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C.S.I.: 3 Dimensions of Murder Review: Is It Worth the Investment?

C.S.I: 3 Dimensions of Murder cover

C.S.I.: 3 Dimensions of Murder Review: Is It Worth the Investment?

C.S.I: 3 Dimensions of Murder developed by Telltale Games and released in 2006 is based on the television CSI: Crime Scene Investigation series. 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.

C.S.I: 3 Dimensions of Murder Gameplay

C.S.I: 3 Dimensions of Murder Screenshot
Interactive capabilities allow for vocal interface.

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.

Despite all of the modern crime-solving technologies, it’s incredibly easy to spot the guilty party. 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 C.S.I: 3 Dimensions of Murder. As in real life you have to build a case around the suspect.

Get the Job Done

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 ballistics 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.

Features of C.S.I: 3 Dimensions of Murder

C.S.I: 3 Dimensions of Murder
Crime scene investigation.

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.

There’s an awful lot of dialog in this game. 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 fun features of C.S.I: 3 Dimensions of Murder include moving around the crime scene to get a close up look. You get the real feel of detecting and collection tools. Despite the overflow of dialogue, character interaction has been improved due to immersive dialogue. With that, the overall game mechanics provide more satisfying evidence analysis.

Final Thoughts

Overall C.S.I: 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. At most C.S.I: 3 Dimensions of Murder is worth a 3-day rental.

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