Unsolved Crimes Review

With the amount of CSI shows and clones on television, it’s a wonder that games focusing on crime scene investigation haven’t been flooding the marketplace. The Nintendo DS, with its touch screen, seems like the perfect platform to mimic the actions seen on TV, and Unsolved Crimes for the Nintendo DS is a step in the right direction. In Unsolved Crimes, you play the role of a rookie detective for the New York police department’s homicide division. You take on a series of cases with increasing complexity, until you become involved in the disappearance of a model who just happens to be your partner’s sister.

The gameplay in Unsolved Crimes consists of canvassing a 3D crime scene using the stylus. The crime scene can be one room or several rooms, and you navigate the area to find different pieces of evidence or observe different elements of the crime scene itself which can provide clues to what actually happened. You also access a menu that provides evidence that you collect as well as evidence that was previously collected. This evidence can include the murder weapon, scraps of paper, or even empty bullet shells. You can select pieces of evidence to take a closer look at them by rotating the objects around looking for additional clues. You also have access to a forensic analysis of the crime (such as bullet trajectory and the suspected weapon type). The menu screen also has witness and suspects’ testimony. Once in a while, the game will throw some short action scenes your way, which play out like mini-games.

The meat of the game involves soaking in all the forensic evidence, then visiting the crime scene to look for further clues. There is an area for notes but I found that pretty useless considering how small the area is and the fact that you cannot add additional pages of notes. While you are working your way through a case, you can pick up clues and you usually form a hunch about what really happened long before you’ve unraveled the case, though sometimes the game will throw in a surprise or two. As you’re working through the case, you have access to short quizzes that test how you are putting together the evidence. By answering these questions correctly, you solve the various cases. The game also keeps track of your attributes, based on how you approach each case. For example, depending on how you solve each case, you gain points in attributes including physical, intellectual, decisiveness, observation, and inspiration. Apparently, I’m decisive AND quite observant.

The graphics in Unsolved Crime are somewhat disappointing, and while most of it can be blamed on the 3D capabilities of the DS, some of it is definitely not related to that. The crime scenes themselves, though they’re just relatively small rooms, suffer from low quality textures and some poorly modeled 3D objects. The 3D evidence objects that you can zoom in on and rotate also look below par. Still, none of that distracts you from the tasks you have to perform or prevent you from properly analyzing the crime scene or the evidence. The game also has short cut-scenes that tell the story of the crime before you begin investigating. These scenes are pre-rendered and have a stylistic film grain-like layer applied. The sound in Unsolved Crimes is fairly muted. Most of the sound is in the form of environmental noises, with audio cues that pop up when you find something of interest. This is probably a good approach for this type of game, because you are enveloped in the crime scene. While working a case in the hospital, for example, you can hear voices off in the distance and the intercom. It’s really very effective.

Unsolved Crimes for the Nintendo DS obviously deals with some pretty mature subject matter. You are given details of homicides and possible suicides. You see and analyze blood splatter, entry/exit wounds, and hear testimony on things like domestic abuse, so I’m surprised it only got a Teen rating. That said, older gamers for the Nintendo DS who enjoy shows like CSI will find themselves engrossed by the meticulous search for answers. Once you have a correct hypothesis, you find yourself looking for specific clues that would prove that hypothesis, and more often than not, you find those items in Unsolved Crimes. The cases and evidence are well thought-out, and the ease with which you navigate through the environments and the evidence helps to engage the player. Unsolved Crimes is a solid entry into what will likely be a growing genre of CSI-like games.