Puzzle Agent 1 (2010) Puzzle Agent 2 (2011)

Puzzle Agent 1 (2010) Puzzle Agent 2 (2011), based on Grickle by Graham Annable, developed and published by Telltale Games

I decided to do both of Telltale's Puzzle Agent games in one go, as while they are not episodic games as such,  they are narratively connected, as the story that begins in the 1st game is concluded in the 2nd. And the 2nd doesn't really stand on its own, story-wise if you haven't played the 1st one.

Nelson Tethers is an agent in the FBI Puzzle Division. While solving puzzles, he falls asleep on his desk and sees a nightmare of an astronaut, who gives him a message: Scoggings. He wakes up on a phone call and is assigned to a case of checking out an eraser factory in Scoggings, Minnesota. The factory delivers all the erasers to the Whitehouse and the bureau needs Tethers to make sure, that the flow of the erasers won't be affected by whatever has been going on in there.

 

When Nelson arrives at Scoggings, he finds that the factory has been shut down thanks to the disappearance of the factory foreman and that the locals aren't really helpful at all. Some seem even a bit hostile while others seem to just talk gibberish about local Hiden People, the gnomes who live in the forests around the small town.

In the end, Tethers does manage to get the factory up and running again, but the disappearance of the foreman is still left as a mystery and he can't get the gnomes out of his head. In the 2nd game, he returns to Scoggins to dig deeper into the case, only to find out there have been several other disappearances in the area before the foreman went missing.

Digging deeper, Nelson finds not only the truth about the gnomes, but of astronauts and the secret operations of the government itself. The truth is far more bizarre than you'd believe.

 

Both of the Puzzle Agent games are pretty much what their title tells they are: puzzle games. While the game is presented as a point-and-click adventure game, there are no inventory or discussion puzzles. There is a story, a rather humorous and well-written one, but the game progresses with Nelson cracking several different kinds of puzzles. These brain teasers are really the meat and potatoes of the game.

The puzzles consist of your typical math problems, jigsaw puzzles, mazes, and so on. You know, the kinds you generally find in a puzzle section of any magazine. So if you are expecting a more traditional adventure game, you might be disappointed. If, on the other hand, you want to play a funny and well-made game where solving different kinds of puzzles is the main thing, then both of the Puzzle Agent games can be well recommended.

Finding and solving the puzzles is pretty straightforward. At times, you find them by talking to people, where the puzzles are clearly marked as such in the dialogue tree. At times, they are on the locations, found by clicking on the objects on the screen. A click on the screen does a quick scan, revealing all the spots you can click, so you won't miss any puzzles. At times, the puzzles launch when you go to a specific map location.

 

You can try solving the puzzles as many times as you want, but the more wrong answers you provide, the smaller the score you get as you spend too much taxpayer money. There's a hint system in the form of chewing gum. You can get three hints on every puzzle, but each hint will also lower your score. Of course, this scoring system is nothing more than personal bragging rights, there's no effect on the story no matter how badly you do in solving the puzzles.

Another thing worth mentioning is the atmosphere of the games. While they are leaning more towards comedy, there is this very nice Twin Peaks-like feeling over the games, oozing from the music, the story, and from the dialogue and sound effects. It's a whimsical, bizarre, and rewarding setting that keeps you hooked to the end.

And that's pretty much it for the Puzzle Agent games. They both are well-made games that don't overstay their welcome. The puzzle difficulty ranges from easy to hard, depending on which kinds of puzzles you are good at. So, if you do enjoy a good puzzle, Puzzle Agent might be a good title to pick up.

You can get the games from GOG and Steam.