Dial Vegas for Murder

Of all the random posts I've made on my blog over the years, one that continues to cause people to find my site during a Google search is my analysis of the annual Las Vegas murder victim count in real life, compared to what is portrayed on the TV show CSI. I remarked at the time that despite the fact that the show portrays Vegas as being much more gruesome overall than the actual city is, the TV show is unlikely to hurt tourism.

In fact, Las Vegas has completely embraced this show that portrays them as a mecca of violence. For years now, you see CSI merchandise in nearly every souvenir show there -- either real or knock-off. I had not been aware, however, of the creation of an actual tourist attraction based around the show until this recent trip.

In the mall at MGM Grand, you'll find "CSI: The Experience." Built a few years ago (before the departure of several cast members from the series), its billed as a chance for you to go in and solve your own murder case. I'm not sure what I was expecting... maybe a sort of "How to Host a Murder" type of puzzle, CSI-style. In any case, enough of my friends were interested in checking it out that we decided to give it a whirl.

Well, it wasn't bad, but I have to say it was a bit of a disappointment. And I honestly should have known my expectations were too high. Obviously, it being a tourist attraction in Vegas, it has to be geared toward the intellectual capacity of a drunkard that thinks 98% payout on slots is an amazing proposition.

You get three different potential "cases" to work through before entering the Experience, and worksheets for each one that start off with an area for you to sketch the crime scene. Capture every detail, a video recording of Gil Grisson warns you!

So in we five go, the most anal group I imagine has ever entered this thing. We spent at least 10 minutes going over every nook and cranny of our little maybe four-foot-by-nine-foot crime scene, sketching everything. Trash that was probably thrown in the exhibit by past patrons. Every-frakkin'-thing.

From there, you round a corner in find yourself in what is essentially a small Children's Museum with a forensics bias. You can bounce from exhibit to exhibit, looking at stuff about fingerprint identification, toxicology, autopsy, and so forth. Depending on which of the three cases you're "working," you might have little work stations in each area asking you to do a short little activity to gather information.

Here's the part where the whole Experience let me down. Was I actually expecting to dust for fingerprints and run them through a computer scanner myself? I don't know... maybe, for the price they charged. ($30.) But I was expecting more that a little sliding panel with five possible fingerprint samples (enlarged to preposterous size) and a "sample" on top I had to match to one of the five by sliding it into the right place and writing down the name it gave me.

Needless to say, it took about 45 seconds and stopping in maybe two of the dozen-or-so stations to have the identity of the murderer thrown obviously in your face.

Now, aspects of the displays were kind of interesting. I mean, even a Children's Museum can be fun for adults if they've done it right. But as far as what I felt I'd been sold, a chance to "solve a crime," I found it completely lacking.

The group consensus seemed to be that since they had three cases set up anyway, they should have orchestrated them by difficulty. Have the "Level 1" case be aimed at the typical Vegas vacationer, and make a "Level 3" case for nuts like us that really wanted to work for it. As it was, it didn't even require the brain power of page 1 of the average beginner's logic puzzles book.

If you're a big CSI fan, you might want to catch this thing anyway if you ever find yourself in Vegas. But lower your expectations. It's not a bad way to spend an hour or so, but not a major thrill either.