Back in the day, most games were of the “adventure” variety. By that I mean, you point and click your way to victory, unraveling puzzles with items you find, and talking to the right people. Games like Kings Quest, and Monkey Island defined this genre, but as of late there haven’t been too many on the market. UbiSoft comes to the plate at just the right time with a sequel to their previous adventure and tries to cash in even more on the CSI-phenomenon.
With a show that’s as good as CSI, and books that get you even deeper involved into the cases, the logical step is a computer game. The adventure genre totally suits this type of game, and the first iteration was successful in its own right. CSI: Dark Motives gives players more of the same they came to like in the previous adventure, but ups the ante a bit by offering improved graphics and a few new tools to help get the job done.
The game does certainly draw you in with the stories surrounding the cases. There are 5 cases for you to spelunk through, but in all honestly, you can finish them all too fast. The game leaves you sitting there wanting more at the end. Now that’s not saying that everything in this game is rosy and you just can’t put it down; no, it’s not without its faults.
There were several nagging problems that plagued me while playing the game. First off was a tricky installation that seemed to not be able to read the discs. Then there was the problem that graphical glitches would appear after sessions lasting a few hours. It seemed to have some problems with Direct X and OpenGL. Now these may not arise on every configuration, but the test system I was using can take anything we throw at it with nary a hiccup, so this game seemed to be the faulty party, as it’s not nearly as intensive compared to a FPS, etc.
Technical problems aside, there were a few gripes with the game itself. First off, it appears that the designers tried to increase the replay value of the cases by offering rankings based on the evidence collected and questions asked, and you also lost points by using the “helper” features in the game, or getting hints from your partner in the case. This ranking determines the number of “extras” that you unlock per case, with a maximum of 9 on each one. To get all 9, you have to get the “Master” ranking, which is supposedly difficult. The problem I found is that even with all the features on, and using a few hints, I was still able to pull off a “Master” ranking on every case. You see, in order to complete the case you usually end up collecting every single piece of evidence, and asking all the questions you can before you finally end up figuring out what exactly the game wanted you to do to complete it. This fault isn’t exactly centric to this game, but the entire genre. Sometimes you as a player just think differently about how to do something then the programmers did, even though it will arrive at the same conclusion. And when that happens… cue hours of random clicking and frustration.
All in all CSI: Dark Motives isn’t a bad game. If you’re a fan of the TV series (as I am), you’ll love the way some of the cases play out. Yes they do seem a little short, and on the show they could probably wrap them all up in a 1 hour session, but they are satisfying. The biggest complaint that I had, and many others agree is that the game needed to be longer than just 5 cases, maybe 10 or so would have done the trick. CSI is all about murder investigation, and truth be told, there wasn’t nearly enough of it in there. Hopefully next time UbiSoft will get it right and give the fans what they really want, with more in-depth cases, more freedom, and a case load that would make your head spin. A good adventure game should consume you for days, not hours.
