 |
| Morpheus' retirement |
And so yes, I just finished the latest in the series of CSI games that came out. Luckily for CSI, it kind of lends itself to adventure game format. This can't be said for all shows looking to cash in on their franchises (I have yet to even consider the Grey's Anatomy game I saw floating around...I mean...really?) There are murders to solve, you get cool tools to work out puzzles and clues. For the most part, it's pretty standard stuff and I actually had fun playing the first couple of games. Not so much with this one.
Like the previous games, you have 5 cases to solve, each one with a different CSI (voiced mostly by the actual cast of the show which is a nice touch). Unlike most of the games, there is an overarcing story that ties many of the cases together (there were in previous installments, but they were more callbacks to the previous cases and didn't affect the others too much).
You'd think this would be a better thing and would make for a more cohesive game. But it feels incredibly shoehorned in. There I'd be, solving a case, when some cutscene would suddenly start up and I was being told about developments about this random drug lord who somehow has their hand in every single case we're solving. That's about it. I don't know, I just felt like the stand alone cases of the previous cases had more of an impact on me than attempting to tie them all together as arbitrarily as possible.
Okay, let's focus on the good for now. The game continues to improve somewhat on the evidence system. The very first game I played had me looking at DNA and finger prints and basically just using a process of elimination of my options to match them up. Now, in order to match DNA you have to physically match it up yourself, which provides a bit more of an enjoyable challenge. Objects can be looked at three dimensionally, so looking for clues on objects requires a bit more effort on your part.
 |
| Matching fingerprints takes 10 seconds...just like real life! |
Voice acting is done well overall too. It's a wee bit iffy getting television actors not accustomed to voicework to do their own for the game, but the cast handles it pretty well even if they do sound slightly monotone at points. The supporting cast on the other hand is pretty great, and it's good to see that even if the writing can be a bit stale the voice actors give as much character as they can to the characters.
Now...for the not so good. I'm not sure why I was so bored with this installment after a while. I think the problem can be traced right back to the writing. Maybe I've played too many of these games, or watched too many episodes of CSI, but the stories, while innovative in their ideas, just didn't pan out in execution. Every case was the same. Go, investigate crime scene, determine it was a murder, discover a piece of evidence that points to this very obvious suspect, subsequently figure out that very obvious suspect is not who you should be looking into. Look back at evidence, discover it was the first person you interrogated (seriously, it was this person in almost every single case).
Yeah, it's a formula and I should just accept that. Buuuuut when handled well, you don't notice that you've heard this story before. I've pointed that out many times. Then when I finally did track down the criminal, they were all too willing to explain every step of the way to me. One case in particular stuck out to me, because suddenly the very nice lady I had been speaking to suddenly turned into the witch from Snow White. It was like every killer was bipolar and wasn't a really good transition in revealing their motives. Sure, have them explain it, but if you're going to develop the character a certain way, don't just slap an evil metaphorical mustache on them so that they can twist it and proclaim that if it wasn't for us meddling kids, he would have gotten away with it.
But I think the thing that got to me the most was the hand holding and the hotspots. I'm not going to call it a hint system. Because it is most assuredly not. It's someone holding your hand. Now, I've always played these games on the easiest setting. This just means that when you've done everything you can with a location or some evidence, a green checkmark appears next to it. It also means that any and all hotspots that you can click on appear as a green arrow.
Me, I suck at looking at hotspots, especially when they're not pixellated. I would love to try it on the medium setting. But again, that damn TV and its lack of HD and darker screen strikes again. Seriously, what is it with games? I can't see a damn thing I'm doing, so I become dependent on those bright green arrows pointing me to the darkened corner of evidence. I guess, like the tv show, the CSI's are afraid to turn on the lights at a crime scene.
And then there's the hint system. I had mine set on low. Low. Supposedly after a while of doing absoultely nothing you would get an "e-mail" from another CSI giving you a clue as to what you should be looking at. But do you know when I would get these e-mails? Directly after I found something. I would literally pick something up and IMMEDIATELY get an e-mail telling me what to do with it. Because if my brain takes more than 5 seconds to process some information, I am considered unfit to figure it out for myself. And that's the low setting.
The other part of the hand holding just comes from the game itself. This is more a symptom of recent trends in games than it is about CSI in particular. Sure, I don't want King's Quest 5 levels of frustration, but I would've liked to have seen a couple more consequences if you make a wrong move. I only mention this because this installment of the game actually showed the potential for this.
For instance, when you're interrogating a suspect and they tell an outright lie an option comes up for you to bitch slap them with the truth so to speak. From there, you pick the evidence that contradicts them. I wasn't sure what was going on the first time it happened and picked the wrong evidence by accident. Your partner actually goes so far as to take you out of the interrogation room and ask you what the hell your problem is as you're embarassing her. It was actually a pretty good idea. They also include it when you ask for a warrant. Normally you ask and you get told yes or go get more evidence. This time around you actually have to select the evidence that will help you get the warrant. I would have liked to see it go further though.
Instead of having your CSI partner hovering over your every move, I think it would be interesting if you were given room to make mistakes. If you're at a crime scene normally, you might see a piece of evidence that you want but then are immediately told by your partner that you need a warrant to search there. I actually would like to see what might happen if you take it anyway without any warning. It would affect whether your suspect can actually be questioned when you clearly stole a piece of their property.
That's not to say that it doesn't have to be easy sometimes. Making the cases harder as you go along would actually add a lot to the game. Have the handholding in the first level so that you're not bitch slapped unexpectedly later, but in later cases have the CSI interacting less. It would actually make for more compelling gameplay and have a skill level to strive for.
But this isn't a regular game. It's a franchise, looking to cash in. They don't always have the time required to really put a lot of thought into these games. But who's to say they shouldn't? Why should a popular television franchise get any less attention in their games than the original titles? Adventure games seem to be making a comeback on the Wii. What we need now are games that provide some of the challenge that older titles did. CSI actually had a lot of potential to be a well structured game, but instead it played it safe and fell into the same boring traps that may keep it from being a complete dud, but also keeps it from being something memorable. That's just as bad as being a dud in my opinion.
No comments:
Post a Comment