While the plot and visual aspects are simply great, you will most likely end up annoyed by some rather silly flaws.
Both the menu and the in-game interfaces are designed to resemble the Art Deco architectural style, popular in the 1920's-30's; a feel highlighted by the beautifully crafted 'Jones Tower'. In fact, if not for the helicopter ride at the beginning of the game, you would most likely get the impression this game was set at the 1930's, at least until further examination of the environments. It is though, rather innovative, and it can't help but immerse you in a rather Poirot-like atmosphere, a great plus to the gaming feel.
Visually, you can analyze the game from two different perspectives: The environment and the characters. The game scenarios are simply stunning (with special mention to the first time you climb up from the crime scene, seeing the palm trees shaking and the sand blowing away from the beach), with the gloom and shine of the aforementioned architectural style, yet with the hostile feel of an island being hit by a hurricane. In fact, hostile is the perfect description for the in game atmosphere. It is not scary (at least not to me), and there were few, if any, moments of tension within the game. But as you continue with your investigation, you can't help but feel that every single person on this island wishes you hadn't arrived.
And while the visual aspects of the environments are amazing, the same cannot be said about the characters. While each is unique in its own style, they're not as detailed as the first screenshots would have us believe, and while on an interrogation (dialogues are presented at a separate screen, showing only the characters), you will most likely get the feeling you are talking to a bunch of ventriloquists, as rarely the voices match the few mouth movements. That, together with less facial expressions than a character of 'The Sims', make each individual look rather artificial, particularly during dialogues.
Dialogues, in fact, are some of the irritating bits of this game. While they are important to gather information, they are rather repetitive, with the same introduction being made to every character (for example, to discuss a piece of evidence with a fisherman and the deceased man's granddaughter, Jack Norm will use the exact same sentence), which after a while gets extremely irritating. The voice acting, however, is extremely well done.
You advance on the game's plots by solving pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, each a particular conclusion you must make in order to advance on your investigation, and to do that you have a device called a Personal Police Assistant (PPA), which separates each jigsaw piece and informs you what kind of clues you must gather to solve each part. The PPA is extremely helpful, but in my opinion, a bit too much.
Most puzzles are inventory based, with the exception of clue analysis (which is pretty much a job for the PPA, reducing the game's difficulty), and not that hard to solve. The inventory and clues items, are richly detailed, and every document you read will have a valuable information regarding the case.
There are some issues with the gameplay. While using the 'real-time' aspect might be considered a good idea, more often than not you'll find yourself interrupted in the middle of a dialogue by a phonecall (mostly nagging from your wife), or your stomach calling for some food (a huge sandwich, each time...). So instead of giving any real-life feeling to your game, it provides nothing but a distraction from the investigation. Also, while moving from one location to the other, it'd be nice to see present the 'double click skip' featured in most adventure games, as seeing your character running from one end of the screen to the other isn't what I call enjoyable.
The game's biggest innovation is the two modes of play: "Adventure" and "Race against Time". While the first follows the traditional adventure game structure, the second is, as the name says, a race against time, with the characters becoming less cooperative by the minute, which amounts for a nice re-play factor.
So, while it has a large number of nagging problems, the mistery based plot is more than enough to keep you entertained throughout the better part of the game, and while about halfway through its length you already have some pretty good guesses about the murderer's identity, it is nice to see you having to obtain proof before making any conclusion, much as any true police work. The game does well enough not to keep you at the edge of your seat, but to keep you firmly stuck to your chair until you solve the case.