CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Dark Motives

by UBI Soft

Product Features

• Special package of both the new CSI game and the CSI novel "Double Dealer"
• Available for a limited time only
• Investigate five cases using 21st-century techniques
• Behind-the-scenes information and unlockables
• For one player

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00014WNE6
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches ; 3.8 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: March 23, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,616 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

A fingerprint... a bite mark... a human toe.Product InformationCrime Scene Investigation - The InteractiveCrime-Solving Adventure!  CSI: Dark Motives plunges you into the universeof CBS’s TV Series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.  CSI is about a teamof 5 night-shift investigators one cop and a couple of lab techs workingtogether in Las Vegas gathering and analyzing evidence using forensic sciencetechniques to solve crimes.  You play a CSI rookie training with the bestagents in Las Vegas. This time however the cases are more complex and a wholenew challenge awaits you!Team up with the entire cast of CSI and a new improved crime lab to track downthe heinous truth in five complex new crimes. No crime is ever perfect. Your jobis to find the flaw. Case 1: A stuntman is injured in a freak accident during the taping of a reality TV show revealing an act of sabotage all for the sake of ratings Case 2: A homeless man is found dead which soon reveals a plot involving a large family fortune Case 3: An accidental shooting has occurred at a casino musical exposing an illicit affair and a jealous husband Case 4: An archaeologist psychic and failed artist are the suspects in a murder case involving some hefty real-estate Case 5: A traveling circus turns up a missing Komodo dragon and a disturbed mortician vindicating his girlfriend’s deathProduct HighlightsLive the CSI ExperienceWork in the field with the CSI team featuring the actors atmosphere voicesand music fro the hit TV show.Wield the Latest Forensic ToolsFind the killers by using real world forensic tools such as fingerprintdusters UV lights a magnifying scope and an enhanced microscope.New Crimes to TacklePiece together the evidence behind five grisly new crimes.New Expanded Crime LabCompare and match evidence in the improved crime lab featuring in-depthevidence examination that

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars More bugs then at a picnic of ants!, April 14, 2004

By 

Meg "Livin la vida loca in Maine!" (Caribou, ME, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Dark Motives (CD-ROM)

If everyone has the same problem with a game, that's a bug. You shouldn't have to play a game 9 times to get through it. I've had characters disappear on screen, not be able to interogate witnesses, evidence be collected, and then disappear. Ubisoft (the games manufacturer) says it is a noted problem, but the patch they gave does not work, for all the problems. I feel that they rushed this game out to capitalize on the past success of the previous game. Time between announcement of release and release was a scanty 6 months. Is that enough time to put out a quality computer game?

Also I had one other complaint about the game. Now it wants the CD in the disk drive for it to work, and it doesn't matter which cd. In the previous version, you could do a full install and not need the cd for it to run, which I thought was a definite plus.

So wait for a unbugged version, or get the original version, which even though it was short, it worked. Don't waste your time or money on this. I was extremely disappointed, as I love CSI.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great concept but too many bugs!, November 17, 2004

By 

Jen - Book Fiend "Jen" (St Petersburg, FL) - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Dark Motives (CD-ROM)

This is the 2nd of the CSI games I have owned. I love the TV show and have even read the books and graphic novels - I'm a bit of an addict. The concept of the game is cool in theory, but there are just way too many problems.
1) Game play is too choppy (and I'm using a high-end system with all the necessary specs for gaming)
2) the graphics aren't as good as they could be - it seems like they just did the bare minimum and didn't take the time to make the environment as realistic as it could be. The characters' movements are very limited and repetitive - when they talk, their mouths look like really bad animation a la South Park. Most of the rooms/locations do not allow for 360 degree rotation, which would make the experience much better.
4) There are tons of bugs - for example, several times while playing the text would disappear in all places - the characters' speech, the text on the main menu, everything - so I kept having to restart the game to get it back. Also, unless you collect the evidence or ask questions in a particular order, you cannot solve the case. This is ridiculous - I had to use the walkthrough for the entire game because I kept getting stuck - mostly because of game bugs and quirks rather than something I was missing - For example, I went to ask for an interrogation when I had all the evidence for one suspect, but I had to go talk to a different suspect about something completely unrelated first and then go back to Brass's office before Brass would give me an interrogation with the first suspect. Things like this are very rampant throughout the game and makes for an extremely frustrating gaming experience. The only reason I'm giving the game 3 stars is because I really love the concept - but the game just has too many problems to make it truly enjoyable.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Buggy and Quick, but fun for CSI Fans, May 8, 2004

By 

Lisa Shea "medieval swordfighting enthusiast" - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Dark Motives (CD-ROM)

CSI is a hugely popular TV show, and the first Crime Scene Investigation game was relatively fun and quick. Unfortunately they raced this second game out the door before it was ready.

On the positive side, CSI fans will enjoy the tie-ins. You get the cool voices of the real actors. The visuals look like the actors, although at times it appears you're watching a badly dubbed Japanese movie based on the bad lip synching. You get cool music and cut-scenes just like in the TV show. It really does feel at times like you're "in" the TV world.

But where this COULD have been a great game with more quality testing and work, they obviously rushed to get this to the public and rake in the cash. The game crashed constantly on several testing machines. You now have to have the CD in the drive to play, even if you do a full install. They warn you that only "regular" CD players work well - that it won't necessarily work on a DVD player or CD-writer. Since most new machines come with those options and not just a plain CD player, that could cause trouble for lots of people.

Even when the game does play smoothly, the gameplay is iffy. People vanish. Items vanish. There's a patch on the Ubi website but it doesn't help with many of these issues.

The gameplay is supposed to have you investigate the clues, talk to suspects and figure out what has happened. But most of the times the clues are pretty obvious. The questions are all very leading, in essence telling you what to do next most of the time.

For the price on the box, you'd really expect more than the 5 hours or so of gameplay you get as a result. Maybe if the puzzles were harder you'd play a given mission for longer. I suppose with all the crashes, it does actually take you longer to get things going smoothly, replaying missions to try to get past the buggy spots.

Still, if you're a fan of CSI, you'll want to get this to immerse yourself further in the CSI world. Who knows, in another few months they might actually put out enough patches to fix the bugs - but the gameplay itself will still be simple and quick. Hopefully before CSI 3 comes out they'll do a bit more development and gameplay testing.