Psychic Detective

Psychic Detective's first-person perspective will place you at the scene of the crime to interrogate murder suspects played by live actors. Because you're the Psychic Detective, you'll try to piece together solutions by revisiting the scene of the crime through their minds' eyes. This whodunnit will really play with your head.

Psychic Detective: The Case of the Black Diamond is an entertaining interactive mystery game with an adult sensibility. Unraveling this labyrinthine murder case will tax your mental powers, even with the help of Eric Fox, the psychic detective.

Mental Case

Detective is all about jumping from Eric's mind into the minds of other characters to see things through their eyes. You can also get psychic traces of past events by touching objects previously held by other characters. When you think you've solved the mystery, you match clues with the master bad guy in a chesslke psychic board game.

Since the story unfolds in real time, you're challenged i to be in the right mind at the right time. Simple controls make that a breeze: Just use the directionals to highlight character icons and then press an action button.

The sharp, full-motion visuals for this head game are definitely a trip. The disc is packed with 500 separate mini-movies full of genuinely nightmarish imagery.

The sounds help carry the show with snappy dialogue and eerie music. If you're going to get anywhere, you must listen-and listen carefully.

Mind Game

Complex dialogue and adult situations make this a fun game for mature audiences. Psychic Detective provides hours of cerebral trauma for whodunit fans.

This graphic adventure is an unusual whodunit with a mind-blowing twist. As the psychic detective, you piece together solutions to mysteries by revisiting the scene of the crime... through the eyes of your suspect.

Psychic Detective's first-person perspective and interactive gameplay are realistically presented with live actors in full-motion video as you interrogate murder suspects and ferret out dues at each crime scene. Spedal effects illustrate the strange psychic happenings.

Electronic Arts takes a hand at trying out the full-motion video genre with Psychic Detective. Surprisingly, this game has plenty of depth and a really intricate plot. The basic play mechanics revolve around a square of video in the center of the screen, with a variety of options appearing around the border. Waiting a few seconds on a particular screen will sometimes give access to new clues and secrets.

What makes this title stand out from the usual poorly playing FMV games is the number of options at your disposal. As the plot progresses, simple choices can throw the plot in another direction. The lack of access time is another bonus.

The ingenious plot revolves around you, a psychic. You have the ability to pop into other people's minds to gain access to their thoughts. A large percentage of the game is done via spying from someone's mind. As the story unravels, you discover the sinister dealings of a master psychic who has plans for world domination. The bad guy has a boardgame that brings about the climax of the game. Winner takes all.

Psychic Detective will take you about a half hour to receive one ending. The game is spread out over three CDs worth of video. There are 14 different outcomes of varying success. The acting isn't half bad, and the rather adult scenes will glue you to the TV. Overall, this is one of the best uses of FMV to date. If more games of this type were made, this genre might have some hope.