A Death in the Red Light detected on Steam

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Investigative mystery in Amsterdam based on real-world escape room available now for Windows PC

Today Amsterdam may be best known for its scenic canals, museums and rich artistic heritage – along with its famous red light district, of course – but the Netherlands' capital wasn't always an attractive tourist destination. It's to the city's shadier past and seedy underbelly that players will visit to solve a murder in Mystery City Games' newly released noir whodunit, A Death in the Red Light.

The story takes place in 1988, a time when Amsterdam was still "awash in crime, drugs, and social unrest." The city at this time is inundated by the "downtrodden trying to survive, the predators of the mob preying on them, and the underfunded, besieged social workers and police officers trying to stop the powder keg from exploding." Against this backdrop, an apparent murder has taken place on Zeedijk, the notorious street known as "the Heroin Alley, a place where regular police don’t go without back-up." Players control a "hard-boiled detective ripped straight out of Dutch history," restored from suspension to solve a case that has completely confounded the police, an opportunity that represents your "last shot at redemption." To succeed you must thoroughly "explore and experience Europe's most famous city from a completely different perspective," scouring for clues, interrogating witnesses and potential suspects, decoding cryptic messages, and analyzing evidence using "a range of police and forensic techniques."

Presented in a standard first-person, point-and-click slideshow style, what makes A Death in the Red Light unique is that it's inspired by real-world events and based on an actual escape room designed by the same company. Rather than simply recreating the same experience virtually, however, the game has been "rebuilt from the ground up" with an expanded storyline and new puzzles to go with its stylish noir aesthetic. In both, however, the city itself is "the star of the game" and the goal is the same: to immerse players in a story-driven mystery that blends fact and fiction to provide an "authentic detective experience ... designed to replicate the feel of police work." Each step in the investigation, from "sifting through piles of items to find a critical piece of evidence based on a vague recollection, through ballistics and blood tests, to identifying suspects and prying out confessions," plays out like its own distinct puzzle but progress is nonlinear so that "every detective’s prowl through the streets of Amsterdam will be different."

If a trip to Amsterdam for the original escape room is out of the question, the much more accessible and budget-friendly game version of A Death in the Red Light is available now on Steam for Windows PC, allowing you to experience the mystery from the comfort of your home.