CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

by UBI Soft

Product Features

• Travel through the dark, seedy side of Las Vegas, as you work alongside Grissom, Catherine and the rest of the CSI team in this thrilling first-person adventure
• Put your thinking skills to the test as you question witnesses and examine crime scenes
• Analyze evidence you collect utilizing the latest in forensic equipment
• Five crimes to investigate and solve
• Realistic crime scenes and voiceovers by actual cast members -- you'll feel like you're in an actual episode of CSI!

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00007LVDN
• Item Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: March 25, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,833 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

Amazon.com Review

CSI comes to life on your PC with all the cyber-Sherlock Holmes appeal fans know and love. The high production value of the game and its faithful adherence to the theme, style, and sound of the show prove that it is not just a crass attempt to cash in on the CSI craze.

As you'd expect, CSI is a mystery adventure game that follows the format of the CSI show. You collect evidence, head to the lab, visit the morgue and so on. You scrutinize the game's screens, looking for evidence or areas that may contain hidden clues. You can use Luminal to find blood traces, you can dust for prints, and you can use the sniffer to get gas samples--all are familiar tools and methods used in the show. CSI fans will likely intuitively know when and where to use each item while adventure game fans will delight in having such new, high tech toys.

CSI offers five quality storylines, each of which would feel at home on the show. While you don’t get to fill the shoes of one of the show's well-known characters, you do get to work with each of them as you progress along the CSI investigative chain. Show characters join you to provide hints and help you establish the motive, means, and opportunity needed to determine and catch the bad guy.

Fans of the show will forgive the short length of the game and merely adequate graphics just because of the quality storylines, use of the real actors, and respect shown the license. Adventure game fans will also appreciate it, even if they’ll find it a bit too easy (it’s aimed at mainstream fans more than hardcore gamers). CSI brings enough true crime class to be of interest to fans and non-fans alike.--Andrew S. Bub

Pros:

• Actors from the show voice their characters in the game
• Pays homage and tribute to the show
• Respects adventure game and CSI fans equally

Cons:

• Animation is stiff
• Five mysteries is too few

Product Description

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation puts your nerves and intellect to the test as you become a member of the CSI team!

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Cool but Uneven, March 31, 2003

By 

Terrance H. Heath "terrancedc" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

I'm a huge fan of the TV series, and so I couldn't wait for the game to come out. I ventured out to buy it and tried it out as a soon as I got home.

First, technically, it's a great game. The interface isn't hard to figure out, and the first mission is basically a tutorial. (One problem, if you want to repeat this mission to attempt a higher score, there doesn't seem to be a way to shut of the voice commentary that runs throughout and tells you how to use the interface.) The graphics are very good, and fans of the show will be excited to find themselves "in" Grissam's office, as well as other locations in the show, and working alongside their favorite characters from the show.

The only problem is that the first few missions seems a bit too easy. I managed to get through them succesfully, without using many (if any) hints. Then the fourth mission comes along and I hit a dead end with no apparent way out. I'll keep plugging away, but it might take a hint source, guide or walkthrough to get me out of it. It's easy to miss evidence if you move too fast. Like real CSI, in that aspect, I guess.

More advanced gamers might fly right through these five missions pretty quickly. I managed to make it to mission 4 in one day. Had I more success with that mission, I might have completed them all in one day. For that reason, I have to say that the game doesn't deliver quite enough bang for the buck. One hopes theres a possibility that "expansion packs" featuring new missions might be in the works.

I'd have to say that the level of difficulty in the missions seems uneven enough to frustrate a player who starts out moving along at a good clip only to hit a brick wall.

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit short, but fun while it lasts!, May 2, 2003

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 (CD-ROM)

Are you a fan of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation? Do you enjoy mystery games? This is definitely a fun game that draws you in and keeps you interested.

Much like the game Law & Order, in CSI you get to interact with the real characters from the show, with their voices and attitudes and everything. A show's writer put the game together, and you can tell by the pacing and dialogue.

You really get the feeling that you're watching the famous TV show and participating in solving the case. The first mission is a tutorial, to help you learn the ropes and how all of the screens work. They are well laid out, with your collection and detection tools nicely labelled and your case file always at hand.

You can easily gather up whatever you find interesting and bring it back to the lab to analyze and do computer searches on. The plots have twists and turns, and eventually if you are diligent you track down the guilty suspect. The graphics aren't stellar, but they're good enough to make the scenes believable.

Yes, this is not a game that will take 80 hours to finish, like Final Fantasy. You can probably play through a mission a night even if you only have an hour or two for each one. The object isn't to "race to the end", though. It's to go through the scene, think like a investigator, think about what you're doing. Who could it be? What might their motive be? The game is on the cheap side compared to most other games out there so I considered it quite worth the money. Plus, this is the kind of game that you can lend out to your friends and see who enjoys which missions the best. It's a great "evening relaxing fun" game that will keep you going for a week or so. And with the series only being an hour an episode, to have the same activity in the game take 8 hours would probably be a bit much :)

Hopefully now that the game engine is built, they'll come out with more missions for CSI fans to enjoy. It would be neat if they offered different "levels" of missions - some for new gamers, and some for advanced puzzle solvers. We'll see!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great game!! Just wish it was longer...., March 30, 2003

By 

Ana M Ordonez De Durini (Colorado) - See all my reviews

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

Just got the game 2 days ago, I have been waiting on it and was not dissapointed by it at all except for one thing the game has only five cases which if you pick up the basics of the tools you use it can be breezed through fairly easily and quickly. I am finished with the game and wish there were more cases to solve, the graphics are great, to be able to use the actual tools and uncover secrets and put cases together was a blast, they made the game very realistic. Every character in the show is in the game and use their actual voices. If you like the show you will love the game, it is fun to play and will keep you thinking and mad trying to put clues together. I say get the game you will love it, if only it was longer I would not be writing this now but it is very well worth it.

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