Some critics picked up on Kojima's fascination with space and future technology. "1UP.com" felt that like other Kojima games, "Policenauts" was a "collage" of Kojima's obsessions during that era. For "Policenauts", this happened to include space travel in a near-future "painted with the brush of Kojima's excited and optimistic imagination." Critics praised the elaborate detail placed into describing hypothetical technologies and commonplace items. "Eurogamer" called it a fascinating and believable speculation into the future, writing that "each and every piece of technology is so thoroughly justified in the descriptions that the world takes on a weighty sense of verisimilitude." Critics felt the game's scientific terminology and dark plot themes were translated well by fans into English.