CSI: Hard Evidence Review

The observant reader is likely looking at this going “CSI? Why on earth review this game, especially since it came out at the end of September!” Well, thats just it, when is the last time you saw a review of this game? Exaaaaaaactly. Now then, on with the show.

CSI: Hard Evidence plays out like 5 episodes of the popular show, CSI. I will spare the rhetoric of what the show is, and its format since its nigh impossible to go though a week of tv and not catch about 30 episodes of it and its various spin offs. You start off as a no-name Criminalist who is paired up with the various stars of the show, one for each of the 5 cases. In each case, you must go though the normal procedure of search though the crime scene, investigate with anyone you need to talk to, run you evidence though the lab, and then bounce around those same things with new evidence, new locations, and new people as new leads open up. Its honestly quite fun and I could spend hours comparing evidence and running comparisons and the like in the crime lab, I loved it.

The graphics are so-so, some of the characters come across looking a little goofy. All of their voices are by the actual actors, and all of the cases and dialog are written by the actual CSI staff writers. This makes for the same great stories that you have in the show, but along with that, some of the more… err… interesting one-liners. The voice over work is quite well but a bit deadpan at times, lacking some of the emotion from the show, but the guys did a good job none the less. The controls are very straightforward and processing a crime scene and all its evidence is very intuitive but at the same time they are not holding you hand as you do it. You have a lot of leeway to go about things on your own, and you can always ask your partner for a hint if your stuck, although it will count against you when Grissom gives you an eval after the case.

There is some great intricate parts in the evals as well. You are graded on how many pieces of evidence you collected out of the available total before coming down to your conclusion, how clear of a conclusion you had built up before sending Brass in on the suspect, how thoroughly you searched each area, how much evidence you actually processed fully, and how many of the little bonus bugs throughout the areas you found and collected and gave to Grissom as a gift. Now all of this gets combined and used to grade you, and doing better unlocks more “extras” in the options menu for you to look at and admire. One would think this ties in wonderfully with the achievement system as well. You couldn’t be more wrong. You get 200 points for solving a case with any grade of any type. 5 cases at 200 points, there is you 1000 gamerscore and your done. Simple as that. Sad, I know, so much wasted potential.

So this game is great, although I wouldn’t quickly recommend buying it, however if you have Gamefly or a friend that has it, borrow/rent it at your earliest convenience. It plays though at about 2 hours per case, so its not bad on time. Its also a great way to pad your gamer score with an extra 1000 points and a full game completion. *ahem* err yes, anyways… *cough*