This March, SuperPod Game Club played the Kojima graphic adventure game Policenauts. While there were only two members partaking in March's game, the two reviews are more than meaty enough to make up for the lack of participants.

If you'd like to join SuperPod Game Club and share your thoughts with us, have your written review posted on our website, and to chat your way through the game with us, join our Discord server! You can also check out the Game Club page for the rules and past reviews!

You can also check out the Game Club page for the rules, past reviews, and even check out who's participated in SuperPod Game Club so far!

Tony

It was my turn this month to put up a poll on the SuperPod discord and the winner for March was Policenauts. With the much anticipated Death Stranding 2 being right around the corner, this ended up being a rather appropriate pick I think and it’s also a game I’ve been wanting to play but just never got around to for whatever reason. Anyway, let’s get this review started!

Policenauts was the second sif-fi Interactive Story/Visual Novel made by Hideo Kojima that originally released on the PC-98 in 1994 and was later ported to 3DO in 1995, as well as to the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1996. While there really aren’t many differences between the ports, the Saturn version does offer cleaner looking FMVs (for the time at least), an in-game glossary, some extra scenes and even light gun support. Most of these additions likely won’t mean much to anyone just looking to emulate the game, but they’re enough for many fans of the game to consider the Saturn port the definitive version. Unfortunately, Policenauts never received an official localization outside of Japan, but translation patches for both the PS1 and Saturn are readily available.

The story follows Jonathan Engram, a former member of the Policenauts who recently woke up from a cryogenic sleep after an accident launched him into depths of space. It’s now 25 years later and while Jonathan hasn’t aged a day, everyone he knew has grown older and his former life is nothing but a distant memory. Now working as a Private Detective he gets an unexpected visit from his ex-wife Lorraine, asking him to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her husband. At first Jonathan is reluctant to help Lorraine, but after an incident that happens right outside his office window, he immediately finds himself jumping head first into the middle of a conspiracy.

Policenauts follows the typical Visual Novel formula, every location you visit consists of mostly static screens that you travel back and forth from looking for clues and talking to every person of interest until the story eventually moves forward. There is a simplified menu system that gives you a list of actions to choose from and can lead to another sub set of options depending on the situation. There is also a mouse pointer you use to click on points of interest to examine and to take a closer look at the people you can talk to, which can lead to some of the games more colorful moments. Yeahhhh there's definitely some I guess you could call raunchy humor involving the mouse, which may lead to some awkward situations if someone happens to walk into the room at the exact wrong time. There are also action segments that help break up the pace, but they’re mainly shooting galleries that can sometimes go on for a bit too long and aren’t particularly challenging or fun at least when using a controller. They might be a bit more engaging when using the mouse, or light gun, so if you happen to have played through the game use either of the alternative control options leave a comment below and tell us about the experience!

Kojima tends to always go a bit overboard with his worldbuilding and exposition, which are two things that this game is not at all lacking. You can click on just about anything and get a good amount of detail about it, sometimes more than you’d probably ever need or want to know. The same goes with the character dialogue, you can talk to just about anyone for longer than you need to and show them everything you have on hand to see if they have anything to say about it. The Saturn port also has an in-game glossary that you can go through for even more details about various people and terms that the game feels are important. It’s all completely unnecessary, but I can appreciate it being there even though I personally had no urge to ever look at it.

I’ve never been a big fan of visual novels, I’ve played several in my lifetime and I’m almost always bored to tears by the time I reach the end of them. Needless to say, Policenauts didn’t do much to change my mind about the genre, but I did enjoy my time spent with the game. The story was well told and you could tell that it was heavily influenced by Western media, particularly the 80s and 90s buddy cop movies. It was also neat seeing all of the elements that would be carried over and repurposed in Metal Gear Solid. While I don’t ever see myself playing through the game again, I do think Policenauts is worth checking out for anyone that is a fan of Kojima and want to see what he was up to right before he hit it big in the mainstream.

Thrak

I have spent days pondering my thoughts about Policenauts. On the one hand, it was a fantastic game with an intriguing mystery that goes in some interesting directions. On the other hand, it was severely overwritten and lacking in a memorable gameplay experience. That is the direction you take when doing a visual novel style game. I have heard graphic adventure and interactive stories as well to describe the genre of this game. It does not defy genres per se, but it is a unique one for the time that even by today’s standards, people are not confident to find a box to put it in.

Policenauts was released in 1994 for the NEC PC-9821 with console ports to 3DO, PlayStation and Sega Saturn within the next two years. As of this writing, it does not have an official English translation as it has never left Japan. There were plans in the works for the Sega Saturn port to be translated but it was canceled due to development issues. In 2009, it got an unofficial translation when fans of Kojima decided to do the work after years of protesting Konami went to no avail. The fan translation of the Sega Saturn is how I ended up playing this game.

The story is the focus here and I do not want to spoil too much but let me try to paint a picture for you. Jonathan Ingram is a Policenaut, which is a new type of officer meant to protect the Beyond Coast which is the first space colony that can survive on its own. He is one of five early adopters. In 2013, he suffers an accident and drifts off into space, presumed to be dead. However, 25 years later he is discovered and revived, being in a state of cryosleep due to his suit. He has now returned to Earth as a private investigator as Beyond Coast has dramatically changed their police, rendering Policenauts obsolete, but legendary. One day, Jon’s estranged ex-wife visits him, asking to investigate the disappearance of her husband on Beyond. Jon decides to help her and fly up there and while he is there, he reunites with old friends, makes new ones, and unravels a deep conspiracy that could bring Beyond to its knees.

The gameplay is, well, bare bones. You move your cursor around the screen to interact with certain objects or talk to people. Each person has a dialogue tree of sorts where you must ask them about specific things multiple times. Essentially, ask them the same question until they get mad at you. Unlike most point and click adventures, there are not any inventory puzzles or logic puzzles or…any puzzles. It all comes off dry. You do get to pull out your gun and participate in shooting segments. You can train at the police station in friendly competitions, and it prepares you for later moments in the game. The shooting is very Lethal Enforcers. You move the reticule around the screen and tap the fire button and there is a reload button. It would be super easy with a mouse or a light gun but can be exceedingly difficult with a standard controller because the cursor speed is slow, even when you try to increase it. Thankfully, there is a lock-on feature which makes later sections beatable. There is a specific moment when dozens of enemies pop up and start shooting you. Without the lock-on, it would be impossible to bypass.

Talking to people can be frustrating because you must ask people multiple times about the same subject and in doing so, the dialogue gets excessive. There is an encyclopedia which has more details about certain acronyms or events they reference. It is great for world building, but it would have been better to encompass some of that into the talking parts. Also not having a dub is tough for me. I understand why it does not have a dub, but I find it easier to listen to dialogue rather than read it while Japanese is being spoken. If it does not bother you, more power to you. The game comes off incredibly overwritten and my eyes would glaze over many times while discussing the moon landing in 1969 or whatever they felt was important. It probably is yet this game comes off as Kojima not finding his footing as a writer quite yet. Though this is far from my biggest issue with the game. My main gripe is with the female interactions. Jonathon is a complete perv and the game gives you options to harass every lady you come across. Japanese culture has a different view on this than I do, but it is still gross to me, and I found these options cringy, especially with one specific character, but I will not name her due to story reasons.

My overall thoughts are that this was a unique experience that I am glad I finally got to have. It is not a perfect game and has quite a few issues, but the story was a fun ride and it is neat to see where Kojima was woodshedding before Metal Gear Solid broke him into the mainstream.

That's it for now! March was a pretty busy month for most of us. Thankfully Tony and Thrak picked up the slack for the rest of us in SuperPod Game Club.

Come on back next month to read our thoughts about April's game—Alpha Protocol!

If you'd like to join SuperPod Game Club and share your thoughts with us, have your written review posted on our website, and to chat your way through the game with us, join our Discord server!