My partner brought home CSI: Hard Evidence for our new Wii the weekend after we bought the console, and to be honest, it sat on my gaming shelf for months before I played it. I was caught up in Mario Kart and AMF Bowling Pinbusters! and didn’t remember I owned the game until just last week. And then it happened – I played a video game for 3 days straight. I didn’t stop, and I didn’t leave the couch.
CSI: Hard Evidence is a blood bath of a game based on Jerry Bruckheimer’s hit CBS television series. Based in Las Vegas and featuring the actual voices of the cast, the game starts with your first day on the Crime Scene Investigation unit. And, man, what a first day. Throughout the games five cases you will interrogate witnesses, obtain warrants, and work closely with your fellow CSI teammates. Your mission: to scour crime scenes for evidence, to collect said evidence using the correct tools, and to use the crime lab for analyzation.
The Wii game is not the first CSI game. They have been popular on both PC and Playstation 2 for years, and Hard Evidence is the fourth title in the series. The Wii remote offers players the same scroll-over mouse experience found in the PC version. I found scrolling over the characters and crime scenes with the remote as easy as I found the game. This is a fool proof game with built in hints and full character narration. It is perfect for anyone who has ever found themselves stuck in a video game and unsure what to do next.
It’s no secret that the Nintendo Wii has the least attractive graphics package of any new gaming console, and CSI: Hard Evidence looses some of its appeal with this downfall. Players who are interested in seeing realistic blood baths and gruesome crime scenes should opt for the Xbox 360 version. What you will get when you play Hard Evidence is the interaction that Wii offers. I felt like I was part of the game when my cursor changed into a hand to grasp a piece of evidence and when I could grab an object and turn it a full 360 degrees to check for fingerprints or blood spatters.
I’m a fan of the original CBS CSI show and I never miss an episode. If you are a fan of the show and want to join the team, CSI: Hard Evidence is a game you’re sure to enjoy. Want to save a few bucks? Rent the game from your local video store. I, and others I spoke to who’d played, found that the game went quickly and could be finished in a few days of dedicated play, and renting the game for the weekend at around $10 is a big savings over the $30 retail price tag.