By Brad Cook
Another sunny day in beautiful Miami, another crime for the CSI team to investigate. This time, a young woman is found dead at South Beach. A .32 caliber bullet is lodged in her left shoulder, but the autopsy confirms that she drowned. Water found in her lungs, however, tests positive for chlorine, not salt, and her leg contains fragments of tempered safety glass. She likely died at another location, but where?
Armed with those initial facts, help Lt. Horatio Caine and his colleagues wend their way through a case full of twists and surprises. Use your tools — including luminol spray, tweezers, swabs, and more — to collect evidence at several Miami locations. Then question suspects through a variety of techniques and analyze clues with various mini-games. After you play a mini-game once, you can revisit it any time from the main menu. CSI: Miami also features three levels of difficulty that keep you on your toes when you replay the case.
The World Looks Just the Same
As you explore houses, cars, apartments, and other locations, keep an eye out for anything that sparkles: that’s your tip to give something a closer look. Select the proper tool to collect evidence — UV lamps and luminol spray reveal traces of blood and other substances invisible to the naked eye, for example — and then analyze everything at the lab when you’re done.
Unlockable mini-games cover evidence collection and analysis:
- Safe Cracker: Spin the wheels so that the large cogs all point up. You have a time limit, however, and some of the wheels are connected to each other.
- Lock-Picking: Spin your finger on the click wheel to make each lock tumbler jump higher. After you get one tumbler in the right spot, quickly place the others or it will fall back down.
DNA Extraction: As the chains of DNA twist across the screen, fire balls that create matches of two or more like colors; matched balls disappear and potentially create new matches that also vanish. Make enough matches before the sample becomes too unstable to extract usable DNA.
To compare extracted DNA with a known sample, use the comparison microscope and decide whether you have a match before time runs out. The comparison microscope is also used to compare fibers, broken glass, water, and other materials you’ve collected from various locations. For example, if the water retrieved from the victim’s lungs matches water found elsewhere, you may have found her scene of death.
- Horatio’s Code: Try to figure out the right combination of four to six symbols, depending on the difficulty level, in as few guesses as possible. After each guess, the game tells you which symbols are correct guesses in the wrong spot, which ones are correct guesses in the right spot, and which ones are incorrect on both counts.
- Photo Puzzle: Rearrange the pieces of a torn photograph to reveal a key piece of evidence.
You’ll also come across two mini-games found only in story mode: Pencil Scratching, in which you rub pencil lead across a piece of paper to reveal the indentations of what was written on the now-missing page above it; and Fingerprint Collection, in which you wipe the collector brush across something to reveal a fingerprint.
Shotgun Sings the Song
At key intervals during the story’s four chapters, you bring in suspects and witnesses for a little chat. Choose a technique, such as accusingly or sympathetically, and ask them questions. Depending on their responses, you might want to change your technique, or perhaps present them with evidence that will force them to tell you the truth. At the conclusion of each chapter, you earn points for your field knowledge, technical skills, and questioning skills, with a final total awarded at the end of the game.
As Lt. Caine likes to say: “Bag it, tag it, and see if there’s more.” So get to work.
Meet the New Boss
”CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” proved to be such a hit when it debuted in 2000 that it quickly led to a pair of spin-offs: “CSI: Miami,” which launched in 2002, and “CSI: NY,” which premiered in 2004. “Won’t Get Fooled Again” plays at the beginning of “CSI: Miami,” continuing the “CSI” tradition of using a theme song by The Who. (See how many references to the song you can uncover in this article.) While not all of the “CSI: Miami” characters appear in this game, you’ll interact with the primary ones:
- Lieutenant Horatio Caine: David Caruso’s iconic character hails from the NYPD’s homicide department. Nicknamed “H” by his colleagues, Lt. Caine runs the Miami-Dade Police Department’s crime lab. He tends to be blunt in his manner, and when he removes his trademark sunglasses, you know he means business.
- Detective Calleigh Duquesne: She supervises the CSI and is an expert in ballistics. However, you can count on her to perform analytical gymnastics with other pieces of evidence too, drawing key conclusions that propel your investigation in new directions.
- Detective Eric “Delko” Delektorsky: Delko accompanies Lt. Caine during his investigations of the important places in the game. He often helps his boss establish connections between the evidence and determine what they should do next.
- Doctor Alexx Woods: A Miami-Dade medical examiner, Dr. Woods always shows complete respect and compassion for the dead bodies that come into her morgue. She’ll help you determine key facts about how both victims died. (Yes, you’ll soon find yourself trying to unravel two murders.)
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System Requirements
- Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or Windows 2000
- iPod nano (3rd and 4th generation only), iPod classic, or iPod (5th generation only). Not playable on your computer, other iPod models, iPod touch or iPhone. Please check which iPod model you have.
- iTunes 7.5 or higher required to download (games cannot be played in iTunes)