Gates Becker, Sadaoki Tokugawa, Salvatore Toscanini, Ed Brown, and Jonathan Ingram - five top policemen from Earth have been sent to the space colony Beyond Coast. Twenty-five years ago, Jonathan was presumed dead after a tragic accident during his patrol on Beyond Coast. However, he is miraculously discovered alive in his life pod twenty-five years later.
Jonathan tries to move on with his life and opens an investigation agency on Earth. His past comes back to haunt him when his ex-wife visits and asks for help finding her missing husband. After she's killed in a car explosion, Jonathan is determined to uncover the truth and revisit Beyond Coast.
Policenauts is a Japanese-style adventure game with action elements. The player interacts with the environment by positioning a cursor over objects and performing context-dependent actions. There are puzzles, but most of the story unfolds through exploring locations, examining objects, and talking to characters. Conversations often include topics to choose from.
The gameplay includes action sequences similar to Snatcher , where the player must rapidly shoot enemies while reloading their gun manually. The game is played from a first-person perspective, with Jonathan's health bar depleting if he fails to eliminate the enemy.