I feel really bad about giving this game just a 7, but the moment I finished it, the first thing that went through my mind is - good, but not great. Then when I came here, I saw that 7 - was Good and 8 - was Great, and like I said, this game was just good, but short of greatness. A 7.5 would probably have been perfect, if Gamespot still had that rating system.
The game has a good story, but its not that fast paced and it fails to keep you hooked on to it. In fact, the only reason I kept playing was that I can't leave a good game incomplete, I have to finish it, otherwise I might have stopped a bit earlier. That being said, the good parts are really good, such as all or most of the Homicide cases are fantastic. The traffic cases (especially 'The Fallen Idol') are also very good. The final series of cases, in Arson, are also very good. However, the rest of them are a bit of a drag and for the most part I just felt like I wanted to finish them as quickly as possible. With games that I love, I keep wishing that they would go on and on, and not finish too quickly.
However, I have to give credit where credit is due, and this game is innovative and possibly even groundbreaking on certain fronts. The detective angle is done better than in any other game, especially the interrogations and the searching for and analyzing of clues. However, I feel that this game is probably the first of its kind and hopefully not the best, as I would be disappointed if future developers did not take the premise of this game and make it more gripping and engrossing than was done here.
Nonetheless, this still remains a good game, and while not for everyone, there is certainly a niche of gamers who will love it, and even for the others, like me, its worth a try. Who knows, you might just like it. Looking at it from a critics point of view, the game is probably a 8 or 8.5, but for me, from my experience, its a 7 or 7.5 to be exact. Good game, great ideas, could be even better.