That evidence is discovered through a hidden object system. You’re presented a view of the crime scene and told to select areas of interest with the stylus. Often the evidence is clearly visible, like a blood spatter or bullet hole but other times you’ll be forced to sweep the stylus around aimlessly until the cursor changes.

Once an area of interest has been located, the camera zooms in to allow the player to collect evidence. Between swabbing for fluids, lifting fingerprints, taking material samples and small objects, there’s a wide variety of evidence gathering and it all works well. Each type of evidence requires the player to perform a delicate manoeuvre with the stylus, for example being careful not to break their swab when taking a fluid sample.

After collecting the evidence, players can take it to the lab for closer examination. This part of the investigation involves minigames like comparing bullets, matching fingerprints and analysing blood samples. Most of these minigames work well but not all of them. Analyzing blood, for example, involves destroying all the unwanted blood cells with a laser. When you have several blood samples to analyze, it can get pretty tedious. This problem could have been fixed if there were just a few less blood cells to deal with.

 

 

Once you’ve interviewed witnesses and collected and analysed evidence, the next step is to put together an arrest file. You will be called into your superior’s office and she will ask you a series of questions to ensure you have a solid case. You’ll have to answer questions and submit your evidence in the correct order to complete the chapter.

At every stage in the investigation, your performance is monitored by a “credibility gauge”. Every time you make a mistake or ask for help, the gauge is drained a little. Your score at the end of a chapter is based on how much credibility you have left and whether or not you run out before the level ends.

 

With five cases to complete, each with several chapters and their own plot twists, there are many hours of investigating in Crime Scene. However, once you’ve made it through the last case, there’s not much reason to play it again. Much of the satisfaction in the game comes from problem solving and discovering the truth, which is only fun the first time.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Crime Scene are quite simplistic, but that doesn’t mean they look bad. As a crime scene investigator, you primarily deal with inanimate crime scenes or evidence, so the backgrounds and objects you’re dealing with are static images. The same style is used during dialogue sequences, however, with several static images for each character which allows them to change expressions. The only time anything really moves in the game is when you are using tools with your stylus, like a pair of tweezers to remove a bullet from a wall. Though simplistic, the artistic style is good looking, with well drawn crime scenes and characters. Some scenes are so well done it actually feel pretty creepy.

Sound effects are pretty stock and the music is a little boring, often just a simple beat to set the mood.