Policenauts
PlayStation
I've been aware of Policenauts for a very long time. I remember playing Metal Gear Solid on my PS1 back in the day, and seeing references to the game during cutscenes in Otacon's office. That was my only exposure to Policenauts as a kid. The game was never released in the US, so I never had a chance to actually check it out myself.
Within the last few years, I've been playing through a bunch of old games I missed out on when I was younger, now that I have a RetroPie. Snatcher was one of those games. I really liked Snatcher (you can see my review here) and I later learned that Policenauts was released as a spiritual successor to it. Oh hey, Policenauts. The game that was referenced in Metal Gear Solid. Things had come around full circle nearly 30 years later.
Although the game was never released in the US, there is an English translation of Policenauts on my RetroPie. I was such a big fan of Snatcher, I decided to check it out. Was Konami right to leave the game overseas, or did US gamers miss out big time? Let's see how I liked it.
Story:
There's a lot to unpack here. I'm not going to give a full recap, or we'll be here all day. Just a quick synopsis. The game starts in the distant future of 2013. Earth is referred to as "Home" and there is a colony in space known as "Beyond" that is being built. The main character, Jonathan Ingram, is a Policenaut - a member of an outer space police unit created to keep the peace during the construction of Beyond. The Policenauts are extremely revered, almost like they were superheroes or something.
One day, there is an accident in space and Jonathan "dies" in the explosion. He is discovered alive 28 years later. Apparently, his suit was programmed to freeze him cryogenically in the case of an accident.
Jonathan becomes a private investigator, leaving his past as a Policenaut behind him. Jonathan's life changes when his wife, who has moved on from him after thinking he was dead for 20 plus years, visits him at his office. She wants to hire him to find out what happened to her new husband, who has disappeared. Shortly after he turns her down, she is murdered. Jonathan decides to take the case. Not only to find the missing man, but to find out who killed his wife as well.
That's only the beginning. Your investigation takes you to Beyond, where your old Policenaut friend Ed joins you in the investigation. The game dives deep into the lore of this universe. You'll learn all about "Frozeners" and the Tokugawa corporation and mech units, and all the other things that come with the crazy world of this game.
Spoilers ahead, so skip to the gameplay section if you don't want to know how the game ends.
But long story short, you discover that the Tokugawa corporation has created an addictive drug that they have put into actual capsules of other drugs so that they are undetectable. They are doing this to get everyone hooked, so they can then charge them for curing them of their addictions. They have also been illegally harvesting human organs, among other corrupt shit. And the worst thing of it, some of your former Policenaut buddies are part of it.
Gameplay:
It is imperative that you know what kind of game Policenauts is before you start playing it. It is a point and click adventure. If you are not okay with this, you won't like the game. If you aren't familiar with what this means, I will explain. You point at things in the environment with your cursor and you click on them. You read descriptions of what you are looking at. You talk to people. You make selections on a menu to steer the conversation the way you want it. Using a menu, you can move your character from location to location, where you'll talk to some more people and look at some more stuff.
That's about it. This is, for the most part, an entirely story-driven experience. You do get the occasional action scene, where you aim your cursor around on the screen and shoot enemies. If you have played a light gun game, such as Lethal Enforcers, you'll get the idea. But these action sequences are few and far between. The bulk of the game is pointing, clicking, and talking.
When you enter an area, you'll want to check out everything in the environment first. Oftentimes, clicking on things multiple times will give you different text, and more detail about the thing you are looking at. Once it starts to say the same thing over and over again, you'll know you can move on.
This is usually when I look at the characters on the screen. Looking at different parts of their body will elicit different comments. This game does not shy away from talking about boobs. In fact, you can even touch them in this game. Multiple times. Without the consent of the woman you are touching. It's wild. This game could never be made today. There's so much about it that would absolutely not fly anymore. But on the whole, the game is hilarious and a fun example of a product of its time. I refuse to get mad at it or cancel it or have any kind of wild overreaction like that.
Once you are done looking at everything there is to look at, I normally explore all the different conversation paths. I usually go in order. And then when I am done, I start at the top again and make my way through the choices again. You're almost guaranteed to get different responses each time. I keep going until I get the same recycled responses over and over again. Then I know I can move on.
That's the whole game. Look at everything. Look at everyone. Talk to everyone. Explore all conversation paths. And do these things multiple times.
Normally I am not a fan of games like this, but Snatcher won me over. Unfortunately, Policenauts is not nearly as good as Snatcher. And a lot of it boils down to the story. It just isn't as interesting as Snatcher. I've never been into the hard-boiled detective noir genre, and this game borrows heavily from that. I've also never been into anime, and this game has a big anime aesthetic to it. It's a mix of detective noir and futuristic anime. If that sounds fun to you, awesome. But it just didn't do much for me.
The first half of the game bored me. I dragged my feet playing this game. I had to force myself to turn it on. Eventually I put my head down and just tried to power through it. And that's when it started to grow on me a little bit. The story took some interesting turns. I began to invest myself in the lore of the game's universe. I started to have fun. In fact, when I was done with the game, I actually began to miss it a little bit. I wanted to see and experience more of the world of Policenauts. It's a shame there is not more content in this universe to consume.
While I will say that the game grew on me big time, I can't say that it had nearly the impact on me that Snatcher did. I plan to play Snatcher again someday. I just can't see myself playing this again.
Before we move on, I do have to say that this game suffers from a textbook case of Kojima bloat. The characters sit around and gab for far too long. One particularly grievous example is when our characters find themselves in a handbag store where the villain has planted a bomb. There's absolutely no sense of urgency here. They sit around, they chit chat for twenty minutes. It's like "hello? there's a bomb here. what are you doing?"
This game is filled with shit like that.
Graphics:
This game has the look and feel of a classic 80s anime. It's not my favorite art style. I much prefer the more pixelated cyberpunk look of Snatcher. Sorry I keep bringing that game up. But it has charm. This game doesn't. I mean, it doesn't look bad or anything. In fact, over time it really sells the vibe the game is going for. I just don't find this particular art style visually exciting, especially when it comes to the character design. I don't mind how the location or the scenery look. They're fine. But the characters? Eh.
Sound:
The music in this game is pretty decent. It doesn't come close to matching the soundtrack of Snatcher (yeah yeah I know) but it is still pretty good. It matches the visual aesthetic of the game to a tee. One thing that jumped out at me right away is how this game's main theme is also in Metal Gear Solid (it's the song that plays when the Konami logo is on the screen as the game is loading up).
The voice acting is also very good. Now, there is no English speaking version of the game. All characters speak in Japanese, and unless you speak Japanese, you have to read the subtitles on the screen. If this is a problem for you, you are going to have a bad time with this game.
Overall:
I'm glad I played Policenauts. And I'm glad I stuck with it. I was tempted many times in the middle of the game to put it down or move onto something else. But although I didn't always vibe with the game, I came away from it with a positive feeling on my mind.
This is an interesting piece of gaming history. It's not Kojima's finest. In fact, it may be one of the weakest Kojima games I have played. But I feel it is an important game. It clearly inspired many things that later went into Metal Gear. Meryl is in the game. Some of the music is shared. Even some of the philosophical ideas that are discussed between characters later appear in the Metal Gear games.
I'm going to go ahead and mention Snatcher one last time. I just want to use it as a point of reference, because I haven't reviewed any other point and click games. I loved Snatcher. I gave it an A. Like I said before, I loved the game's story, and I would totally come back and play it again. I cannot say that I "loved" Policenauts. I enjoyed Policenauts. I liked Policenauts. But I didn't love it. A lot of it comes down to the story and to the pacing of the game. It just doesn't quite do it for me.
So while I walk away from this game saying that I did like it overall, don't expect me to get too excited about it. I think it is an important game, and one that you should check out if you have the means. But once is enough for me.
THE GRADE:
B-
(I really, really wanted to give this game a C+, but I felt that this grade was just a smidge too low. But at the same time, the grade of B- seems a smidge too high. Oh well!)
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