Forums - Virtua Squad

Virtua Squad is a port of an arcade game called "Virtua Cop", developed by SEGA in 1996.

The game is a generic FPS with some aspects: you share same camera in 2 player mode, automatic movement(a movement feature would be nice, though), zooming in when an enemy in sight etc. It's theme is vigilance, and our goal is preventing criminal activities.

When we start the game, we are greeted with SEGA logo. After that, we are watch a tutorial demonstrating the shooting mechanism. After that, we are select a level of 3 levels, with a difficulty setting(Beginner, Medium, Expert). Each level has a name. For example, Beginner level is named "Arms Black Market".

"No greetings, no handshakes?" Well, game is start without any intro, apart from the tutorial. You are shoot with LMB, and reload with RMB(twice). This game is designed by SEGA AM2 Development Team, the makers of House of the Dead, so you will be familiar with these controls apart from reloading which requires right clicking twice.

You will kill the criminals, but each shot gives different points. A headshot gives less points, when a justice shot gives a little of more points than headshot. This is valid for those who played this game in arcade or consoles, or fans of those games, however if you are high fan of CoD like games(like me), you will disappointed a bit. Of course, not the criminals are starring, also we encounter civilians. There are life counters(approx. 6) which increases in passing levels, shooting "Life up" icon, etc. It will decrease when you shoot the civilians, apart from criminals shooting you. So, watch for the civilians and don't shoot when they are beg to you. A tip from me; if you kill the criminals that not in scene, you get bonus. Rest of the game is same as other(FPS type) games, so we go directly to graphics:

GRAPHICS: ****
Graphics would be acceptable for 1996. However, the graphics still looks good, but loses a point due graphics are a bit outdated. The design is good. I will reward the graphics with 4 points.

SOUND: ****
Another 4 point shoot from me; sounds are generic but near arcade.

PLAYABILITY: ****
4 points again. The game is played with mouse, although you can play with keyboard(2nd player controls). Also you will enjoy the game with exciting scenes. But there comes the missing triads: no automatic reload, no movement(it's automatic), and right clicking twice to reload. Although the latter one was fixed in game's sequel, Virtual Cop 2, the former two would make the game better.

GENERAL POINT: ****
I would give the game 5 points if there are fixed errors. Still, if you bored those criminal hunting part in GTA, fan of the series, or want a SEGA quality game port, I recommend this. Or I recommend you to crank up an emulator and play Alex Kidd, another SEGA work.

Note: This is 100th thread of Your Reviews board, and my first review. Comments are appriecated. Thanks. Also, I forgot a detail, it was distributed by Expert Software(the company that later acquired by Activision and became Activision Publishing Minneapolis).