Policenauts takes a lot of the familiar contours of 80s/early 90s buddy cop action dramas and marries it with a somewhat cyberpunk space future setting that gives it an entirely unique character of its own. There's a lot of charm and humor to its story, and the details of its setting are expanded on and luxuriated in by Kojima who obviously put a lot of thought into what this sort of future could look like.

The point-and-click interface is the tool by which you investigate and converse, with other gameplay applications coming into use as the story progresses. Though it's mainly a visual novel of sorts, it alternates to shootout sequences (other console versions used Light Gun peripherals for these, which would have been awesome to experience) which have you try to kill the bad guy before your own health runs out.

A drawback of this game, which to some degree is an artifact of its time and place in the japanese computer game market of the early 90s, is the groping and molestation of the female characters which the game allows, but does not encourage, the player to do. There boob jiggle animations have their own credits, even.

It's an extremely unique and engaging game, with awesome animated sequences and inventive gameplay. I highly recommend emulating it with a translation if you can, and use a CRT shader as well to get the best visual experience. I'll be thinking about and referencing this game for a long time to come.

Solid little time, not sure if this is a hot take but I found it much more memorable than snatcher. The characters and plot were interesting, and the setting being this really cool floating space continent was rad. Weird that this game never got an official english release as its good and I'm sure these days hideo kojimas name itself would carry. I played the PS1 version but I'd bet the PC-98 version is more of a vibe with its pixel art. If you like adventure games and/or hideo kojima there's a lot to enjoy here.

Terza tappa dell' "Old Kojima's Tour": Policenauts.
Ad oggi questo è stato il gioco più difficile da reperire e da giocare, in quanto non è mai stato localizzato in altre lingue al di fuori del giapponese, che non conosco.
Fortunatamente, sono riuscito a trovare online una traduzione fan made dei dialoghi testuali, quindi posso dire di essere riuscito a comprendere interamente la contorta avventura noir sci-fi.

Inizio dicendo che, come Snatcher, Policenauts è un titolo peculiare, in quanto mescola un importante blocco visual novel a delle sezioni, anche piuttosto concitate, fps arcade. L'idea di per sé è accattivante (mi riferisco alla versione PS1), ma la dura realtà mette davanti ad una scomoda verità: mirare con le freccette direzionali è un crimine contro l'umanità. Scomodo e legnoso, il sistema di mira si dimostra essere una non trascurabile infezione in un gioco che avrebbe le potenzialità per valere di più. Le parti shooting falliscono nel loro intento di alleggerire la prolissa narrazione di questo "anime interattivo", diventando solamente un ostacolo da superare con sofferenza. (A causa di ciò, sono stato obbligato a rinunciare a battere il record di Maryl al tiro al bersaglio. Peccato...)
Anche le parti "punta e clicca" non sono da meno, sebbene per motivi diversi. Talvolta per poter procedere con la storia, eseguendo azioni o prendendo decisioni che per noi giocatori paiono ovvie, dovremmo ispezionare tutti i possibili oggetti di scena, pure quelli più inutili, ed esaurire ogni possibile dialogo di ogni npc, frenando così non solo il ritmo narrativo, ma anche la voglia di continuare a giocare.
Altro piccolo appunto, che forse è solamente una mia percezione erronea: non ho trovato molto convincenti le animazioni delle cutscene, sembravano molto cheap.

Quindi Policenauts è un disastro? No, l'ho trovato un bel gioco. La storia, sebbene il finale sembri una parodia di se stesso, è davvero affascinante, con delle trovate geniali e diversi colpi di scena (un po' prevedibili). Il cast è colmo di personaggi memorabili, diversi dei quali verranno riproposti nei futuri Metal Gear, a cui ti affezioni e ti dispiace vederli soffrire.
E poi non dimentichiamoci che il titolo è quasi interamente doppiato, oltretutto in maniera eccelsa, e contiene una buona colonna sonora.

In conclusione, posso dire che Policenauts non è un gioco da buttare, ma sicuramente tra le opere del Maestro Kojima è una delle meno riuscite.

See you space policenauts!

Policenauts is a truly fascinating disaster of mixed messaging. On one hand, it asks and answers some interesting questions. What would society be like if we perfected space travel? If we made other planets inhabitable? What if after a 25-year coma, you've found yourself in such a world when it seemed like none of that was possible just yesterday? What of your friends? Your old colleagues? Your wife? You were gone for so long, so where are these people now? Is it worth chasing the past, especially if you may not end up getting the answers you like? If the people that you respected back then, are no longer who they used to be...?

But of all these questions, the one that it desperately wants to ask you the most is "How much creepy misogynistic bullshit can you stomach in order to experience any of these themes?" Because, fucking whoof. I thought Snatcher was bad with this stuff, but in contrast, that's nothing. Policenauts is a fantastic story, buried miles below a stream of constant intrusive interruptions of Kojima's unrestrained and creative freedom, otherwisely known as his libido.

Let's just get the good out of the way, shall we? Yes, there is a genuinely solid story here. When Jonathan (the main character) and your cop buddy Ed are going around solving the mystery of an illegal trafficking ring, looking into things that you shouldn't have and accusing high-ranking rich scumbags that could have you be disappeared within a day, Policenauts is a thrilling and dangerous ride, yet filled with many slow-paced instances of retrospection on the differences between this world, and the one Jonathan grew up with.

The story revels in its worldbuilding, its heavy usage of medicinal and biological terms that I barely grasp, and it is equally as intriguing as it is difficult to follow at times. Whether that's because things get too complicated for me, or because the pacing takes a bit of a nosedive and I start paying less attention. My deficit attention span aside, I find it well put together, with a viscerally satisfying ending that tops it off and wraps things up with a neat ribbon.

The visuals of the PS1 version, while not very stylistic when it comes to the backgrounds depicted (a downgrade from Snatcher's 16-bit nightly city landscapes, which were a lot cooler), are quite detailed and tend to match the standards of the anime produced of that time, alongside the couple FMV's that were produced for this port. An effort is made to deliver a cinematic quality that I think does a well enough job to enhance the setting, and storytelling of the game.

If Policenauts was just this, it'd be sitting at 4 stars right now. Maybe even 4.5, because damn, it really does have its special moments, and a couple pretty likable characters, Ed just being such a pitiable down-on-his-luck guy that you wanna root for. Regrettably, I'm now gonna have to come back to my initial point. Ed is likable, Jonathan... far from it.

As I stated in my Snatcher review, writing your main character to be horny isn't an automatic reason to make a rant like I'm about to. While I would more often leave it than take it, there's a decent way to do something like this. Policenauts oversteps its boundaries, and the boundaries of every single girl you will meet across your investigation. These are just working people. One's a flight attendant, the other's working behind an info desk... Most of them scantily-dressed, revealing some bit of sideboob or as much as leg as possible. And maybe I'd just be overthinking it, if it weren't for the game immediately enforcing these clothing choices by giving me free reign to flirt with them, comment on their face, their hips, their legs, and... a whole new feature exclusive to this game, the Molest button! Go right ahead, just grope their boobs and face absolutely no ramifications or consequences for it, beyond a meek scolding from your cop buddy, and an "Ahn~ Stop it~" from the girl. Truly, an experience made for the gamer.

Policenauts likes to utilize porn game logic for its moments of levity. Just like in a porn game, you're not really meant to think about the way you conduct yourself in front of a girl. Let your wild animal instincts kick in, and enjoy yourself, that's what I presume Kojima figured. The biggest problem with this sort of mindset is that you chose to insert mindless porn game logic into a story that actually requires you to think quite heavily. You can't turn your brain off in a game like this, you wouldn't be able to follow the plot, you wouldn't consider the theming, you wouldn't theorize about the truth of the mystery. You are required to do all of those things to get the most out of Policenauts, and just when you really start to immerse yourself into it- Hot dog, is that an attractive woman?! Cue up the Attractive Woman Theme Song, Jonathan's about to make some wacky unwanted advances!

You see? Policenauts wants to treat itself as a grounded and realistic story. But it also wants it both ways through dedicating half of its cast to a guy's fantasy, and an uncomfortably frequent chunk of its humor to attempts at sexual assault. And when you're in the middle of analyzing everything else, it's not gonna be hard to analyze this for what it is, which is an insanely one-sided depiction of women that takes away and distracts from an objective understanding of how the world really works, just to titillate the player a bit. One tone is contradicting the other, neither work well in tandem with each other, and it ends up ruining my ability to take any of the story seriously.

It's not a sin to appreciate the good aspects of Policenauts. But it would be ignorant to say what's problematic about it isn't a problem at all. If you were crafting a story as extensively detailed as this one, you'd think you would want to spread its message to a larger demographic than horny dudes. As it stands, how can I recommend this game to my friends? "There's a really cool story here, if you ignore all of the objectification?" I'm fucked. Policenauts fucked itself. And did it honestly need to be that way?

I was excited to have the chance to try out this game thanks to the amazing work of the fans out there who were able to create an English translation which is so good that you'd swear it was done by an official company than fans. I have linked it below so you too can enjoy this game!

(Link removed because mods called it "piracy" according to them. Easy enough to look up and find for yourself.)

So, I heard about this game a while back. Essentially, this was one of Kojima's earlier ones before Metal Gear Solid and you can even see references to this game in his other ones in well-placed eastereggs.

Story:

As a large satellite was being set up a group of space officers, known as Policenauts, were working on maintaining order and construction, but one character gets knocked away and disappeared in space, only to return around 20 years later and revived from frozen. As time had gone by he had no job, no wife and now took on the job of being a investigator/negotiator who was often hired to try and get kidnappers to return children to their parents, however he admits he didn't have a 100% success rate and the Earth was becoming a real cesspit.

To his surprise as he was sat down in his office, enjoying a cigarette and being nostalgic he gets a visitor. His wife arrives and wants him to come up onto the station to look for her husband who has disappeared. He initially declines both from the awkwardness and that the officers on the station should handle it, but she claimed that many other missing people had happened and never been found, despite all of them being on a contained space vessel.

He had also left items that were meant to be a guide on what might've happened to him. A group of different tablets from different medications and a leaf cut in half. He mulls this over and says he'll think about it and watches her leave to get into her car, however, he spots a suspicious person nearby and before he can stop her, the car explodes! After a intense shootout he vows to head up to the station and solve this case!

Gameplay:

The gameplay is a bit of a mixture of a VN and a point-and-click game where you can select items, have a inventory, combine items and do all kinds of actions to items or even people with some funny results at times.

There are quite a few shooting sections in the game where you shoot from a static position and have to reload, with a cool animation when your clip is out! The first of which is right near the beginning and all the others are quite fun too.

There are multiple puzzles involved too with all kinds of tense situations that often led to my death, I'm ashamed to admit but won't ruin the surprise for all of you.

The game is on two disks, which makes sense as there are a huge number of fully animated scenes that I'd often feel like I was watching a 90's anime than playing a game. So if you like your 90's anime, I'd also recommend it.

In all, it's a really fun and interesting mystery game with quite the twist at the end, even though certain people I had already suspected anyway. Lots of fun and well worth trying out for fans of Kojima's games or even thought who like these kinds of games.

Gameplay/Stream

4 STARS: EVERYONE SHOULD PLAY THIS

Released mid-90s and still one of the best examples of world building and intrigue in a video game. It goes into great detail explaining not only the rules and hierarchy of the setting, but also some fundamental rules and consequences of living in space. Something you see little to no mention of in other narrative space games.

Exhausting options and exploring different sequences of interactions are typically very rewarding, with lots of reading and learning available should you want it. If you're the kind of player who likes to squeeze every bit of possible text from a game, this should satisfy.
It takes full advantage of every screen, letting you interact with everything, sometimes to the main character's (and arguably the game's) detriment.

Players coming for a chill point & click story might be soured on some of the later combat sections, which ask for speed and dexterity otherwise absent from the rest of the game. It's wise to look up the full range of controls in those sections, to help take any edge off.

Played this on my RP3. Took about 12 hours total. Very happy some folks were able to create an English translation patch for this game that was never localized here. I don't play many point and click adventures so it is hard for me to judge the gameplay. Generally I liked it. Some of the action scenes involving bombs and guns got a little tiring as they tended to ramp up in challenge and then restart you quite a bit further back.

The plot itself was interesting enough. Lots of the twists and turn were pretty obvious tbh. However the acting and cinematics were a real treat. Love this animation style.

Clearly Kojima was in love with Mell Gibson as the main character Jonathan is a carbon copy of him. His partner Ed being a facsimile of Murdoc. That being said I think that the character development was actually quite good. There are some charming scenes, particularly eating dinner at Ed's house. While you will have to get through the perverted parts, they aren't that often and don't distract too much.

For anyone that likes point and click adventures, 80s scifi or buddy cop films, and/or Kojima this is worth your time.

Leer crítica completa

‘Policenauts’ trata básicamente de vaticinar un futuro en el que la raza humana habría progresado tanto como haber desarrollado su primera colonia espacial en el año 2010, pero visto desde 1994 y a través de la cabecita loca de Hideo Kojima. Es muy fácil caer en los tópicos vertidos sobre el autor japonés y su ambición por confluir el videojuego con otras artes escénicas, además de sus (a menudo) exageradas pretensiones por trascender el medio y emplear sus locuras para centrar la atención sobre su imagen. En 1994 no obstante, Kojima todavía no acaparaba el foco mediático de la misma manera que lo recibió tras el lanzamiento de ‘Metal Gear Solid’, y buena parte de su trabajo yacía recluido en su país natal con la axiomática barrera del idioma. ‘Snatcher’ y las dos primeras obras protagonizadas por Solid Snake habían roto moldes y propuesto grandes conceptos, pero el autor todavía estaba en pañales y angosto por las limitadas capacidades de los sistemas en los que se movía. Kojima demuestra ganas por dar otra vuelta de tuerca al videojuego, lo cual ya es bastante para los tiempos que corren, pero se enroca en el concepto más que en unir los puntos con coherencia y nula sexualización gratuita.

Visto así en preámbulo, ‘Policenauts’ es otro intento fallido de Kojima y cía por encontrar el hueco que creen merecer en el sector. Pero sigue siendo una cápsula del tiempo fascinante a descubrir casi treinta años tras su lanzamiento.

"Sure. We're philanthropists. We're doin' society a favor. So what if we make a li'l money at the same time? We need drugs and organs. We ain't capable of adaptin' to space. The darkness, the loneliness.... It don't matter how well trained you are. You always give in. You know what I'm talkin' about, don't you, Jonny boy?"

It's easy to explain Kojima's quirks as a video game director by calling him a westaboo, wannabe movie producer, but by analyzing the likes of Snatcher, and especially Policenauts, we can see that by dabbing for a bit on the arts of VN/Adventure games, Kojima wanted to transcend the usual expository heavy dialogue nature of Visual Novels by combining it with his knowledge of movie directing, thus making these two odd entries in his catalogue feel like the missing link between Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, and what we would come to know as the iconic game that would change the landscape of gaming ever since, Metal Gear Solid 1

It really is a shame that this game was a Japan exclusive without ever being localized (not counting the fan-translation) due to the poor sales of Snatcher, because it feels right up there with Kojima's best works. Something which it's influences seep right into the rest of the series, given the addition of Meryl, Foxhound, the leitmotifs of the main theme being in MGS1, and the particularly sexy voice of Jonathan Ingram being cast by what would be Otacon's seiyuu, Tanaka Hideyuki.

Part of me wishes I could play the original PC-98 version since I love the aesthetic of the eroge pixel art they have with ports of those games, but the FMV animations they did for consoles are not a bad stylistic choice either, it all adds to the feeling of watching a direct do VHS OVA that only helps with the atmosphere.

Speaking of atmosphere, the worldbuilding is nothing short of fantastic, Kojima's word salad is at it's most cohesive here, everything from the scientifically accurate explanations of the adverse effects of space travel on the human body down to the osteoporosis caused by the lack of gravity and built up stress that results in less production of calcium, not only you can tell that Kojima did his homework about the space rush, but developed a believable world with airtight internal logic that best depicts this cool, otherworldly futuristic view of the cyberpunk world that makes you want to live in it as much as you wish to stay away from it.

While this is not the last time Kojima would speak about the space rush and revolve his games around the consequences of the cold war, it is the first time he specifically tries to imagine a world where we bothered to invest in space travel, proving that we cannot beat the final frontier for a reason, be it Jonathan's lost decades as he is forced to live in the past due to time flowing without him processing what he lost, to the shortage of organs and pharmaceutical conspiracies caused by the complications of living in space, the final frontier becomes less of a limit to be broken, and more of a cosmic horror that defines how it's denizens should act, that perhaps humanity itself evolved in the wrong path for trying to think it could ever escape the planet and it's laws that formed hundreds of thousands of history engraved in it's genetic code.

Can we ever get accustomed to living in an ambient that we were never meant to be at? Are humanity's achievements something to really be proud of, or is it all merely a luck of the genetic draw? Have we evolved too fast, or not evolved at all, if we are still faced with the same problems no matter what time we are at?

While the vibes and music alone would have made Policenauts an immaculate experience by itself, the Solid™ character and narrative writing from Kojima when he was at his prime makes it go the extra mile into a story that feels fresh 30 years after it's inception that I whole heartedly recommend it, for it has all the blueprints of what all would come to love from his most iconic intellectual property.

Also I'm surprised to see so many people complaining about the groping and the sexism on this one. As far as visual novels for the PC-98 go this is quite tame.

A Kojima game that showcases like no other how awful of a writer he is, mostly because Policenauts is a visual novel with little actual gameplay to fall back on. The story, which appears to have been written during a late-night bender after Koj stumbled upon Lethal Weapon while channel surfing, is super predictable in places and features his usual expository tangents that obliterate any sense of pacing. There's also the well-known misogyny that's rampant in the game. Players can sexually assault most of the female characters in the game while casually talking to them, and it's played either for laughs or to titillate. I know we're all extra sensitive to this sort of thing now, but it's hard to see how it was ever acceptable even back in 1994.

Some nice visuals, some nice music, yadda yadda yadda. Little else going for it.

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.