继发布PoxNora, The Agency: Covert Ops和Wildlife Refuge等Facebook游戏后，索尼在线娱乐公司昨晚最新发布了社交游戏Catch a Killer。该款游戏以詹姆斯·帕特森（James Patterson）悬疑谋杀小说为蓝本，游戏中包含了多人虚拟世界和隐藏物品游戏等元素。

catch a killer

在Catch a Killer中，玩家扮演侦探角色，通过各种迷你游戏破解案件。在到达犯罪现场时，玩家可以随意点击屏幕中的各种物品以发现证物。之后，玩家通过简单的迷你游戏，获得法医鉴别解锁案件的后继发展。另外，玩家可以运用虚拟世界的各种道具装扮自己的虚拟人物形象来到城区的多玩家领域，与其他侦探进行交流。同时，玩家也可以装扮自己的家园，邀请其他玩家到家中一聚。这种额外的聊天功能令Catch a Killer从其他Facebook游戏中脱颖而出。此外，Catch a Killer中还采用了能量机制以实现游戏货币化和控制游戏进展。

James patterson game

目前，Catch a killer游戏虽然已经在Facebook正式发布，但这款游戏感觉更类似于电脑下载类游戏或MiniClip或Kongregate网站的休闲类游戏。当然，这并不是坏事。据游戏邦了解，现在许多社交游戏开发商认为未来的Facebook游戏将变得更加复杂化。在我们体验该游戏的30分钟内，并没有弹出任何窗口要求玩家与朋友进行分享。幸运的是，索尼在线公司有能力对该游戏进行了大量的营销投入，因为目前除了赠送礼物外，我们并不知道如何通过其他渠道通知朋友们体验该游戏。

catch a killer2

但无论如何，Catch a Killer迎合了詹姆斯·帕特森的小说读者，这可能是相当庞大的用户基础。喜欢迷你游戏和离奇谋杀案的玩家不妨一试！（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Sony Online Entertainment (SOE)has been growing a much bigger presence on Facebook with the release of PoxNora, The Agency: Covert Ops, Wildlife Refuge, and now Catch a Killer. This brand new game has just released tonight, and is a murder mystery game inspired (and branded with) the popular James Patterson fiction novels. This new game is part multiplayer virtual world and part hidden object game, and has that familiar SOE polish that their other games have been boasting.

In Catch a Killer, you act the part of a detective and play minigames in order to solve crimes. After arriving at crime scenes, it’s up to you to click on various objects within the scene in order to find evidence. After you find this evidence, you play simple minigames to forensically evaluate it and to unlock the next part of the crime. The virtual world elements come in when you customize your avatar, and then walk into the City and chat in a multiplayer space with other detectives. You also have your own home to decorate any way you wish, and you can bring other players in to chat with them. The addition of live chat sets Catch a Killer apart from many other games on Facebook. Catch a Killer also uses a familiar energy mechanic to monetize the game and control session length.

The game literally just launched, so we haven’t been able to give it a full review just yet. However, we can tell you that it plays a lot more like a downloadable PC game or a casual game you might see on a hub like Miniclip or Kongregate than a Facebook game. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as many social game developers have been foreseeing that games on Facebook will begin to be more sophisticated and depart from the tried and true. We played for a good 30 minutes and never saw any prompt to share with our friends. Luckily, SOE most likely have a large marketing budget for the game because at the moment we’re not sure how to tell our friends to play other than sending them some gifts.

Catch a Killer is sure to appeal to those who read the James Patterson books, which is a very big audience. Everyone loves a good minigame and murder mystery! Could this be SOE’s first Facebook game hit? Time will tell, but this game has as good a chance as any. （Source：Games.com）