The drug problem is only the first half of the story of Policenauts though. The Deep Throat-like informant you meet tells you that K-9 is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Tokugawa’s crimes. The second major leg of the story covers the other diabolical plan of Tokugawa - organ farming. Space doesn’t just cause damage to our mental health, it wreaks havoc on our physical bodies as well. Cosmic radiation and different levels of gravity ruin our bodies, since they never evolved to face these conditions on Earth. So Tokugawa comes up with a plan - they supply Narc to the criminal organisations on Earth, who in turn give them with a string of dead bodies that can have their organs harvested.

And credit where it's due, this plan is far more robust than the aforementioned ‘secret drug’ scheme. Body parts are both expensive and probably highly regulated, so Tokugawa Corporation may not have a clear legal way to get access to them. The organs are not stored on Beyond, but on the Moon, where gravity is more suitable and there’s a level of distance from the company itself. And it's possible that there’s a level of taboo surrounding organ trading, making it politically awkward for Tokugawa to push for it in the future.

Where it all comes undone is in linking the grand plan of Mankind conquering space to what is actually happening in the game. In Blade Runner 2049, Niander Wallace’s plan is breathtaking in its audacity. He wants humanity to ascend to the stars and thinks leveraging replicants is the way to do it. He isn’t satisfied with thousands of replicants - Wallace needs a slave labour force in the millions, and it's not possible or cost efficient to hit those numbers by just building them. So when Wallace realises the possibility of Replicants breeding, he seizes the opportunity. Wallace wants to build endless farms of replicant farms, reproducing them endlessly so that humans have an unending supply of slaves to build whatever they deem necessary. Now, that is a plan.

Gates, in his ending villainous monologue in Policenauts, states a similar goal - he views the actions of Tokugawa as essential to the future of humanity. But it's not like these organs are being distributed to those in space development - they’re being peddled off purely for profit. When Salvatore confronts you at the organ base on the moon, he talks exclusively about selling your organs off to the highest bidder.

We even get confirmation in game that these organs aren’t being made widely available to those who need them, even people in positions of great importance. Kenzo Hojo, the chief drug researcher for Tokugawa, couldn’t even get bone marrow to his daughter without stealing and selling drugs for his own personal gain. The organ farming thing ends up being just a side project to make more money - when really it should be a central tenet to take humanity's evolution to the next step.

Even more disappointing is the complete failure to expand on the Frozeners. One of the primary antagonists in the game is a ‘Frozener’ called Redwood. The Frozener’s are artificial humans, grown from the genes of astronauts with artificial blood and special lens over their eyes. But no attention is paid to these next generation, purposefully built for space humans - instead there’s a number of shootouts and a grudge born against you by Redwood that makes zero sense.

When you’re telling a story on the scale of Policenauts, you need an evil plan to match. But Gates monologue at the end rings hollow, because all the evidence points towards a simple money raising scheme.