[Adventurer4Life]

i have heard a lot about his game and would be interested in trying it... but i have no idea what this fan game is ... there is like no FAQ on the site ...

Like the original is a PSX game? as in playstation 1... is that right... so you need to run it on a playstation 1.. or dose this patch include a emulator to run it on pc?

Can someone please explain how this works.

[Ursulla]

Download the patch....
There is a readme file there which will explain everything....

Here is how to download quickly : (English didn't work...Cancel any suggestion to install japanease language)

At the first page choose HTML flash
on the next page in Japanease language choose 3rd option fron the left...
choose Policenauts.net

[Linque]

ggreen737, I'm all of those things and I'm still not convinced. It's decent and has good atmosphere, but the game itself is hardly stellar. Since I consider this more of an interactive story, this game pales to comparison with the comparable Sci-fi movies of that era.

I'm glad I stumbled into this game, it's worth it largely for the historical value. But it's just an okay game.

[Trickless]

Enjoyed the game, but there were a few things that keep it from being the 'masterpiece' that some people have made it to be. The setting and back story for Policenauts is pretty awesome, and first few scenes start things off really well. There's an amazing amount of detail within the game, but I felt the main story was a bit lacking in some parts. With the exception of Jonathan and Ed, some of the major characters were a bit shallow and needed more fleshing out.

Spoiler:

Tokugawa didn't get enough screen time for me, and just ended up a being an bad guy motivated by greed. The biggest dissapointment was Redwood, I felt he could have done with more development and backstory. He would have been one of the more interesting characters.

The main plot is good, I did enjoy the game's detail about the concept of living in space, and the issues that go with it. There were some good twists and turns but I think I was expecting a bit more from it, since there was a big amount of hype surrounding the story.

I don't think the game has managed to reach the high expectations that it had, but it's still a game I would recommend many to try out.

About the whole thing about it being an 'interactive movie', many japanese adventure games tend to focus more with the storytelling and sacrifice a lot of gameplay. If the story is whats keeping you playing, then I guess it's atleast doing what it was intended to do. I came in to the game expecting that, so it wasn't too much of a big deal for me.

Whatever anyone has to say about the game, you have to give praise to the team who translated it. Translating and then coding all of that text, not to mention fixing a few bugs that were in the original game, must have been hell. Yet there are still people bashing the whole translation effort because of a few bad lines.

For those that played and enjoyed Policenauts, definitely try out Snatcher if you haven't done so. Gameplay is a bit more simpler, but between the two Snatcher slightly edges out with a better story. It may be better to try out Snatcher first since its easier to...uh... set up

[Linque]

Okay, I finally finished it. Final thoughts:

(spoiler until game finished) EDIT: Updated with one comment

Spoiler:

Gee wiz, Chris was involved? How surprising. Could've saved a lot of time and lives if any of the good guys were able to actually think.

Act 7 was extremely poor. Felt like the story was rushed to the ending. Pointless action scenes, and I didn't like how Jonathan felt like he was invincible in the gunfights.

As Trickless said, Redwood as a character was way less interesting than what it could've been. Same goes for pretty much every character actually, none of the characters felt quite deep enough.

Final note. I absolutely detest the all too common hints at incest in many Japanese games.

EDIT:
The biggest plot hole of them all was definitely that Salvatore just let himself be killed at the moon. I mean he knew the two were in there, he could've easily set up a trap, sent in more troops or really, just about anything. Instead, he practically killed himself.

[ggreen737]

Again, some of you are judging it from todays standards, which, to be fair, is realistic. But IMO you need to judge the game like you played it back in 1993, that is where it really shines.

It's like watching Total Recall and criticizing the parts where their heads blow-up, and calling it unrealistic. These kind of games and movies are meant to be classics. You wouldn't watch Casablanca, and say "Gee, I've seen that plot before" when the movie nearly invented an entire genre.

Just my 2 cents. Having said that, with today's less involved movie-esque games, I'd probably give Policenauts 3.5 stars. Still very worth your time if you are interested in this kind of thing.

[millenium]

Linque, I think you're a bit harsh in terms of game predictability... Have you played the GK games? It was super easy to figure out who the villains were in those games...

Originally Posted by Linque

Spoiler:

Why the hell did Salvatore let himself get killed by Jonathan? I just killed him, so I haven't played any further but still, it seemed absolutely crazy.

Spoiler:

Maybe he didn't know Johny had a gun... it had been confiscated after all

Originally Posted by Trickless

Spoiler:

Tokugawa didn't get enough screen time for me, and just ended up a being an bad guy motivated by greed

Spoiler:

Well, his ideas were pretty much presented by Bates (all that stuff about humans being incapable of surviving in space without Tokugawa products and all that...

Spoiler:

As for Redwood, I suppose he could have done with more exposition. You know what really bothers me? Knowing Kojima and how many twists most of his games have, I was surprised it was Redwood who killed Lorraine. I mean the way game developed, her being killed by a guy with artificial blood, and later a guy with artificial blood flying on the same uhh plane as Johny and later showing extensive knowledge of explosives. It was just too obvious to be true

[Linque]

millenium, yeah I might be a bit harsh, but I don't like forgiving games just because other games make the same mistakes.

Spoiler:

Yep, the fact that Redwood was indeed the murderer was one thing I was very disappointed with as well - I was convinced at first that it couldn't be that simple; the guy sitting next on the plane who had a bandage in his hand. I felt insulted after him turning out a villain.

In these kinds of games, just as the Ace Attorney series, I get really frustrated when I would want to have a different approach and solve the case earlier than allowed. I don't enjoy playing dumb just for the sake of the game. It's not fun, and that's why I attack the story in games like these so fiercely.

[traz]

I really liked this game. I think the fan translators did an excellent job.
I don't want to compare this to western adventure games because this, and most other Japanese games of this sort, are meant to have an entirely different focus than their western equivalent.

[thejobloshow]

Has anyone seen Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise by Gainax? It's my favourite Anime film, definitely one that is up there with classic films of all time... but Policenauts seems highly influenced from that world.

I don't think Policenauts accomplished any unprecedented innovations... by 1994 Sierra On-Line was doing hi-res fully animated adventure games. However, I'm happy to play this great game now - Snatcher is a real masterpiece though.

[traz]

Originally Posted by thejobloshow

Has anyone seen Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise by Gainax? It's my favourite Anime film, definitely one that is up there with classic films of all time... but Policenauts seems highly influenced from that world.

I don't think Policenauts accomplished any unprecedented innovations... by 1994 Sierra On-Line was doing hi-res fully animated adventure games. However, I'm happy to play this great game now - Snatcher is a real masterpiece though.

I gotta say that I really like Policenauts a lot more than Snatcher. Both games are great though. But it seems like Policenauts has more of a focus on actual puzzles.

Also, thanks for the movie suggestion.