PC Game Review - Puzzle Agent

In Puzzle Agent, Telltale Games delivers a challenging yet quirky game that is not only hugely enjoyable but also quite affordable. As the amiable FBI agent Nelson Tethers, one’s goal is to solve the mystery of why the town of Scoggins isn’t producing its vital source of government-needed erasers at the local factory. Unlike the quick answers gotten by detectives in television shows, information here is hard to come by thanks to the large assortment of puzzles that stand in one’s way. Tethers’ job, as a member of the FBI’s Puzzle Research Division, is to solve these puzzles and get the factory back up and running.

One of the first visuals that one sees in the game is the title screen, which features an eerie moonlit landscape that outlines the eraser factory. That, along with the equally moody soundtrack, makes it so one can’t help but think that a designer at Telltale Games was a big Twin Peaks fan. Throughout the game it is apparent that despite the rather offbeat storyline and characters, the music ultimately sets the tone for the spooky situation in Scoggins.

Graham Annable, the veteran creator and artist of Grickle, provides the main basis for the game's look. The animation for the game appears as if it was hand drawn, featuring sharp sketches and sometimes lightly solid lines that make up most of the scenery and character design. Unlike most animated game, these days, Telltale Games decided that Puzzle Agent wasn’t going to feature fluid motion but instead a kind of stop-motion movement for characters. Although this may visually alarm gamers used to the norm, I like that Telltale Games opted to spend more of their time on the story and puzzle elements than on animation that one could fill in the gaps on their own.

The characters in Puzzle Agent are another aspect that makes the experience entertaining. The town of Scoggins is full of peculiar personalities, ranging from the large, simple-minded sheriff to the borderline psychotic guy sitting in the hotel lobby. However, the best characters are the pint-sized gnomes that mysteriously pop up as the story unfolds. Believe me, these little guys can be unnerving and tend to disrupt Tethers’ (and your) quest to solve the case.

Article Author: Evan Mauser

Once a man only known for juggling numbers and finding broken stuff, Evan Mauser finally puts his literary skills on cyberpaper. Sure, he's dabbled with some prose and novel in the past, but he mostly spends his time listening to the guitar and drum. …

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