CSI:CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION (Gaming)

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Posted on 01-12-2007

HARD EVIDENCE

Just another day of crime lab

When I played CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder last year, it was a breath of fresh air—almost like being in the show itself. CSI: Hard Evidence, in turn, proves that there indeed is such a thing as too much fresh air.

Apart from the stories that you’ll be playing through, hardly anything’s changed—you still are the new rookie in the crime lab and you still have to solve five mysterious murders using the forensic tools at your disposal. The graphics—quite pathetic, but will run on most PCs—are still the same, and the voice acting by the cast of the show is very good. Like the mysteries in previous games, you’ll find characters from a previous mystery making an appearance in the final story. The same old point-and click gameplay returns—you have to explore crime-scenes for clues and use forensic tools to analyse the evidence you pick up. Connect the evidence to the suspect and the crime scene, and you make a bust.

While it does feel like you’re in an episode of the show, there’s hardly any real detective work for you to do—just move your mouse around your screen, and it’ll turn green at points of interest. Collect your evidence, move on. You can turn off these assists in the difficulty settings, but there’s really no incentive to do so—you’ll get a Master rating if you uncover all the clues, no matter what. You can unlock items such as concept art and storyboards by completing missions, but unlike other games, you don’t have to play at higher difficulty levels here to do so—nothing to motivate you to play a mission again.

Rating : 6/10
Developer : Telltale Games
Publisher : Ubisoft
Distributor : E-Xpress Interactive
Contact : info@expressgames.in
Price : Rs 699

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There’s not much to say about Hard Evidence: for first-time investigators, it’s a welcome break from the more run-of-the-mill games you see today. If you’ve played a CSI game before, don’t expect too much—even the stories aren’t as engrossing as the show’s new season.