Played on Meta Quest 3 with Virtual Desktop Final score: 8/10 Graphics & Performance The game uses a clean and colorful anime art style that fits the series perfectly. The environments and characters are stylized in a way that really makes it feel like you're standing inside an anime school, surrounded by cute anime girls reacting dramatically to everything you do. The visual presentation is simple, but very effective at delivering the atmosphere the game is going for. Because of the relatively simple graphics, the game is also extremely lightweight. I personally played it on an RTX 2060 with 6GB of VRAM, running the game at maximum settings while also using very high SteamVR supersampling, and it still ran flawlessly. Performance is extremely stable, which is always important for a comfortable VR experience. Story & Characters It's important to mention that this is not the first game in the Gal*Gun series. The other titles feature actual stories, character interactions, dialogues during gameplay, and a more traditional progression. In this case, GalGun VR is more of an experimental VR experience. It was created primarily to test whether the gameplay formula of the series could work well in virtual reality, something that would later be fully implemented in GalGun 2 . Because of that, the game has no real narrative. There are no dialogues, conversations, or story progression. It is purely an arcade-style experience where waves of characters appear and the player reacts to them. That said, the characters still have plenty of personality through exaggerated reactions, expressions, and animations. Another important detail is that the game is definitely NSFW in tone. The entire premise revolves around anime girls falling in love with the player and reacting in exaggerated ways to your pheromone shots. However, despite the suggestive themes and jokes, there is nothing explicit happening between the characters. Gameplay The gameplay works very much like classic arcade rail shooters. You stay in the same spot while enemies move toward you. In this case, instead of monsters or soldiers, it's waves of cute anime girls approaching from every direction. Your job is to aim and shoot before they get too close. Despite the premise, the game isn't violent at all. Instead of weapons, you're shooting pheromones that overwhelm the girls with love until they faint dramatically. The game is extremely fun to play. The mechanics are simple, but aiming and shooting in VR is incredibly satisfying. Looking around quickly, reacting to characters appearing from different directions, and landing precise shots creates a very enjoyable gameplay loop. The stages are all distinct and interesting. Each one has different layouts and enemy patterns, which helps keep the gameplay fresh. Replaying them to improve your score or to unlock achievements never feels boring or tedious, even though you will be repeating them many times. The game also creates a strong nostalgic feeling by recreating the classic rail shooter formula in VR, and it does so very well. Each stage has its own ranking system, allowing you to compete against yourself while trying to reach the highest possible rank. You can also compare scores with friends, which adds another incentive to replay stages and improve your performance. VR Experience As a VR experience, the game is very straightforward. You stay mostly in place while characters appear around you. This makes it very comfortable to play in VR, since there is no artificial locomotion that could cause motion sickness. Enemies appear from different directions, forcing you to constantly turn your head and stay aware of your surroundings. This works very well in virtual reality and makes the gameplay feel much more engaging than it would on a normal screen. It's not the most technically complex VR title out there, but the interaction feels natural, responsive, and very satisfying. Replay Value By design, this is a short game. Most of the replay value comes from replaying stages to improve your rank, chasing better scores, and unlocking everything the game has to offer. It works well as a quick arcade-style VR experience that you can jump back into for short sessions. Gal*Gun 2 Gal*Gun VR is essentially a smaller experimental experience. All of its stages, characters, and gameplay mechanics were later included in the sequel, Gal*Gun 2 , which features both FLAT and VR modes. The sequel also adds several new mechanics, a full story, character dialogues, and many additional characters that don't exist in this game. However, many achievements were removed in the sequel. This includes achievements related to obtaining S rank on stages and collecting photos of the characters' underwear. Instead, new achievements were added that mostly revolve around repeating the same stages over and over again dozens and dozens of times. Completing all achievements in Gal*Gun 2 ends up being extremely monotonous, repetitive, and exhausting. It almost made me give up on completing the game a few times. Meanwhile, in this game, chasing every achievement feels far more satisfying and fun. Achievements I completed 100% of the achievements in this game. Many of them involve mastering the gameplay and completing all stages with an S rank, which encourages you to replay levels and constantly improve your performance. However, several achievements also require taking photos of the underwear of every character in the game. This mechanic is played for comedy and fits the absurd tone of the series, but it might be a deal breaker for players who are looking for a more Safe for Work experience. Final Thoughts Gal*Gun VR is a simple game, but an extremely fun one. It is short, but the gameplay loop is satisfying enough. The VR mechanics work surprisingly well, and the nostalgic rail shooter style translates perfectly into virtual reality. For fans of anime and NSFW, this is definitely a must-play VR experience. Even though it was originally designed as a smaller experimental project. Final score: 8/10 ⭐
Expand the review