Customer Reviews

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation The Board Game

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

My wife is a big fan of CSI, and I looking for something we could do together for entertainment had purchased this game for us.

The board it self is pretty nice...thick cardboard stock with very nice pictures and color scheme that mirrors that of CSI.

You choose to play as one of 8 central characters (it doesn't matter who you play..there are no advantages to any character), and move around the board in a random manner hopefully landing on certain key areas to pick up additional clues.

The game ships with 8 different 'cases', and each time you play, the players try to solve the same case. There are three levels of clues. You must pick up all the clues in level 1 before you can proceed to level 2. Repeat again from level 2 to level 3. Once you have the clues for level 3, you can put together your case and hopefully choose the correct suspect. The 1st player to not only correctly identify the suspect AND the motive and means wins. This may sound fun and exciting, but my wife and I had a different take:

While stories (i.e. 'cases') are intriguing and set the tone and mood for the game, we found the game moves pretty slow. Most of the time, you are hoping to roll the correct number on the dice to land on a space to get a clue, and you can't move on to the next level until you complete the level you are currently on: much time is spent on rolling and moving and getting nothing done.

Second, the clues can be a bit vague or ambiguous. Many of the times we looked at a clue and wondered if it helped at all? Maybe the clues are more refined as we complete levels?

Once you finally get all the clues, and review your notes you have written on your provided 'case file notepad', you can select a suspect, and also select his/his motive, means, and a few other categories. This is where I found the game very unforgiving. You have to select the correct answer in like 5 categories based on the clues. Since the clues are pretty vague to begin with, and everyone's interpretation slightly different, it's like picking winning lottery numbers to get everything correct. Though I chose the correct suspect, and got 3 out of the 5 categories correct, I still lost because of the other 2.

The game is pretty educational however, because many of the clues go into great detail on forensics and tests administered. There was a lot of explanation of the science behind the crimes and cool factoids.

I find that younger children or even teens may get very frustrated with the length of this game and very unforgiving 'winning' practices.

Finally the game only ships with 8 cases. After you played all 8, there may not be any replay value. However the company suggests that they will have expansion packs in the future with new cases.

I'm in no hurry.

First off, I'm a huge CSI fan...I have all of the available seasons, I own and have read of the novels by Max Allen Collins on CSI, and I also have the first PC game that was put out. These earlier purchases kept me wanting more, so when I saw this game at a good price, I couldn't resist!

Unfortunately, I may have to start resisting CSI products if they are similar to this game. I was visiting home when I picked it up, so my parents wanted to give it a try. First, I went over the instructions, or at least tried to, and then read the game description and case description aloud. Everything seemed much too confusing unless you are a die hard CSI fan, and in fact, I even had trouble understanding the game.

I was looking for an enjoyable, carefree game like Monopoly or Scrabble, and found something much too involved and complicated. Unless you know of several other people who are die hard CSI fans and have the patience to use a checklist for a very lengthy game, I do not recommend this game.

I do enjoy the first CSI computer game, however, because you do not need to rely on other people to enjoy it, and you can do as much investigative work as you like.

I am a science teacher at a Job Corps and am always trying to find games that teach science skills. Since my students and I love crime solving and love the show CSI I thought the game would be great for our Fun Fridays. I was wrong. All of the teachers tried the game out on Christmas break and we hated it. It was slow and confusing. Don't waste your money or your time. I'm hoping I can think of a way to salvage the components of the game and turn them into a learning experience.

My son asked for this game for Christmas, and I got it for him, even though he is 10 and the game is listed for 13 & up. We played this the other night along with my other son, who is 12. That was three and a half hours of my life that I will never get back...but the kids actually enjoyed it. It took a good half hour to read the directions and explain them to my kids. Then another three hours to play the game (which we didn't technically finish...) I definitely could see a difference between my 12 year old's comprehension of the game vs. that of my 10 year old. So this is something to really pay attention to if you are considering buying this for a younger child. Some of the game cards are to be read silently to yourself, which proved to be difficult since my younger one didn't know some of the technical terms.

The game was a little slow, since you had to land on 7 different "divisions" before moving on to the next level (there are three levels.) When it came to solving the crime, it is a bit similar to "Clue"--you need to land in Grissom's office and identify a suspect. You also need to prove that he/she had the Means, Motive, and Opportunity to commit the crime (this part was difficult to explain to my younger one.) In addition to that, you need to identify the three evidence cards that support your decision. In the game we played, we all guessed the correct suspect, however it was difficult to determine which three cards would support the Means, Motive & Opportunity. Some of the evidence cards were not helpful at all, whereas some of them were extremely vague (so you couldn't tell if it was a clue or not.)

All in all, it is an interesting game if you are playing with others who are quick learners, and also if you start playing early enough so that it isn't 12:30 am by the time you are finished (as in our case!)

I purchased this game a little over a month ago to play with some friends. We bent the rules a little and played in teams because it's only a 4 player game, but we had a blast! It's detailed and intricate and causes you to use your thinking cap... It's only other drawback would be that it comes with 8 scenarios, which means you can only play it 8 times.

but then the tv show isn't your ordinary sitcom, either. I should say up front that I'm a HUGE fan, so I was pretty excited about playing. It's kinda tough (there's a lot of stuff to keep track of) but I found that made the whole thing feel more realistic. It's like solving a real crime, which is really what the show is all about. It's not fun like shirades, it's fun like chess. But then the show isn't a comedy, either. If you're a fan, I think you will like it.

My best friend had gotten this game for her birthday and me being a fanatic about CSI, she invited me over to play it. I have to say that I had more fun with this game than any of the other players who got a little bored with it rather early. It may be tedious at times because you must visit all the spots on the board for one level before moving onto the next. At times, the clues given didn't make sense or seemed rather random, but that adds to the mystery (besides not all clues in a case point to a sole suspect - you must decide which ones are important and which ones are not). The game only comes with 8 different scenarios which is a bummer, but I would gladly play this game again and again. Solving the puzzle is the best part. We didn't strickly follow the rules when deciding the winner - if you were able to name the main points in suspect, motives and means, then you were the winner. This method might work out better than answering each word for word. If you crazy about CSI like myself and/or love to solve puzzles, I would recommend this game.

I totally thought this game was great... I love the show and playing the game really added to the experience of immersing myself in forensics. It was challenging, but really fun....Since the game asks for your forensic knowledge, it was great to play if you are the type of person who likes to solve mysteries or wants to be a criminalist!

CSI the game board is a highly educational game, if you are old enough to understand it. It is very much like the show and is extremely fun to play. I highly reccomend this game to anyone who is at least thirteen years of age.

Come on! This game is just like the show and real life. It is a little slow, but that is just like real life. The game is a real brain twister. I understand if you get stuck rolling the dice, but it just gives you more time to think. All in all, worthy of the show and its worth every cent!