Puzzle Agent

If you've played a Professor Layton game, you know exactly what to expect. A point and click adventure game, but with self-contained brain teasers in lieu of the usual inventory or environment based puzzles. Puzzle Agent is more or less what you'd expect from an indie Professor Layton clone. Much shorter and less polished, but still quite enjoyable for what it is and very reasonably priced. I know this is a short review, but that's all there really is to say about this game (while avoiding spoilers, at least). All in all, I would recommend this game. If you're a long time Professor Layton fan looking for a quick morsel, or just want to play an adventure game without the infamous Adventure Game Logic, then you really can't go wrong with this game. Give it a go, next time you have an afternoon to kill.

I loved Puzzle Agent. I could see the many flaws it possessed, but from the moment I started playing, it hooked me in with the one thing I didn't expect: its atmosphere. Mild mannered FBI puzzle agent Nelson Tethers is sent to fictional town Scoggins, Minnesota, supplier of all erasers to the FBI, to investigate the mysterious disappearance of the eraser factory foreman. The residents of Scoggins are an eccentric, secretive bunch, and Tethers has his work cut out for him trying to extract information from them. But, as slowly unravels the mystery behind the foreman's disappearance, it becomes increasingly clear that there are larger forces at play. Puzzle agent is an adventure game a la Professor Layton, where the puzzles are of the classical logic variety, and are in self-contained packages, littered around the game world. There's no items to add to one's inventory; every puzzle is purely about deducing the solution from the given information. Each attempt comes at great expense to the taxpayer, and the amount of money spent on the expedition serves as a running score for your game. There are a great variety of puzzles, enough to never make the game feel repetitive. The puzzles themselves are generally fun, even though typically a little on the easy side. The only problem is that several puzzles are presented in a confusing manner, and would leave me occasionally befuddled as to what the puzzle was requiring. But, as I mentioned above, where the game excels is the atmosphere. The snowy Scoggins backdrop draws more than a little from Fargo. There's a constant air of mystery, an increasing sense of urgency, and tinged with a twist of menace. I found myself compelled to navigate through the story, to find out exactly what was going on. When I finished, all I wanted to do was play the sequel, or even just play through again. So yeah, I recognise that it's flawed. It's short, and it's puzzles occasionally miss the mark, but I still highly recommend it!

I was hesitant about getting this game but when it finally went on sale, the reviews convinced me to try it out. I got this and the second part together as they were both on sale. This is obviously a puzzle type game, but there were not as many as I thought there would be. It seemed to be mainly focused on the story. Without adding any spoilers, the game was basically a linear puzzle/story combination to where you need to solve the puzzles in order to continue with the story. When opening the map to select where to go, you can pick a place you have been to before, even if it is not where you need to go to continue the story. However, it is usually pointless to go anywhere but the next storyline step. I say usually because there are a couple of locations of where you can find some optional puzzles and you are free to return to those spots for a couple more of those types. As for the story itself, I think it was worth following. It was interesting with bits of comedy. The first game ends with a clifhanger but the second part finishes it. The puzzles were fun, but usually not very difficult. There were a few puzzles that made me stop and think a bit. The descriptions for how to solve the puzzles were usually good, but it wasn't until the Fish puzzle that the description was a bit confusing for me. I mentioned above that there are optional puzzles, and some of those have 2 or 3 parts to it. For example, the bug and bird puzzles have 2 more optional puzzles of the same type, just more complicated. It's no problem if you miss these optionals during the gameplay because after the credits roll, you are back in the office and you can review all completed and missed puzzles. I gave this 4 stars because this part was kinda short and the puzzles weren't particularly hard. I agree with some of the other reviews that part 1 and 2 probably should have been a single game. Either way, I think it was worth playing.

How do you make a game consisting of a string of puzzles interesting? You weave a plot around them, and use the puzzles as the means to progress that plot along. A hard thing to do, but Puzzle Agent somehow managed to do it. Sadly, it managed to do it so well, I cared less about the puzzles, which are repetitive and not very interesting, and more about the wacky plot. A wacky plot that doesn't get an ending. It seems you're a government agent, working in the puzzle department, and you're called to investigate strange happenings in a small backwater town. It sounds superfluous to a game that's a string of puzzles, but the animation and the great dubbing, as well as the mystery investigation, all draw you in. The dubbing was so great I rarely skipped a line of dialogue. But you don't really get to enjoy that plot. The town you're visiting is quirky & interesting, but you're not allowed to explore it at will, and what you do get to see is very limited. And towards the end of the game the plot seems to take a back seat to the puzzles. All of a sudden you can't take two steps without a new puzzle popping up, which makes things quite frustrating. The puzzles aren't bad, but they're nothing special, and some are repeated several times. I would have much preferred unique puzzles. Also, puzzles are either incredibly hard, or incredibly easy. Some puzzles took me mere seconds - some due to you being able to brute force them, and some took me minutes of head scratching & trial and error. You do get 3 hints for each puzzle, but the first one is vague, the second is a partial solution, and the third a complete solution. Which is a shame, since more often than not the instructions to the puzzles are what make the puzzles difficult. Also, for an interesting game, I was surprised at its lack of polish - lack of frames in the animation, audio badly recorded, and zoomed in graphics, leading to a screen so blurry, I had to look away. Which is sad for a game with so much potential.