The case for
Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders is a murder mystery game, so the first, most important question should be: is the mystery engaging? And it is, which is why it earns my thumbs up. The plot is intriguing and the pace is generally good all throughout the game. It tells several short stories, with an overarching plot connecting all of them and ending on a satisfying conclusion.

The case against
When compared with other murder mystery games, like the Gabriel Knight, Sherlock Holmes or Laura Bow series, in Detective Di there's surprisingly little detectiving to do. There's a clue board that fills up as you uncover relevant information, but you don't have to actually figure out what clues are relevant or how they connect, as the game does all of this automatically, and once you reach the end of the chapter and the board is full Magistrate Di will make all the connections himself and explain his conclusions to you. All the actual detective work in the game is done automatically.
Also, sometimes the plot relies a bit too much on coincidences, and the killer could've been introduced earlier in the story, rather than being a complete unknown until the very moment you meet him.

The art was a miss for me. Sure, it's clean, it's serviceable, but it's also supremely uninteresting. I love pixel art and the style in general suits point n click adventures well, but I don't think it was the right choice for this one. Having all of your characters be faceless does very little to help keep track of who all your suspects are, and when the roster starts expanding significantly throughout the chapters the fact that most characters are virtually indistinguishable from one another really hinders the experience.
Another thing that some "retro" games tend to forget is that actual games of that era tried their hardest to do the absolute most within the technical limitations and some were incredibly detailed. In contrast this game just looks plain and visually uninteresting. Locations are too big and empty, with very little elements in them (and even then including copy-pasted assets in neighboring screens or even within the same screen) and even less that's actually interactable. Pixel density is all over the place, switching from screen to screen seemingly for no reason other than poor planning, sometimes even having wildly differing pixel sizes within the same screen. Animations are few and generally stiff. Maybe there were serious budget constraints, but playing it, it all just feels rather lazy, especially when some details could've been done more care.

The verdict
While I wish some aspects could've received a bit more love in development, it's still a decent mystery story that is worth the time and the asking price.

[h1]Recommended, with some reservations[/h1] [b]The case for[/b] Detective Di: The Silk Rose Murders is a murder mystery game, so the first, most important question should be: is the mystery engaging? And it is, which is why it earns my thumbs up. The plot is intriguing and the pace is generally good all throughout the game. It tells several short stories, with an overarching plot connecting all of them and ending on a satisfying conclusion. [b]The case against[/b] When compared with other murder mystery games, like the Gabriel Knight, Sherlock Holmes or Laura Bow series, in Detective Di there's surprisingly little [i]detectiving[/i] to do. There's a clue board that fills up as you uncover relevant information, but you don't have to actually figure out what clues are relevant or how they connect, as the game does all of this automatically, and once you reach the end of the chapter and the board is full Magistrate Di will make all the connections himself and explain his conclusions to you. All the actual detective work in the game is done automatically. Also, sometimes the plot relies a bit too much on coincidences, and [spoiler]the killer could've been introduced earlier in the story, rather than being a complete unknown until the very moment you meet him[/spoiler]. The art was a miss for me. Sure, it's clean, it's serviceable, but it's also supremely uninteresting. I love pixel art and the style in general suits point n click adventures well, but I don't think it was the right choice for this one. Having all of your characters be faceless does very little to help keep track of who all your suspects are, and when the roster starts expanding significantly throughout the chapters the fact that most characters are virtually indistinguishable from one another really hinders the experience. Another thing that some "retro" games tend to forget is that actual games of that era tried their hardest to do the absolute most within the technical limitations and some were incredibly detailed. In contrast this game just looks plain and visually uninteresting. Locations are too big and empty, with very little elements in them (and even then including copy-pasted assets in neighboring screens or even within the same screen) and even less that's actually interactable. Pixel density is all over the place, switching from screen to screen seemingly for no reason other than poor planning, sometimes even having wildly differing pixel sizes within the same screen. Animations are few and generally stiff. Maybe there were serious budget constraints, but playing it, it all just feels rather lazy, especially when some details could've been done more care. [b]The verdict[/b] While I wish some aspects could've received a bit more love in development, it's still a decent mystery story that is worth the time and the asking price.