Why do they do it? Surely game designers would learn from the past that TV tie-in games don't work? [I can answer your question in with word: kerching! Ed.] ER,

Just like the previous games, you are a new CSI who has joined the familiar team led by Grissom and co. and you're tasked with solving five crimes. Now, the first positive is that these storylines are actually pretty well written and the box's boast of "written by writers from the show" actually proves to be a good thing, instead of making me pull a face and go, "Really? The Emmy-nominated writers of CSI wrote this?" My biggest issue with the past few games is that each case was self-contained, whereas it would have been better if they were linked in some way and maybe presented an overall storyline that you learn and progress, like each case getting you closer to your full membership in the CSI team, for example. Instead however you start a case, go through and solve it, then simply start the next. There are no real consequences to playing and though your progress is monitored and you do get an evaluation at the end, it doesn't actually mean anything. None of this has changed for Hard Evidence and the more I played, the more I began to realise just how little has actually changed.

Each case sees you investigating the crime scene and other relevant locations, looking for clues that may direct you to other places or people, interviewing witnesses, suspects and generally piecing the evidence together as you go. You have a wide range of skills that have been lifted from the TV show, including dusting for fingerprints, making casts of footprints and tyre marks, and at one thoroughly disgusting point you have to gain a semen sample from a condom left at the scene! This was a truly shocking moment and made me worry about what I would be uncovering next. However, the simplicity of the gameplay has not been resolved and as nothing new has really been added since the last instalment, this utterly cripples Hard Evidence's longevity, as there is little more than half a dozen hours of gameplay here in total. Any time you do get stuck it won't be for long, as the helpful (overly helpful) menu actually ticks off places and scenes as soon as you have all the clues that you need, so all that are un-ticked just need another going over. This almost makes the investigation of the scene redundant, as you start to just wave the cursor over every piece until it turns green and then click on it for the clue.

The five cases could be lifted from any CSI plot that has come before, such as a racist cab driver who has been burnt to death, or the death of a musician on one of those reality TV Shows. Though we could argue about the originality, they are at least interesting to fans of the show who may be suffering from withdrawal between seasons. However, one of the major flaws from this game is that not all of the cast have provided their own voice work (Marg Helgenberger and Jorja Fox are notable absentees, which is odd considering their participation with the previous games). Usually when this happens the developers seek out a great impressionist, but this didn't seem to be high on their 'to do' list. Instead, both actors sound horrible, as though just were the first two female Americans that the casting director picked up off the street. The rest of the cast are okay, although there is very little life in their acting, which is disappointing considering the quality of the material they have to work with.

If this wasn't bad enough, the actual look of the characters is terrible when you consider that there are only a handful of people that needed animating. This isn't a huge cast of a hundred people or the fifty or more beautifully recreated members of the WWE roster for SmackDown; it's a couple of dozen major characters. All I'm asking for from the Xbox 360, arguably the most powerful console on the planet, is to sync the dialogue to the characters' lips, but it seems that this wasn't possible. Words seem to bounce around the lips of the characters like a badly dubbed Oriental martial arts film. The look of these characters died as soon as I gazed into the eyes of Grissom, who seemed to be looking in two different directions at the same time; I thought this was a character trait that I'd missed, like Columbo, but no - all the other characters give the same vacant stare into the distance, as though they've been taking acting lessons from Joey Tribbiani. The scenes themselves are basic in their design, but because of the interactive nature of the scene it doesn't matter so much and serves its purpose well enough. There is a quaint charm to the fact that almost everything that the characters touch or use is branded - I'm not sure whether this was intentional or some form of product placement scheme that Ubisoft have in operation, but it was strange to see so many HP-HD screens in the lab and so many characters driving Chryslers.

The obvious comparisons are going to be drawn between this and the PC version, especially when it comes to the ease of play. As was the case with the console versions of Star Wars: Battlefront, the PC version benefits from using a mouse and keyboard, but the controller is more than adequate for navigating the menus and areas of each specific scene. Scrolling between different areas or different types of investigation techniques such as fingerprint analysis or tyre mark recognition could have been a complete mess, but thankfully it isn't - at least the designers have pulled this off so that it doesn't really affect the playing of the game as much as it could have done.

My biggest issue with this game is its lack of longevity. I expected by this time for Ubisoft to achieve one of two things - co-operative play or an online mode. Neither are present and both would boost the actual amount of time you spent in the game. I'm not the brainiest person in the world and sometimes I don't notice the most obvious clues, but even I completed this game in less than two days. Once completed you only have two options, you can either play the same case again to see if you can improve on your score or, er... actually that is your only option. When I discovered there were bonus items that could be viewed, I thought that maybe CBS and Ubisoft had gotten together and maybe one of these cases had been filmed especially for the game. It did peak my curiosity to play all the cases again to gain a 'Master' ranking, which again was so easy that it doesn't bear thinking about. The manual even boasted that "something special might happen". I love the use of the word 'might', which set me up for a fall. I expected nothing less than at least one full episode and a few behind the scenes interviews, but all I got were some blueprints, pictures and a few random clips and trailers. Maybe Ubisoft should have realised that the only people who will buy this game most likely already own every box set from all three CSI brands!

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Hard Evidence is a tricky beast to review. Because of my love of the show it fulfils most of what I expect or would want out of this type of game and it ticks enough boxes to satisfy me. However, for the casual gamer this is a mess with very few redeemable features beyond a few fantastic stories - throw in poor graphics, weak voice work and a longevity that will barely cover a weekend and you're left with a title that could have been so much better. Fans of the show may find a little enjoyment from Hard Evidence, but the rest of us would be wise to leave no more than a fingerprint on the box as we browse the shelves of our local store for our next purchase.

Reviewed by David Simpson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).