Virtua Cop

"The start of a great series"

Virtua Cop was one of Sega's first arcade releases on the Sega Saturn. Unlike the initial Saturn Virtua Fighter debacle, Virtua Cop is a fine example of AM2's programming prowess. VC1, along with Virtua Fighter 2 and Sega Rally, demonstrated to the gaming public that the Sega Saturn was very capable of 3D graphics and hundreds of thousands of polygons onscreen. Unfortunately most of the gaming public ignored it and continued to buy that other system.

Graphics -- 8/10
Detractors of the sytem will scream that the graphics are not arcade perfect. Well it is unreasonable to expect a mid 90s home console system to perfectly emulate Sega's Model 2 arcade board. I doubt the other system, which was based on Namco's inferior System 11 board would have properly ported this game either! Nevertheless, VC1 is a beautiful game. Although it is presented in 3D rails, the game is completely polygonal. The polygons are solid with no flickering or breakup. The colors are nice, bright, and crisp. There should be no real valid arguments about the look of VC1. Enemies look and move better than the digitized graphics found on other rail shooters of its time. Even with multiple enemies, there is no slowdown.

Sound/Music -- 7/10
It sounds like gunfire, only not as loud. The music is unmemorable neither good nor bad. My only complaint is the horrible voice acting found throughout the game. "Dont shoot me" and "ahhhh" Although those phrases are appropriate for a shooting game, somehow they detract from the realism of this game.

Gameplay -- 7/10
Since VC1 is the first Sega 3D rails shooter for that generation, I forgive the linear aspects of this game. There are only a few extra guns that merely shoot faster. There are no branching levels nor bonus items around the game. The gamer simply walks from one area to another. No car chases either. It is simple, but simplicity is not a bad thing. I love this game and its difficulty is slightly higher than VC2. There are only 3 levels to choose from. Each one is reasonably long and there is a final boss level if the gamer goes in order of difficulty.

Last thoughts --
VC1 was a pack-in game with the Three for Free promotion that Sega desperately used to sell more systems. No doubt Sega sold more Saturns because of this deal, but I wonder how much money they made from it. Hardware is always sold at a loss and software is supposed to make up for it. If Sega gives away some of its best games, then where was the profit? Anyway I digress. VC1 is a fantastic game that stood up well against even the 3rd generation Saturn titles. By the way, load times only occur between levels. This game receives my recommendation.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/10/05