I apologize to anyone who purchased the game CSI-NY on the premise that it was a sequel to the previous adventure game series. Since it was brought to our attention by players and now has been confirmed, the game is in fact a Casual Game and not an Adventure game.

There was no indication on their website, screenshots or press releases to believe that it was anything but the adventure game. InteractCd also had no knowledge that this was not an adventure title. We once again apologize to anyone who purchased expecting a different style of game.

On the brightside, it should be a fun casual game!

Ana

I'd like to know how they can justify charging $29.95 for a casual game? I'm not going to buy that game.

SnickersMom

To late for me I already bought it from Interact and it's on it's way,I never would of payed 29.95 for a casual game! I love the CSI series and I jumped to fast to order it,oh well nothing to do now but play it when it arrives

I'm the one unlucky too, bought it from Amazon and didn't have time to cancel, they already shipped it. May be I should just return it and get my money back.

I just found THIS on the Legacy Games blog, posted back in October.

Unfortunately, apparently no one here who has purchased this game thus far had read this prior to purchase, or the gameplay might not have come as quite so much of a shock.

So what happened between this honest description of the game from the producers to the actual marketing and pricing of the game? Were they (whoever is in charge of this stuff) intentionally trying to mislead gamers, then? Maybe as part of an effort to rack up sales from drawing in fans of the other CSI games. After reading that blog, I find it extremely hard to believe there wasn't some sort of conscious decision made to leave the words, hidden-object and casual, out of the game description or press releases.

I am relatively new to gaming, does this sort of thing happen often? Can you usually trust a description of a game? I just think it would have been more appropriate to market this game like the folks at Her Interactive marketed their new casual game. Their new game is part of a casual series that branches off their adventure series and this fact was very clearly expressed to the public. I am sure noone bought that game expecting an adventure game!

Samantha

Here's the quote from the blog:

Reading this, I wouldn't have anticipated that the gameplay would take the game out of the adventure genre and put it squarely into the casual genre -- I would have expected gameplay to be like the previous CSI games, but with a few more casual-type minigames, perhaps.

There are examples of genre-fusing games, though more adventure-action than adventure-casual. And we are seeing casual games becoming more like adventures. I suppose it was inevitable that, sooner or later, an adventure series would become more like casual games.

There are games that seem (from the gamer's standpoint) to be marketed as adventures to the adventure-game-buying public, that then turn out to not be adventures -- usually they have a lot of action in them, rather than a lot of casual game elements. Penumbra Overture would fit in this category.

There are also games that seem to be marketed as action adventures that then turn out to fit fairly well into the adventure genre. Lost Via Domus for PC would be one of those.

I think that developers/publishers sometimes have a hard time accurately describing what a game is going to be like, particularly if it fuses genres. Though I suspect there IS some sense of wanting both the adventure gamers and the casual gamers to buy the game, so maybe a perfectly accurate description of every element of gameplay, not only would create spoilers, but also might prevent people from buying.

I just think it is reasonable to expect that if a game is largely a hidden-object game, that this is mentioned in the game description. Like Women's Murder Club, which states, "find hidden objects inside nine investigations." If the company was truly concerned about whether this is an adventure or a casual game, then why not release a demo? You only need to play ten minutes of this game to realize what type of game it is. I have played a few of those games you describe, that straddle the line between two different genres, but I did not feel misled or deceived by the marketing of those games. This is a very popular series, if they planned to completely depart from it, this should have been made clear to us from the start. While I expected it to be a different experience, I was still led to believe it was another entry in the series. Also, while I enjoy hidden-object games, I would never pay $29.99 for one.

Samantha

PLEASE tell me there's been some sort of misunderstanding, maybe it's mostly adventure with a hidden object minigame?

unfortunately jadekitten there is no misunderstanding. It truly is a hidden object game with some elements of the adventure game added to it. While I enjoyed the game it was rather dissapointing to see that it was a casual game instead of an actual "true" CSI game that we adventure gamers would be used to. I wish I could get my money back because I feel really ripped off by this one. I suppose that we paid the extra money for not only the CSI logo name but also the voices of the cast members as well.

Kem

*whimpers sadly*

I agree jadekitten I agree. The worst part is I don't think anyone on the CSI game thread I happen to click on sometimes knows anything about it. They think it might be like Law and Order Criminal Intent but we know that isn't the case now. So very sad and also so very angry with myself for purchasing the game and not waiting for reviews here. Oh well live and learn I guess.

Kem

Thanks for the heads up. I have cancelled my pre-oreder now.

Pheww! thanks again.

What is even more ironic...

The Nancy Drew Dossier game, though scaled down or easier than a full on large file adventure game. It is complete with locations, inventory usage, puzzling etc. So a pleasant surpise (rather than the reverse)

I agree with the posters here and elsewhere, Ubisoft should have been as candid as the developers. It's not like casual games do not have a large and eager market ...

This is very sad news... I've been waiting for this game and now this???? I didn't even thought for a moment that it would be a casual game. I love the HOG games but i love even more the CSI games...