subject: CSI: Deadly Intent -- The Hidden Cases DSi Game Review - Download CSI: Deadly Intent -- The Hidden Cases For Free! [print this page]
Even if you're not a fan yourself, you're certainly familiar with CSI. The hour-long crime drama has been a CBS fixture for nearly a decade now, enjoying huge audiences and incredible ratings success as it showcases a stylized vision of what happens behind the scenes with criminal investigators working in Sin City. Its massive appeal has inspired a couple of spin-offs over the years, and more than a couple video games.
Unfortunately, the show's success hasn't always made the transition to the games intact -- the one previous time CSI made the jump to Nintendo's DS was a disappointment. It was 2007's CSI: Dark Motives, and it was a pretty lazy port of an outdated PC game from years earlier -- starring the cast of characters from 2004 and feeling, as our own Jack DeVries put it, "like watching old reruns of the show on Spike." Ouch.
CSI: Deadly Intent -- The Hidden Cases, then, is the franchise's second shot on Nintendo's portable platform. And, luckily, this one's no rerun. This is an all-new, DS-exclusive design that stars the cast of characters currently in play on the show every Thursday night on CBS -- that includes Dr. Raymond Langston (played by Laurence Fishburne) who just joined the show as a regular cast member in Season 9.
After a disappointing first appearance on the DS a little over two years ago, CSI has returned to the handheld for an encore and gotten the formula right this time around. The up-to-date cast, new visual style and gameplay engine, and the set of cases written exclusively for this game make Deadly Intent -- The Hidden Cases a game that DS-owning fans of the show should definitely take note of.
The only trouble you're likely to run into is its linearity -- the fact that it can feel like you're just tapping along with an pre-determined plot progression instead of really interacting with the investigation. Those that have been purely passive participants in the program for nearly a decade, though (by just watching the show), probably won't mind that one bit.
CSI: Deadly Intent -- The Hidden Cases DSi Game Review - Download CSI: Deadly Intent -- The Hidden Cases For Free!
