The beginning of this season is very reminiscent of the second half of the first season, it feels really jarring to suddenly be thrown into this brand new MMO with a massively different tone than any of the others. Personally I don't think its fair to rate a show based only on one part and not on it overall so I am going to give the 2 halves a separate score and review.
First half - Gungale Arc:
Score: 6/10
The concept of an FPS MMO is really cool and I could imagine something like Gungale being extremely popular in the real world but as a tool for narrative it really wasn't very interesting. In Sword Art there was an air of tension at all times because death was a very real and very present threat, however in Gungale this tension still seems to exist amongst all players regardless of the fact that dying in the game means nothing. I really liked the idea that "Death Gun" was a previous member of the Laughing Coffin guild in Sword Art, I thought that was a very clever way to keep the memories (and horrors) of Sword Art active in the character's minds. I really liked how it confirmed that psychopaths like Laughing Coffin are still around in the real world. However having the shock realisation that one of the Death Guns was Sinon's friend just seemed too cliche. It just feels hard to believe that he could have such a massive personality change. I can completely understand his brother being like that because for over 2 years he had been in a reality where his goal was to murder anyone he could and he got a sick thrill out of doing so, I don't really understand how that mindset could be adapted by his brother even though he was never a part of anything like that.
Second half - Alfheim Arc
Score: 9/10
Going back to Alfheim was like the sensation of opening a window to let cool air into a really hot and stuffy room. The over-the-top edginess of the previous episodes completely disappear and it returns to the lighthearted and fun tone which makes sword art great. The mini Excalibur arc was really fun to watch and the fact that it brings along Sinon and is even better. The stuff with Yuuki afterwards was also excellent, I really liked the switch in perspective to focus on Asuna rather than it's usual focus on Kirito. We get a lot of really nice romance scenes during these episodes as well as we get to see the supportive side of Kirito instead of him being the front-man like usual.
Overall Score: 8/10
Because of how massively the quality went up in the second half its only fair that my overall score reflects that as an 8/10. I'm looking forward to any future seasons.
