CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Dark Motives

"this should be called CSI:pixel hunter PRO"

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a bad game. Sorry.

I wanted to give this game a good score, since I quite like the series. But I can't. Why? Because this is a prefect example how bad interface can ruin an otherwise good game.

I won't speak about graphics, or sound, or story here. You can read it in other reviews, and I mostly agree with the scores given there. Voice work is ok, the cases are not on par with the ones in series, but close, graphics are acceptable, locations a little too dark and bland. All in all, passable.

What I absolutely hate is the execution. When you start the game, most probably you'll have fun. There is a sense of discovery when you find the first few parts of evidence, when you interrogate the suspects, analyze tire tracks and so on. If I had to give a score based upon first half an hour of playing, I'd probably give it at least 7, since I enjoy adventure games (even such hybrids as this one).

But sooner or later you'll get stuck. Every suspect will say "I have nothing else for you", every part of evidence will be examined, every location visited and combed. Enter "frustration mode".

Now I don't mind pixel hunting. I actually find it entertaining, if executed right. I loved when I got stuck in "Day of the tentacle", then after two hours realised I had to CLOSE the door to find a needed object. Why did I like that? Because it took a leap of logic - "Let me close the door, maybe there's something on the other side which I can't see". And the "hot spots" where always noticeable, with instant recognition when you put the mouse pointer over it.

Enter CSI. Here you also have hot spots, but neither are they intuitively set, or in anyway noticeable, but what's worse they don't even make sense. For instance, in Case 3 there is a parlor with a crystal ball on the table. The hot spot consists of the ENTIRE TABLE, but wherever you click you'll still get a close-up of the crystal ball. But in Case 2, the wheelchair in the asylum has actually three hot spots, although they appear as one huge hot spot. There's no way to discern what you'll get after a click - pure luck.

What is even worse, anything here can be a hot spot. A patch of dirt, same as a bunch of other patches near it, is a hot spot. How can you find it? Either by luck, or by sweeping the screen. But you have to do it EXTRA SLOWLY. Why? Because the cursor has a lag in hot spot recognition, so you may go over one ten times without it turning green.

What doesn't help is that you have to find ALL THE EVIDENCE to solve the case. Not 80%, 90%, but ALL. Why there is statistics on how much evidence you've found, I don't know. So inevitably every case boils down to a pixel hunt. With a laggy cursor.

Your partner will usually point you in the right direction. Usually. But many times his/her "hints" would be off kilter, or they'll even say "I have nothing for you", which means that you didn't see a little straw in a shadow in a room somewhere and you have to find it, although you have the case wrapped and the straw is a red herring anyway.

Now I don't know what makes your day, but for me it definitely isn't spending two hours slowly mouse sweeping bland Auto-CAD generated locations. And that is what you'll get after buying this game, and what you'll remember after you finish it.

Don't buy this. If you're into this kind of games, buy Myst 4. Nicer to look at, and it takes brains to finish it.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/04