Policenauts takes a lot of the familiar contours of 80s/early 90s buddy cop action dramas and marries it with a somewhat cyberpunk space future setting that gives it an entirely unique character of its own. There's a lot of charm and humor to its story, and the details of its setting are expanded on and luxuriated in by Kojima who obviously put a lot of thought into what this sort of future could look like.

The point-and-click interface is the tool by which you investigate and converse, with other gameplay applications coming into use as the story progresses. Though it's mainly a visual novel of sorts, it alternates to shootout sequences (other console versions used Light Gun peripherals for these, which would have been awesome to experience) which have you try to kill the bad guy before your own health runs out.

A drawback of this game, which to some degree is an artifact of its time and place in the japanese computer game market of the early 90s, is the groping and molestation of the female characters which the game allows, but does not encourage, the player to do. There boob jiggle animations have their own credits, even.

It's an extremely unique and engaging game, with awesome animated sequences and inventive gameplay. I highly recommend emulating it with a translation if you can, and use a CRT shader as well to get the best visual experience. I'll be thinking about and referencing this game for a long time to come.