[orient]

Policenauts


The English patch for the PlayStation space adventure, Policenauts has finally been released and is available for download at http://policenauts.net/. Here is a trailer for the game and Retroware TV's coverage of one of most extensive fan translations ever completed.

I'll be posting impressions of the game once I get a copy and I encourage all fans of sci-fi adventures to do the same In preparation, I may play through Snatcher once more, too!

[Matan]

I've started playing it and I must say so far it looks amazing - the translation is really professional and the story so far is great (although I am still in act 1)

[Origami]

Hideo Kojima for the win!

I wish I could play this game...

[ggreen737]

Thanks for the heads up! Seeing as how this is solely a 3rd person seller now, I think I'll acquire this one through *other* methods. Although it would be kick-ass to have a physical copy of this game.

[ggreen737]

Wow, just WOW, period. I just played this game for like the last 4 hours today, after spending 10 mins on it last night, and it is incredible.

This game is amazing, there is a ton of content, and the story is awesome so far. This is some seriously classic Adventure gaming right here.

*Goes back to Beyond*

[orient]

Yeah, I played the start just to make sure it works and wow - this game's the real deal.

I hate playing 2 adventures at once, though, so I'm going to have to complete Another Code: R first.

[Manly One]

I'd already acquired the game awhile ago, and ever since, I'd been waiting a very long time for the complete English translation. After the patch was released I've been playing it the past couple of days.

To be sure, it indeed has been an excellent game so far. I'm currently into Act 2. If there wasn't so much juvenile smut in it I'd willingly recommend it for most age groups as a must-play. As it stands, it is still a thoroughly enjoyable and immensely detailed game, with a tremendous amount of interesting and accurate scientific facts. I believe the scope of the game, the scientific aspects in particular, rival, and even surpass in many ways, the Metal Gear Solid series.

Purists, however, may balk at the almost complete lack of traditional adventure game puzzles, but I consider it, along with Snatcher, to be an interactive comic book. It's still fundamentally a point-and-click adventure game, save for the occasional shooting (albiet quite easy) sections.

Just ensure to play it with a mouse, even if you're running it through a regular Playstation or emulating it on PC.

Obviously, it's been Hideo Kojima's hidden masterpiece for western audiences for soo long. It's baffled me that it took the skills of an intrepid group of fans to complete the work Konami failed to do in order to share the game with the English-speaking public. Why don't they officially remake this and Snatcher?

A note to the editing staff of Adventure Gamers: Please, could someone ensure that both Policenauts and Snatcher are acknowledged as superb adventure games and honor them with their own reviews? I think most of the community here should be aware of these games and that they deserve their places in the pantheon of adventure gaming greats.

[potan]

oh nooooo...... the website is down when i about to try it

[orient]

Originally Posted by Manly One

A note to the editing staff of Adventure Gamers: Please, could someone ensure that both Policenauts and Snatcher are acknowledged as superb adventure games and honor them with their own reviews? I think most of the community here should be aware of these games and that they deserve their places in the pantheon of adventure gaming greats.

I 100% agree. Obviously they're fairly obscure games; one being a Sega CD game and the other only playable through a fan-made patch (unless you're Japanese), but that seems like a good a reason as any to get "official" reviews on the site and hopefully make more people aware of them.

These are titles that came out in the "golden era" of adventure games and in terms of popularity and status, were essentially the Japanese versions of the LucasArts/Sierra classics in their home country.

[millenium]

Now, all that I need is the actual game...

Some people are saying it's better than MGS... How great can it be...?

[Manly One]

How great can it be? I'm afraid it's too early for me to make that assessment until I've finished the game.

First impressions, though, have been tremendous. The story grabbed me straight away. It might follow the Film-Noir cliché at the beginning with the main character, a private detective, being approached by a client to find a missing person, a case that always seems simple at first but ends up being a small cog in a massive conspiracy of huge proportions - it still grabbed me. Though, as with Snatcher having the appearance of being a ripoff of Blade Runner, Policenauts is a blatant ripoff of the Riggs and Murtaugh duo from Lethal Weapon - the story still sucked me in. Even though it is dialogue and cut scene heavy, the pacing is extremely good and it doesn't get bogged down by tedium like the MGS series tends to do.

It's at least as good, if not better, than Snatcher. Comparing it with MGS is hard for me because I'm still quite loyal to that series, and despite all its faults, no-one can deny the scope of its ideas and the stylish execution of them.

I suppose a more accurate comparison between the two is that Policenauts is Metal Gear without all the stealth, frequently long-winded codec yapping, heavy-handed philosophical ramblings, silly bits about possessed limbs, Snake with the habit of repeating nearly everything someone says to him... and nanomachines.

In fact, the world of Policenauts is much more grounded in reality than you might think. A lot of the technology could be possible in one form or another in the future - I suspect it seems more feasible toady than it did in 1994 when the game came out.

You'll also notice plenty of subtle and sometimes not-so subtle references between each series, Snatcher, Policenauts and Metal Gear, in that they share many of the same themes and naunces. Can we blame Hideo Kojima from siphoning the deep reserves of his past material to fuel his genius storytelling abilities? I think we can allow him that indulgence.

[ggreen737]

On Act 3 now, game is still a blast!

What really blows my mind is how accurate everything is, and how much foresight Kojima had into our technology today. The game was released for the Amiga in 1994, which means he must have wrote the game in 1993 at the latest.

*Small non-story spoilers ahead*
Knowing that, he predicted the mass integration of HDTV's, the broad and constant use of cell phones, cars that run on a mix of batteries and gas, mass drug use by the general population because of pharmacology practices.

All those things were a mere twinkle in the proverbial eye back in 1993...

[youfightlikeadairyfarmer]

These sound interesting. How exactly do you patch a playstation game? Were they released on PC? Or is the patch for a rom?

[orient]

Originally Posted by youfightlikeadairyfarmer

These sound interesting. How exactly do you patch a playstation game? Were they released on PC? Or is the patch for a rom?

The patch is to be applied to image files of the original Japanese Policenauts game discs. The creators of the patch encourage people to purchase the game from a reseller, but yes, it is meant to be played on PC or a PlayStation console capable of playing backups.

Both Snatcher and Policenauts are relatively easy to "get your hands on" if you search Google

[Manly One]

Originally Posted by youfightlikeadairyfarmer

These sound interesting. How exactly do you patch a playstation game? Were they released on PC? Or is the patch for a rom?

You must first acquire a licensed copy of the Playstation version of the game. The cheapest method is second-hand sources like ebay or amazon.com. The other, unsavory method, I won't mention here.

In other words, no different than tracking down an old classic game these days.

Next, you need to create disc images of the CDs (in .ISO format) preferably with a program like CloneCD or Alcohol 120%. These .ISOs must be named Policenauts1.iso and Policenauts2.iso respectively. You then run the English translation patch, downloaded from http://policenauts.net/english/ and it automatically creates two new .ISOs with the English text embedded. You can reburn these to disc and either run through a Playstation, or directly run the .ISOs through a PSP or emulate with your PC.

The instructions they supply are very straight-forward.

[millenium]

Just finished playing... Kojima - a [a rather well known 4 letter word that starts with f]ing genious! One of the greatest, if not the greatest, game producers/designer ever. Seriously, all of that interactive movie concept was not conceived by Cage of Indigo Prophecy, point n click's dead Cecil of Broken Sword or even Ragnar Tornquist of TLJ - Kojima did it ages ago and perhaps even in a better way

Anyhow, great characters and a superb story - a must play! Forget all of the recent drivel of adventure genre - play Policenauts. You won't regret it; I promise.

Time for Snatcher...

[heribertovalle]

Now... to get the original game. I'm ever so amazed by the tenacity of fan translators. One would think that language talent could be used to producing something that you can profit from. It's rather admirable.

[millenium]

Originally Posted by heribertovalle

One would think that language talent could be used to producing something that you can profit from.

Well, believe it or not, some people still do stuff for free these days. They simply care for things. I mean, look at the software community - there's so much high quality free open-source stuff lying around.

I guess it's just bankers, lawyers and some other dodos in suites who are firmly against doing things for free...

[Linque]

I'm in Act 5 at the moment, pretty close to the ending probably. I can't say I'm as impressed as you guys seem to be. Gameplay is sub-par, it's mostly just an interactive story where you don't have to do anything but click through all the conversation lines.

EDIT:
The main theme is Beyond awesome though. (see what I did there? Beyond ...)
Seriously, I love the 80's feel of the theme. Reminds me of Crockett's theme. Also, I love the Policenauts logo - The Vitruvian Man reference is nice.

The story is the only thing that's keeping me playing this, and even it has some plot holes in it, to be honest. Three examples:
(spoiler until you reach Act 2)

Spoiler:

I don't really understand why the K9 pills are so revolutionary. Wouldn't it be extremely easy to distinct these drugs from normal pills after you figure out the crest marking?

(spoiler until Act 4)

Spoiler:

I figured out the whole thing before Jonathan even arrived to Beyond Coast. Well, everything except Gates being in on it. Having to run around waiting for our ace duo to realize what's going on wasn't really that interesting. Also, why don't they suspect Carla or Christy or whatever the girl's name to be a part of the whole shenanigans? Isn't it obvious since she was at Togikawa's party? It hasn't been revealed yet during my play, but I'll be damned if she's not in on it.

Plus, it's annoying that neither of the Policenauts or Lorraine knew Plato. Is it that hard to figure out it actually ment something related to the philosopher?

(spoiler until you're a bit into Act 5)

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.

[ggreen737]

Yeah, having finished it I could understand how certain people might not like it. You really have to be a fan of big-budget 80's and early 90's action/sci-fi flicks as well as the whole film noir genre to really appreciate how entertaining Policenauts is.