CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Xbox)

...fixated with the television program CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and in particular the Las Vegas Series which is obviously set in and around Las Vegas and much of the show has scene shots in hotels, casino's, bars and restaurants that I have frequented on my travels there.

Owning the DVD series wasn't enough for me, I wanted to become a member of the CSI Team and that led me to the Xbox game which I saw featured on one of the CSI ...
...as a PC version available called 'Dark Motives' and I don't think it is the same game as I have for the Xbox because on the box it states "Includes All cases from CSI and CSI: Dark Motives PC Game".




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I am the first to admit that I am a little fixated with the television program CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and in particular the Las Vegas Series which is obviously set in and around Las Vegas and much of the show has scene shots in hotels, casino's, bars and restaurants that I have frequented on my travels there.

Owning the DVD series wasn't enough for me, I wanted to become a member of the CSI Team and that led me to the Xbox game which I saw featured on one of the CSI DVD's and off I went in search for the game.

The basic story of the game is that you are an Intern with the CSI team headed up by Gil Grissom who is the supervisor at the CSI Department and he specialises in Entomology which translates to him being an expert in the field of insects and from the television series you do get to find out all of this information. However, whilst you are at CSI your task is to uncover and discover the truths behind crime scenes and by visiting each crime scene you must collect and analyse physical evidence, interview suspects and basically be the ninth team member.

Why the ninth team members? Well this game is very much in keeping with the program on the television and throughout the game you will get to meet:

Catherine Willows - Catherine used to be a show girl in Las Vegas, now a single mother of one, Catherine is a CSI who specialises in blood spatter analysis.

Nick Stokes - Nick comes from a family who specialise in different aspects of the law. His father was appointed to the Supreme Court in Texas and his mother is a public defender. With CSI Nick specialises in Hair and Fibre analysis.

Warrick Brown - Born and raised in Vegas, Warrick for me seems to be a little addicted to finding shoe prints and he believes a shoe print could tell the whole story of a crime scene. Warrick regularly gets himself into trouble because he has a gambling habit and often sneaks off to a casino to place a bet. Warrick specialises in Audio/Visual analysis.

Sara Sidle - Sara is the odd one out for me within the CSI Team because she cannot communicate very well with people as a whole and although some of the blame is put upon her parents, Sara never really tries to 'fit in'. Sara specialises in Materials and element analysis.

Jim Brass - Jim is the Captain of the Homicide Division and Jim is one of the most important people you will come across. He will arrange for suspects to be brought in for questioning about suspicious circumstances linking them to a crime scene and should you also need a warrant, then Jim is your man.

Greg Sanders - Greg is the Lab Technician who knows everything about everything and Greg is the one person you need to tell you about DNA, Bloods and any suspicious elements you find at your crime, he will use his knowledge of science and his computer equipment to help you solve a case if he can, or rule people out.

Finally we come to Al Robbins who is the Chief Medical Examiner and he is the one you will send bodies to for examination and from there he will be able to tell you the time of death, possible cause of death and also how the person died, whether it is as a result of any weapon, animal, human being or accidental.

So now you know who your team mates are your object throughout the whole game is Crime Scene Investigation and you have to gather as much evidence as you can fro each crime scene which will lead to the arrest of a suspect. To do this you will have to use the forensic tools given to you as well as your own imagination and thought process to get you from A to B and then to case solved. Throughout this time you can interrogate suspects, look for further clues in different places and re-examine evidence until you get to the right ending. Your team mates are there to help you through your cases and to offer advice, tips and clues. You can also question them using a set of given questions at any one time.

When you first being to play the game you will only be able to access the first Crime Scene Case which is called 'Inn and Out' and you can only move onto the next case once you have solved the first one and so forth until you have completed 10 different cases and solved them all. Once you have completed a case you are given the option of just moving onto the next Crime Scene or to replay everything you have just done and been through which often works well as a reminder of what you did and how you did it.

So, you find yourself at a crime scene and you have a list of options to use in offer to solve your crime. Firstly you need to look around the scene itself, some cases allow you to look 360 degrees around the location and others don't but to do this the right thumbstick is the best button on the control pad to use. When you are looking round the room you can inspect, people and items more closely and to do this you use your point to run over these objects and if there is something you should look at, the pointer changes from blue to green and it is from here that you can investigate that item.

Your tools are categorized as either 'collection' or 'Detection' and each one has a set of different tools. Rather than going through each and every one of them I will mention a few.

Within your tools, you will find swabs, gloves, tweezers - all of these tools are used to gather evidence. The swab is used to take a clean sample of an unknown liquid or dried liquid (usually blood) which will be processed at the Crime Lab, the latex gloves are used to stop you from contaminating the evidence and the tweezers can be used to pick up the smallest piece of evidence you find. However, for me the best tools are fingerprint powder which when used enhances the fingerprints left at the scene and when using it around your crime scene the prints come to life and it is a lot like you see the team do on the program and my other favourite tool is Luminol. Luminol reacts with iron in haemoglobin causing blood traces to illuminate on any given surface. You will find that when you are trying to collate the evidence that you often choose the wrong tool, your CSI partner will inform you that you are not able to use that particular tool in question and may hint that you can use something similar. It did take me a while to master the art of knowing which tool I could use for each particular piece of evidence, so be patient.

So, you have been to your crime scene and have collected all of the evidence which you will see on the bottom of your screen as being categorised into three different sections:

• Trace and Prints - this is where you will find any swabs, fingerprints or hair samples taken from the crime scene.

• Documents - photographs, forms or printouts which you have obtained from the crime scene.

• Items - Here you will find pieces of clothing, weapons and anything larger that you have collected from the crime scene.

From here you will need to take your evidence to the Lab for further investigation and to make ends meet.

Within the game there a number of locations in which you can travel to and from whether it is the Crime Scene, the Crime Lab, The Morgue or Jim Brass' office you simply go to the locations menu on the bottom of your screen and select the relevant location.

You will go to the morgue whenever you have sent a body to be processed and whilst in the morgue you can question Al Robbins about how the victim died, what caused the death, possible weapon and any other evidence he may have found or something that isn't quite right.

Jim Brass' office is used when you will need to bring the suspects in for questioning and interrogation, if you need a warrant to search further a field or if you need legal help and assistance. He can also give you background information on a victim if there is one to be had.

The laboratory is where you will use Greg's expertise alongside computer analysis, microscopic analysis or image enhancement to collate your evidence to find and arrest the suspect. Greg will also be able to help you understand and use the equipment to process, cross match and cross examine evidence should you need to and he will also tell whether or not a piece of evidence is useful to you. However, Greg doesn't do everything for you like he does on the television show. Within the Lab there are a few pieces of equipment that you will be expected to use:
Image Enhancement/Microscopy - This is used to examine, photographs, fibres and anything else for comparison that you may find and it is a bit like using a microscope in science. You simply drag your article onto one of the empty spherical viewfinders and if you have something to compare it to, simply place it onto the second viewfinders to confirm the match. Your CSI partner will tell you whether or not it is a match.

The Computer - this computer is used for DNA matching, record searches, tread matching, footprints and fingerprints like with the microscope you drag your piece of evidence onto one side of the screen, this time the box is square in shape and then if you have nothing to compare it to then you can search for something similar or possibly a match using the DNA database and from here you need to look and find a possible match. As you're doing this I would advise you to be particularly patient as it isn't always the most obvious looking match that will be right.

One handy hint for anyone who gets a little stuck when collecting evidence is to point the cursor on the screen to your CSI Partner and click the A button, this will allow you to ask for any hints/questions should there be any relating to your particular case and it is also dependant on what information you have collected. There is however a downside to this and it is seen as a negative on your evaluation at the end of every case when you are in Gil Grissom's office for an evaluation.

In order to complete a case you have to collect every possible piece of information that is on offer for you to find to ensure that you have enough evidence to lead to the successful arrest of a suspect. Once you have completed your task you will go to Gil Grissom's office where he will provide you with an evaluation of how well you did and he may also give you some hints and tips for future cases as well as commenting upon your performance. Your evaluation is based on three different aspects of being a CSI and these are 1) Information/Evidence, 2) Hints used and finally 3) Case total and from this a percentage is given and as you progress through the game your rankings change from Rookie to Investigator to Master. Also based on your performance is a chance to unlock some bonus materials which can be found on the 'Extras' screen. If you do not unlock the extras then you can replay the entire case you have just completed in order to find it (something I am currently doing) and in doing so you will eventually unlock the Super CSI Bonus Material - I am yet to get there.

So that is the game in a nutshell but what about the sounds and graphics. Well I have to say that the sound quality is brilliant, the voices are those of the actual cast of CSI Las Vegas which makes the whole feeling of being part of that team more believable and their personalities and attributes are also captured brilliantly with Grissom's sarcastic comments and Greg's geeky yet funny sense of humour being present. The graphics, well they aren't your state of the art 3d graphics that is for sure, the locations in which you will find yourself searching for clues are all fine because the aim is to provide the gamer with the chance to span the area to look for clues, however, the characters themselves are a definite likeness which for me is a bonus (Nick Stokes…..ferwoargh) but essentially for me this game is about the graphics it is about the playability and the option to actually be able to pretend to be a CSI. If graphics are your thing then you will hate this game.

(",)My opinions (",)

I totally love this game and can spend hours playing it, for someone who is a big fan of CSI Las Vegas this is the ultimate gaming pleasure for me and one that I would suggest anyone tries if they have ever seen any of the CSI series, even if it was New York or Miami versions and they liked it then you should enjoy this game.

The only downside for me is that I am not too familiar with the Xbox joy pad so it did take a little bit of getting used to. After playing around on the first crime scene I was soon familiar with the joy pad and well on my way to being a fully fledged member of the CSI Las Vegas Team.

Overall I did become rather addicted to playing this game and it is extremely playable and addictive, especially if you are a big fan of the show like I am. The first few investigations within which you are involved are relatively easy to solve but they do get much harder and your concentration and patience is needed.

(".) Extra Information (",)

This game can be bought from most computer, high street retailers and online. I managed to buy it for £19.99 in Virgin, but I do suggest shopping around because the price does escalate upwards to £29.99 depending on where you shop.

There is a CSI Game as a PC version available called 'Dark Motives' and I don't think it is the same game as I have for the Xbox because on the box it states "Includes All cases from CSI and CSI: Dark Motives PC Game".

 

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