Join the team of the Las Vegas crime lab and
tackle five connected cases in CSI: Fatal Conspiracy, the latest in
the CSI series from Telltale Games. Succeed in your efforts to stop the
drug lord known as the Queen of the Hive in her tracks, as she eludes the
CSI team from case to case and murder to murder, and it’ll be a job well
done. Congratulations, partner!
Investigating the crime scene
I should confess at this juncture that I have never watched a single
episode of CSI in any of its mutations. The amount of television I watch
across an average week could balance quite comfortably on the head of a
pin, and yet all the same, I have played several of the CSI games and have
mostly enjoyed them, despite their variances in style and format. It’s
interesting therefore to see how CSI: Fatal Conspiracy compares.
The PC DVD version of the game requires an initial online keycode
activation, after which you’re good to go. If you’re new to CSI and need
initial help in finding your way around the user-friendly point and click
interface and the data/material labs within the game, there is an
extremely helpful tutorial feature available from the Options menu.
In-game hints and subtitles may also be enabled. By the way, the subtitles
are HUGE. With some games it’s necessary that the player should squint if
they wish to read the dialogue at the bottom of the screen. With the text
in CSI: Fatal Conspiracy your pupils are likely to experience
dilatory overload. It’s good news for myopics. Dialogue can be skipped via
the space bar. There are just three available save slots per case. I found
the game length to be generous. At around three hours for each case
without any referral to a walkthrough, it amounts to a satisfying 15 hours
of total playing time. I recall the earlier games in the CSI series as
being significantly shorter, so this is most definitely an improvement.
Of the cases themselves, the plot twists and turns managed to hold my
interest very nicely. I enjoyed how each story connected in its own way
with the others in the set. The voice work, featuring the main actors from
the TV show, is excellent. The graphics don’t appear to have taken very
many steps forward from the early games, however. The locations appear as
fairly basic and blocky, although characters’ facial features have more
detail. There is a modest amount of blood and gore, nothing too excessive,
nothing too detailed. You want me to investigate the stomach contents of
the victim, Doc? Sure thing! I thought it was a bowl of pea soup. Just
hold on a moment while I find a swab.
What evidence have you got?
The gamer coming to this series for the first time might well find the
array of test facilities and tools for the job a little overwhelming at
first. Fingerprinting, moulds, sprays, miscellaneous gadgetry, you name
it, it’s there. And so accordingly, such puzzles as there are in CSI:
Fatal Conspiracy will entail you furrowing your brow at various lab
machines to obtain analyses in order to progress. DNA must be matched,
fingerprints identified to victim or suspect, broken pieces of evidence
reassembled, and so on. Crime scenes must be scoured for vital clues, and
suspects interviewed or interrogated based upon the quality of information
you have acquired at that point in the game. The repetitive nature of all
of this can either be utterly absorbing or mind-blowingly tedious;
ultimately it’s all down to the individual and his or her gaming
preferences.
There is an element of replayability as you are evaluated and given your
performance statistics at the end of each case. Overlook a piece of
evidence, fail to ask a particular question, and your final score reflects
your error.
It’s worse than that, he’s dead, Jim
Well, here’s where CSI: Fatal Conspiracy gets its shoelaces
irrevocably tangled and falls down splat on the gravel. The cursor is
floaty and slow to respond. You become accustomed to it as you play on,
but it’s an initial irritant.
The first person viewpoint pans and swoops each location with a feeling
akin to riding side-saddle on a supermarket trolley with one dodgy wheel.
It’s tricky to control -- but at least the areas of swooping are contained
within relatively compact perimeters and do not spin a full 360. “Wheeeeee!”
squealed this reviewer in delight/despair at being taken on the umpteenth
trolley ride of the game. “Wait a cotton-pickin’ minute, for crying out
loud, all I want is to collect this seemingly insignificant paper cup from
over he--Wheeeeeee!….”
Let’s get back to work
CSI: Fatal Conspiracy installed and played without any problems or
glitches.
Overall, fans of the television show and those with an interest in the
nitty-gritty of forensics should find much to enjoy in this game.
Grade: B
I played on:
Windows XP Media Center Edition SP3
Intel[R] CPU T2050 @ 1.60GHz
2.00 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 7500 LE, 512MB
GameBoomers Review Guidelines
November, 2010
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