I only played this game after the latest updates, which (judging by their criticisms) I think a lot of reviewers haven't experienced. So I'll speak to the current game.

This game is excellent! It is purely a detective game in nature, with some small story elements. As someone who loves detective games, this was perfect for me and I really felt like I was putting together pieces of a puzzle. Yes, there are some minor gripes or story details that are a little nonsensical, but it looks like a lot of the confusion and ambiguity was patched out and made clearer with the update.

I think a lot of people were expecting a Painscreek Killings story game and are unfairly judging this game for it. I don't think that's fair at all. This game is not marketed as some kind of walking-sim story game, it's very clearly heavily into the detective aspect. So if you're dying for a large overarching story, don't play this game. I was not expecting it to be, based on the marketing, and so I'm pretty satisfied with the mini-stories which it gave me.

After you correctly solve each case, you're given a "case file" which explains exactly what went down. To be honest, some of them didn't make total sense:

1. a stalker case where a woman's stalker ex seemingly just allows her to open a safe, grab a gun, and shoot him (while he's holding her baby??!)...pretty sure he would easily just hear her and stop her in such a tiny apartment, especially since he could see her right through the window when entering
2. a woman beaten unconscious and half to death with brass knuckles just.....recovers when a helpful ally arrives? and leaves the room?
3. A guy on a shooting spree inexplicably throws down a heavy file cabinet for no reason (it doesn't block himself or any doors). He then kills an unarmed cop in the interrogation room next door by walking all the way into the room and shooting him instead of shooting through the window (why?) ?
4. A boy shoots another boy in a tiny apartment with multiple sleeping people and NO ONE wakes up to the extremely loud gunshot or sees him leave? Even though some of the students were drunk, not all of them would be THAT drunk.

But I'll say the vast majority of details still added up. Little details do matter, but I was also pleasantly surprised at how "big picture" this game was. Rarely do you need to remember exact times unless it's immediately around the time of the incidents/murders. It had lots of "aha!" moments that made you feel clever for remembering prior details. And the questions do a good job of guiding you toward the correct scenario.

A good solid game, once you start taking thorough notes. I liked it overall. It is a challenging game, and I will admit I had to look up a few answers. But I liked it overall. I especially liked the tied-together story of the ending cases. It was really good. The graphics are good obviously. I would say though only get this if you are a hard-core detective fan, and puzzle game fan. I liked it though 8/10

Highly recommended