CSI Crime Scene Investigation: Deadly Intent is a knock-down, dead ringer for the television show, at least in its overall presentation. The graphics in the game are lodged solidly in what the PC world has considered "realistic" for about the past ten years now, but at least you can recognize all the characters from the show. We're talking set pieces here, people, so you don't need incredible realism to make the darn thing work. We do think fondly of the more lavish graphics from point-and-click games like the Myst series, and wish that the creators of CSI Deadly Intent put in a few more hours on visual polish. The elements included here that stand out are the video interspersed very tastefully in the space between certain locations, or at specific points in the virtual story. These, along with some reenactments, give you a definite feeling of being in the show. The music is very nice, adding atmosphere in all the right places.

Show stealers are the tools and gadgets of the show that are suddenly within your grasp. We wished there were more opportunities to use the gadgets in some form of mini-game, but there are several good examples of this once you get some evidence into the lab. The collection tools are really just expansions of the point-and-click mechanism that defines this and every other adventure game. CSI Deadly Intent makes for a realistic enough experience that you'll catch yourself in the real world after a long night's play session, wondering if you could lift a print off that doorknob in your office building... Each of the chapters you play through has a different feature character from the show, making it a treat for fans of the show that want to get more involved. The developers may have left some rough edges on the graphics, but they put their backs into creating an authentic and engaging experience for the players.

Imagine a DVD full of CSI episodes, and now imagine that instead of just watching them front-to-back, you can actually play a role in the investigations and in solving the crimes. This is exactly the premise of CSI Crime Scene Investigation: Deadly Intent, and the game does a damn good job of translating into videogame form what makes the show so much fun. You'll work through five cases before the game is through, each led by a different member of the show's cast and each completely unique. The show's formula is tweaked a bit here, since you don't actually control the characters who are specialists in their individual areas. It's up to you to take a spin around all the lab equipment, search crime scenes, interrogate witnesses, and serve warrants in this game. At each stage, you'll have a partner helping you, but there's often too much of a sense of isolation as you play. The frenzied action of the show, even during the forensic investigative scenes, is the most difficult to recreate here. Static, point-and-click just doesn't crackle with energy in the same way the show does on television, but what gamers sacrifice in action they more than get back in depth.

Each time you watch a CSI show, regardless of the series, you'll usually get at least one good gadget or lab scene. Playing around with exotic equipment to resolve improbable crimes committed under bizarre circumstances is what these folks do best, after all. CSI Crime Scene Investigation: Deadly Intent doesn't disappoint in this regard. You'll have access to DNA scanners, fingerprint recognition software, microscopes, document cameras, audio analyzers, medical records' databases, and more. To pack this all into a game isn't impossible, but to make it more than just a mini-game collection is the real feat. CSI Deadly Intent goes a long way towards putting you into the shoes of a criminal investigator, and the lab work is almost as engaging as it appears on the show. Knowing when and how to use each machine isn't so much the point, but the right sequence prior to your interrogation of a witness can mean the difference between a top and bottom score. Many suspects are untouchable until you unearth and properly analyze or diagnose a critical piece of evidence. More to the point, Brass won't consider your warrant for arrest without solid grounds, so you'll need to have your thinking cap on at all times. It would have been easier to create five episodes by taking a "lather-rinse-repeat" approach, but CSI Deadly Intent manages to tell five unique stories, each one more convoluted than its predecessor.

One of our favorite things about watching CSI is the high frequency of leaps of deduction that make Sherlock Holmes look like Encyclopedia Brown. Like, who doesn't know that ground glass crystallizes in the shape of a horseshoe when soaked in Mountain Dew and passed over a supercooled magneto at 30,000 feet? The killer thought we wouldn't find out, but he obviously underestimated our skill... The game needs a stronger dose of reality, plus there aren't as many scenarios available when you have to stick to a stock supply of investigative equipment. The basics of deduction in the game follow the pattern of any good mystery plot; first, find all the evidence at the scene of the crime, and inspect it for fingerprints, DNA, or chemical signatures. Speak to all witnesses and/or suspects, and try to establish motive for your primary suspect. You crack the case either through a process of elimination, or by specifically proving that a fingerprint on the murder weapon (or similar "smoking gun" type of evidence) belongs to one of your suspects. The game does a great job of doling out evidence slowly, making you work for it through a combination of investigation, analysis, and interrogation. At some points, the difficulty ratchets up to the point that you're not quite sure what to do, and the "helper" system comes from either your partner on the case or an e-mail message in your case files. Points are ultimately awarded based on how smoothly you operate the devices, come to fruition with specific suspects, and uncover the clues in each case. While it's possible to play through as many times as you'd like to earn all the achievements, we can only imagine a true achievement hound would do such a thing. It's not just an interactive episode of the show; there's more challenge than that, but not enough to make this a game you'll keep on your shelf very long.

We found the control scheme relatively intuitive, but clunky. Tracking with the analog stick for certain tools is awkward, forcing you to make large adjustments when small ones are needed. Many tools feature a combination of sliding controls and buttons, for which the solution is to alternate analog control with the D-pad. It's not like there are that many tools in the game, but we still found ourselves hung up at times, while switching back and forth between these two schemes. Ultimately you can control everything with the analog stick, but it just takes too much time. Otherwise, the game keeps loading to a minimum, but installing to the hard drive makes a huge difference in speed! The worst feature, or non-feature, is the lack of controls for skipping in-game dialogue and cut scenes. If you do decide to play through a second time, you'll hate having to sit through these. We also found the options for navigating in areas to be sloppy, forcing you to visit and revisit some areas, while others stay hard-to-reach and obscure.

The bottom line on CSI Crime Scene Investigation: Deadly Intent is that we love the show too much to pass up a chance to get into the action. Recreating faithfully the start-to-finish atmosphere of an episode is what the developers were all about. There were no doubt options to make this more or less realistic, and probably some plans on the table to incorporate a little more action, but we generally like what they came up with for the final package. There are always times in games like this when you just feel like you're going through a more involved seek-and-find adventure, but the underlying plot and challenges seeded into CSI Crime Scene Investigation: Deadly Intent make it something you'll want to finish. At least for the chance to savor life as a CSI, Deadly Intent is well worth a rental. Considering this is coming out just a few weeks before Christmas, you might like to buy this and wrap it up for your favorite forensic expert to rock out on during the holiday break. Either way, there's some solid entertainment in this game that is all the better for how eagerly it tries to resemble its source material.