Since their inception, the Gal Gun games have suffered from a strong concept being poorly executed. The games were overpriced, short, ridiculously easy, and their gameplay was shallow. My expectations for this final game in the series were therefore appropriately low. Imagine my surprise when Gal Gun 2 actually ended up being a damn good time.
Its story once again follows a conflict between heaven and hell, in which our protagonist becomes an unfortunate pawn. Unbeknownst to us, a demon has invaded the school and is causing all sorts of mischief. Most worrisome of all being its power to create familiars that are possessing our female classmates and teachers. An angel called Risu enlists us to combat this demonic threat, but in a somewhat roundabout way. She makes us irresistible to women and hands us the series' staple Pheremone Shot. Now women both possessed and normal will be drawn to us at all times, so that we can "exorcise" them. In other words, make them horny to the point of fainting.
Rather than a linear adventure, Gal Gun 2 provides you with a mission select system. You have a set amount of days to meet your demon-hunting quota and complete the main story. You can only do 2 missions per day, but you can retry them if you fail without incurring any penalty. Besides the main story, there are also optional missions to consider. Some of these are just for a reward, while others progress neat side-stories that can lead to wholly different endings.
Gameplay, then, is reworked a lot. In such a way that I feel the good ideas of prior games are finally coming together here. Rather than an on-rails shooter, Gal Gun 2 has you move between set points on the map where girls then assault you. You can look around 360 degrees, up and down, it's no longer a fixed perspective. This also means that your targets will appear from every direction imaginable. They'll surround you, harass you from floors above or below you, even crawl out of sewers to confess their love.
The girls are far more aggressive now. They initiate attacks much quicker and have no qualms against doing so while off-screen. Then throw in the demons, which are little imps that cling to the girls. You have to snipe these little bastards off their victims, then either shoot them until they vanish or suck them up with your little vacuum—Luigi's Mansion style. This gets hectic when they get mixed in with other girls. They can even hop from one victim to the next, making it even harder for you to reduce the number of threats you're dealing with.
It's a challenge and that's what Gal Gun lacked up until now. Finally these missions were engaging outside of their mildly-lewd appeal. I was invested in the moment, thinking on the fly. It was a great time.
What makes this work even better is the inclusion of VR. Having to physically turn around and aim adds a welcome layer of extra challenge and, of course, immersion. With the 100% accuracy of mouse & keyboard, it is once again trivial to score those critical hits on your targets. Having to do so in VR is much trickier as your hand trembles ever-so-slightly. And having to turn, lean, or even duck to avoid attacks and get an angle on your enemies feels so fun to do. I was often tired after just a few missions and once even ended up with sore muscles the day after playing.
New to the game is a screen-clearing move that replaces Doki Doki mode. When a girl stands near you, you can lean towards them and look into their eyes to fluster them. This rapidly fills up a meter depending on just how close to them you are. Fill it up and fire a shot, and they explode into joy. Taking every other girl in the vicinity down with them. It's a nice risk vs reward system, as doing this leaves you open to attack. It's also again more intense in VR because getting that close to someone, even if they are a fake anime person, feels positivel awkward. Yet you can't half-ass it or the meter won't fill. So man up and stare into this adoring eyes.
Of course VR isn't available to everyone. Even I had trouble running the game on my modest system. The game would lag or freeze up, physics would misbehave, and turning around too quickly would often see the environment not load quickly enough. Usually during extended play sessions or when there were too many visual effects going off at once. The vacuum especially had a habit of slowing the game down. Something which I suspect is connected to its intense graphics.
Doki Doki mode is also still around, but relegated to a mini-game now. It triggers at the culmination of the romantic side-quests and has you scan a person's body looking for hidden demons. There is not much to it and it takes a whole 3 minutes to complete now. You can also invite random classmates to play this mini-game with, which doesn't do much. Again outside of being kind of lewd.
I'll also say that the story is much more interesting than in prior Gal Gun games. Risu is an immediately more interesting partner than prior angel companions for one thing. There is more depth to her personality and her involvement in the plot feels more direct. Kurona is also back to once again cause mischief, which was certainly welcome. She and Risu have great chemistry together as rivals, in turn steering the plot in fun directions.
The two romantic options are both more lowkey this time around. Nanako is your typical childhood friend with a forgettable design, whereas Chiru is a gaming-obsessed NEET. Both become more interesting though as you explore more of their story. An effort is even made to characterize the random classmates some more. They get special missions dedicated to them and have unique lines of dialogue each, on top of their bios which are now unlocked by default.
It took a while, but Gal Gun 2 finally realizes the series' potential. Though I must stress that it's not perfect and your access to VR will be a big influence on whether it's worth getting or not. Without VR you still get a fun enough game with an enjoyable story, but also the constant sensation that something is missing. The steep decrease in difficulty is too noticeable on mouse & keyboard. Not to mention its attempt are recreating the freedom to lean and duck with stilted WASD inputs.
If the premise of the series seemed interesting to you, then just get this one. You don't have to have played either of the prior games to enjoy Gal Gun 2. At worse you'll miss out on a few in-jokes.
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