

The console versions of the game all include support for their respective mouse peripherals. There are numerous puzzles in the game, including an event where the player must dismantle a bomb by following their partner's instructions. The player can use the shooting trainer at the police department to test their reflex and accuracy. Like in Snatcher, the game features shooting segments where the player must defend their character from incoming enemies. The game is set in a primarily first person perspective and uses a point-and-click interface: the player can move the cursor and have the protagonist (Jonathan Ingram) analyze objects around his environment or talk to other characters in the game. The game centers on a detective who travels to a space colony to investigate the circumstances surrounding his ex-wife's murder and her new husband's sudden disappearance.


Policenauts, like Snatcher before it, pays various homages to previously-existing films, the most obvious being Jonathan's and Ed's (the main characters) respective resemblances to Riggs and Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon. On August 23, 2009, an unofficial English translation patch was released onto the internet. The game has never been officially released outside Japan, despite plans for an English localization of the Saturn version. It was initially released for the PC-9821 computer platform in 1994, followed by remade versions for the 3DO in 1995, and the PlayStation and Sega Saturn in 1996. Policenauts is a cinematic adventure game, with a hard science fiction storyline published by Konami, written and directed by Hideo Kojima.
