Upon coming up with a solution to the puzzle, even if you're obviously right, Nelson mails his answer back to the FBI who inform him whether or not he's hit on the correct solution. You'll also see the cost in taxpayer dollars of your solution and be given a ranking depending upon how many clues you used and how many wrong answers you submitted. It is an amusing little system the first half-dozen times, but it would be great if Telltale provided an option to skip these tallies as they start to eat up a lot of time and begin to hurt the flow of the game (which is already weak if you've been doing things accidentally out of order).
Flow is further hurt by Nelson's incessant talking to himself with his tape recorder. The story is narrated via Nelson's meticulous audio note taking, but when you simply want to go and do things, the sheer length of Nelson's ramblings becomes an annoyance.
The installation of the game also has an issue or two. Puzzle Agent 2 (as with other Telltale titles), has a slot for you to be able to click on the earlier episode in the series should it be installed on your computer or which will take you to the Telltale website if it isn't. On our Mac, while we have the original Puzzle Agent installed, Puzzle Agent 2 fails to find it and still brings us to the Telltale website rather than loading the original title. The issue may be a minor one, but it is still frustrating.
There is, in short, just a lot about Puzzle Agent 2 which mars an otherwise fun game. There is a bizarre store about gnomes and disappearances and there's chewing gum lying all over the place which you can grab (chewing some provides hints in the puzzles). There is a lot to like about the title, but it finds itself hampered by the above shortcomings and said shortcomings really stop the game from being all that it most certainly should be.
Puzzle Agent 2 is, as of this writing unrated, but the original installment was rated E for Everyone for Mild Language, Mild Violence, Use of Tobacco.
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