This
latest CSI offering is intended for casual fans of
both adventure games and the CSI TV series. The reason
that I use the term "casual" is because
as a game it's easy and the cast of the TV series
is not fully represented - and those that are, suffer
from poor rendering and emotionless voice-overs.
by Cole Smith
April
10, 2006 - It
helps to be a little bit ignorant to truly enjoy CSI:
3 Dimensions of Murder. The less you know about crime
investigation the better off you will be. It also
will be of benefit if you haven't played the last
three games in the series, otherwise you'll just find
it as nothing more than a continuation of the same
old gameplay that you're already overly familiar with.
Even though there are new cases which are more involved,
they won't present any more of a challenge to veterans.

Vegas
is the scene of this game. As a nondescript recruit,
you will team up with one member from the TV series
as you are handed a case in a murder investigation.
All of the crimes involve murder. Your job is to obviously
solve the crime through a variety of resources. You
begin by visiting the murder scene to collect evidence
and clues. You will also interview witnesses and start
to put together a list of suspects. Through the latest
scientific techniques you will help process evidence
and analyze clues which will help you narrow down
the list of suspects and build a case against the
perpetrator. Once you're sure you have your man, or
woman, you arrest them and bring them in to face justice.
Your
teammates are there to act as narrators to the story
and to also evaluate your prowess on the job. You
can ask them questions and they will give you hints.
These hints will cost you points on your overall evaluation
but that will only result in a lower score. You won't
be forced to clean the autopsy table with your tongue.
There's
an awful lot of dialog in this game. Everyone but
you seems to suffer from verbal diarrhea. There are
times when the characters say things that don't make
any sense. Other times the story seems to get ahead
of itself, especially when you miss an important piece
of evidence and the CPU assumes that you have it already.
It does tend to spoil a bit of the mystery. There
are also missed cues and times when two characters
are accidentally triggered to talk at once. Some characters
will just stop in mid-sentence - but this is a good
thing as they finally shut the hell up.

Despite
all of the modern crime-solving technologies, it's
incredibly easy to spot the guilty party. It's very
predictable. Without trying to give anything away
you will notice that you always bring the guilty party
in for interrogation in the same order. There are
always three suspects and even though the game tries
to throw you off at that point, it's too little too
late. Still, even though you know who the suspect
is, that's not really the point of the game. As in
real life you have to build a case around the suspect.
You can't just put him or her in jail like Batman
and let everyone take your word for it.
At
the crime scene you will want to leave no stone unturned.
Everything you see should be examined for prints,
blood, semen, DNA and other chemical elements. You
will use dust to highlight fingerprints, UV lights
to illuminate semen, and swabs to take blood and DNA
samples. After a couple of crime scene investigations
knowing where to look will become second nature.
At
the lab you will try to match prints and DNA, analyze
chemicals and run ballistic tests on guns and bullets
found at the scene. It's satisfying when the evidence
begins to confirm your suspicions, even though you
"knew it all along." If it were this easy
to pick out the perp on the TV show there wouldn't
be much of an audience. Somehow it's not that big
a deal in the game since you're actually immersed
in the forensic activity.

For
the first time, the game is presented in 3D. While
this may sound like a good idea it's not very well
implemented. The environments do not allow free roaming.
You can only go to certain areas which aren't blocked
by invisible walls. So what's the point of going 3D
if you can't explore all of the 3D environment? The
characters are messy looking. The faces are somewhat
recognizable but they all look as though they've had
really bad plastic surgery, like the Joker did in
the first Batman movie. That's the second Batman reference
I've made. Must make three before the review is over.
Overall
3 Dimensions of Murder is not a bad game. Some will
like it more than others but no one is going to claim
this is the best game they've ever played. It's a
good diversion for an evening but it won't have any
lasting appeal. Batman!
Features:
- NEW
3D graphics: Investigate crime-scenes that are more
like the hit TV show than ever. Move around the
crime scene and get a close-up look. Feel like you
are really using the tools for collection and detection
of evidence and interact with the CSI cast like
never before.
- 5
NEW cases with deeper plot lines with shocking twists:
Players will be drawn into the action with improved
character interaction and longer more immersive
cases. The 5 new and distinctive cases will draw
players in like never before.
- NEW
Mobile Crime Lab: Just like the hit TV show, CSI
3 Dimensions of Murder features the GMC Mobile Analysis
Unit that can be used to analyze evidence quickly
in the field.
- NEW
more satisfying evidence analysis: Players will
really feel like they are solving the case, not
like the computer is solving it for them. Use high
tech tools to collect and process evidence such
as, Mikrosil casting material, magnetic powder for
enhanced finger print analysis and Luminol for detecting
traces of blood evidence.
- The
Original CSI series is the #1 hit TV show: CSI 3
Dimensions of Murder returns to the original Vegas-based
series. CSI:Crime Scene investigations remains the
top show on TV with 26M weekly viewers.
By
Cole Smith
CCC
Senior Writer
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