VN - Ren'Py - Private Eyes & Secret Desires [v0.17] [DS23Games]

3.5/5
Visuals in general are OKish
No animations, models are just ok, with the exception of FMC, who really shines.
Some of the other models are default DaZ models without any changes, that you've probably seen in bunch of different games.
The main selling point of the game was supposed to be choices driven story.
MMC and FMC are in a shitty situation, and they have to either struggle and remain lawful and idealistic, or adapt, become more corrupt and perform all kind of shitty choices "in the name of the greater good".

Actual implemented story, at least the part I've expirienced, is most of 'pure/corruption' choices are focused on the FMC, and while my FMC was 40% corrupted , there wasn't even a single a choice for MMC, thus he remained 'pure'.

One of the choices there could be a turning point in the couple relations, is that you as a player, can make chain of choices, ('for the greater good') so that FMC kinda-sorta cheated on MMC (not really).
Later she has option to explain herself, what she did, and why she did it.
So it would be logical, that we get to choose how MMC reacts to that.
Right?

Is he understanding/supportive (love path), is he angry/mad (break-up, solo path), is he all for it (manipulation/corruption path), is he excited by it (NTR path)?

And we have none.
"let's not talk about it".

I could be wrong and all these narrative choices would happen later, but honestly, stopped playing after that.

Nevertheless, that's all my personal impression, give it a try.

I ve been binging this one like it s my new favorite late night series, and honestly? It s earned that spot. Here s why :

You and your childhood sweetheart-turned-girlfriend are running this tiny detective agency that s one bad month away from shutting down. Then the big-shot celebrity asshole detective Jacob Sawyer swoops in with an offer: become a subsidiary of his mega firm S.I.O., keep your doors open… but now you owe him. That "deal with the devil" setup is juicy from minute one, and watching the slow drip of pressure on this perfect little couple is low-key stressful in the best way.

What hits hardest is how real their bond feels. These two aren t just "together" for the plot; they finish each other s sentences, hype each other up on cases, and genuinely have each other s backs. In a world full of VNs that love to tear couples apart for cheap drama, seeing them fight to stay tight and faithful is straight up heartwarming. Seriously.

Choices are chef s kiss. Every single one feels natural, never a clunker in the bunch, and the game respects you enough to let you keep them 100 % loyal the whole way through. All the corruption/cheating/NTR stuff? Totally avoidable. Pick the right options and you ll never even see it. That kind of freedom is rare and i m obsessed.

The FMC is an absolute queen: drop dead gorgeous (some of the best renders i ve seen lately) , scary smart, and has that perfect moral compass that makes you wanna protect her at all costs. MC s easy to root for too; hot headed but good hearted, trying to live up to the dream they built together.

The only reason it s not a full 5/5 for me right now? The animations. Stills are stunning, but the lewd loops are pretty stiff and low framerate. Kills the vibe a little when things heat up. If DS23 ever smooths those out, this jumps straight to masterpiece territory.

Even with that one gripe, i m still refreshing the Patreon every week. If you want an adult VN where the couple actually feels worth saving, where your choices matter, and where you can play pure (or dirty) without the game punishing you for it; this is it. Highly recommend hopping in now while the story s still further unfolding. You re gonna fall for these two just like i did.

The game is excellent, the story is very well written, and the protagonist is super hot. She has a great personality and design, and she’s easily one of my favorite protagonists in any visual novel I’ve played

TL;DR = really great corruption game.

Story: 4/5
Pros:
+ Plot follow this couple, who work as private detectives. Unfortunately somebody has conspired against them. Now they have to deal with shady undercover stuff in order to help themselves.
+ The couple will slowly get dragged into depravity.
+ Great thing about the game is the fact, that you have a choice. Heroine and MC can resist corruption, or they can embrace it. Additionaly you can also choose whether only one person will get corrupted while second will try to remain faithful.
Cons:
- Plot is full of porn cliché. It is unrealistic and predictable.
- The male MC is kinda boring. Majority of attention is giving to heroine.

Art and sex stuff: 4/5
Pros:
+ Renders are very good.
+ Girls are sexy. (Especially main heroine is really hot).
+ Sex scenes are hot.
+ There is a lot of sex scenes.
Cons:
- Game doesnt have any animations.
- Some sex scenes are too dark and you can barely see anything.
- The male MC doesnt have much sex without heroine. He only got 1 HJ scene with other girls. He needs more room.

Gameplay: 4/5
Pros:
+ This is typical VN with choices.
+ Choices have considerable impact on the gameplay. You will see different scenes.
+ English is decent. (Some typo here and there.)
+ Game has a soundtrack. Although it is nothing extraordinary, but I guess it is better than nothing.
Cons:
- The game has some unusual game elements. QTE events are still acceptable. But that "click on everything on the screen and hope you find the clue" is very annoying.
____________________________________
To sum it up:
This game should deserve 4/5 for its fault... but those donwsides are not very big.
I am giving it 5/5 because I really enjoyed this game.

Genuinely interesting story. Good pacing. Dialogue, despite some typos, is sharp. Render quality is decent.

There is only one problem. The sexual content is, um, not very sexy. Part of the issue is the female MC. She looks like a fashion store mannequin. Things improve slightly when she is in disguise but she is still very bland looking. Some of this might be a taste thing, but there is no escaping the fact that she is very plastic looking facially. While the models for the other characters are not earth-shattering, they at least possess some texture, so it feels at least partly like a deliberate choice to make the female MC look like a robot.

The sex scenes seem very rushed and, again, bland, pretty much following the formula - 1. how about we go have some fun, 2. cut to shot of characters mid-fuck, 3. stick with same\similar image as (2) but have one or both characters say 'I'm cumming', 4. Cut to post-coital scene. The character posing is poor and the dialogue is robotic and very unsexy. You're really going to be struggling to get off on anything here either from a visual or verbal perspective.

In short, the game feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. If the sexual content was better this would be a really enjoyable play, but as is it feels like it's missing something. I'm really reluctant to criticise the developer here because they get so much right, but they really desperately need to invest way, way more time in future updates working on the sexual content to make it of better quality.

This has become one of my favourite games, I genuinely look forward for the updates. This has a great story and I love that the FP isn’t a total slut and slowly is getting corrupted. DEV is truely a great story teller

Interesting implementation with the two protagonists, allowing you to decide who will corrupt themselves and who will try to remain faithful.

Unfortunately, this point has been interpreted very one-sidedly so far. I would like to see some adjustments here.

In one attempt, FMC had 90% MC, but only 20%.

Becky Saunders (that's what I call her) is a really pretty girl, especially when it comes to her looks with her shining green eyes. I also find her initial decisions very apt, when you can either earn or avoid the initial corruption points.

Unfortunately, I also see a weakness here when the initial decisions tend toward loyalty.
I avoided every suggestive scene until the brothel. However, the slut outfit is put on without protest (the underwear should be redrawn, by the way, or, if the level of corruption is already high, the bra could be omitted and only a thong worn with the skirt).
Okay, I can't demonstrate a BJ in front of Mom, but she still easily performs a striptease in front of customers. A little resistance, or perhaps pressure, from the brothel owner is missing here.
I also find the previous decision that the client's innocence can only be proven by using unfair means somewhat questionable.
Okay, that's my personal opinion on corruption.

The quicktime interludes are very surprising, but luckily you can rewind if you mess up.
The plot is good, the way it's about suddenly having to move among people with power or getting into dangerous circles.

I've played two times now: 0%/20% and 90%/20%.
I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Pretty decent take on the "female detective has to get into increasingly shady/corrupt stuff to better perform her role" genre. The girl is pretty; the writing is believable, most of the times. The story actually gets intriguing after a while, even though it seemed very cliche at the beginning.

Another bonus point is that there are blossoming routes for the boyfriend to get his dick wet too, so it's not just one-sided NTR. No reason for me to give this game any less than 5 stars, really. Eagerly waiting for the next updates.

A sympathetic game., A very pretty investigating with female and very well proported forms. He is a little cut like any boy in love with a very beautiful girl that other men look and covet.
Of course it is the path where the FMC is in corruption at 90% that we can appreciate her beautiful breasts and adorable ass as best as possible. See you soon for the 16 ° series. thanks for your work.
Do not listen to the eternal grumpy people who consider their dubious tastes for mamary protubence and glutes like the height of beauty.

Good game with different story

Pros:
Good story (not generic)
Nice art
Good characters
Nice set choices

Cons:
The game so far is leaning towards cheating and NTR, i much prefer NTS
Most of the NPCs get side lined

This game though in early stage still outperforms most games out here.

Excellent sexy art style, the man girl looks amazing.

The story seems a bit forced at first but then again this is where the game really shines:
From the regular linear path the game goes into an actual multiple choice / path game where your choices actually matter.
Heck, you can even make logical choices that reduces corruption of the main girl.
Also her willingness to commit ntr action is based on her corruption which is also a nice touch.

I love game where Ntr is optional. It's good to have it while it doesn't necessarily forced on the player.
The girl mc, feels logical, we can choose her to be honest with the mc which is often miss from these kind of games. The honesty and communication factor...

Meanwhiles, the male mc seems like he can also go out with another actually good looking girl (the journalist) I hope the dev will ad lot of content with the mc and her.

Overall even though the game is still rather short and in need of development, so far it still seems 10/10 (5*)

This is a very interesting case. Normally you have bad, mid or good games. But this game doesn't fit in any of those three. But step by step.

Story:
Yes it's porn bla bla. I still care about a good story. And while the base is quiet ok the overall is very boring. You expect anything that happens.. ok expect one out of nowhere quick time event. All of the sudden you have like 1 or 2 second time to click a bar in the middle of the screen. I mean it's renpy and you can rollback but.. why? It doesn't even matter if you are successful or not. you get 3-4 alternate screens but that's it. Same with an mini sandbox click everything in the house part. Those two things feel so out of place.
The dialogues are sometimes ok, sometimes good but often just boring. And in general I really had to fight myself to not use the skip button so often.

Pictures:
Here the same. They are not bad but also not good. You can even see that the dev took a lot effort creating some scenes with details etc. But somehow they doesn't look that good.
Same for the sex scenes. And specially with someone with experience now after his other games I feel a bit disappointed.

Characters:
The characters are ok. They are not bad but nothing special or something you would not expect.

Game mechanics:
One time quick time event = Bad
One time mini sandbox whatever thing = Bad
The choices that increases corruption = Bad.
Maybe it's just the overall feeling why small things that might be ok still feel bad or boring.
Font = Bad

I think the dev just created this game so far with a wrong mindset. The game takes itself to serious to just be a simple fap game but it's to shall for a detective story.

I would still suggest it others. I think there is an audience that will like it. Just try it for yourself but don't expect to much.

It pains me to give this a middling review because the renders are fantastic. The Love Interest is one of the best models i've seen in terms of being realistically proportioned, sexy, and looking like she could conceivably be doing the things the plot needs her to do. She looks smart, if that makes sense, and smart + sexy is really hot.

that's the only real highlight. the MC is a boring non-entity, the gameplay is bizarre, like it's very comfortable just being a VN for 10 minutes but then randomly throws in a QTE event or "find the highlighted object" just to frustrate a passive reader?

the setting is comic book level worldbuilding, and you know what? it's a porn game. that's perfect. set up some rules so we understand why anyone is doing anything, and then let them react to each other. it's a good "regretful NTR" setup. this part is fine.

i actually think this game has a lot of potential. The characters are basically playing as spies-for-hire more than private detectives. They're not staking things out, or following leads, or anything like that. they're doing elaborate undercover routines with powerful men that routinely churn through escorts. that's a perfectly functional premise. but there's not enough sex, the sex that is present isn't hot. it's very frustrating because the renders are great but then there's no payoff...

that's disappointing. The story, while totally adequate for a porn game, is not enough by itself to make you play a game like this without good H scenes. it pains me because the LI renders are top notch, but like... it's not sexy enough.

Characters design are great for the moment. They are different for the others game that I've played. It's a good thing. The fmc is really stunning. We are at the beginning of the relationships between the protagonists and it's a very good start. More interractions for the corruption of mmc will be beter but, like I said, it's the beginning. I hope more infiltration missions for both mc.
In resume: good script, good characters design and the system of corruption/relationship can be perfectible
So I wait for further developpement.

I honestly don't know why people give 2 stars to such a game, where both character models are beautiful and story development is not as fast and smooth as for NTR games. The plot is not bad and not typical to me, especially if the developer will make more deepening on detective work. I advise you to play this game if you like NTR genre!

My Rating for (v0.11 ) is:

Pros:
+ Fantastic Graphics
+ Great Story
+ No Grinding
+ Long Game Play
+ Able to Name Characters

Cons:
- Ends when it Gets Hot

Conclusion:
A Game of Corruption with a beautiful couple detectives.
Love the Way the Story is Told, with different scenes and characters that is enjoyable to look at, only downfall for me was looking for more hot scenes with the female protagonist.
The scenes and the way the story is told can make this one of my favorite games in the future, and with the built-in cheat mode it is a definite winner in my book,

Last Words:
Worth the Download, hope updates don`t take so long, that would be a bummer for this Game.

Good looking, thats about it.
Its early, so a lot can change.

The MCs are both nice and look good.

The story is quite dumb and has the typical porn-plot niveau.

It pretends to be NTR by choice, but so far there is no sexual interaction except an early scene which is interrupted, needless, just to push the NTR motivation.

The FMC already got groped, flirted with, sat in a brothel/club, all in the name of investigations.

In the end my prediction is that almost all action will stem around NTR and there will be little content for any non-cheating path.
But we'll see...