Gameplay
CSI's gameplay follows the standard adventure/mystery format, with you being introduced to a crime, then searching for clues to find the culprit. When you start your detective work, you'll be given a quick briefing at the crime scene, and then partnered up with a CSI team member from the TV show. Each partner has the same personality he/she does on the show, so some characters are easier to work with than others, while some are more skilled in different areas.

Once you've finished the crime scene briefing, you set about investigating the scene, which consists of you stroking the cursor over the crime scene until the cursor changes color. When the cursor changes color, it means there's a clue or some sort of evidence in that location. Click again, and you zoom in on the clue. Once you've zoomed in, you can interact with the clue in a number of ways. Most of the time, you'll pull up your toolkit, put on your gloves, and simply pick up the item for later analysis. Other times, you'll need to pull the fingerprint duster, UV lamp, or other tools from your kit and run them over the evidence for an on-the-spot analysis. As you examine the evidence, you'll be given more clues to help you solve the mystery. At any time, you can pull up your case file and examine the clues and facts you already have.

The game interface for CSI is simple, yet effective. There's a toolbar at the bottom of the screen with icons for locations, tools, files and other items you might need. To move to a new location you just click on the icon for your destination and you're moved to it. Once inside the new locale, you navigate the scene by sliding the cursor in the direction you want to look. When you need to have the lab aide examine a piece of evidence, you simply drag it from the toolbar onto the on-screen representation of the aide. The drag and drop interface is also how you examine evidence with tools such as the microscope and the lab computer. Click on the tool in the lab, and then drag the evidence into the screen, and the game takes care of the rest, letting you know if there's any info to be gleaned from it.

Unfortunately, jumping between locations to gather one clue at a time may work fine for TV, but becomes increasingly annoying in a video game. One example is the interrogation of a suspect, which requires you first find enough evidence for a warrant, then you must go to a police detective (Captain Brass) and convince him to give you the warrant. Problem is, Brass never tells you what evidence you need to obtain the warrant, so you end up jumping between locations grabbing any evidence, examining it, and then running back to the Captain to see if he'll finally issue a warrant. But herein lies another problem; evidence doesn't always appear at once. Sometimes, you have to return to a crime scene two or more times to get a small bit of evidence to appear. The same problem rears its head during interrogations. When you interrogate a suspect, you can only ask three to four questions, and then the session is done. If you leave the interrogation and come back, however, you get another batch of questions you can ask. Speaking of communications, all interactive communication is done through a point and click menu system. When you need to ask a question, you click on the person you want to speak to, and you're presented with a pre-set list of questions you can ask. And it's pretty obvious you're going to ask them all, since if you don't, you'll miss valuable clues. While the point-and-click interface in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is easy to learn and very functional, it tends to make for a pretty dull game after a short time. The mysteries/crimes themselves don't help much, as they are short and easy to solve if you just click on everything in sight whenever you enter a new area.

Once you've solved the crime, as you invariably will, Grisom will sit you down and give you a performance review Your performance rating is based upon the number of clues you've found combined with the number of times you've had to ask Grisom or your current partner for hints. The "hint penalty" really isn't fair in my mind, because some of the scripts are poorly written to the point of forcing you to ask for hints. Once your performance review is complete, you will be given a few unlockable items to enjoy. Your review score determines the number of items made available to you, and most of the unlockables are just eye-candy, so you won't feel bad if you don't unlock many of them.

Graphics
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation sports some good graphics, but I wouldn't consider them eye-popping in the least. There are almost no textures and character features are flat and lacking detail. Grisom's hands, for example, are so smooth and undefined, they look more like catcher's mitts than actual hands.

Most locales, such as the lab, are modeled after their TV show counterparts, but are dark and visually unappealing. There's really not much to look at in any of these environments, and the darkness makes it difficult to spot clues. Due to the excessive darkness of the scenes, you'll find the only way to spot clues is to slowly run your cursor back and forth across every square inch of screen.

Sound
There's little by way of soundtrack in CSI, and likewise very few sounds worth noting. The real standout in the sound department is the voice acting. Ubi managed to get all the actual CSI TV series actors to lend their voices to the game, which is nice in one way, but it's not as good as it could be. The problem with the voice acting is the lack of any sense of emotion, especially for Grisom. While he's not the most emotional character on the series, he's completely deadpan in the game. Most of the time, you end up feeling that the actors just read the scripts, collected their checks and headed out the door to go film "real" episodes of the series.

Replayability
The real kicker with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation isn't the so-so gameplay or the average graphics; it's the fact that it's just too darned easy. I'd be surprised if it takes anyone more than five hours to finish the short roster of equally short investigations. There are no difficulty settings in the game, and it's just too linear to make it a challenge. Once you're done playing CSI, there's nothing about it that would compel you to play it again except maybe to try and unlock a few of the extras.

Overall
If you're a fan of the TV series, you'll probably enjoy playing CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, though you won't be too pleased by how short the game is. If you're not a fan of the series, then you should avoid this game as it is too easy and too simplistic to keep you interested for very long.