HTML - Psychic Private Eye [v0.99.3] [Sanjafeth]

v0.99.3

An HTML game where you're tasked with the investigation of a case.
The story so far is short, but the repeatable mechanics make it feel longer. And at least it has a soft ending, so it can work as a stand-alone short story.

There aren't that many sex scenes, or any sort of scenes for that matter: the dream sequences all follow the same pattern where you unlock a couple of seconds of the same video clip each consecutive night.

There is an option to turn into a woman, but it doesn't add much content.

Money is a non-issue - you can work once and be set for a week or longer, which takes away from the realism, although we're talking about a game that revolves around brain superpowers and body transformation, but still - why add money as a mechanic if it doesn't matter?

What I liked the most was the brain stages - they're very easy to control once you understand the limit, but I liked the visual representation of how close the character is to losing it.

It's not bad, but again - there's very little content and the dream grind gets tedious rather quickly. Still worth playing once, as it involves many uncommon mechanics (mental status, addiction) which is always welcome in the HTML games section.

It also features mechanics that don't seem to do much, or maybe they require more grind, which would be a bit silly, considering that some -like exhibitionism- are limited to a single RNG-based scene.

There's also unimplemented mechanics -like work at the coffee shop- that result in dead-ends. Fortunately, the back button is enabled, so you can just use it to avoid getting stuck with no way out.

It seemed to have been abandoned, but apparently the dev is reviving it, so it may get better in the future.

The plot of this game is really interesting and well thought. The universe is also well built. And there are many endings, good and bad, so you can choose where the story lead you in the end.
You're unfolding the mystery behind the city while evolving though it is very repetitive, but it's satisfying knowing you progress in the story. The sexy images are scarce since it's more a reward for advancing in the plot. You can become a girl during the investigation but it's not an obligation and that's a really good thing for those that don't like it. And there are some inconsistencies in the story and some questions remain unsolved in the end.

Exelent writing, slow, entertaining, humourous story and carefully selected visuals. What it needs to be perfect: less grinding, better text formatting, much smoother transformations and transitions. Too many things happen overnight which loses the realism. It is annoying to visit every location and conversation after another Brain power point is gained. There can be short hints which place can be visited after a certain treshold is reached to lower the grinding. Clothing is too scarce (not even a pair of shoes!). Effects of it tare not much shown too. I realize how this requires another pile of coding and a ton of variables, but that is needed for an excelent game. I hope v.2.0 will have all this in mind.

So, I was writing a long and argumented review to explain why I feel like this game stole a part of my life... and I pressed Ctrl + r. ( Moral of the story : be carefull when you let your anger speak.)

But I couldn't let PPE goes unpunished so here is the short version.

Pros :
- functional and finishable game

Cons :
-heavy grinding
-ridiculously unexploited gameplay, especialy the f*cking psychic powers
-The investigation part is boring, Finding evidence has never been so well named.
-Cliché scenario
-Characters with as much personnality as random trainers in pokemon.
-Porn content random and scarce.

Even the order of the story make no sense. Someone tells you : "You are a wizard harry." and tadaa, you get psychic powers.

Done.

The game begins with you being a private eye with a not so difficult case, which ends up leading to discover some serious crime in the city. On the way of solving the mystery you will gain psychic powers, face deadly situations and have some fun messing around

There are different ways to solve/end the main quest and lots of good/bad endings. "Side quests" like getting into jail, mind controlling ppl into doing lewd stuff and other optional/hidden contents keep you busy all the time while trying to solve the main quests. There's no time limit so you can play the game at your own pace. You can choose to rush the main quest or explore the game as much as you want. I really like how the hints and clues are marked in different colors. You still need to put some effort in the puzzles but you won't be frustrated and just look for a walkthrough (most of the time).

The photo/gif in the game are picked wisely and match the scene well. I especially like the POV (both sexual and non sexual) scenes.

PPE is one of the very few games that have paths for male, transgender and female (even some transformed into animals bad ends) according to your stats. For lots of people who don't like transgender much they can simply stay male and the game won't force you to go TG at any point.

The game could feel grindy if you are on your second playthrough and knew how to solve the puzzles. You won't have enough stats to unlock options/places/items if you try to rush through the puzzles. However, since the game is still on development, I believe the author will be able to balance the grind when the main story fully developed.

I actually put in a fair amount of time, about 6-7 hours compared to many other HTML games. Although it's not very transparent what the game wants you to do and how to do things. As of this review the game is not yet finished I believe.