Reviewbot: CSI: Hard Evidence (Xbox360)

With all the terrible games out there based on movies and TV shows it’s always refreshing to see one that is a carefully crafted, visually appealing, masterpiece among games.

Unfortunately, while we wait for such a game to surface we’ll have to make due with CSI: Hard Evidence, a game that was crafted with all the precision and care of a passenger-train wreck with only half the visual appeal.

“Hard Evidence” is the fifth CSI video game, and with it comes more of the same, aiming more for fans of the show rather than hardcore gamers. You play as a new recruit to the Las Vegas Crime Lab, assisting characters from the show solve five different cases. Your partners can give you hints at any time, though you probably won’t need them as the game’s default settings make the game so easy that it might as well be taking you by the hand, walking you through the levels and patting you on the head, promising everything is going to be alright.

The game’s character models are clunky, lifeless shells, sometimes not even particularly resembling their real-life counterparts and moving with all the fluidity of an un-oiled robot in a strobe light. The flow of the game is also ruined by designers’ laziness, the worst example of which is when you get search warrants that are arbitrarily limited to every section of a house except the one drawer that, it is later revealed, holds the case-breaking piece of evidence.

Thankfully no skimping was done in the audio and writing department. Nearly all the original cast members provided their voices for the game and the soundalikes used for Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) and Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) would fool even long time fans of the show. The writing also shows the promise that this franchise has, allowing the player to unweave complex and compelling mysteries worthy of the television series itself. Unfortunately, the storylines also seem desperately written around characters and stages from previous cases, presumably to keep game designers from having to create new locations and characters.

If lazy game design wasn’t bad enough, the product placement in the game is downright shameless, slapping HP logos on every piece of electronic equipment in the game, and Visa logos on absolutely everything else. I can forgive this much. Product placement can, when used properly, create a feeling of realism in a game. But when the Chief of Police takes time out of his busy day to tell you that he was pleased as punch that Visa’s Continuous Monitoring Service protected a murder victim from a possible identity theft you know that lines have been crossed and you just paid $40 for an interactive Visa commercial.

This game obviously depends on its popular subject matter to carry what would normally be a lackluster, bargain bin, “shovelware” title into a more financially successful title. But between graphics that wouldn’t have held up on last-gen consoles, lazy game design and copious amounts of shameless product placement, this game does very little to further the dying Point-&-Click Adventure genre, and a lot to push it a little deeper into the grave.



out of 100