Truth Behind Mystery Shopping
If you have spent time researching home based business opportunities there is a good chance you have noticed ads referencing mystery shopping. It’s not a scam-these jobs truly allow a person to get paid to shop. While mystery shopping jobs may not be a way to fully support oneself, they can provide a venue to make a little extra spending money or earn free restaurant meals.
The idea behind mystery shopping is for a business to obtain honest feedback about how the store, restaurant or facility is running when the owner isn’t looking. In most cases, the business hires a research company, which then hires the contracted mystery shoppers to visit the business. The mystery shoppers are assigned specific times to visit the establishment and are armed with a questionnaire to help them know what aspects of the business they are rating.
Basically, mystery shopping boils down to being an observant customer, taking in the condition of the business and the quality of the services received. After the visit to the business, the mystery shopper will fill out the questionnaire and keep track of any expenses accrued during the shopping experience.
In return, the shopper receives a little payment or a free meal during the investigation. Some companies will reimburse travel expenses, but this is not true across the board, so it is best to thoroughly research the company and position before accepting jobs.
While there is no special training required to become a mystery shopper, it only helps to be good at observation, paying attention to details and enjoying a shopping or customer experience.
As with many home based business, there are people in the online world who are trying to capitalize on the mystery shopping industry and will charge a fee for people to make it onto their list of shoppers. It is best to avoid such companies and instead seek out the research companies who offer their information at no cost.
Average payment for mystery shopping jobs are $10 to $15 per business, so if you are hoping to make more money there are many other work from home jobs to consider. Just to name a few: freelance writing, affiliate marketing, and completing paid online surveys are all ways to bring in money without leaving the comfort of your home.
Many people have learned to love Mystery Shopping as a way to get paid to do something they enjoy. But if this type of work is not right for you, keep searching. Home based business opportunities are plentiful and can help you to meet your financial goals.
By: Matthew Bredel
Nutrition — Eliminate the Mystery
These days we are all health conscious. The newest craze is organic food but there are still all of the fad diets and crazy eating schedules such as fast a day, eat a day, fast a day and so on. There is one area however that has always been popular and has a great reason to be popular and that is nutritional supplements. The human body needs certain things to get through the day. Lots of people think that as long as they eat the right amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats that they are consuming just what they need with no other need for additional nutrients. This is very far from the truth as there are lots of minerals and vitamins that we rarely get from the foods that we eat. Even if we were to eat the perfect seeming diet there are still a handful of things that the body needs to survive that we will be missing. For this reason scientists have worked long and hard to not only identify the exact amount of everything that our bodies need but put it in a form that we can take and benefit from.
If you did actually try to consume the right combination of foods to get all of the right nutrients you would spend your day doing nothing but chomping down on food, many of them not very tasty at all. The nutrition companies therefore spend much of their time working on nothing more than making the supplement palatable. If it is a pill form then they try their best to make it smaller and slide down easier and digest better. For the shake forms they strive to make the product taste as good as a top notch ice cream shake and for the bar form they attempt to make it just like a candy bar. Why is that? We the answer is simple, if it s pain in the rear to take, or tastes like sewage we will not buy it form them and that is bad for their sales. Additionally, if we do not take it we will be deprived of some very important nutrients and that is bad for us.
If you are working on getting your body and mind into better health then be sure to eat the obvious things like proteins and fats and carbohydrates in the right proportions but do not forget the small things like vitamin and minerals as they are just as important if not more so. Find the products that work for you both on the money end of it and the taste and ease end of it. Neglecting this area can lead to serious health issues that my even be irreversible. Study the labels and continue you research in the library and the internet to become as much of an expert as you can. You need not be a doctor or have lots of fancy degrees to know what healthy eating is. Go ahead we dare you to get healthy.
By: Jason Montag
Hosting a Murder Mystery Party – A Great Idea
A murder mystery party is a great idea for all occasions. In one event, you can have a tasty meal, a few drinks, and a ‘who done it?’ game.
Almost everyone will find murder mystery parties appealing. Running around and looking for clues are fun times. For those few hours, you get to act like a child again and play a simple game.
I’m a bit ashamed to admit this, but I have a little bit of a soft spot for bad reality television. Just the other night, I caught part of a show – don’t really remember what it was, but it was one of the girls’ birthday and she decided to have a murder mystery dinner party.
Everyone who was in attendance came prepared for an all-out battle; these people were all dead-set on winning. The guests came dressed in 1940s garb head-to-toe, and some of them even spoke as if they lived during that time as well. They were all having a really great time!
All kinds of people are getting involved in this adult-sized game of Clue these days. Many businesses and corporations are even jumping on the murder-mystery bandwagon. It makes perfect sense to do so – participating in an event like this builds camaraderie among the employees and also acts as a great team-builder.
Murder mystery events do not have to take place at some expensive restaurant to be successful. You can host a party right in your own home. To make the game as believable as possible, as your guests arrive, greet them in character. And set a dress code – make sure everyone involved is playing along.
Once everyone has gotten settled, make sure to do introductions. If everyone already knows each other personally, great! But, they are most likely unaware of what their role is in the game.
Not every murder mystery has to involve someone getting shot in the parlor by the butler’s mistress. As these events become more popular, versions for the younger generations and those in conservative groups are starting to pop up. An interesting one I found was centered on a high school dance and the popular homecoming king turns up missing.
These games go even younger, with just-for-girls scavenger hunts at birthday parties for pre-teens and a co-ed group aged 12-14 with a western themed mystery.
Regardless of what kind of party it is, hosting an event like this is a pretty big feat. The average murder-mystery kit comes with clue cards, voting ballots, invitations and envelopes, name tags, evidence cards, crime scene sketches and instructions on how to use all of this stuff. So, if you are thinking about having one of these parties, just know that it does take a little bit of advance planning.
I think you’ll be pleased with how it turns out. A murder mystery party is a great idea for any occasion. Work-related, birthday parties, or just for the fun it – people just love a great mystery!
By: Shane Hester
The Mystery of Stone Ship ((in English and Spanish)(from the Satipo Jungles, Peru))
(A Legend out of the Jungles of Satipo)
English Version
(Advance) It’s a very old rock structure, brown, with a sandy like texture to it, about the size of a 17th Century Ship, it resides in the middle of the Perene Rio, in the Central Jungles of Peru, called Satipo. Deep within the jungle nearby this rock structure, lived a tribe of natives, the ‘Ashaninka,’ derived from the earlier natives called the ‘Arawak’ …I have visited an Ashaninka tribe myself; they are a warm hearted peaceful people, very creative in the arts. And so now for the Legend…:
Throughout the bloody and frightfully sixteen-hundreds, the so called Colonists (Colonos), with their slave ships, sought out the Ashaninka natives, for slaves, sold them to the highest bidder, in the Lima, and Huancayo markets, and in other parts of Peru, along with other cities of South America. The Colonists jammed an absolutely peaceful people into the guts of the ship; it was absolutely body to body. The officers were very cold and dehumanizing. The aftermath of these years took a toll; the Colonists had rapped the land like fire in dry grass-of its masses, putting them into slavery. These natives: insulted, frightened, none of them to return to their tribes. And the Colonists kept their recurrent surge up, keeping the slave-flesh, in the hole of the ship, with stale, deadly breath and putrid surroundings, many died on the journey to the markets, thrown over the stern of the ship for the fish and vultures to eat, once dead.
On a given day, something took place, that would mold into a legend, something, every Colonist would ponder on thereafter, and ship captains would forever take into account, when they’d sailed down the Rio Perene by what would be named-forevermore the ‘The Rock of Stone Ship.’
It was an atrociously hot day. The rain had stopped; the captain had anchored his ship in the middle of the river, scouts lowered a small vessel into the waters, turned the boat towards an orchard like opening of the jungle, they were to search for tribal members, and return to the ship with the information, where they were now, how many of them were useful as slaves. In the meantime the Captain and his crew remained waiting onboard.
In those days, the chief of the Ashaninka kept a look out for the ships. They knew what the Colonists were contemplating, and of course the ship was taller than anything in sight and filled a good portion of the center of the river, and it was of course a symbolical threat once seen. And on this hot summer’s day, it was seen by the chief, and his bodyguards.
The path the chief and his bodyguards were on came out on to the top of a hill; there they prayed that none of their kind would be kidnapped into slavery this day.
The scouts from the ship looked about spent quite a lot of their time trying to find stragglers, or the tribe itself, but they saw nothing, nothing but massive trees which shaded them from the hot sun, and would condemn them as they rested and fell to sleep, and when they awoke and went back to inform their captain of their fruitless search, they noticed suddenly the ship was gone. Refusing to believe the ship and its crew, and its captain could have left so anonymously, they moved about, but the only thing they found was a rock island mound in the middle of the river, that wasn’t there before, it resided where the ship had been anchored.
It was a brown structure, likened to the ship itself in design and some details, as if it was melted down from wood to soft stone, somewhat circular dimensions, the rock island being the same size of the ship, which was now covered with large ants, running about.
The Chief, now looking down from the top of the hill, could see the newly formed mound, and the three scouts standing on it, in disarray, he said nothing, just bowed his head.
Written 7-17-2009, in part, at the hotel in Satipo, while visiting the rivers and falls and natives of this Central, Peruvian Jungle
Spanish Version
El Misterio del Barco de Piedra
(Una Legenda de las Selvas de Satipo)
(Avance) Es una construcci
The Mystery of Netaji Subhas Bose’s Death
Subhas Bose was a Bengali and one of the leading figures of the Indian freedom movement against the British Raj. Bose was an extremely intelligent man and had also made it to the hallowed portals of the Indian Civil Service. Born in 1897 Bose was a fiery man. He soon resigned from the ICS and devoted himself whole heartedly to the freedom movement. He joined the Congress party then led by Gandhi. But his mercurial mind and a different view point soon led him to a parting of ways from Gandhi.
Gandhi an advocate of non violence could not stand the firebrand politics of Bose and his belief that the British Raj could only be overthrown by an armed struggle. This led to a parting of ways and Bose was soon put under house arrest by the British government. His escape to Kabul from Calcutta and arrival in Berlin for a meeting with Hitler is a romantic tale unsurpassed in the annals of Indian folk lore. Bose loved a German girl in Berlin and had a daughter from her. He was then transferred by submarine to the Indian Ocean for a rendezvous with a Japanese submarine and then went on to Tokyo for a meeting with the Japanese Prime minister General Tojo is another part of this exciting tale.
Bose organized the Azad Hind fauj and joined them in the invasion of India. The Azad hind fauj did not do much and only acted as an appendage of the Japanese imperial Army. But the significant fact was that the Azad hind fauj gave a sense of identity to the Indians as a whole. The Atomic bombing of Japan in 1945 broke the will of the Japanese to fight and they capitulated. Bose then was perhaps at his wits end and decided to escape to Russia via Muncharia.He accordingly boarded a Japanese airplane which crashed in Formosa on August 18,1945.Bose is supposed to have died in that crash. This has been the official Indian position. But did Bose really die in that air crash? Thousands of Indians believe that Bose never died in that crash but escaped to Russia. What happened there is a matter of conjecture and it is possible that Stalin may have imprisoned Bose or he may have been put in confinement.
To unravel the mystery of his death the government of India has so far set up 3 commissions of inquiry to verify whether Bose really died in the air crash at Formosa. The first two commissions headed by Shah Nawas Khan (1956) and Justice GD Khosla(1970) concluded that Bose did indeed die in the air crash at Formosa. The commissions inquiry results were not foolproof. In addition the public at large was still not satisfied and thus a third commission under justice Mukherjee was appointed in 1999. This commission gave its findings in 2006 and concluded that the death of Bose in the Formosa air crash was a smoke screen for Bose to escape to Russia. The Government of India has rejected the findings of the commission.
The mystery of Bose death thus lingers on. There is every chance that Bose survived the air crash and then made his way to Russia. But what happened there is only conjecture and no evidence is available either way. It is rumored that the top echelons of the Indian government including Nehru were aware that Bose was alive and yet turned a nelson eye so as to prevent his coming back to India. But there are certain documents with the Government of India which are still not made public. Perhaps they may shed some light on the death of Bose. He will however remain a towering figure in contemporary Indian History.
By: Madan G Singh
What is Mystery Shopping, and Can You Really Get Paid to Shop?
Mystery shoppers visit businesses “disguised as normal customers,” and do the things other customers do–ask questions, make a purchase, make a return–but with a twist. These undercover customers are there to evaluate the businesses and their employees. After a visit, the mystery shopper completes a report or questionnaire detailing what occurred.
Why Do Businesses Hire Mystery Shoppers?
In general, shops are done to find out about the level of service provided to customers. However, mystery shoppers may also be asked to verify that employees are neatly groomed and in uniform, the business is clean and merchandise is displayed neatly, staff persons are knowledgeable, etc. As a mystery shopper, you may be asked to verify if employees used a certain phrase (such as, “Thank you for shopping at Mega Mart.”) or if they used suggestive selling techniques (“Would you like fries with that?”). You may even be asked to shop a client’s competitor, so the client can compare their operations to others’. Mystery shoppers may monitor pricing, or verify that the business is in compliance with professional standards or government regulations.
One common misconception about mystery shoppers is that they are just looking for what is wrong. In fact, a mystery shopper is there to provide an objective view of the business, and they report on the good as well as the not-so-good.
Mystery shoppers seek the answers to questions. Were you greeted when you entered the store? Were the shelves properly stocked? Was the store clean? Did the rest rooms have soap and tissue? How long did it take to be served? Did the salesperson tell you about the available service contract? Did the cashier properly count out your change? Afterward, they fill out a form or write a report describing what they observed.
Mystery shopping is not opinion research. Shoppers are not paid to give their opinions, they are paid to report their observations.
When evaluating businesses, mystery shoppers are the eyes and ears of the business owner. Shoppers tell them how customers see the business. Most businesses have service standards and rules for safety and security. Mystery shoppers tell the business owner whether his employees are living up to the standards and following the rules.
Businesses use the information from shopper reports to reward good employees, identify training deficiencies, make stores safer for employees and customers, and much more. Companies may base performance evaluations and bonus pay outs at least in part on the results of mystery shops.
The information obtained in mystery shopping reports allows the business to monitor the performance of one location when compared to another, or how the performance of the same location has improved over time.
Mystery shopping is also valuable for the sentinel effect. When employees know that they will be mystery shopped–but they don’t know when or by whom–they will give every customer excellent service. This is especially true when the results of mystery shops are used in employee performance evaluations.
The Need for Mystery Shoppers
Today’s business environment is extremely competitive. Companies that fail to provide excellent service will not survive. Studies show that a satisfied customer will tell three other people about his experience. A dissatisfied customer will tell ten to twelve people. All too often, though, the customer won’t tell the business owner or manager.
Not only do companies face loss of business from poor service, the actions of their employees may cause them to be sued by customers or fined by the government. With so much at stake, mystery shoppers provide a valuable service by identifying potential problems the business owner can correct before they result in a major liability.
Who Are the Mystery Shoppers?
Because mystery shoppers look like typical customers (and are, in most ways, typical customers) almost anyone can become a mystery shopper. Shoppers may be any (adult) age, male or female. They may be employed, self-employed, unemployed, students, retired or full time homemakers.
What makes mystery shoppers different from other customers is that they want to help improve customer service and make some extra money while doing so, and they are specially prepared to evaluate businesses and report their findings.
Many shoppers get into this business because it is fun. They love to get the perks, such as “free” food and merchandise, and even make a little money while they’re getting this free stuff! Although mystery shopping can be fun, it is a business and you will have important responsibilities as a mystery shopper.
If you are interested in working flexible, part time hours, and getting paid to shop, eat and more while providing an important service to businesses, mystery shopping may be for you.
By: Cathy Stucker
Murder Mystery Party – Hosting a Frightfully Good Night
Murder mysteries are one of the highest selling genres of books in the market. The thrill of suspense and partial knowledge entraps many teens and adults. Agatha Christie is the world’s highest selling novelists on the strength of her numerous murder mysteries in print. The most famous detective is known the world over – Sherlock Holmes, of course. Turning this classic genre into a murder mystery party is sure to be popular with both teenagers and adults.
The atmosphere and decorations for the murder mystery party depend on the location of the murder. Ideas include a cruise ship, casino, jungle or castle. Simple effects with lighting, props, streamers and artificial cobwebs can really contribute to the atmosphere.
Any good murder mystery party needs good characters. With the party invitations, send out a character description for each guest. This way they can organize a costume, and act the part when they arrive. The role of ‘murderer’ also has to be assigned once guests arrive, preferably in a discrete but random manner (for example finding a sticker on the back of their place-card). The ‘murder’ has to take place early on in the evening; the victim can be a murder mystery party guest, or even a blow-up doll with fake blood-stains!!
Games played during the night should revolve around gathering clues to solve the murder. ‘20 Questions’ and ‘Never Ever’ both work well. Other games can be tweaked to fit the theme.
Executed well, a murder mystery party can be loads of fun for both teenagers and adults. The ideas above are just a start. Being creative with characters and setting will only add to the success of your party.
By: Gail Leino
The Gifts of Mystery – Author Elizabeth Peters
The Murders of Richard III, first published in 1974, was the first Elizabeth Peters novel I ever read. I’m not sure when I first read it, probably in 1976, when I was fifteen, and rather than immediately becoming a fan of Elizabeth Peters, I actually became a fan of Richard III.
Who is Richard III, you’re asking? Born in 1452, he was the third son of Richard, Duke of York, who wanted to be King of England, and was prepared to wage war against the man currently occupying that throne, Henry VI. As it turned out, Richard died in one of the battles of the Wars of the Roses (Yorkists’ symbol was a white rose, Henry’s House of Lancaster, a red rose), but his son, Edward, ended up on the throne, as Edward IV.
Edward had two younger brothers, Clarence, and Richard. Edward married a commoner, to the great displeasure of the country, who expected their kings to marry foreign princesses to consolidate the country’s power overseas. Edward died at the age of 40, Clarence was dead (executed by order of Edward, who thought that Clarence had betrayed him) and Richard came to the throne as Richard III.
Richard declared Edward’s children, of whom he had three, two boys and a girl, illegitimate, and thus barred from succession. Visit the Tower of London any day of the week, and on a tour one of the Beefeaters will doubtless show you the room where the two boys were kept, and where they were killed on Richard’s orders, smothered to death, and then buried beneath some stairs.
“Hah!” I say. All lies!
Believe it or not, the boys probably survived Richard III, and instead were killed by Henry VII, the last Lancastrian king, who only won the battle of Bosworth, when a couple of Richard’s loyal vassals betrayed him and allowed him to be surrounded by the enemy and killed. Henry VII had them killed, because he reversed the “bill of attainder” which made the boys illegitimate, so he could marry their sister Elizabeth, who had a better claim to the throne than he did (apart from right of conquest) to unite the two houses and bring the Wars of the Roses to an end.
The creep.
After Henry VII came his son, Henry VIII, whim I’m sure everyone knows as the guy who had six wives and ordered the dissolution of the monasteries. With his ascension to the throne, the Tudor dynasty was established.
But back to Richard III.
In Peters’ novel, her main characters, beautiful librarian Jacqueline Kirby, and Thomas Carter, her gentleman friend, visit an English house party on a weekend when a group of Richard III enthusiasts are having a meeting. Practical jokes, designed to mimic the deaths of actual people in the life of Richard III, seem to be escalating toward murder…can Jacqueline Kirby save the day?
It is clear, throughout the book, that Elizabeth Peters is on the side of those who believe that Richard III was innocent of the heinous crime of having his nephews killed, and a lot of other stuff that people who have seen the William Shakespeare play Richard III think they know about the guy.
And as I say, it was after that book that I started researching Richard III myself, and became a champion for him in some small way. (There are a lot of us about!)
Who knows how many Americans first became interested in Richard after reading her book – the American branch of the Richard III Society is a rather large one…though there were certainly many of them before 1974!
Elizabeth Peters’ influence on American’s interest in Egyptology is easier to track.
Just a year after her Richard III novel, in 1975, she wrote a book called Crocodile on the Sandbank. In 1884 England, spinster Amelia Peabody inherits a great deal of money, and decides to go traveling. She ends up in Egypt, where she falls in love with the country and the infant science of Egyptology, and eventually with an Egyptologist named Radcliffe Emerson. There’s a mystery to solve, of course, which she does in her own inimitable style.
I came across this book rather later on, in the 1980s. I can’t claim that once again Peters’ sent me on a journey, this time into Egyptology (that had already been accomplished when I caught a late night showing of Charlie Chan in Egypt), it merely cemented my interest. But this time it also turned me into a permanent fan of Elizabeth Peters.
Peters, in real life Barbara Mertz, actually is an Egyptologist, and she writes about the subject with expertise, and her own writing style, as inimitable as Amelia Peabody’s detective skills!
Peters did not write a sequel to Crocodile on the Sandbank until six years later, when The Curse of the Pharaohs appeared. And it took another four years until The Mummy Case appeared. (Barbara Mertz is a prolific writer. In the many years between those three Peabody books, she wrote half a dozen books featuring other characters) Since 1985, however, either because Amelia Peabody became Peters’ favorite character or because the Peabody books sold so well, sequels started to appear on a yearly basis, so that now, in 2008, there are a total of 18.
All of the Amelia Peabody books take place, for the most part, in Egypt, and have to deal with Egyptology and mysteries and murders arising from that field. It was not until Tomb of the Golden Bird, published in 2006, that they finally find (with the assistance of Howard Carter, who got to take the credit!) the tomb of King Tutankhamon (that’d be in 1922).
How do I know Peters’ Amelia Peabody series has inspired many people to study Egyptology – albeit simply as a hobby, not actually becoming Egyptologists themselves?
Well, because in addition to these fiction books, Peters’ published Amelia Peabody’s Egypt, a non-fiction work (with fiction interludes) which is a concordance of what life was like in the England and Egypt of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and the status of Egyptology at that time as well. Obviously this was produced in part at least to honor a request from fans for as much information as they could get on the subject.
Barbara Mertz was born on September 29, 1927. To date, she’s written 65 fiction books, two non-fiction, on Egyptology, and one a combination of both (the previously mentioned Amelia Peabody’s Egypt.
That’s a fantastic legacy, and more than just the pleasures to be found in reading the books themselves, she’s catapulted many a reader on a journey into education, as well. For myself, I owe her a great debt. For the interests and hobbies that have enriched my life for over twenty years, all thanks to the magic of Barbara Mertz’ writing, may I say, thank you!
By: Barbara Peterson
Mystery Shopping the Competition – A New Form of Competitive Intelligence
Mystery shopping has traditionally been utilized as a means of measuring and improving customer service levels and employee performance. Some companies have taken mystery shopping a step further and “shopped” their competition to see how they perform across key customer service and sales initiatives.
A less well known use of mystery shopping is for competitive intelligence. At its most basic level, it can be used to measure the competitor’s service levels alongside the company’s performance. Taking this approach a step further, this method of analysis can provide companies with even greater information than previously thought. Below are some examples of ways companies have used mystery shopping as a form of competitive intelligence:
1. Brand loyalty
A manufacturer was concerned that sales were dropping for their products in several retail stores. Mystery shoppers were used to visit the retail stores and “shop” for the manufacturer’s product. The manufacturer was able to determine if sales associates were leading customers away from their brand, and what was being said about their brand. Taking it a step further, a scenario was designed in which mystery shoppers would be interested in two products — one of the manufacturer’s and another of a competitor. Posing as undecided between the two, mystery shoppers would ask the associate for their recommendation. This allowed the manufacturer to determine which brand was being recommended and why, and how this impacted their sales at the retail level.
2. Breaking into a new market
A contractor service was ready to expand their business into a new market and sought out two potential markets of interest. Before making a decision, the company utilized mystery shoppers to glean competitor information. Mystery shoppers would contact similar services that already existed in each market, posing as a potential customer. Shoppers would listen to the sales presentation, gather pricing, and document policies and service procedures. Data was collected for each competitor in each of the two markets for further analysis. The contractor service was able to compile this information along with the other market analysis they had performed to ultimately decide which market would be most beneficial to break into. Further, they were able to create methods to present their services that would be unique and different from their competition, giving them an edge when breaking into the new market.
3. Offering a new product or service
One retail company was preparing to launch a new service. Before doing so, they wanted to seek out information on their competitors who offered a similar service. Specifically, they wanted to find out their competitor’s cost for the service and how it was promoted to potential customers. Mystery shoppers were utilized to contact the competitors across different markets to inquire about this service. They were responsible for documenting the cost involved, as well as the features and benefits of the service. Once this information was gathered, the company was able to set a competitive price point and create a marketing plan to promote this new service in a way that would differentiate themselves from the competition. This resulted in a strong marketing campaign, and the new service performed very well with strong, consistent sales.
Monitoring the competition’s customer service levels is a smart move in any case, especially in difficult economic conditions. Mystery shopping programs can meet this need. Additionally, using mystery shopping for competitive intelligence, as illustrated above, can be an inexpensive, effective way of gathering vital information about competitors and can assist in making solid business decisions.
By: Marianne Hynd
Mystery Case Files – Dire Grove Game Review
MCF: Dire Grove is the latest chapter in Big Fish Games’ Mystery Case Files (MCF) series, with the events in the game taking place right after Return to Ravenhearst. Once again, you take on the role of the master detective as you continue to tackle mysterious cases that include hints of the supernatural.
MCF: Dire Grove starts with the detective (that’s you!) driving back through the English countryside after solving the mystery in MCF: Return to Ravenhearst. As you’re driving, you are caught in a freak snowstorm that is so intense that your vision is entirely obscured, and you are forced to stop in a secluded village just off the motorway: Dire Grove.
As you approach the village, you find an abandoned car along the road. Investigating it, you come across scraps of paper and a video cassette containing disturbing information about a dark legend that had come to life. As you progress further into the village, you start to discover that something is really wrong here. The village seems abandoned, and you find more video cassettes showing recordings by a group of archaeology graduate students who had come to Dire Grove to investigate an ancient dark Celtic legend. And by the looks of it, they found what they were looking for…
The first thing you’ll notice when playing MCF: Dire Grove is that the production values for this game have gone through the roof, much better than its already-impressive predecessors! All the art and music in the game are gorgeous and fit the theme and atmosphere brilliantly. To enforce the atmosphere of a snowstorm, you also have snowflakes and flying leaves moving all over the screen.
What stood out for me was the almost movie-like quality in the cutscenes. The intro scene and all the video clips showing the archaeology students and their misadventures are live action recordings. The acting is pretty decent and the recordings have an almost Blair Witch-like quality to them. All of this adds an extra dose of realism to the game, drawing you in like never before.
The gameplay of Dire Grove has also evolved from the basic hidden object gameplay of the earlier instalments in the MCF series. This game is an adventure and exploration game first, with hidden object gameplay and puzzle elements thrown in. You don’t get mindlessly led from one hidden object scene to another. Instead, you need to use a bit of exploration and logic to decide what you should do to achieve your immediate goals and advance the plot. The game isn’t extremely difficult to solve though; most of the objects of interest will have a slight sparkle to guide you along your path.
The hidden object scenes and the puzzles that appear as minigames are both of the standard that you would expect from a MCF game. The designs are crisp and clear, while the puzzles are difficult enough to require a moderate amount of thinking and planning, but not so difficult as to detract from the story or become a stumbling block.
There are also puzzles that span across multiple scenes. You might find a crowbar or a bunch of nails in one scene, and won’t find a use for them till an hour or more later. There are also obstacles that require manipulating the scenes. For example, there’s an object of interest on the top shelf in the garage. Now what can I find in the area that I can use to reach it?
As has been said before, the game has superb production values, and is a full-fledged adventure puzzle game that will draw you in for hours on end. What else can you expect from the developers of the Mystery Case Files series who have yet to disappoint?
Rating: 5.0/5.0
By: Steven H. Ng
