CSI: Miami

The CSI series may have legions of fans around the world, but the fact that there are actually three different programmes in the franchise has brought about a slightly strange situation. It's fairly rare for fans to like Miami, New York and Las Vegas equally. If anything, they tend to have a real love for just one of the CSI offshoots, neglecting or even pouring scorn on the rest.

This game is based on the middle sibling from the series, the David Caruso vehicle, CSI: Miami. Some may not appreciate the sauntering monotone of Caruso's acting, but this mobile outing certainly makes the most of its licence. The likeness of leading man Horatio Caine (Caruso) is dead-on, assuring you this isn't some sort of half-hearted cash-in on the TV brand; this really is CSI the mobile game in suitably big, bold, trademark-using fashion.

The first scene opens on a beach where the body of a young woman has been found. She was drowned, but the water in her lungs is chlorinated, not salty. It's up to you, Horatio, to solve this mystery and find her killer. You know the drill: talk to witnesses and suspects; gather information from the scene of the crime; analyse it at your CSI lab; and look for forensic matches to pin the crime on the unsuspecting perp.

Being a pure adventure game, anyone looking for high-speed chases or shoot-outs should investigate other titles. For those that stay, CSI: Miami sees you freely making you way between various locations using the map screen. Each location consists of a static screen you can scroll around using your cursor. When you come across something that needs to be examined more closely – a body, for instance – the view zooms in, and again the cursor is used to sift out evidence.

This may sound like the very definition of pixel hunting, but these scouring sessions are short and balanced enough to avoid becoming a chore.

Oddly enough, although nothing you'll actually do in button-pressing terms is all that thrilling in CSI: Miami, the plot is so well integrated into the game that play is never anything short of compelling. The story is split into chapters that feel a lot like ad breaks in a TV show, and there are enough twists to keep a forensic sceptic hooked.

Visuals help on this front, too. The well-drawn headshots work superbly alongside the detailed environments to deliver that marginally surreal glistening sense of being in Miami, giving the story an immersion boost.

There are a few criticisms to be made, however. The first is that the game does tend to lead you by the hand through things. Since you'll probably be more concerned with the plot that a character's unsubtle nudge towards where you need to go next, it isn't a major criticism, but is a little too transparent at times.

Second, and this is a stumbling point of most games in this genre, you're unlikely to be revisiting after your first playthrough. It's the nature of the beast in a story-driven game, of course, and the developer does try to spur you on into returning by adding difficulty levels where you're aided a little less in selecting forensic tools, but unfortunately replay value remains low.

However, while you're still working your way through the mystery, CSI: Miami is an interesting, very well made adventure that will thrill any fan of the TV series and just as easily captivate those unfamiliar with it. Even Gil Grissom and Mac Taylor aficionados, who'd much rather have seen a game based on the other CSI offspring, should relish this.