Women's Murder Club: Death in Scarlet

Grange Hill is nothing like real school, Spooks is apparently very little like working for MI5, and any episode of The Bill over the last 25-odd years has about as much of a connection to real police work as an outing with PC Plum in Balamory.

Television very rarely conveys aspects of real life well, with cases solved and relationships formed around the artificial landmarks of breaks and end credits.

It would appear that games don't do much of a better job. Women's Murder Club takes the idea of solving murder mysteries and scales it down to a series of 'spot the difference' mini-games and 'easter-egg hunts', yet again compacting a complex process into a little nugget of entertainment for our benefit.

TV goes OTT

Of course, Women's Murder Club doesn't exactly have the most realistic of source materials, based as it is on the James Patterson novels (which also enjoyed a brief television spin-off) concerning four sleuthing professional women.

In a similar fashion, the gameplay here is only very loosely related to the murders portrayed within, your actions essentially limited to a collection of search and find mini-games.

The games themselves revolve around scanning a pointer over a collection of static scenes taken from locations involved in the game's plot. You must search for and pick up items detailed on an ever changing list at the top of the screen, with a generous amount of time given to find each and every item.

Fail and the section has to be replayed, albeit with a switched list. Further games in the same locations also require you to make use of items in an inventory to take fingerprints and gather evidence. It's an especially rudimentary way of mixing up play, but one that doesn't really lend itself to building any sense of realism.

Murder misstep

Indeed, Women's Murder Club plays out much like a point and click adventure, but one that takes any movement or decision making out of your hands – both elements that are pretty much essential to making the decent point and click adventures out there any fun.

As it is, Women's Murder Club is an interesting enough sidetrack, but one that really only serves up half a game, giving little insight into the characters or the process of solving murder mysteries.

A half-baked ode to classic point and click titles, then, and one most will probably want to skip.

Women's Murder Club: Death in Scarlet

Like a collection of spot the difference pics from a comic strip, Women's Murder Club has a fairly limited appeal, its visual puzzles not really tying in with its attempt at a plotline
Score
Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.