CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

"Not bad but could have been better with a few more cases to solve."

If you are a regular television watcher you might have noticed a little show called CSI making waves. Centering around a group of forensic experts using the latest technology to solve crimes the show has garnered quite a following and has spawned the inevitable game. I have to admit that I've never done more than watch a few brief snippets of the show but you don't need any prior information to play this game. Although fans will definitely enjoy interacting with all their favorite characters the game is actually strong enough to stand on its own.
Placing you in the role of a CSI intern you are assigned to the graveyard shift of the Las Vegas crime lab. You are thrown in at the deep end when a body shows up on your first night on the job. Solving the gruesome murder will be just one of the five cases the game consists of. True to the show you have a variety of tools for both detection and acquisition at your disposal and have to use logic to solve your cases.

The graphics in the game is far from state of the art but thankfully the gameplay is what is most important. The game basically consists of a series of static screens with the odd 360 degree panoramic scene thrown in as well. While hunting around the scenes for a hotspot to interact with might not sound like fun the various tools at your disposal makes up for this. While using a bunch of Quicktime movie clips and JPGEG pictures to create the game might make it a bit dusty compared to the latest 3D engine powered games it also makes the game a lot more accessible to a wider audience with older hardware. Let's face it most people who are fans of the show won't necessarily be hardcore gamers with the latest in computer hardware so the decision makes sense. Having said that there are some areas where the graphics could have used a bit more improvements as characters look really flat and out of place in the panoramic scenes. The graphical style reminded me a lot of older adventure games like Myst but with no tedious walking around. You simply click on your destination from the location list and arrive there instantly. Each case only has about three to six locations so the emphasis is more on information gathering than traveling around. You'll visit areas like the CSI Lab, morgue and Jim Brasses office a lot during each case where you can meet some famous faces from the show. Each case also partners you up with one of the CSI's from the show so fans should be thrilled to meet Sara Sidle, Nick Stokes, Catherine Willows, Warrick Brown and Gil Grissom

Another thing that carried over from the series is the reenactment flashbacks which reveal more of the crime as you uncover the clues. The scenes showing how the victim might have snuffed their mortal coil are pretty nasty and the some of the scenes are definitely not suited for the squeamish. Strangely enough for a game based on a television show there is very little actually movie clips and apart from some Las Vegas video clips at the start of each case everything is rendered. The characters seem to be pretty good likenesses of the onscreen counterparts as well.

Like I said I'm not really a follower of the television series so I can't comment on whether the characters are voiced by their onscreen counterparts but I can say that overall the voice acting is pretty good. There are a few lesser characters that probably should go back to voice acting school but nothing that seriously detracts from the experience. The entire game uses full speech which probably explains the deceptively large cd count. Music is a bit sparse but the tunes that are there are pretty somber and moody which fits the nature of the game.

If you've ever played any type of Point & Click Adventure before the controls should be straightforward and you'll spend most of the time waving your mouse pointer over the screen waiting for it to turn green to indicate a hotspot. Thankfully unlike some other games in the genre all the clues and puzzles can be solved by logic and while you might have to search harder to find the evidence once you have it logical thinking will ensure you solve the case. The gadgets like magnifying scope, fingerprint brush, UV light, sniffer and IR diagnostic camera are simple to use and all evidence you collect is stored automatically. The way you collect evidence and interrogate suspects actually reminded me a bit of the X-Files game. You'll find no action sequences here though and a CSI's work is for the most part far from life threatening.

Not all your cases involves victims and in the second case you have to find out why a businessman home was broken into and his home office set on fire. Although you team up with someone for every case asking them for advice will count against your final evaluation which means you'll miss out on some of the bonus material that you unlock when the case is solved. You can always go back and retry a previous case for a better score but overall the game is still pretty short. Don't be in a rush to go analyze all your clues either as you might miss something tiny at the crime scene which probably won't prevent you from finishing the case but will detract from your final score. Getting a 100% in each one of the five cases will earn you a special reward. Fans of the show will definitely want to go for this I can guarantee they won't be disappointed.

The game is very slow paced and so is unlikely to appeal to the hardcore First Person Shooter crowd who crave their action. If you enjoy a more cerebral challenge and like to play around with hi-tech gadgets then this game can be very entertaining. It definitely feels like you are taking part in five episodes of the television series and the last case ties everything together nicely. Looking for puny stuff like hair or fingerprints can be highly annoying at times but since this is what happens in reality I can't really complain about it.

For fans of the television series this is a essential purchase but even if you've never watched the show in your life I still think you might enjoy what the game has to offer. It's a nice break from the norm set in a genre which just doesn't exist anymore nowadays. While I won't exactly go out of my way to watch the television show after playing the game I definitely won't object to playing a sequel. It's kind of hard to recommend a game that you can literally complete on the same day that it was bought so hopefully future installments add a few more cases.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/15/05