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CSI Unsolved

SCORE: 71

One of the ways my father in-law and I have spent time is watching CSI. He falls asleep to the show quite often, but that is not an important facet of this review. Unless you are planning on falling asleep. If so, please do not hurt yourself and wind up as a case in CSI. Get the rest and then come back to the review. Ubisoft is allowing hand held gamers the ability to become their own CSI detective in CSI Unsolved for the Nintendo DS. And you get to team up with the Season Ten cast.

I should be very clear that CSI Unsolved is not for children. There are very adult concepts and themes in the television show, and in the video game. After all we are solving murders, and it is nice to allow children innocence for as long as possible. Family Friendly Gaming was provided a copy of the DS game for this review.

The characters look very realistic in CSI Unsolved for the DS. I was a little surprised at how well they look. There are images of dead bodies in various levels of decay, women not fully clothed, violent images, and blood. If you pass out easily then CSI Unsolved is not a game for you. Personally I took a clinical approach to the cases, and wanted to get to the source of the truth. The various mini games look decent in this DS game.

There are some language issues in CSI Unsolved for the Nintendo DS. Different characters have different attitudes, and opinions. They routinely share them with you just like on the television episode. They have been hardened by what they have seen, so do not expect many Mother Teresa moments while playing this game. On the plus side of the column there is a lot of wonderful music that fits the mood of CSI Unsolved.

Each case takes a healthy length of time to complete and there are enough cases in CSI Unsolved to keep most gamers busy for a few weeks. I believe CSI Unsolved is worth the money if you are looking for a solid murder mystery video game on the DS. Also if you are a fan of the television show. This has the same feel as the television show.

The fifteen mini games in CSI Unsolved are pretty easy to solve. In fact I found myself blitzing through them as quickly as possible to get to the interrogations. The interrogations is the best part of this DS game in my opinion. The suspects will lie about various things and it is up to the player to confront them with evidence that contradicts their statements. Where CSI Unsolved gets interesting is we do not always have evidence that contradicts their statements so we have to less some things pass. CSI Unsolved grades the player on how well they perform a case, which is pretty cool. The longer I played this game, the better I got.

CSI Unsolved is not safe for the entire family based on the subject matter. With that said there is a place for this kind of video game. There are real murders that happen in our world every single day. We need investigators trained in how to solve them. CSI Unsolved can assist with that training, and even start some teenagers on that path. I liked CSI Unsolved way more than I thought I would.
- Paul

Graphics: 63%
Sound: 70%
Replay/Extras: 75%
Gameplay: 79%
Family Friendly Factor: 67%
System: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Ubisoft
Rating: 'T' for Teen
{Drug Reference, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Sexual Themes, Violence}

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