Virtua Cop 2

Virtua Cop 2 is a light gun arcade game, released in 1995 and developed internally at Sega by their AM2 studio. It was ported to home systems on the Sega Saturn in 1996. It was released in PC in 1997 and Dreamcast in 2000. It was later bundled with Virtua Cop in Virtua Cop: Elite Edition for PlayStation 2 in 2002.

This game was known as Virtua Squad 2 for the North American PC release.

The game was succeeded by Virtua Cop 3.

Gameplay
The game features three levels through which the player's movement is automated on a predetermined path. It is the player's job to shoot the criminals that appear before time runs out and they shoot back. Along the way there will be various objects in the background that can be broken if shot, some of which will reveal power ups afterwards. At the end of each level there is a boss battle, as well as one extra final boss battle after all three levels have been finished.

Background
During the events of the first game, Michael "Rage" Hardy and James "Smarty" Cools shut down the EVL Inc. criminal empire. Three of its leaders, King, Boss, and Kong are all in the maximum security federal pen. And the final, fourth member of the EVL Inc. gang, international terrorist Joe Fang is believed to have been killed in a helicopter crash, though his body was never found. After the downfall of EVL Inc., a comprehensive investigation of their black market and gun-running activities was launched in the Virtua City bank.

Last year it looked as though the Virtua Squad had finally put an end to the EVL Syndicate’s reign of crime over Virtua City. The gangleaders were all either behind bars, in intensive care, or under 6 feet of dirt. And the Virtua City Police Special Investigations Unit got a new member in the shape of Janet Marshall, an expert in criminal psychology profiling.

Then trouble started brewing in unlikely places.... The vice-president of the Virtua City Bank was killed in shady circumstances that were only officially termed "accidental". And the swollen accounts of the now-defunct EVL Syndicate, which he had been suspected of laundering, were emptied overnight. The missing funds amounted to more than the GNP of most small countries.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, alarms break the quiet and calm of the Virtua City air. A daring daylight raid on the biggest jeweler’s in the state! And at the site of the new subway construction, there’s been an unusual amount of unexplained activity involving some very suspicious-looking materiel. Looks like the EVL is reborn.

Summary
The newly reformed EVL threatening the peace and safety of Virtua City. Its new leaders are currently unknown. Can they be allowed to continue their fiendish reign of terror?

Stage 1: Beginner: You interrupt a jewelry heist in progress, and follow the thieves in a running car-chase firefight.
 * Boss: Bobbie Louise, the leader of the assault on the jewelry store downtown. Bobbie Louise is one big customer, but don’t be fooled - he’s no slowpoke.

Stage 2: Medium: Rescue the mayor of Virtua City from vicious kidnappers. Follow them to their hideout in the yacht harbor, and blast them off the Fiesta Deck.
 * Boss: Aero-Divers, a high-tech paramilitary unit calling the shots in the mission to kidnap the Virtua City mayor. They prefer aerial combat tactics that make full use of the manueverability afforded by their rocket belt packs. They swarm all over their opponents in overwhelming group formations.

Stage 3: Expert: Pursue the crooks into the subway system, and even deeper into the heart of the Virtua City underground. Destroy the subterranean terrorist HQ.
 * Boss: Garse Bradley, the commander of a paramilitary terrorist organization, Bradley has a secret underground base in the bowels of Virtua City. Caution is advised in dealing with this heavily-armored commando. Garse’s favorite is a tank which he will use against the cops.

Final Stage: The stage is one final battle against the main villain.
 * Final Boss: The Mastermind, the man behind the recent chain of events and resurrected EVL. Nothing much is known about him, except he has a nasty grudge against the Virtua Cops. He is using a high-tech rocket belt pack similar to that of Aero-Divers.

Combat Training Mode
In a city plagued by crime, it isn’t unusual for the Virtua Cops to find themselves facing down crowds of gun-wielding thugs single-handed. To keep their skills honed to a razor edge, the Virtua City PD has developed a combat training simulator, known as the “ .Proving Ground.- This training environment is still in its developmental stages, but it is already capable of confronting a trainee with a variety of life-threatening “situations.” Each Proving Ground stage is designed to simulate a hostile urban environment thronging with gun-crazy punks. The goal of each stage is to blast through the crowd of flunkies while hunting down and taking out your rival player. Don’t worry about getting wounded in the crossfire though - every trainee gets body armor, and the guns fire paint pellets.

The GamesMaster Challenge Event
In 1997, former Games World Videator and future videogames journalist Martin Mathers appeared on the British videogames television show GamesMaster and participated in a challenge to complete a stage on two separate Virtua Cop 2 cabinets at the same time. Mathers performed admirably, but ultimately failed the challenge after shooting a bystander and losing a life. After the camera captured him venting his frustrations (although inaudible, he can clearly be seen to be mouthing expletives), he cut a post-challenge promo joking that he had taken pity on the bystander and performed a mercy killing, due to the apparent likeness to British pop singer Peter Andre. This challenge can be seen on the GamesMaster DVD given away on the tenth anniversary issue of GamesMaster magazine in 2003.