[kbruner]

Kevin here from Telltale...

I'd be interested in knowing what's the 1 or 2 top things that would make our CSI games more appealing to you guys. Realize that the CSI games are more of a casual adventure game vs. a hard core game. With that in mind, what could we do to make a new CSI game show up on the "hype-o-meter"?

I'm already hearing better stories, but what kind of stories do you guys consider better?

Thanks,
Kevin

[Lucien21]

Well for me it would be:

1. Characters: The TV show is built on the work and personal interaction between the characters. (as well as the fancy forensics). You get very little of this in the games. You don't even play as one of the characters instead you are an anonymous rookie.

The characters from the TV series are totally underused (possibly due to the cost of voicing) and are more or less just window dressing and wooden window dressing at that. Grissom does nothing but sit behind his desk, the various other stars stand there at a crime scene doing nought unless you ask a question.

In the TV show you always see 2 or 3 of them at the crime scenes interacting with each other etc.

I want to be one of the characters in the TV show, I want to be able to interact more with the other characters and various suspects etc.

2. Far too Easy: Possible due to the game being made more for the TV audience than the Adventuring market.

However I would like to see a harder challenge.

The games tend to follow a fairly standard pattern. Pixel search the scene, interview the 3 suspects (isn't there always 3 of them) back and forward, run the evidence through the machines that more or less do all the work. Why can't there be more puzzles in the evidence lab instead of just scan fingerprint and visually match against 4 other samples etc.

There doesn't seem to be much chance to cock up the investigation. Miss clues, use the wrong tools and corrupt the evidence, forget to get a warrent before searching a location.


Story doesn't seem to be the problem imo. The stories in the last one were fine, but it still fit into the 5 cases/3 suspects paint by numbers game development that is probably demanded by Ubisoft.

[Figment]

Mind, I have never played either a CSI or L&O game -- the only "commercial adventure" that I've played is a Nancy Drew game that a friend gave me -- but the main thing that stops me from it is the seeming unimportance of the characters. Plot, characters, and graphical prettiness are the main three things I personally enjoy most about adventure games. Whether I find plot or characters more important changes depending on my mood, but in the case of these commercial adventures the lack of interesting characters seems most glaring. Like that Nancy Drew game I played -- she was flat as a pancake, completely nonexistent, and totally uninteresting! Unless it's a game like Myst, where the player is the main character, I like to get the feeling that the characters are real people.

This is a problem that might relate directly to the TV show that inspires the games. Most people who play CSI probably have a preexisting interest in the show, which means a familiarity with the characters, something that automatically seems to require that less time is spent developing them. After all, we all theoretically know who they are. But the in-show characters are boring to begin with, and don't translate over to gaming well. I have never found any of the CSI characters even remotely interesting, and feel the same about almost every single one of the other detective shows. I couldn't even tell you their names, and I watch these shows all the time with my mother! The show of this sort that I like best is Law and Order: Special Victims Unit -- and all because of the main detectives.

If there were one distinctive main character who really appealed to me, I would buy every single one of these CSI games.

[sirilluminator]

I just got back from Telltale. While I was there for 3 or so hours, I played the first case from the new game. I didn't play any of the other CSI games but I certainly enjoyed Hard Evidence. I think it's definitely worth taking a look at. I don't know how much I'm allowed to say so I'll stop there

[Gknight]

The games stay more or less to the same formula the television show does. That is collect the evidence, process the evidence, question the suspects and then issue an arrest warrant to the guilty party. I happen to like the CSI games.

[Melanie68]

Originally Posted by Lucien

There doesn't seem to be much chance to cock up the investigation. Miss clues, use the wrong tools and corrupt the evidence, forget to get a warrent before searching a location.

Just for clarification, can you do these things to mess up already or is that something you'd like to see?

[fov]

I want to be one of the characters in the TV show

Interesting point. I think this is what Legacy tried to do with Law & Order: Criminal Intent, by making the player character someone from the show rather than an anonymous rookie. (I don't know how successful it was because video card problems prevented me from playing the game.)