You just CAN'T make a CSI game with any replay value, and makes the whole experience agonizing.
First of all, it feels as though you are extremely limited in the actions available, you are limited to circling around a panorama and only moving in to examine specific evidence. If they had taken the next step to allow you to walk around the areas and inspect things in 3d, it would be much more fun. (Something you'd expect from the creator of Splinter Cell). I've played other crime-drama games and while all have the panorama viewer, the Law & Order games allow you to pick up everything, whether it is relevant to the task at hand or not. While L&O and CSI are very different (L&O focus on people and CSI focuses on forensics), the principal is the same, make the environments more involving.
Second, the overall graphics are uninteresting and uninspired. The golf course looks as if it only consisted of a building, a sand trap and a bridge. The nightclub consists of only 2 areas of interest, each yielding 2 pieces of evidence. If you were to play it where it didn't give you any idea what can be considered evidence and what can't, I don't think I'd be able to play it for 10 minutes, luckily there is an option where your cursor goes green over evidence.
Finally, probably the biggest problem with the game is the frustration that goes with any CSI-type game. If you miss just one piece of evidence, you can't continue. And with CSI-Miami and CSI-Dark Motives, the idea of collecting evidence of other evidence it a neat idea, but in practice, it can be frustrating. The "tips" that you partner can give you (which negatively affect your ratting) are, at best, unuseful. If you need to check a bruise on a victim, instead of saying something like, "I wonder what that mark around her neck is?", they say, "Maybe Alex (Morgue) can help you." Like that gives you any clue to what your looking for. And the worst is if you need to collect evidence off a item already in your inventory, or if you need to ask for a warrant or ask a question to a suspect, your partner has "no more ideas".
Overall, the game is terrible. If you're a die hard CSI fan I recommend you fined it used somewhere for less than $10 and look up the "Hints & Cheats" section here at GS and look at one of the user created FAQs if you get stuck with a missing piece of evidence (i did 3 times). Otherwise, stay away.