A Video Game Murder Mystery

Best-selling author and master storyteller James Patterson extends his reach with a casual game that will please both puzzle fans and CSI freaks

by Chris Buffa

Best-selling author James Patterson is something of a phenomenon. He writes 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, Patterson 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 and based on the popular TV show, Woman's Murder Club.

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.

Seeing as how the game isn't designed for people who stay up all night playing Grand Theft Auto IV or searching for every star in Super Mario Galaxy, I-play made the gameplay palatable to all audiences, especially those who cannot divest multiple hours to examining dead bodies. To that end, the developers tossed a Solve button into the mix that lets players fast forward through puzzles en route to the narrative. Even better (or worse), there's no limit to the number of times you can hit the button. Pressing it is the cheap way out, but if all you care about is the story, it's the best way to move past the formalities.

With that being said, puzzle fanatics should enjoy the game's brainteasers. They're not nearly as strenuous as in Nintendo's Professor Layton and the Curious Village, but they may give your brain a workout, as you analyze compounds and select bottles of fluid.

I-play plans to release Death in Scarlet online in May for $19.99, with a retail release ($29.99) that includes a bonus novella this August. Furthermore, thanks to a partnership with THQ, odds are good that you'll see Women's Murder Club on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, perhaps as downloadable software. Bottom line, James Patterson wants to invade your PC and eventually your Mac and consoles. Considering his enormous following and his knack for telling great stories, this should be a good thing.

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