What a waste...
I've only watched the television series half a dozen times, so I'm no fan, but I thought that it might be interesting to play a detective game. Something that doesn't come along all that often.
Gameplay: FAAAAAAAAAAR to easy, if you ask me. The fact that you can't move freely in the different locations makes all the evidence that you have to collect spring up your face, all the time... all the time! You are constantly guided by a fellow CSI-dude (or dudette) who never stops telling you how great you are for being thorough, and who comments on everything you find, revealing exactly what it is and what its connection to the respective crime is. Bad form, for a game, that is supposed to make the player be the detective. Another annoying detail, are the loading times between the (usually not more than a couple of square metres large) locations. I have no idea what justifies these loading times. Graphics... erh..no. Sound... erhm... no. Who cares, those loading times suck, end of story. You mostly control the game with your mouse . The only thing that you can't do with your mouse, is make the characters in the game shut up (something you inevitably will want to do!), you have to use the spacebar to do that. There are some fun things, of course, the video game convention murder for one, and some twists along the line, but nothing that outweighs the boring parts with endless talking.
Sound: The music is standard ambiance-crap, you know, a little industrial mixed with hip-hop groove. Spare me. Please. The voice acting is terrible, especially considering the professional cast, hired to record for this game. The sample quality is also really poor. Which is a sin, in a game with so much endless talking.
Graphics: Nothing fancy. Not really truly ugly, but definitely not pretty. The character faces look wooden and not at all alive. The surroundings look like they were at the E3 in 2001. There are a couple of nice looking textures in there, but they are the exception, not the rule.
Last words: It's simple boys and girls, this game is a really average game. If I didn't know, better (wait? Do I know better? Hmmm... nope.) this is the most averagestgest game in the world. It's a little fun, a little boring. The graphics aren't great, but they don't totally suck either. The sound... well, see above. I have to admit, some of the things in the game intrigued me, like using all thos cool gadgets to find sperm on a sofa, or doing all that crime-solving stuff. But the fact that it doesn't feel like I'm really solving stuff, really stinks.
I'm really waiting for a big, sand-box detective game. Where you have more (or less) than three suspects at a time, where you can start another case, if the leads go cold, and where your colleagues don't comment everything you do. Here's to hoping!