I played this game on Xmas day with my 20 year old daughter whos game it was, shes an avid CSI fan and doing criminology in uni, and my youngest daughter aged 16 whos very astute when it comes to playing games.

The game came with 8 figurines of the main characers from the series which were easily distinguishable from each other, well made but nothing you would be in awe over. The board was of good quality and looked "busy" which gave a good feel to the look of the game. The cards were of good stock and easily readable even after a consumption of alcohol, some crime scene cards which would of been better pre sealed, solve envelopes, there were also some plastic creepy crawlies and a bag to put them in, a pad of paper and a pencil, an UV light with batteries included, Las Vegas style Die (there words not mine) and an egg timer completed the bits and pieces.

The rules were printed in large print on one sheet of size less than A4 but larger than A5 and were complete. you lay the cards in their respective places and even tho the rules suggested returning the cards to the bottom of the pack after use there was sufficient room by each of the 4 packs to have a discard pile and even with four players the cards were never anywhere near being used up. If you cant answer correctly after 3 turns you still get to move so i would say it was a very rare thing for the cards to be exhusted completely.

I chose Grissom so i read out the case file and studied the picture for 60 seconds using the timer and passed it onto the next player, this part of the game meant there was a bit of downtime for the other players, imagine playing with 8 players, this would mean 7 minutes downtime after which time you have to answer questions on what you have just seen, so I would suggest looking at the crime scene then answering your question straight away but still a lot of downtime if theres a few playing

You move along one of two tracks, one is longer than the other this depends on how well you answer the start question. You choose a card and read the multiple choice question on the left hand side the answer is read by use of the UV light, if you get the question correct you can then roll the die and move until you come to the next section, each section has a different type of challenge, all under pressure of the timer.

I shot off with a 6 after answering my question correctly and almost reached the next section, my CSI loving daughter had the advantage as the questions in this section related to the series, my 16 year old struggled a bit and the die rolls didnt do her any favours either.

The next stage had us trying to explain words but without using other words for example try explaining the word "Arson" without using pyromaniac, fire or burn, under pressure of the timer, I think a timer that ticked down may of put you more under pressure like the one in Scattergories, other sections had you acting out scenes which the other players had to guess like "finding a body" the final section contain puzzle and math type problems.

I lead most of the game but only thru high die rolls and most of the questions were common sense and most adults would have no problems with the majority of the questions, being a CSI fan would of helped in the first part of the game, but more all round skills would help, At each stage of the game you get to read out "Evidence cards" which help you to solve the case (supposedly). When you reach the final stage you get to read to yourself the the final bit of evidence which really solves the case for you, so no matter how poor you do in the rest of the game the first to Grissoms office will win the game.

I was lucky enough to get to Grissomms office first and so I read the obvious evidence and won the game. My CSI loving daughter was further on than my 16yo as she was occasionaly stumped when trying to make some of the noises required for the game. for example try making the sound of someone brushing their teeth without acting it out.

The game is an OK game for fans but it really boils down to a race to Grissoms office, after having a few drinks the "charade" style antics of the game were quite amusing but not long lasting, The major flaw of the game is the playability, there are 6 scenarios but after that you know who did what, maybe one could argue after a long break of 5 years or so you may forget who did it but then it dosent really matter who did it, it still boils down to a race for Grissoms office.

A game to play with the kids and granddad but im afraid thats about all it is good for, good production values and the collectable figures make it a CSI fans game but apart from that dont bother.