Since both Policenauts and Snatcher are my forte, I decided to finall add the reviews of them. Here's the first one. Hope you enjoy!
POLICENAUTS (Saturn version)
OVERALL: A+
Graphics:9
Sound:9
Gameplay:8
Story:9
Replay:8
Many people may have heard of this game. Policenauts was the follow up to the highly acclaimed Snatcher. Few games ever come close to equaling or surpassing its predecessor, but Policenauts does exactly that..and more..
Plot summary: Policenauts starts off in 2010 when Earth completes its' first space colony, Beyond Coast. Three years later, five men are selected to protect the colony. Gatse Becker from Scotland Yard, Joseph Sadaoki Tokugawa from Japan, Salvatore Toscanini from NY, and from L.A., Ed Brown and, you, Jonathan Ingram. During a routine spacewalk, Jonathans' suit mysteriously malfunctions and he his hurtled into deep space. 25 years later, he is miraculously discovered alive in his life pod, physically 28 years old, but in actuality, 55 years old.
Fast forward to 2040. Jonathan now heads an investigation agency in Old L.A. One night, his estranged wife, Lorraine, visits him and asks for his help in finding her husband, Kenzo, who has been missing for several days. Jonathan refuses and Lorraine leaves. As she leaves, Jonathan watches her go towards her car and notices a shadowy figure lurking in the shadows. Jonathan yells to stop her, but its too late. The car explodes. Jonathan chases after the culprit, but to no avail. He rushes back to Lorraines' side and, as she lays dying, she asks Jonathan, as her final wish, to find her husband and look after her daughter, Karen. She passes away, and Jonathan agrees to fulfill her final wish, and the adventure begins...
Gameplay - 8/10 - The gameplay is very simple. You simply guide a cursor around the screen and click on anything you wish to examine. During shooting sequences, you move a little red dot around. This can be sometimes a bit difficult to maneuver (but is made much easier in the Saturn version by using the Sega Stunner gun peripheral), but, overall, its still pretty reactive.
Story - 9/10 - The story has to be THE best part of the game. Like all of Kojimas' games, the story is very deep and involving and includes little details all around that fully flesh out the world of Policenauts, making you believe the world exists. If only all games could such involving stories
The only drawback being that there is no English version, but even though you can not fully understand the plot, just by pure visual presentation, the game is comprehendible.
Graphics - 9/10 - The graphics are incredible all around. From all of the locales you visit, to all of the people, to the gorgeous FMV sequences. The graphics also seem just a little bit sharper than those on the 3DO and PSX. The video quality is actually very good (for all those who just want to know the quality of the video, I give THAT an 8 alone also...still very nicely done.) The anime cutscenes also run at 24 fps, rather than the 15 fps like the PSX version.
Music and Sound F/X - 9/10 - Another incredible soundtrack. Just like Snatcher, Policenauts is filled with many different flavors of music, all of which are crystal clear and just all around catchy and mood setting. The sound effects are also very well done, from gunshots to even dogs barking in the background, everything just sounds great. A game worthy of a soundtrack purchase.
Replay - 8/10 - Although being a "digital comic", Policenauts is still worthy of playing over many times to find extra little secrets and info. that weren't caught the first time around.
This isn't required, but I wanted to add this part to let everyone know the differences from the other versions....
Version Differences - The Saturn is pretty much the same as the PSX version, but there are a few areas where it differs, and all are for the better. First off, there is now Sega Stunner gun support for the shooting sequences. There a few new cutscenes. The video frame rate is a bit higher. There are shooting galleries on each disc. There are 3 possible ending themes during the ending credits. There is a trailer before the game. Upon beating the game, you get a few more goodies, like an interview section and a few trailers from the PC-9821 version and the 3DO version (These are the same trailers and interviews that were both on the Policenauts Pilot Disc and Policenauts Private Collection). When you purchase the game, you also get a nice hardcover art book with it.
That's it! Hope you liked it. If it was enjoyed, I'll add a review for each system version and, of course, for all the versions of Snatcher
