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13 of 13 found the following review helpful:
Fun... but shortNov 04, 2007
By Jeff B
"JTB"
We really need more game like this one. CSI is pretty short and can be beat in a weekend... but it's done very well, very mature and does a good job sticking to the TV shows roots. If you like the TV show... you'll like playing this game. Good cases... good voice acting... and very fun trying to solve it all yourself. If it were longer with more cases and a little less linear it would be closer to a 5 star game imo.
Hopefully XBOX LIVE can offer more cases to DL.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
I really like this game, but...Sep 07, 2008
By M.D.C.
"The Franchise"
OK.
I bought this game for two reasons: 1, easy achievement points. 2: I love case-type games like this, with forensics and the like.
And don't get me wrong...I like the game, but there are significant issues with it, which I'll get to in a moment.
First, this game's #1 issue: the TV show theme song is nowhere to be found. This is a glaring problem. It seems like a small thing, but it really does immerse you to have that "Who Are You" song playing.
Now, to the game. This is essentially a point-and-click game, ala Myst. You go to different areas such as the crime scene and other adjunct areas and collect evidence, or observe notable things. As you collect the evidence, you can go to the crime lab and examine what you've found. The goal of course is to find out who did it, and make a strong case against them (hence the subname, which I'll also get to later). You also will observe items that are not directly tied to the crime, but stand out; so imagine yourself there and you see a painting that stands out so much you just have to look at it. That kind of thing. It doesn't add much to the experience, except to note that you're thorough and leave no stone unturned.
With the evidence, you can perform a variety of tasks. First is to identify true evidence. Once you've identified something as evidence, depending on your option setting, the icon will turn green indicating you can take action. There your toolbox will open and, again, depending on your option, a tool will be displayed. Using the right tool for the evidence is the only way to collect it properly. There's no penalty for using the wrong tool. Once you've got the evidence, you go to the crime lab and, depending on what it is, examine it using one of four machines or the assembly/disassembly table. All of these actions are tracked on your PDA, and you can access at any time. You may in fact need to go to the PDA and eyeball the evidence to see if there are traces of something on the evidence that you have to collect first.
You can also go to places such as the morgue, to get the time/cause of death and any other important snippets such as finger prints, and the garage, where vehicles can be scoured for additional evidence.
In theory it sounds like a great whodunit type game...but the issues (as I mentioned before) are great in number.
- You have to get a warrant for everything. This isn't realistic. Cops don't need a warrant just to question you. You're not under arrest; they're just asking questions. You DO need a warrant to search a vehicle or a residence; but not just ask people questions at the station.
- Speaking of search warrants, a search warrant covers every part of the residence unless otherwise stated. For some reason, the LV Crime guys don't think it a good idea to get an all-inclusive warrant; you'll find yourself frequently searching a house under a warrant and then try to search a table, or a pool house, or some other attached place and get told you don't have "permission". Err, that's what the warrant is for.
- Speaking of arrest warrants, it doesn't make sense that, if I check a place out under a search warrant that I can't make an immediate arrest based on some evidence I found. IN almost every case you will find clearly incriminating evidence to a person standing right there, yet you cannot arrest them without going back to the squad and doing a whole bunch of work, then going to the boss' office to ask for a warrant.
- Speaking of the boss' office, it's funny you have a PDA that doubles as a phone (since the boss can call you about stuff as do other officers) yet you can't just make a call to the boss while you're out in the field and ask for a warrant, or an APB. You're forced to go back to the squad, up to his office, then ask the question, then go to interrogation. It should be as simple as a phone call.
- You get points for your thoroughness, attention to detail, evidence collecting, and bug collecting (for Grissom). Some cases are just incomplete, where you will have missed one piece of evidence or one "thorough" area...it's just not there. You'll have scoured every single area and gotten green checkmarks on everything, yet still miss that one, and can't help but think that it's just not there.
- Some evidence in some cases is way too blatantly difficult. In case three, there is a small straw you need to find; well, it's in a pitch black area where you find a power outlet (tied to the crime), and you wouldn't see it. You have to literally scrape the entire area and wait for the icon to turn green. Of course, if you turned that feature off, you might get stuck at that one spot, unable to proceed.
- I alluded to this before. The game is called "Hard Evidence" yet the cases reveal anything but. Every case is based on a strong, yet circumstantial, bevy of evidence. Take case four for example: You discover which hand the killer used to commit the crime, so you need to find out which of the two remaining people uses that hand primarily. You find evidence of a lefty, so the CSI guys leap to the conclusion that it must be one person...when it still could have been either one of the two (they're related, live across the street from each other, go over each other's house all the time, etc). There's never any HARD PROOF that the "killer" is truly the one that committed the crime; in fact, in that case, there's more probability it was the other person...to say any more would spoil it, but trust me on that. It's like they bully a person into admitting guilt instead of proving their guilt beyond any reasonable doubt. A moderate-to-good defense attorney could hang a jury with ease on every single one of these cases.
- Plot holes in cases. I know they did this on purpose but it's annoying. You'll get characters who have done something that appears central to the case: drove away in a rage, left blood drops on a path, touched a door to the crime scene, yet when it's said and done they had nothing to do with any of it. You'll have characters who, based on what you see, should automatically be at the forefront of suspicion: A bloody fingerprint matched to one of the suspects right at the scene of the crime, yet that person had nothing to do with the crime? Incidents that are never truly investigated: a piece of something which was not found at the scene ends up in another suspect's vacuum cleaner, which was locked in the back of their van, which was proven to have sped away from the crime scene the night of the murder, yet that person had nothing to do with the crime? A suspect alters a piece of evidence which led to the murder of four victims, there's evidence they did this, yet had nothing to do with the crime? A screwdriver found in the pool house of the property where the murder took place, but no prints, presumably used to remove a drain cover where evidence was hidden, but no way to associate the two, so it's presumed not applicable (this is probably one of the missing evidence pieces the game claimed)? Come on.
So, in short, I do recommend this game if you like forensics type games kind of like Phoenix Wright and the like, or point-and-click exploration...but just note what I put above as they truly are issues that you will encounter, guaranteed. It may not bother you as much as it does me, but if you're analytical, they will, and more.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Very fun, immersive, great for a couple to play togetherDec 29, 2007
By JT My wife and I played this game over the span of a week, off and on and really enjoyed it. The playability is very much improved over the first pc game. The cases are very well thought out, logical, yet with a few twists along the way. The fifth case was very fun with the laser tracking. The graphics on the 360 version are a little lacking, and the mouth movements are very weak, but can be overlooked. If you are a fan of mystery games, or of the csi tv shows, im sure youll be happy with this game.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
could have been so much betterOct 26, 2010
By MP06011999
"RESEARCHER"
Great idea, poorly executed.
Moving the courser in the delicate manner required is next to impossible. It's jumpy and sometimes takes off on it's own. Sucky control.
The video is terrible in the sense that it is always way too dark. My settings are turned as bright as I can get and still there is way too many dark corners in the game where you can't see the clues. You have to just move the courser over the dark areas waiting to see the toolbox pop up - Very poor graphics!
Great idea and fun that you can play with others. But so very poorly executed.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
4.5 StarsJan 08, 2008
By S. Marshall Hayes This is a great game for puzzle lovers and, especially, CSI fans. The game uses the real voice actors from the original CSI TV show. Although the script is overladen with cliche's, the voice acting is excellent. The cases are well thought out and challenging, just like the television show. If only it had more than five cases? Five cases makes the game seem a little shorter. However, each case does take several hours to solve, even for a CSI fanatic. There is little replay value since once solved you know the outcome of the case. This is not your typical console game by any means, a very enjoyable game.
based on 27 reviews
( 27 customer reviews )
