Crime Lab: Body of Evidence Review

Crime Lab: Body of Evidence is a murder mystery game that melds CSI-like plot with puzzle game mechanics. The franchise was previously known as Art of Murder and featured the same main character, Nicole Bonnet, an FBI agent. Can you find the serial killer before he strikes again – or will you just lose interest?

The game takes place using a basic touch-screen game design. You use the stylus to tap on items, solve puzzles and communicate with characters. You use none of the buttons on the Nintendo DS, just the touch-screen. Unlike other crime games I have played on the DS, Crime Lab: Body of Evidence tries to make the experience seamless and relatively straight-forward. You move from one objective to the next and spend little time guessing what to do.

The main focus of Crime Lab is finding items. Oddly enough the developers didn’t just choose to make you find evidence, but junk lying around your office as well. It has an “I Spy” feel to it that makes it somewhat childish and a few of the items are completely nonsensical, usually in places that you would never imagine. I guess that was part of the challenge, but it seems kind of stupid to me.

At any rate, the game does a good job of mixing up these evidence collection bits with the more interesting (and varied) puzzles. The game claims to have over 300 skill testing activities. Most of them even a novice gamer could solve, which is probably the point, since this is more geared towards a casual audience.

The Nintendo DS version of the franchise, which does not have a PC counterpart, is simply in 2D. You look at a simple, yet visually acceptable single-frame image of various locations: your office, crime scenes, the crime lab, etc. Imagine old PC point-and-click adventure games and you have the right idea.

I was expecting Crime Lab: Body of Evidence to be much worse than it actually is. In fact, it can be quite entertaining in small doses. The puzzle solving comes in a wide, albeit relatively simple, spectrum. Collecting evidence is only fun if you are into the “I Spy” books and does not lend itself well towards a real crime scene investigation. The story, however, is mildly amusing and will keep you playing to the end.