Not so much a game, as it is an interactive movie, and that, my friends, is a good thing.
In the beginning, you are Lucas Kane, and you have just killed a man in the washroom of a diner. Now, let's set the foreground here, Lucas is not a derranged psychopath, nor is he a man who was driven to rage by the poor man at the urinal...No...there is something much more to the story. As Lucas regains his composure, he realizes what it is he has done, and now he, and you, dear player, will have to confront numerous impossibilities to get to the bottom of the mystery, using Lucas and a pair of police officers to piece each part of the puzzle together.
I'm not going to give anymore of the story away, as like I say, this is a very heavily plot-driven game, in which you, the player are going to have to determine where to go and what to do from there, so let's move on to the gameplay. The core of the gameplay is mostly puzzle solving, with some pretty basic fetch quests, but these are all relevant to the story, and never feel just thrown in as busy-work. While that's all well and good, and it works in helping the player feel in control of the investigation going on, it doesn't make for the most exciting of gameplay elements. What really works well is the action sequences, in which you need to repeat a pattern that apppears on the screen during some of the higher octane moments of the story. (It also happens at some strange points, when the character is emotionally overwhelmed, but for the most part, this happens only happens a couple of times.) This is a relatively easy and painless way of progressing the story and it also helps to increase the intesity of the action sequences quite well.
While the gameplay mechanics used here work very well at progressing the story and helps the player feel involved, there is a bit of a lull in the game in which you don't seem to be doing much except for watching the story as it unfolds, which is why I can't give the game full marks. Don't get me wrong, the story is better than most movies made today...but as videogames go, those who enjoy the Devil May Cry hack-n-slashathons, aren't as likely to be impressed by the Simon-esque controls.
The voice-acting, and music selection for the game are all extremely well done, (I myself was pleased to see Martina Topley-Bird included), and the graphics are nicely done, as well.
All in all, I recommend the game highly if you are in the mood for some truly top-notch story-telling and some fun albeit, not for everyone, gameplay. However, if you are not even remotely interested in story-driven gaming, I advise you to save your money and purchase the next iteration of Timesplitters or DMC. (Both excellent games, mind you, but that's a whole other review).