CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

The Good
The plot is nice. Voice acting is very good; done by the actors from the tv-series. The learning curve starts out very well. The first case is a real adventure as well as a tutorial.

The Bad
Too short. If they had released a demo, it would have covered the entire game. I played through it in about 8 hours. They try to ad some replay value by giving percentage scores to how well you've done. The higher the score, the more additional material is uncovered. Unfortunately the cases (though very entertaining the first time) aren’t interesting enough to play again and the bones material is just the ordinary sketch-art any normal game would give you for free or had already published on their website.

The Bottom Line
A perfect game for beginning Adventure gamers and for CSI fans. Don’t spent too much money on it for you wont get more than two or three night of fun out of it.

The Good
Behind every good game is a great story. This game is no exception. You start out as a intern working for the CSIs and must 5 different to be “evaluated” on your performance. I like how this game’s story is set up, because you don’t actually play a character from the show, you get to be a part of it. Thus, you get to see and talk to anyone you want. The cases are great and almost as good as the TV show. They are all almost tied together in some way, but I won’t tell you how. The special bonus material you get after you solve a case is cool, but it’s just sketches of concept art and stuff. Not what I expected, but cool anyway. I also liked the simple commands to interact with the environment.

The Bad
Interacting was a bit of challenge, though. You don’t always know exactly what you’re looking for, so you end up skipping a lot of things. Well, the acting in this game is not quite as good as on the TV show. This is understandable, considering that when you’re just talking into a microphone, you can’t sound as good as when you’re in front of a camera. Some of the dialogue was a little, er, bland. Not quite as good as the show. The graphics are not what I expected, either. Not as good as they could’ve been, but this is an adventure game, and you don’t really need mind-blowing graphics to have great gameplay.

The Bottom Line
This is a pretty cool adventure game. You don’t have to watch the show to “get it” or understand it. It’s easy to learn and fairly challenging to play. I was hoping it wouldn't be as short as it was, but there’s always the sequel, I suppose.

The Good
I really wasn't expecting too much of this game, more to the fact I found TV show rather boring and not much interesting. So what I really expected top is that perhaps I'll enjoy a little detective work more or less. What I really didn't expect is that it turns out to be such a masterpiece with really devious plot and extremely interesting cases. Needless to say, perhaps, this game alone captured my interest enough to start watching the series. You meet all the crew from the case, as each of them accompanies you through one of the five cases. What starts as a simple murder investigation turns out into much more intricate and intriguing puzzles to solve. The music isn't playing too often but fits perfectly with the CSI alike setting, reminding of great detective/crime shows like Silk Stalkings or Tropical Heat. A game haven't captured my interest ever since my sleepless nights over FF8 and TBW, only this game isn't long enough to dwell more than a single night over it, no matter it spans on three compact discs. The voice cast is same as in the series, which plays a plus for me as I really like Marg Helgenberger (hey, personal taste, I know, but I think she's awesome). The game isn't just trying to show if perfect crime may go unpunished, but also that gathering clues, no matter how truthful they may seam, may lead to imprisoning an innocent person. I know, that was not what they were trying to do, but it turned out really good, and interesting in a poetic kinda way. And what's best, you don't need no cd if you select the full install.

The Bad
This is really one of rare games that I don't find a single speck to rub it on, it is so brilliant in its simplicity and so much interesting to undergo.

The Bottom Line
CSI features: