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.
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.