The game is set in San Francisco where the player assumes the role of Eric Fox (Kevin Breznahan), a psychic who earns his living doing a magic act in a seedy nightclub.

Before long, Eric is embroiled in a conspiracy involving a powerful religious cult, spies, and family intrigue, and he also has to deal with his growing romantic attachment to Laina.

Psychic Detective was the brainchild of producer Jim Simmons, but the project ultimately involved nearly 200 people: 21 game developers at EA Studios, 80 film crew, and 95 actors.

They found the game an engaging challenge due to the need to be head-hopping in the right person at the right time and listen carefully to the complex dialogue, and praised the sharpness of the full-motion video graphics.

[9] Reviewing the PlayStation version in Maximum, David Hodgson complimented the uniqueness of the "more 'adult' storyline", but contended that full-motion video-based games are not worth playing regardless of gameplay or content.

[10] GamePro, while warning that the game is strictly for older players, praised it for having a good murder mystery, "Clean full-motion video (although mostly in a small-screen format), great sound, and more fun than Snowjob.