Mr Jones' Graveyard Shift

My Review :
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Information :
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Big Fish Games

Help Mr. Jones make millions of dollars in the cemetery business, and retire to paradise with the love of his life! Plot and decorate each graveyard with a huge amount of items. Start off with just a shovel and old grave markers and build up to a marble-clad festival of crypts! Purchase enough upgrades to create the perfect resting place for much-loved celebrities, rich royalty, and others in Mr. Jones` Graveyard Shift, a fun Time Management game.

• Fast-paced gameplay
• Gorgeous graphics
• Live happily ever after!

System Requirements :
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OS: Windows XP/Vista
CPU: 2.0 Ghz
RAM: 512 MB
DirectX: 9.0
Hard Drive: 100 MB

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Tips, Hints :
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General Tips:

• At the opening screen of the game, you can only click on "Start" to either choose an existing profile or to create a new one
• You can choose between three different levels of difficulty each time you start a new profile. For newcomers to the game it is definitely advisable to choose the easiest ("normal") difficulty.
• The tutorial is a really good help to learn the basics of the game, so you should not skip it. Additionally, you can always click on the "Help-orb" in the left-hand corner on top of the screen if you ever want to refresh those basic rules.
• The shop, represented by the truck near your cottage, displays all of the currently available items for purchase, which change on a daily basis. Thus it is always advisable to have a look at the shop's daily offers, even if you don't have any specific needs at that moment. As soon as you have accumulated a certain amount of money you should try to have at least one unit per item in stock, so that you can be sure to fulfill every possible request by a customer
• Often, when you accept a new order, it happens that neither you nor the truck has the item the customer requests for the grave. In nearly 100 percent of these cases the truck shop will have this item available on the very next day.
• The clock in the right-hand bottom corner of the screen displays the current time of day
• As soon as it is dark outside the ghosts are coming out of their graves. If you want to work through the night to be more efficient and profitable, you should try to avoid touching ghosts, because they will send you to sleep immediately. It is very hard to do so successfully, but you should know that customers are also stopping by at night
• When your reputation has reached a decisive point, you are allowed to buy more land and you earn a medal
• Click on the "For-Sale"-sign when you are allowed to purchase more land: The first new lot will cost you $100, the second lot $5,000, and the third and last lot will cost $100,000
• The map can be accessed through the little menu in the bottom of the screen and displays your whole graveyard, including plots you may purchase in the future
• Purchase all additional lots very soon, so that you have enough free land to create only perfect graves. In this way you are as profitable as possible.
• The requirements for perfect graves are: every liked item has to be in the sphere of influence of that grave, the grave has to be connected to a path that is also connected to the entrance, disliked items are not allowed in the sphere of influence, no other grave should be in the sphere of influence.
• However, spheres of influence of two different graves can cross very well, thereby sharing decorative items and even maximizing your profit.

Controls:

• There are six different control buttons for the various actions Mr. Jones can perform. Look at the screen-shot below and the related explanations
• If you click this button, Mr. Jones will walk to any reachable location you click on. However, you are always able to walk by right-clicking on any spot, even if a different action is chosen.
• If you select this button, Mr. Jones can pick up, place down, or carry any object, such as flowers, gravestones, or structures. He can even remove certain objects from already finished graves, except for gravestones.
• This option simply allows you to dig up a grave at any fitting spot. If you have already dug out a grave, but suddenly decide that there should not be a grave in this spot, simply click on it again, and Mr. Jones will shovel up the empty pit.
• The axe allows you to cut down any large or small tree on your graveyard. Simply click on one and Mr. Jones will go there, but take into account that there will be a tree stump left, which you have to pick up with control #2, then being able to throw it into the trash can.
• This control enables Mr. Jones to create a path on any free spot on the graveyard.
• The chisel is only helpful for engraving the name of the future owner of a grave on the tombstone. The burial of anyone won't take place before you have used the chisel on the tombstone of the related grave.
• If you take any object out of a box, you can always put it back by clicking on the box for a second time.

Paths:

• For each part of the path you have to pay $1. All the customers pay extra money if the graves they pay for are connected with a path, and if this path is also connected to the entrance of your graveyard. To create a path is comparatively cheap, especially considering that a lot of customers will pay you remarkably more than $1 if the graves are connected to the path. Nevertheless you should create paths efficiently, to avoid both wasting money and worthwhile space for objects or new graves
• Later on you are also able to create cobblestone paths, which cost $4 per spot, but they appeal to every customer, on top of that giving your graveyard an even more elegant look.

Customers & Graves:

• Pictures of vehicles on the right-hand bottom corner of the screen inform you about customers who recently arrived. You can simply click on any of these images and Mr. Jones will automatically walk to the customer and talk to him, no matter which action is currently selected for him. The same goes for the Driving Shop, where you can purchase additional tombstones, flowers and structures, whose picture will be present constantly during the day.
• The sphere of influence of a grave indicates where you can put objects so that they will have a positive influence on this grave. However, you should try to avoid to create another grave in this grave's sphere of influence, because this lowers its value
• To open the list of either flowers, tombstones, or structures, you can click on both the little buttons on the bottom bar of the screen, or at the colored boxes that are scattered throughout your graveyard
• Basically there are four different types of customers, resulting in four different price ranges for graves. The cheapest graves cost between $5 and $25, then there are customers who are willing to pay $60 to $200, later on there will be orders for graves with a value of $650 to $1,500, and the most eccentric customers will be able to pay for graves within a price range from $6,000 to $100,000.
• You should take into account that it is a huge mistake to accept orders for expensive graves too early in the game, because you won't be able to satisfy the customer's requests altogether. Wait with accepting more expensive orders until you are sure that you have saved enough money to create a grave according to the customer's wishes AND the related price range.
• When the burial has taken place, the visitors will leave your graveyard, your reputation bar will fill up, and you will earn money and some Lithode crystals
• As soon as you receive payment by a customer, a review window will open up, summarising the most important aspects of this payment
• Each customer has special likes and dislikes, and you should always try to stick to those requests. Crossed out objects should be avoided at all costs in the sphere of influence of this grave, because those items will strongly lessen the appeal of this grave to the customer, and therefore also its value
• Later on you should only accept orders by customers requesting a price range between $6,000 and $100,000, because in this way you will reach your goals remarkably quicker.

VIP Customers:

• With the purchase of each new plot you will be able to bury so-called VIP at special graves. To be able to bury them you have to earn a certain amount of Lithode Crystals. As soon as you accept to bury them, there are only some days left to do so, so you should gain the required amount of Lithode crystals before you actually accept the burial. You mainly earn Lithode crystals through other burials and by walking past blue, flashing crystals that sometimes appear on your graveyard. For each successful burial of a VIP (at most three) you can choose another reward.
• The first VIP is Molly Kule. You need 250 Lithode crystals for the burials and have eight days to do so.
• For the second VIP's burial you have to earn 350 Lithode crystals and have ten days to prepare the grave.
• The third and last VIP requires 700 Lithode crystals and you have ten days to finish this burial again.

Presents:

• All in all you have to buy 10 different presents for Mimi, which get more and more expensive. My advise is to not deposit any money at the bank in the beginning, because earlier in the game you need every dollar to grow your own business. You can purchase the presents later on when you have saved enough money anyway
• Some of the presents get unlocked later on when you have purchased additional plots for your graveyard, and the tenth present, namely $1,000,000 to spend on leisure and entertainment, gets unlocked when your reputation is maximized. This can happen long before you have buried all VIPs, but you are able to keep playing even when you have already bought the last present.

Rewards:

• When you obtain certain achievements, such as buying new land or burying a VIP person, you are able to choose from eight different awards which are of great help to grow your business
• ZombGon: You can use this once per day to get rid of Zombies. In my opinion this reward is not that important, since you should try to avoid that graves lose value (and then causing a Zombie walking all over your graveyard) from the first.
• Three Gold and Obsidian Statues of animals: These statues can be found in your structures-box if you choose them, and they can be used just like ordinary structures, only that they did not cost you any dollar, and that they highly increase the worth of any grave. This reward is a pretty smart choice to create some very expensive graves.
• Mulch 4000 Tractor: In this vehicle Mr. Jones can drive instead of walk. On top of that he can cut down trees when driving this tractor, and the tree stump is removed automatically. I highly recommend this reward, since it saves you a lot of time and is a great support when your graveyard gets really large.
• A Warrior, a Cat, and a Bust: These are also three magic items which strongly increase the value of any grave. It's a choice as good as choosing reward #2.
• Shovel Attachment for the Mulch 4000: By upgrading your tractor you can even dig graves with it, and much faster than by hand. In this way you can manage every action with the Mulch. Very helpful reward.
• Five different Chess Pieces: Again, this reward includes five magic items that boost any grave's value and are liked by every customer.
• The Pathlayer for the Mulch 4000: This last addition for your tractor is highly recommended to choose. The cobblestone-paths which you can create with it are definitely worth it.
• The Magic Gem Tree: You should choose this reward as soon as you can, since it gets every job done.

Congratulations, you have helped Mr. Jones to spend the rest of his life with Mimi. Now that you have finished the game you can try to beat it again in even less time, or at a harder level of difficulty. Good luck!

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