Hard Evidence offers an interesting set of cases but it's certainly lacking in many other areas.
It doesn't require some intense thinking skills, since most of it is simple. You get detailed information at the start of each case and will soon be on your way to crime solving. Pretty much, you just hunt around for some evidence, collect any relevant items, examine them for further inspection and then process items at the lab. You'll find weapons and loose bits of clothing throughout the cases, which is the key to finding the right suspect. DNA can be analysed at the lab, where you'll have to match it to the database or to other items the DNA was found on. Other items can be analysed in different ways. Such as putting together a broken teapot on the table, like a puzzle.
Once you've collected a lot of the evidence, you'll probably think the next thing to do is to question suspects. So, if you ever get stuck - you've either not collected enough evidence, not processed enough evidence or not questioned everybody. So, really those three things are the main points you'll want to get through cases. If you're following the story of each case, it will certainly be easier to get through. Although, some of the dialogue isn't exactly very good, a lot of it still shapes up to be somewhat interesting to keep you watching the cutscene (and to help you track down the suspect).
Along the way, you'll work with different detectives. These can provide hints if you ever get stuck. Now, whenever you bring up a hint, item or want to travel to another location, you have to open up thePDA. This device serves as the portal to getting somewhere. The interface of the PDA (and other devices) isn't exactly appealing. It just seems a bit too plain and boring to look at. Going somewhere else means you have to wait a brief amount of time for it to load up. It's not too bad but the look really doesn't impress for an Xbox 360 title. Hard Evidence does often feel out-dated in some parts.
However, just because it's a video game, doesn't mean you're not going to have a lot of stuff censored. It's clearly something that is probably aimed at teenagers and above because of the various cases containing items like knives, bloodied clothes and even a condom. The cursor in the game will be helpful, since it lights up green if you hover over something that can be collected. You can of course turn this off and a few other options, if you want to make Hard Evidence feel a bit more challenging. There's a few extra bonuses you can unlock - some by finding the hidden bugs, finding all evidence and by not asking hints.
In terms of visuals, it's not something that looks amazing or revolutionary. I would have thought something that doesn't seem too demanding on the console, could have at least had some better visuals. It does seem bland, kinda faded when looking at the environments. Characters look good below the face but for some reason, the animation of the lips do not synchronise with the voice and the eyes seem to bulge out. So, at times, they can look a little bit creepy.
Whether or not to choose this or the PC version won't be a hard choice. You're better off using the mouse on the PC but Hard Evidence does offer some simple achievements - in fact only a few that you can view on the guide without even needing to scroll down. It doesn't really seem they've wanted to make Hard Evidence anything special for the Xbox 360 - it just seems like a copy and paste job over to another platform. It will certainly appeal to fans of the show but Hard Evidence just didn't keep me entertained from the start. I found myself playing it in small increments but it doesn't last too long, anyway.