The Puzzle Agent games are, like the name suggests, puzzle games; developed by Telltale in collaboration with Graham Annable a fairly well renowned cartoonist. Together they tell the story of Nelson Tethers an FBI agent in the Puzzle Division who is called out into the field to investigate the closure of an eraser factory in Scoggins, Minnesota. Immediately the comparisons can be drawn to all of the games, movies and even TV shows that Puzzle Agent takes inspiration from including Professor Layton the wildly popular DS adventure game series, the Coen Brother's classic Fargo and the fondly remembered David Lynch television series Twin Peaks.
The first Puzzle Agent begins with Nelson Tethers entering Scoggins and quickly realizing the townsfolk are all incredibly bizarre as they are obsessed with solving puzzles. They also speak of Hidden People, little red gnomes that live in the woods, and of their whispers that can be heard drifting through the silent winds. These creepy and unsettling citizens are also keeping their own secrets and speak in riddles as to not give too much information away to Tethers, who is investigating the disappearance of the eraser factory foreman Issac Davner. As his investigation continues the scary truth about the Hidden People reveal themselves as Tethers comes face to face with the horrors this small town has kept secret for so long.
Puzzle Agent 2 continues almost immediately where the last left off with Tethers not satisfied with how the case ended. He decides to return to Scoggins and in doing so reveals an even grander conspiracy involving the increasingly insane citizens of the icy cold town and the folklore and legends some of them hold in such high regard. As the story is the most entertaining part of this series, I wont divulge much more and will just say the absurdity of the mystery is very reminiscent of "the owls are not what they seem". If you get the reference you'll love the game, yet even if you don't get the phrase there is still plenty of incredibly sharp writing to enjoy.
The games unfold in classic point and click adventure game style. Whenever a specific piece of evidence is needed to further the story, or just to overcome simple yet constant obstacles this crazy town throws at you, the game devolves into abstract puzzles where you need to rearrange a plate of food or organize a box of bugs. Its odd and usually completely incidental to the actual machinations of the plot but it does its job, and the puzzles are challenging enough that they are at least fun. The two games do not differ one iota from each other going so far as to even reuse assets, which is not a problem at all considering the town and it citizens are so well realized I wouldn't want any major changes. The voice acting for all the quirky townsfolk are impeccable the sheriff and the inn owner are real standouts but all of them give great performances that fit the tone, setting and most importantly give the character life that plain text couldn't. The one negative specifically about the sequel is the fact that they reuse a lot of the same puzzles not the exact puzzles with the same results but the same basic principles, their also significantly simpler; its unfortunate because so much thought went into so many other parts of the game to see them skimp on new more imaginative puzzles is disappointing.
Puzzle Agent is not groundbreaking or even inventive, but what it does do is take separate ingredients from several different works of fiction and stirs them together to make the perfect combination of quirk, wit and charm. I really enjoyed both games and while their only 3-4 hours a piece and are essentially the same, the story and characters are incredibly well realized and endearing, by the end of the game you will want more and hopefully Telltale will deliver.
Both games receive a:
(4 out of 5)
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