the Map Detectives: Rural Mystery

The Map Detectives: Rural Mystery is a single player, mouse controlled, educational title which aims to teach geography and map reading skills by making maps essential to the game.

Pop superstar Rick Spangle was having a party when he was burgled. The thief stole one of his treasured possessions and the player's task is to identify the thief. There are twelve suspects; Shady Sashi; Scheming Scott; Crooked Chrissy; Iffy Imran; Tricky Trevor; Sly Si; No-good Nora; Lootin' Lucy; Lawless Lorna; Break-in Brenda; Dodgy Doris; and Nabber Nick. Each crook has four characteristics, for example they may or may not be local, drive a car or ride a bike, wear a hat or spectacles and so on. Some of the guests at Rick Spangle's party have pieces of information but they've long since left the scene which means the player has to find them using the supplied maps.

Two maps are provided, a cycling map and a walking map and, playing with the default settings, the player uses each map to find two guests. With the cycling map, which is used first, the player has to navigate roads to get from a named start point to a named destination. Once there they talk to the guest who supplies a clue and then they set off in search of the next guest. The walking map is trickier because the player starts at a map reference and heads to another map reference where a guest will supply a clue.

On both maps the player is given the location of all the guests they must find and they can locate them in any order.

The in game navigation screen is divided into three areas;* The top half of the screen shows an animation while the player is in transit, for example the cycle's handlebars as they player travels along a road or a footpath as the player walks through the fields. When the player reaches a junction they are presented with some red direction arrows, others may have to be discovered by moving the mouse over the picture, and they select one of these to continue their journey. The picture may also show a named location, for example if a guest is staying at a hotel then when the player arrives at the location a picture of a hotel will be shown.

• In the lower half of the screen on the left is the player's notebook which has three tabs;
  • Task: This tells the player where the guests are
  • Info: This tells the player where they are, very helpful when using the walking map top find a guest
  • Clues: This records the information gathered so far* In the lower half of the screen on the right is a mini map showing the player's position and the way they are facing.

The position of the notebook & mini map can be swapped in the game configuration options screen

When all clues have been gathered the player can look through the twelve suspects and, if they find one whose four characteristics match the clues they've collected they can click on the Arrest button. If they are correct they collect the £3000 reward, if they are incorrect they can try again but the reward they stand to collect will have decreased by £250.

The game can be replayed as the item stolen, the guests to be located and the criminal all change. The default settings have the player looking for four guests and using both the cycling and walking maps, however the game configuration options allow the game to use just one map and to look for two, four or six guests. In addition the game can be played using either day mode or night mode. All the in-game locations, junctions use real photographs.

There is also an Explore mode which allows the player to freely explore the map without having to look for a specific location.