a glorified handgun......
I wish Sega had implemented more detail in the weapons - the range is just not good enough when you compare the game to say.....a primitive First person shooter like Doom!!!!!!
The control system is just not suited to the PC. The main reason for this is that ter are hardly any lightguns available on the PC nowadays (also there is a distinct lack of these types of games too)
There are secret modes in VC2 - big heads for everyone and random order of play (basically the camera moves more randomnly -wow...). The game is not difficult to complete ad if you spend more than £2-3 buying this game, you'll feel shortchanged.....
I didn't have super high expectations for this game, but with Sega's spectacular arcade history and briliant conversions like Sega Rally 2, you would expect a bit more.
Some arcade games are best left at their stalls. VC2 is definently one of them. Hopefully other companies will take heed of VC2 on the PC - don't bring this type of game onto the market - PC gamers don't have light guns to make full use of the games!!!!!!
PS - i got this game for free! So I didnt ge ripped off! HAHAHA!

Summary: