Play Policenauts Online

Summary

Policenauts feels like an interactive movie wrapped in a graphic adventure shell, its story delivered through fully voiced dialogue and cel‑animated cutscenes that glide from one static “scene” to the next. The point‑and‑click interface lets you examine every detail of the futuristic environments, while dialogue choices push the narrative forward without forcing you into linear text boxes.

When the plot calls for action, the game drops you into first‑person shooting segments that range from a reflex‑testing gun range at the police precinct to tense firefights against hostile forces, even supporting a light‑gun on the Saturn. One memorable puzzle has you dismantling a bomb under a partner’s step‑by‑step instructions.

Mouse support is built into every console port, and the PlayStation version sneaks in a cheeky Easter egg: if a Tokimeki Memorial save file is detected, special dialogue appears—a trick Kojima later refined in Metal Gear Solid. The title also introduced summary screens that recap key plot points whenever you reload a save.

Although never officially released outside Japan, an unofficial English translation patch surfaced in August 2009, finally letting non‑Japanese speakers experience the game’s rich world and cinematic storytelling.

Storyline

Policenauts follows former LAPD officer Jonathan Ingram, one of five "Policenauts"—astronaut‑trained police sent to protect Beyond Coast, humanity’s first self‑supporting space colony, in 2013. During a test of a new space‑walking suit he drifts into space, is preserved by a cryogenic module, and is rescued 25 years later. By 2040 he works as a private investigator in Old Los Angeles, still haunted by the accident.

His ex‑wife Lorraine appears, begging him to find her new husband Kenzo Hojo, who vanished leaving only a torn leaf, a set of capsules and the word "Plato" as clues. After Lorraine is murdered by a rider in a black motorcycle suit, Jonathan travels back to Beyond Coast, reuniting with his former partner Ed Brown and joining Vice Unit members Meryl Silverburgh and Dave Forrest. Their probe uncovers an illegal drug and organ‑trafficking ring run by Gates Becker and Joseph Tokugawa, created to counteract the harmful effects of long‑term space living. Hojo had been drawn in to secure a cure for his daughter Karen’s bone cancer, but tried to quit and was killed.

In a final showdown Jonathan forces Becker to confess on live broadcast, exposing the scandal to the colonists. Ed kills Becker, Meryl arrests Tokugawa, and Jonathan learns he is Karen’s biological father, donating his bone marrow to save her. With the case closed, he returns to Earth.