CSI: Miami boardgame product reviews

I did enjoy playing this game, and enjoyed it more than the previous edition I felt it was more similar to the actual program. It's also similar to Cluedo.
For 49.99 it is fairly priced, usually would expect to pay much more for a game this size.

After playing CSI: Senses this game was a radical change in approach. It was a lot simpler, which made it easier and faster to get stuck into, and yet it didn't lose anything by that. if anything, I think this made it MORE playable. It took only a quick run through the rules before we were all digging in and rolling the funky die, seeking clues and evidence, before having a stab at solving the crime.

Some of the evidence was ambiguous at best, totally worthless at worst, but this sometimes changed after further evidence was 'gathered', sometimes sending the player back to re-examine previous clues in a new light. This was much closer to the TV show's layout, which I found quite appealing. However, this made the game less interactive between players, and more of a race to the finish, like Cluedo or Trivial Pursuit. Very "who's the better investigator" rather than "a team effort" which was, I thought, a little disrespectful, but didn't really detract from the gameplay.

Overall, this is quite a fun game for those who a devotees of the CSI franchise, in any of it's three flavours, but definitely would be a bigger hit with fans of the 'Miami' one, especially as many of the trivia questions refer to details specific to the show, it's plots and characters. Science geeks will enjoy the technical questions, fans will enjoy the show questions, and total nuts will enjoy them both... like I did. One amusing glitch... while playing this we found an MISPRINT! The question related to the meaning of 'lividity'... the correct answer being option B, yet the card used the letter C, but with the text from answer B... careful if you hit that one.

I've played one other version of this game and had a little more time with that than this version. After the initial setup and reading through the case we had chosen, I found the gameplay similar to the original version.

Moving my playing piece round the board meant rolling a die with pictures representing the different sections. This was kinda cool, but got tedious quickly when you roll the same section again and again... There is only so many times you can read the same info. The evidence was presented well on the case cards, but did tend toward the sparse side, given the limits of the card size. The challenge cards had good questions on them, not so hard as to be a turn off, but not so hard you have a brain implosion trying to figure them out.

I found the leap frog style of play distracting and it didn't flow very smoothly. With the price tag being pretty standard for a game of this size and type, it would be a good pressie for those who like deep thinking games.