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Genre: Adventure/Puzzle

Format: CD

Developer: 369 Interactive

Publisher: Ubisoft

Mac Port: Aspyr Media, Inc.

Mac Publisher: Aspyr Media, Inc.

Minimum System Requirements: 500MHz G3, Mac OS X v10.2.8, 256MB RAM, 2.3GB free disk space, Radeon 7500 or GeForce2 MX (32MB VRAM)

Review Computer: 1.5GHz 17" PowerBook with 512MB RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 9700

Network Feature: None

Price: $29.99

ESRB Rating: M for Mature (blood and gore, violence)

Availability: Now

Version Reviewed: 10.1r11

CSI: Crime Scene Investigations follows the adventures of the CSI agents from the television show of the same name. As the newest intern, it's your job to travel with experienced agents as you collect evidence, interrogate suspects, and visit crime scenes to find those guilty and put them behind bars.

CSI uses the likeness and voices from the actors of the television show, and the voice acting is very good; much better than I expected. It sounds as if the actors (including those for the secondary characters) didn't just go through the motions, but actually put some effort into putting personality and emotion in their characters. Aside from this, I can't comment on whether the game matches the show in any way since I've never seen it. And in my opinion, games should stand on their own no matter what their origin is.

At the start of CSI you are taken through a tutorial which teaches you how to change locations, collect and process evidence, and conduct interviews. Oddly enough, the tutorial ends before the first crime is solved, so you'll have to complete the work to find out who did the deed. Since you're an intern you can get help at any time from the CSI agent by talking to him. You can ask him about the evidence you've collected, how to determine how and why the crime was committed, and even what to do next. The downside is that asking for help reduces your overall score at the end of the case, so, to get 100%, you'll have to repeat it from the start.

The cases are done well, although they are a bit short and I expected more than just five of them. They involve solving a murder in a hotel room, investigating a threatening phone call (which turns into a murder), solving an arson case, finding out who killed a police officer, and rescuing a kidnapped Grissom. In each case you have to proceed logically and get enough evidence against someone to bring him in for an interrogation, which makes scouring the crime scene and getting as much information essential. Fortunately, the lab, morgue and police chief make analyzing the evidence easy, so it's up to you to put it together to build a solid case.

That leads me to the biggest complaint I have with CSI: sometimes, you have a limited time frame in which to do certain actions—like asking someone questions—before they're gone forever and you won't be able to get the 100% score. For example, in the second case, a suspect has empty cola cans in his room and you find the exact same brand at the suspected crime scene. If you don't go back to the suspect and ask him about that right after you visit the crime scene, you won't be able to ask him about the connection. Maybe this is to increase the replayability since there are only five cases, but it's somewhat annoying.

The graphics are very good and detailed, for the most part. There's a good amount of animation when the characters talk, and the environment has some as well. Overall, though, it's mostly static. The only oddities are the vertical lines which look like the seams where the sections didn't mesh completely, and the characters turn two dimensional when you're looking at a scene. CSI operates in 800x600 resolution and won't automatically switch your monitor for you, so it takes up less than the screen unless you manually switch first. There are also the cut scenes, or reconstructions, which are more like flashbacks to what did happen or could have happened. It was a little weird when Al Robbins, the coroner, was telling you how the victim died and you were shown it actually happening from the inside of the body. There's some music used, mainly in the cut scenes starting each case, but mostly you'll just be hearing sound effects and people talking.

I experienced a bug when I tried starting the fifth case: Macromedia Director encountered an error and the case wouldn't load. CSI locks up, and my only recourse is to force quit. I deleted CSI and reinstalled, but the same problem occurred, so I'm at a loss as to what the problem is. I asked about this on a gaming forum, and since no one answered it may be that this is an isolated problem. Aside from this, I encountered no other errors.

Overall, CSI is an okay crime game, but I can't recommend it for several reasons. Namely, there are only five cases. Solving them takes less than an hour each, and you get so many hints along the way, even without asking the CSI agent for help, that it takes no skill to find out who committed the crime. You can't make a mistake because if you try to use the wrong tool you're told either that you can't use it or to use a similar tool. I found it amusing that several times I tried dusting for prints only to be told that there were no prints there. I would have preferred to be allowed to try rather than be told that it wouldn't have turned up anything. The only challenge is to get 100% in each of the cases, and doing that relies more on completing the steps in the order CSI wants you to rather than using any investigative ability.

If you really like CSI and have watched the DVDs in your boxed set until you have memorized the lines, then you'll like CSI the game. If you want a good crime game, I suggest you look elsewhere. This one is far too easy and short.