The game begins with the G-Police combating organised criminals before fighting the private armies of powerful corporations in an unfolding conspiracy-themed plot.

Critics noted that the game's graphics were some of the most technically impressive of the time, and that this resulted in poor draw distance; the PlayStation version in particular struggled in this respect.

The gameplay was more favourably reviewed, with critics praising the solid pacing and variety of mission objectives, though there were complaints regarding poor controls and unfairly high difficulty.

After a catastrophic war over ever-declining resources, ending 10 years prior to the events of G-Police, Earth's governments were stripped of military power.

[10] In the latter part of the introductory sequence, Slater, the game's protagonist, introduces himself as a war veteran who had joined the G-Police to conduct his own investigation of his sister Elaine's apparent suicide, suspecting that she was murdered.

[11] He also provides his view of the G-Police, stating they lack authority and "turn a blind eye" to "shady corporate deals" while attempting to maintain order.

[14] After numerous insurgencies, invasions, and terrorism, on these personnel and property, Krakov blames a rival corporation, "Nanosoft", and begins openly attacking them with its private army.

[18] The game ends with the destruction of a large spacecraft by Slater; the closing sequence reveals that Nanosoft had planned to use this to exert military dominance over other corporations.

[22] They partnered with the Diesel clothing company—added to the game as an evil corporation whose logo could be blown up—who designed the police's uniform and produced their jacket as a limited edition piece.

Upon its original release for the PlayStation, critics were impressed by the full motion video cutscenes[26][28][7] and elaborate cityscapes,[26][28][30] but were derisive of the low draw distance.

[26][28][7][5][30] GamePro described it as "one of the worst cases of draw-in since 32-bit gaming began", reckoning that "About a third of the screen remains black while buildings and enemies wink into existence.

[5] IGN, Edge, and Shawn Smith and Crispin Boyer of Electronic Gaming Monthly all argued that the low draw distance was an easily forgivable shortcoming given the limitations of the PlayStation.

[26][28][5] Edge praised the large city environments, flight simulation (noting the support for analog joypads), "marvellous" cut scenes and "great variety and imagination" of the playable missions.

"[28] GameSpot's Joe Fielder was less forgiving, saying the control issues "prevent [G-Police] from having speedy arcade-style play or, in effect, acting as a compelling action title.

The magazine also praised the graphics (again noting the scifi influence), responsive controls and enjoyable gameplay, but the reviewer complained that the game became overly difficult after the first few missions and that the verbal instructions were easily missed.

The editors called G-Police "the most beautiful" action nominee that year, but wrote that it lost its chance due to the lack of multiplayer gameplay.

The game depicts the aftermath of the conflict between the G-Police and Nanosoft, which involves initial battles with gangs attempting to take advantage of the colony's instability.