Gamedaily writes: "Best-selling author James Patterson is something of a phenomenon. He writers romance novels, he writes mysteries, he gets those novels made into movies (Kiss the Girls) and he sells tens of millions of books a year in an age when almost everyone jumps on the Internet to get their read on. If anything, he's proven to be an unstoppable force in books, movies and TV, and he's not done, because this May, Paterson expands his reach into the video game arena with Women's Murder Club: Death in Scarlet, a "casual" game developed and published by I-play.
Based on the hit TV series, Women's Murder Club: Death in Scarlet is similar to all those CSI games in the sense that it is a point and click adventure that lets you solve murder mysteries. Set in San Francisco, the game features nine investigations that take place across 18 varied locations, such as the Police Headquarters, Forensics Lab and Deadlines Coffee Shop. You play as three of the four members of the club: Lindsay, Claire and Cindy, with each character having an ability that helps solve the case. Cindy, the journalist, reports on the findings, while Lindsay, the forensic scientist, can analyze data in the lab. Meanwhile, Claire (the medical examiner) can take fingerprints and what not. This makes exploring a crime scene as each of the women tantamount to solving the mystery."
This week’s ‘Deal of the Week’ promotion on Windows Phone 7 sees the surprisingly under-populated Hidden Object genre receive some of the attention. James Patterson Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet, a spine-tingling murder mystery, is available at a reduced price now, and for one week only.
Games based upon the novels of James Patterson have become remarkably popular in recent years. With a number of releases across many formats – including PC and Nintendo DS – the series comes to Windows Phone 7, beginning back at the start with James Patterson Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet. While the story is the same as on other formats, the gameplay is an altogether different situation.
The main storyline is delivered through comic book styled panels with fantastic artwork, drawing parallels to some of the top tier hand-drawn works intended for an adult audience. However, the gloss doesn't last too long and minor plot developments are handled with almost characterless by comparison profiles. Playing as three female characters with their own professional interest in the unravelling murder mystery is a superficial adjustment and has little bearing on the gameplay, though does allow for areas to be utilised in multiple ways for varying objectives.
