Product Description

CSI: The Board Game is a fun, interactive, intriguing game that emulates the popular show on television and allows players to experience the excitement of solving a crime. The object of the game is to be the first player to enter Grissom's Office with a correct Arrest Warrant proving means, motive and opportunity. With the help of the show's main characters, players assume the role of Crime Scene Investigators in a race to collect three levels of evidence from all seven Crime Lab Divisions: Interrogation, Autopsy, Identification, Trace, Ballistics, Forensics and DNA. Disclosure Cards and Grissom Cards come into play and add to the interaction and excitement of the game. Test yourself, friends and family while learning about cutting-edge scientific methods and old-fashioned investigative police work as you try to build a case against one of three suspects.

Game includes: CSI Game Board, eight Crime Stories, 24 Suspects and Evidence Cards per story, two Grissom Cards per story, 25 Disclosure Cards, The CSI Handbook that includes: crime scene descriptions, crime scene photos, crime solutions, rules and glossaries, four arrest warrant/checklist folders and pad, four playing pieces with eight CSI character choices and one die.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23983 in Toys & Games
• Brand: Specialty Board Games
• Model: 3743
• Released on: 2006-09-08
• Dimensions: 10.56" h x 10.56" w x 3.00" l, 2.70 pounds

Features

• Includes rules. crime scene photos, descriptions, solutions, character profiles, and glossaries.
• Game includes: CSI Game Board, eight Crime Stories,
• 24 Suspects and Evidence Cards per story
• Two Grissom Cards per story, 25 Disclosure Cards

From the Manufacturer
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation The Board Game is a fun, interactive, intriguing game that emulates the most popular show on television and allows players to experience the excitement of solving a crime. Designed for players ages 13 and up, the object of the game is to be the first player to enter Grissom?s Office with a correct Arrest Warrant proving means, motive and opportunity. With the help of the show?s main characters, players assume the role of Crime Scene Investigators in a race to collect three levels of evidence from all seven Crime Lab Divisions: Interrogation, Autopsy, Identification, Trace, Ballistics, Forensics, and DNA. Disclosure Cards and Grissom Cards come into play and add to the interaction and excitement of the game. Test yourself, friends and family while learning about cutting-edge scientific methods and old-fashioned investigative police work as you try to build a case against one of the three suspects.

Customer Reviews

A bit daunting for experienced gamers. Fun?
My wife is a big fan of CSI, and I looking for something we could do together for entertainment had purchased this game for us.

The board it self is pretty nice...thick cardboard stock with very nice pictures and color scheme that mirrors that of CSI.

You choose to play as one of 8 central characters (it doesn't matter who you play..there are no advantages to any character), and move around the board in a random manner hopefully landing on certain key areas to pick up additional clues.

The game ships with 8 different 'cases', and each time you play, the players try to solve the same case. There are three levels of clues. You must pick up all the clues in level 1 before you can proceed to level 2. Repeat again from level 2 to level 3. Once you have the clues for level 3, you can put together your case and hopefully choose the correct suspect. The 1st player to not only correctly identify the suspect AND the motive and means wins. This may sound fun and exciting, but my wife and I had a different take:

While stories (i.e. 'cases') are intriguing and set the tone and mood for the game, we found the game moves pretty slow. Most of the time, you are hoping to roll the correct number on the dice to land on a space to get a clue, and you can't move on to the next level until you complete the level you are currently on: much time is spent on rolling and moving and getting nothing done.

Second, the clues can be a bit vague or ambiguous. Many of the times we looked at a clue and wondered if it helped at all? Maybe the clues are more refined as we complete levels?

Once you finally get all the clues, and review your notes you have written on your provided 'case file notepad', you can select a suspect, and also select his/his motive, means, and a few other categories. This is where I found the game very unforgiving. You have to select the correct answer in like 5 categories based on the clues. Since the clues are pretty vague to begin with, and everyone's interpretation slightly different, it's like picking winning lottery numbers to get everything correct. Though I chose the correct suspect, and got 3 out of the 5 categories correct, I still lost because of the other 2.

The game is pretty educational however, because many of the clues go into great detail on forensics and tests administered. There was a lot of explanation of the science behind the crimes and cool factoids.

I find that younger children or even teens may get very frustrated with the length of this game and very unforgiving 'winning' practices.

Finally the game only ships with 8 cases. After you played all 8, there may not be any replay value. However the company suggests that they will have expansion packs in the future with new cases.

I'm in no hurry.

Didn't Live Up To My Expectations
First off, I'm a huge CSI fan...I have all of the available seasons, I own and have read of the novels by Max Allen Collins on CSI, and I also have the first PC game that was put out. These earlier purchases kept me wanting more, so when I saw this game at a good price, I couldn't resist!

Unfortunately, I may have to start resisting CSI products if they are similar to this game. I was visiting home when I picked it up, so my parents wanted to give it a try. First, I went over the instructions, or at least tried to, and then read the game description and case description aloud. Everything seemed much too confusing unless you are a die hard CSI fan, and in fact, I even had trouble understanding the game.

I was looking for an enjoyable, carefree game like Monopoly or Scrabble, and found something much too involved and complicated. Unless you know of several other people who are die hard CSI fans and have the patience to use a checklist for a very lengthy game, I do not recommend this game.

I do enjoy the first CSI computer game, however, because you do not need to rely on other people to enjoy it, and you can do as much investigative work as you like.

Disappointing
I am a science teacher at a Job Corps and am always trying to find games that teach science skills. Since my students and I love crime solving and love the show CSI I thought the game would be great for our Fun Fridays. I was wrong. All of the teachers tried the game out on Christmas break and we hated it. It was slow and confusing. Don't waste your money or your time. I'm hoping I can think of a way to salvage the components of the game and turn them into a learning experience.