A few years ago I got into collecting Sega CD repros, despite not actually owning a Sega CD. This wasn't a big deal, of course, since you can just pop the disc into any CD drive and play the game through emulation. This is how I enjoyed Snatcher for the first time, and shortly after I picked up a very authentic looking copy of Policenauts with an English patch applied.

Policenauts is may not be as good as Snatcher but still works well as a spiritual successor, borrowing just as heavily from movies Hideo Kojima likes as that game. Instead of being a love letter to cyberpunk classics like Blade Runner, Policenauts is a pretty straight-forward police procedural/buddy cop homage, with the two leads clearly being analogs for Riggs and Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon. In fact, if you want to be very reductive about it, Policenauts is essentially "Lethal Weapon in space."

The player controls Jonathan Ingram, sexual predator and founding member of the Policenauts, the first law enforcement entity in space. An accident during a space walk sends Jonathan adrift, though he's found many years later in stasis. Now estranged from his fellow officers, who have all grown older and found success higher up in the political food chain, Jonathan works as a hostage negotiator. However, he's soon called back into space where he reconnects with his former partner, Ed Brown, to unravel a conspiracy involving former members of the Policenauts and the mysterious Tokugawa corporation.

Like Snatcher, progress is earned by solving environmental puzzles, engaging in conversation with other characters, and (occasionally) whipping out a light gun and blasting some dudes. And, like Snatcher, the light gun segments are probably the weakest part of the game. They're very infrequent and they escalate in difficulty rather quickly, and since I played this via emulation I was stuck using a controller for all of them. One day I'll pop this into my Saturn and play it properly, but I suspect it will make playing these sections a lot more tolerable.

Puzzles are a lot more complex than they were in Snatcher, and a few of them can be pretty tense. One involves disarming a bomb under a tight time limit, and apparently this segment of the game does not play nice with emulators because the screen turns completely black during it. I could not fix this no matter how hard I tried and had to resort to using a youtube video as a guide and feel my way through it. Even without the added layer of anxiety, it's a pretty demanding puzzle, and I appreciate how much more Policenauts asks out of the player.

You also have to figure out where the bomb is even located before you can diffuse it, with one possible hiding place being a woman's chest. This does at least earn you a pretty funny game over, but... yeah. Policenauts is arguably Kojima's horniest game. In my Snatcher review I mentioned how Kojima's crass humor can sometimes cross a line, but at least Gillian wasn't capable of grabbing every female character he talks to.

It's also fun to spot all the things that show up later in Metal Gear Solid. Meryl is a prominent secondary character, Tokugawa Heavy Industry's logo is on the Cyborg Ninja's helmet, augments bleed white blood similar to Raiden in MGS4, hell Ed Brown was supposed to be a supporting cast member in Metal Gear Solid 2 before he was cut entirely. I always appreciated these little connective bits that loosely tie together Kojima's games, even if I don't think any of them can be considered part of one larger shared canon. It's just neat. I think it's fun.

Policenauts does lack some of Snatcher's personality and strangeness by rooting itself in a (comparatively) more grounded world, but that's not to say it's bereft of it. Every step of the way you can tell this is another project where Kojima was able to pour in a lot of references to media he loves while opining in his own unique way about real world theories on genetic engineering and space exploration. The sort of stuff you know is well researched, but still exists very firmly within the realm of fiction. There should be a term for that, really. Like... "Science fiction", or something. I don't know. Maybe not like that, sounds kinda dumb. I mean, it's alright too, you know, whatever.

Policenauts is not for everyone, and it is perhaps one of the harder games from Kojima's catalog to recommend to someone who is not already familiar with his work. It helps that this game is also pretty inaccessible. Emulation ain't great, and soft-modding a Sega Saturn and patching an ISO might be more work than it's worth for most people. However, if you find yourself drawn to Kojima's games then I do think you should try to check this one out. It's interesting to see how Kojima's storytelling grew (and regressed) from Snatcher, and as Metal Gear Solid's precursor, it makes for a good companion piece.

Jonathan: "Meryl, there's something I want to give you."
Meryl: "Don't talk that way."
Jonathan: "Here."
Meryl: "Your Cigarettes?"
Jonathan: "And everything I've ever lived for."

Lethal Weapon but in SPACE. It's your classic buddy cop action but with a sci-fi and neo-noir twist. Aint that neat? Jonathan Ingram and Ed Brown are just the guys from Lethal Weapon but like more interesting and better with such an endearing dynamic that I can't get enough of. The rest of these characters too are so interesting. This word-building is such a master class I was so invested I was clicking everything wondering what each thing was. The game looks nice too, I prefer the sprites of the PC-98 version but the cels are great too. The plot is so good, like I said classic buddy cop action yet with what makes a Kojima story a Kojima story, it is a bit slow at the beginning but doesn't affect me in any way. I wish there wasn't much boob jiggling but whatever.

Before I considered Death Stranding to be my favorite game by Kojima outside of the Metal Gear series, Policenauts was initially my favorite.

With Snatcher being Kojima's version of Blade Runner, Policenauts would be Kojima's version of Lethal Weapon. But with a twist! Lethal Weapon is more fast-paced from start to finish but Policenauts takes its time to fully establish the world of Home and Beyond, the companionship of Ingram and Ed, and a murder case that is predictable. While the game is predictable due to the hints being obvious, the journey through Policenauts is a fun ride.

The controls are improved, being more of a "point-and-click" adventure compared to selecting a choice to advance into the next area. The same goes with the shooting mechanics, but it's more of a nightmare since it's free-aim and some shooting sections in the game are rage-inducing. (and why I recommend emulating the game on PC instead of playing on the PSP/PS Vita)

It's been 5 years since playing Policenauts for the first time, and revisiting the game made me appreciate the game as much as I thought. It was a bit nightmarish when I played it since I was 15 at the time, and I wasn't familiar with older Adventure games. But Policenauts was the game that made me appreciate Kojima as a game developer and encouraged me to branch out with games. 5 years later after doing so, revisiting Policenauts was a nostalgic ride seeing how I grew as a gamer. While my rating for the game may be generous, I'm surprised that my thoughts on the game haven't changed after playing Kojima's older works since some elements of them appear in the game.

With Metal Gear, Snatcher, Metal Gear 2, and Policenauts being games that made Kojima well-known, he would later produce a sequel to one of his games that would eventually shape the Stealth genre.

And thus... my final game on my Backlog and a game that I wanted to finish before disappearing.

Generally a good story-driven experience, although the perviness can be a bit overbearing and some aspects of the plot are a bit too easy to predict. I feel like some things about this are better than in Snatcher, while other things I think Snatcher handled better. At the end of the day, both Snatcher and Policenauts are good, if flawed, adventure games.

I did get to play this one using a Virtua Gun on my CRT TV, so that's pretty exciting! It was fun to play that way, although I had trouble doing any of the target practice stuff to a satisfactory degree. The amount of shooting in the endgame is also excessive enough that I felt my trigger finger really wearing out by the end, so be prepared for what you're getting yourself into if you go that route!

This is a very personal game of mine that stuck with me through a very weird time in my life. It's not the best written game out there especially compared to other graphic adventures/VNs or Kojima's other works.

But it has so much charm and to it and the presentation is something very special and you won't really get to see anything quite like it. I recommend it if you are at all into old graphic adventures or if you love that oh so sweet 90's anime aesthetic.

I do have to warn you that it is VERY slow and some investigations scenes will really drag on while nothing is really happening

Hideo Kojima ama le zizze, le tette pazze, le mammelle, ma ama anche rompere gli schemi, sperimentare, confondere: Policenauts è un cliccatutto-puzzle game-visual novel a tema poliziesco-cyberpunk, ma soprattutto, come ogni videogioco al mondo, è anche uno sparatutto platformer. Difficile a definirsi, caratteristica delle opere d'avanguardia: esiste un mondo prima di policenauts, in cui non esistono tette a zero g, e un mondo dopo policenauts, in cui i videogiochi sono capaci di parlare con il linguaggio del cinema, arricchendo la definizione di intrattenimento multimediale. Policenauts è un gioco grande e ricco e vario e profondo e fantasioso e divertente senza avere bisogno di essere un open world: il mondo che contiene è architettonicamente ricchissimo e perfetto e purtroppo non effettivamente sconfinato. Auspicabilmente di sconfinata troviamo la fantasia del giocatore, che non può smettere di pensare all'universo di Johnatan "Esposito" Ingram una volta spenta la propria console. Capolavoro/10, è un universo capace di esistere in autonomia, gravitante attorno alle mammelle pazze delle hostess a zero g del porco del signore dio puttana la mortadellazza eva

Very fun game! Unconventionally conventional, I say. Policenauts wears its influences on its sleeve, unashamedly, and the result is something that feels like a celebration of its source material rather than a cynical rehash of familiar ideas. The game's premise alone is almost enough for me to call it an instant-classic: set in the future, humanity is finally on the brink of genuine space colonization. An elite set of police officers are chosen from across the globe to serve as the first (and exemplar) members of the Policenauts -- space cops, basically. The protagonist, Jonathan, is on a routine spacewalk when suddenly, his space suit detaches from the station, and he's lost to space for the next 25 years. Turns out, he was able to go into cryogenic sleep all that time, and when he wakes, everyone he knows -- his partner Ed, his (now ex-) wife, Lorainne -- they're all 25 years older, where he's the exact same. This is the context for the game's opening, and it's just so campy that I can't help but love it.

The game was equally capable of being funny as it was emotionally engaging, without one encroaching on the other's territory; within an hour of the game, I'd methodically inspected every item on the protagonists' desk, reading his melodramatic, boomer, man-out-of-time comments about how much the world has changed, how his bills are stacking up, and how no one knows how to do things "the old-fashioned way." It's equally effective as a world-building technique as it is hilariously over-dramatic. (I choose to read it as tongue-in-cheek.) Shortly thereafter, however, your ex-wife enters the room and suddenly the game is able to command your attention and have you take the events seriously, even though it was just making you laugh. It's a really astounding feat how many sensations the opening of the game is able to inspire.

There are some major turn-offs that some people won't be able to get over, such as the casual homophobia and sexism, or the dated controls (things a remake could easily solve, Konami) but for those of us who are willing to but up with it all, there's a fun 12~ hours of classic-Kojima storytelling and game design.

Policenauts è un capolavoro di dedizione e cura per i dettagli, un cult della fantascienza hard che non trascura di giustificare e rendere realistico ogni minimo elemento per restituire una esperienza incredibilmente immersiva e singolare. Il contesto investigativo è utilizzato quasi come una scusa per costruire una sorta di enciclopedia cyberpunk, che sfrutta ogni singolo oggetto osservabile per snocciolare nozioni di medicina, informatica, bioetica ed esplorazione spaziale. È un gioco estremamente generoso in termini di scrittura, estetica e varietà nel gameplay (si passa da fasi punta e clicca a sezioni di shooting, a puzzle per niente banali e a elementi di visual novel), e per questo non può che intrigare e appassionare chiunque abbia la pazienza di lasciarsi trasportare all'interno di una avventura inevitabilmente passiva e tendente alla verbosità, ma che sa senza dubbio come premiare la curiosità del videogiocatore. Ultima cosa da evidenziare, Policenauts è un gioco consigliatissimo ad una grande varietà di persone e sconsigliatissimo a poche, ma sicuramente è un must per chi voglia approfondire la figura di Kojima come autore; oltre a una serie di personaggi, musiche, nomi e dettagli che verranno poi ripresi nella saga di Metal Gear, in Policenauts si ritrova un po' tutto ciò che ha reso unico lo stile di Kojima, dall'approccio postmoderno che si appella continuamente al videogiocatore (talvolta anche ingannandolo e prendendolo in giro), all'ossessione per il linguaggio cinematografico che sa scoprirsi appieno nel momento in cui si immerge totalmente nelle caratteristiche del videoludico. Ottima merda.

And with this game, we can see how Kojima: The man never shuts up born...

Joking aside, this game is a beast in itself. Unlike the previous game snatcher, in this one Kojima put world details to the MAX. What I mean is in this one, we have lore conversations in almost every goddamn single clickable pixel a game console can support and I am not kidding about that.

Also this is gonna be the deciding factor in your enjoyment for playing this game. Let me ask you this: Do you like mgs's radio conversations? If yes, then you are gonna have a hell of a good time.

But if you don't, then I would say try Snatcher, because it's pacing is lightning fast unlike this one.

So if we return back to the game, was it good? For me yeah. But unlike Snatcher, I like it for the opposite reasons.

What I mean is, this game is slow, conversation heavy and less on action. This sometimes makes the game slower than a turtle unfortunately, but also unlike snatcher, this slow pacing is the reason that made me connect to the characters more.

It's still a quite predictable story like snatcher (until it isn't), but hearing characters argue between themselves and open themselves more was extremely fun to watch for me. I even go as far as clicking every single thing in the environment just to hear more of them and I somehow find myself invested in this cliche buddy cop characters and when the epilogue came, I realized I was actually get a bit emotional for them. I would say it was enjoyable as much as metal gear 2, the characters that much enjoyable for me.

But will this be that much enjoyable for any of you too? I don't know about that, because this game just like snatcher, have a lot of pervy conversations and it's extremely nonsensical romance could make a lot of eyebrows rise. But for me, sometimes it's best to not think about it too much just like back to the future 2's plot. But if this sounds not good to you maybe it's best to be stay away from it.

For me I liked it, only thing was a bit of a letdown was it's soundtrack and atmosphere wasn't as energetic as the snatcher one. But other than that, both of them almost match with their positives and negatives. Both of them fun, a bit cliche...

But full of heart.

Policenauts and Snatcher make up an interesting duology in Kojima’s body of work. Made by a Kojima at a different time in his life. He never made it a surprise, especially when digging into his background, that he'd had an affinity for film. He’s tried his hand at a career suited to that passion, but it never panned out. Instead, it was video games that charmed him because of how he could funnel his creativity towards a medium he saw as unique from film because of its interactivity. This duology remains important in Kojima’s career, even now, I like to think, because they unveiled a Kojima trying to find his groove as a proper game developer. There’s definitely stuff within these two games that are pretty… “premature”, in showing where exactly his sensibilities and priorities lie with making games. Like the protagonists in the duology, especially in Policenauts, being a casual sexual harasser who has almost the most one-sided relationship with every female character he encounters. He was way too upfront in showing where exactly he’s drawing inspiration from in the movies he just thought were cool and interesting that it can be a little distracting. The duology also aimed for a completely different mechanical approach to gameplay and narrative compared to his masterwork in the Metal Gear Solid series. These were point-and-click adventure visual novels, to put it roughly. Meaning it was all about the storytelling in full display while actual gameplay took more of a backseat to support when necessary. It served as a good compromise for Kojima to create the cinematic experiences you can only get from a movie while taking advantage of the interactivity of the video games he’s trying to master.

There is no beating around the bush here; Policenauts is just a slog. Doubling down hard on what Snatcher did right and wrong, never balancing the scales to come out a total winner. It ended up being a middling step forward from what Kojima perfected about his love for making art in Metal Gear Solid. I don’t think Policenauts is necessarily a “bad” game. There is quite a bit to look at here, understand, and appreciate among what just didn’t work. It follows the bare-bones premise of Snatcher, a point-and-click adventure story about a detective solving a case against the backdrop of a science fiction setting propping up larger ideas. But the world Policenauts presents is far more detailed and offers different, though on the same Kojima wavelength, themes worth exploring. The protagonist is a man out of time trying to settle in a world where everything he used to know has been dramatically changed. He clings to his nostalgia for an older generation that can’t adapt to the world, making room for a new generation thanks to the future made possible by interstellar travel. There's a mystery to unravel and a case to solve, but the genuine drama is the battle for what's been handed down to the next generation. A very broad theme that Kojima has a deep connection to throughout his entire career.

My disappointment couldn’t be measured with what’s probably a solid narrative with introspective ideas told through the most boring, straightforward, Lethal Weapon-esque plot you could write. Snatcher wasn’t super original, nor would I even call that game’s story high art, but it pulled itself together in a nice, tight package where I really enjoyed the adventure. Policenauts has more going on for it, especially on paper, but the deliberate slower pace to focus more on character didn’t feel satisfying. There were some highlights in the story that I liked a lot, especially for how introspective the characters will be at the moment, but the ‘gameplay’ and pacing depowers it. The first two acts are absurdly long, making up roughly half the entire game, with the back half being the remaining five acts, which you almost speed through. You have to exhaust every single dialogue option that pops up at least several times just to force something to happen so that the story can finally progress. Often, you’d have to retrace your steps because you didn’t follow certain beats in a specific order, without enough clear indication that you were on the right path. It doesn’t help that the characters themselves, while they have their moments, are uninteresting when it comes to banter. There are no surprises here, no captivating twist that you would have already pieced together enough from the first act alone. It never really grows into something much more nuanced, at least from what I tried playing until around Act 5, when I just gave up on the game. Maybe it does come together in those remaining hours I’ve yet to experience. A lot of Kojima games crescendo phenomenally during the climax. This is the one, gleaming at what exactly happens in the finale, where it just doesn’t seem to prove itself as being another worthy piece of the Hideo Kojima experience.

Played it for an hour, and in that hour didn't really notice anything worth continuing for.

In terms of gameplay, it's a run-of-the-mill first-person point-&-click affair with occasional horrendous mini-games. I much prefer third-person point-&-click games where you can control where your character goes. This one feels almost like a visual novel, as it just drops you into a room (basically an animated image) and forces you to click everything in sight until you find that one thing that advances the story. Dialogues work in a similar fashion, you have to blindly try out every single dialogue option, hoping you would accidentally hit the one that will be relevant for the story.

Regarding the story, I found it pretty mediocre. I have no doubts it does get more interesting later on, but the beginning was very boring. It's your typical noir-ish cyberpunk-ish set-up with a woman coming to the protagonist who runs a private detective agency and bringing him more trouble than he ever needed. I wish there was one fucking game (or movie/TV show/comic book) where the protagonist refuses to take the case and continues his boring life.

I feel like this game would've worked better as a OVA or whatever you call anime films/TV shows. It seems like something I might enjoy watching while having a dinner, but as a game it's just not fun. And the story doesn't push me to overcome the flaws of the gameplay. I think I might watch a walkthrough of it on YouTube some day, but I dunno.

Policenauts undeniably has plenty of style. This game still looks great to my eyes even today, with great looking art, fantasic music and top quality voice acting.

The story is generally quite engaging, however almost every plot beat was telegraphed in a heavy-handed way so I was never really surprised by anything. Mostly it was just frustrating how clueless the main cast is to all the obvious hints around them.

The main character, Jonathan, is a completely irredeemable sex pest. Although I tried to avoid engaging with this aspect of the game where I could, some of it is simply unavoidable and other times if you just happen to click on the wrong body-part you will trigger some creepy comment or other. Seemingly you can even grope most of the female characters in the game as well with essentially no consequences. Even when Jonathan makes lewd comments about his best friend's teenage daughter upon meeting her for the first time, he barely gets a rebuke in response.

It is very impressive just how many things in the environment have dialogue written for them, there is a huge amount of text in this game and if you take the time to explore there are many little pieces of flavour and worldbuilding all around you (including the in-game glossary with a bunch of information on things people discuss in game).

In terms of actual gameplay, the vast majority of the time you will spend simply talked to people and looking at things like in any standard visual novel. There are a few shooting sections, especially toward the end of the game. These seem difficult but become trivially easy when you realise you can simply press L and R to lock onto targets - you can also play these with a light gun if you have a CRT television.

There is also a section of the game with some finicky puzzles which you have to repeat over and over again in the event of a mistake - this can get very tedious but does actually help to build tension as you approach the end of the gauntlet.

Many of the longer spoken dialogue sections simply can't be paused as far as I can tell, so I ended up having to replay a long section when I got interrupted at one point. Being able to pause any time is a huge quality of life improvement found in most modern games - but certainly not the first time I have experienced this in an older one!

Despite my issues with the game, I was ultimately invested in the story and characters and when the credits rolled I was satisfied with the conclusion.

Finally beat this after playing on and off like a series for an ungodly amount of time, but honestly in those spurts this proved to be hugely enjoyable and each piece was rightly entertaining.

Of course you don't interact with this one to a great degree, but it's cool to click around to get all the intricate little exposition dumps and Kojima details that you're probably here for.

The baddies are of course obviously bad and the plot is a big corporate conspiracy that of course Hideo would cook up, your protagonist is the likable womanizing pig that fits the tribute this plays to all noir.

The animated cutscenes are where this shines and the presentation overall, despite being a little slow on the loading most times, is pretty darn impressive. Still unique, still vibing vaporwave style over 20 years later.

So if Kojima's previous game was Blade Runner mashed with Terminator. Policenauts is basically Lethal Weapon in Space.. If Riggs was an unstoppable sex pest.

I thought the setup was pretty fantastic for this. One of the original Policenauts, Jonathan Ingram has an accident testing a spacesuit and is lost, presumed dead for 25 years until he is recovered unaged in cryostasis. A couple of years after being rescued Ingram, now working as a private detective, is visited by his ex-wife, now in her 50s to search for missing husband (whom she remarried while Ingram was presumed dead).

Obviously this leads in to conspiracies and adventure ensues. Unfortunately while I enjoyed the plot, it never lived up to the promise of the opening.

Gameplay wise this is a point and click, visual novel-esque game like Snatcher. For better and worse.

It's worth a play if you're a Kojima fan, but it is a bit more of a slog to get through than Snatcher, I was ready for this one to end.

Policenauts exists within a stange limbo state. For years only a select few outside of Japan had played it, allowing it to take on a reverence that far outweighs the game's actual quality.

Policenauts is good, don't get me wrong. It's at its best when the game is fulfilling its promises of a gritty Sci-Fi Space Detective Noire Thriller. There are some genuinely great moments of tension and mystery and these moments are made all the more fun when playing with the Sega Virtua Gun/Stunner. The story on offer here is engaging and the exhaustive amount of world-building through text is a Kojima fan's wet dream.

But.

This is Kojima at his grossest. Every woman in this game - except for one or two - can be ogled, commented on, hit on, or groped. It's frequent, uncomfortable, and at one stage required to progress the plot. I can't tell if the intent was for comedic effect, some sort of roundabout reference to eroge, or just plain perviness. Either way, it does actively hamper my enjoyment and immersion in the story and makes the overall experience noticeably worse.

If you've exhausted all other avenues for Kojima's brand of storytelling Policenauts is worth your time, but be prepared for a level of uncomfortableness. Otherwise play the much cooler, better, and less creepy (SEGA CD) SNATCHER.

Science fiction adventure, Snatcher with more of a Lethal Weapon feel. Good story, characters, set up, world building, soundtrack, cutscenes, and voice acting. Terrible combat and a poor combat heavy end, after a slow start and build up of characters and the world everything starts moving too fast, a large number of bad clichés, main characters ignoring bullet wounds, and there are too many stupid things that happen (even though there is a good reason behind the antagonist's plans that ties in with how the game has been building the setting and even random conversations). Often out of place flirting, terrible women's outfits, and sexual assaults, don't know to blame the PC-98 (that this was originally released for) or Kojima. Wordy and detailed descriptions of everything (from looking at some woman's boobs leading to a conversation about their space outfit, to individual information of every type of food on the dinner table, to a description of how a futuristic couch works) can kill pacing and ends up creating plot holes. Playstation version art is more detailed but blurry up close and changes to art makes it look more like a generic anime than the more interesting art you get in something like Snatcher or other PC-98 titles. They did a good job with the fan translation.