Courtesy of Wiki, so scratch that as a sequel.
The game is considered a spiritual sequel to Hideo Kojima's previous title, Snatcher, due to the similar gameplay, though the connections between the two titles in terms of storyline are merely tangential. This confusion is probably derived from a phrase used to promote Policenauts in a trailer, which describes the game as "The next generation of Snatcher". This phrase referred to the style and technology used, instead of being a direct sequel.