CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Dark Motives

"Time to collect the evidence detective."

If you're looking for an action game look somewhere else. CSI isn't designed to be a shoot em up cop game. Mostly, you click around the screen looking for hotspots that contain clues and evidence. If you like puzzle type games then this is perfect for you.


GRAPHICS
Fair. There really isn't nothing that stands out about the graphics. For this kind of game though it's enough to do the job. The back ground graphics though could have been far better. They have that blurred effect to try and give the illusion of distance. The best things probably are the character models which are good, and the cut scenes.

SOUND & MUSIC
Fair for both. There really isn't much as sound goes, brushing or spraying sounds when you look for evidence, or a chime when you find a match in a computer search. There are some background sounds, like horns honking and such, nothing special. The music is average, while you're searching a crime scene it's more ambient music than anything. It's not like it picks up as if something was going to happen or anything like that.

PLAYABILITY & CONTENT
Good. The game requires a decent amount of thinking. You have to collect evidence and clues pertaining to a particular case, often analyzing the evidence back at the crime lab. You have to match up things like DNA or finger prints or tread marks and other things. You often have to compare two or more pieces of evidence to get a match or unlock a new set of questions for suspects.

You question suspects at the scene, and new locations are unlocked with new suspects as you progress in the case. I enjoyed linking evidence together and solving the puzzles of the crime. Often, the perp that you might suspect at first isn't the person who committed the crime at all. It is easy to get stuck if you're not careful. You have to do everything you can thing of to any evidence collected such as dust for prints, check for blood, have it analyzed at the lab, etc. If you skip anything, the storyline won't progress so you need to be careful. Also, if you miss any evidence the story doesn't progress.

You have to interrogate people and get warrants to search some locations, and you are given a ranking based on how well you solved the case and how many hints you had to ask your partner. You are penalized for asking hints so it's best to take your time and study everything. If you cover the bases everything falls into place. The game is a bit short though which was disappointing, there are only five cases and you probably could finish the game in about two or three days. At the very least there should have been ten cases, they easily could have taken cases from the show and used them in the game, changing some things around.

There were a few bugs in the game, most notably with me was the text labels from the buttons and pictures from the icons vanished, and I had to restart the game for it to work again. That was annoying. You don't walk around the crime scene, although a third person game like this would have been good. You just move the mouse around the screen looking for hotspots where evidence and clues are. The interface is easy to use, and the verbal tutorials will get you familiar with the various tools of the game.

CONTROLS
Mostly mouse clicking.

SAVING FEATURES
Autosaves very often.

THE GOOD
Good puzzles.
Good storyline per case.

THE BAD
Short.

THE UGLY
Nothing notable.

OVERALL RATING 7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/20/04