Virtua Cop 2

About Virtua Cop 2

Virtua Cop 2 (1995) is Sega AM2's polygonal light-gun sequel, adding branching routes, car and subway chases and a third cop, Janet Marshall, and Japan's highest-grossing dedicated arcade game of 1996.

Virtua Cop 2 in Depth

Players move automatically along a set path through three levels, but unlike the first game they choose between two routes at certain points. The job is to shoot criminals before they fire back, avoiding innocent bystanders, while breakable background objects can hide power-ups. As before, "justice shots" to an enemy's gun hand disarm them for extra points, and avoiding hits and hostages builds a score multiplier. Each level ends with a boss, followed by a final boss after all three. A Proving Ground mode sets players in hostile urban environments to fight through thugs and hunt down the rival player.

The Virtua City Police officers Michael "Rage" Hardy and James "Smarty" Cools, who brought down the E.V.I.L. Inc. criminal empire, are joined by Janet Marshall, an expert in criminal profiling. After a bank vice-president dies in suspicious circumstances and E.V.I.L.'s laundered accounts are emptied, a jewellery heist, a hostage-taking of the mayor on a ship and strange activity at a subway construction site lead back to terrorist Joe Fang, thought killed in a helicopter crash, whom players finally shoot down as he attacks on a jet pack.

Making Virtua Cop 2

After the first Virtua Cop did well in arcades, Sega AM2 followed it with Virtua Cop 2 in 1995. Game Machine listed it as Japan's second most successful dedicated arcade game in its 1 November 1995 issue, and it became the highest-grossing dedicated arcade game of 1996 in Japan. Next Generation said that "no other laser-gun shooter comes close to it right now", praising its frame rate, level design and pacing.

The Saturn version, shown at E3 in May 1996 with only its first level playable, was praised as a close conversion and a considerable improvement on the original, with more interactive environments and intense chase scenes, though some again felt it too short for a home game while others pointed to the extra length of its branches. GameSpot said AM2 "delivered an incredible sequel that takes the concept to a whole new level", and EGM ranked it 98th among the best games of all time in 1997. Windows and Dreamcast versions followed, and Virtua Cop 3 succeeded it.