Created with indie comic artist Graham Annable's unique narrative and visual sensibilities, delivered with the distinctive Telltale storytelling style, Puzzle Agent is sure to challenge, thrill and engage in more ways than you can shake a cryptogram at!
Also in series
Released on
Genres
Reviews View More
I appreciate this Fargo and Twin Peaks-flavored Professor Layton clone for showing a town full of people pathologically addicted to puzzles and saying "oh yeah, their sanity is shattered from the ancient horror communicating with them" rather than having it be an unspoken eccentricity.
Sadly, no one comments on the main character eating used bubble gum off the floor.
Sadly, no one comments on the main character eating used bubble gum off the floor.
a fine game, no more than that
Puzzle Agent is a really charming puzzle game by Telltale and Graham Annable, The game is basically Professor Layton by way of Twin Peaks, and is from a simpler time when Telltale was just coming up with point and clicks after Lucasart's game division shut down.
Apparently Graham is well known for his comic series Grickle where The Hidden People and his art-style comes from, but I've personally never heard of it.
However, his art style is really charming and is a major aspect of what makes this game so memorable, even with the short runtime it's hard not to fall for a failure of a Dale Cooper wannabe who has a knack for puzzle solving, and the general style of the game is great.
However, if you look into it more than just a short one-sitting puzzle time-waster then you'll start to notice a lot of flaws, starting with just the puzzles, they tend to be all over the place, you'll have some fairly interesting ones, but especially in the second half of the game you're just getting thrown the same puzzle again but now it's harder, or now it's themed differently.
Often the puzzles are really poorly explained or unclear or just plain tedious to figure out rather than interesting, and it can be really annoying to be docked in your score heavily just because there was a rule to the puzzle never told to you.
Lastly the tile spinning and jigsaw puzzles end up being very trivial, as for the tile puzzles you can just spin them until the picture lines up decently, and for the jigsaw ones you can easily just accidentally click things together just moving things around, next thing you know you've got the answer in front of you.
Story wise it's interesting, but it feels like Puzzle Agent 2 should have been the games second half, rather than just ending, I assume it was just because the game was a shot in the dark, and they only continued on because sales were high enough to make a sequel worthwhile, but it just leaves the first game really shallow, you start getting into the depths of the mystery, and then the game just ends on a massive cliffhanger.
And often it feels like the mystery is just implied rather than actually being there, paper thin ideas of "oooo what's actually going on behind the scenes" when there's not enough going on to make it seem anything more like, yeah, this character has an explained mystery and this one is just cryptic for the sake of it.
There's also 3 jumpscares that happen during the puzzles, the first time it got me pretty good and was a nice way to startle the player without feeling cheap, but when they do it a second time it just feels cheap, and the third time it's barely even a scare and more of just a cutscene, so I didn't really mind it all that much.
Regardless though the game is still super memorable off of it's charm alone, and I seriously recommend anyone who enjoys puzzle games like Professor Layton to give the game a shot, it's not to the quality of Layton's adventures but it's cheap and short, and you'll probably come out greatly enjoying some part of it.
Apparently Graham is well known for his comic series Grickle where The Hidden People and his art-style comes from, but I've personally never heard of it.
However, his art style is really charming and is a major aspect of what makes this game so memorable, even with the short runtime it's hard not to fall for a failure of a Dale Cooper wannabe who has a knack for puzzle solving, and the general style of the game is great.
However, if you look into it more than just a short one-sitting puzzle time-waster then you'll start to notice a lot of flaws, starting with just the puzzles, they tend to be all over the place, you'll have some fairly interesting ones, but especially in the second half of the game you're just getting thrown the same puzzle again but now it's harder, or now it's themed differently.
Often the puzzles are really poorly explained or unclear or just plain tedious to figure out rather than interesting, and it can be really annoying to be docked in your score heavily just because there was a rule to the puzzle never told to you.
Lastly the tile spinning and jigsaw puzzles end up being very trivial, as for the tile puzzles you can just spin them until the picture lines up decently, and for the jigsaw ones you can easily just accidentally click things together just moving things around, next thing you know you've got the answer in front of you.
Story wise it's interesting, but it feels like Puzzle Agent 2 should have been the games second half, rather than just ending, I assume it was just because the game was a shot in the dark, and they only continued on because sales were high enough to make a sequel worthwhile, but it just leaves the first game really shallow, you start getting into the depths of the mystery, and then the game just ends on a massive cliffhanger.
And often it feels like the mystery is just implied rather than actually being there, paper thin ideas of "oooo what's actually going on behind the scenes" when there's not enough going on to make it seem anything more like, yeah, this character has an explained mystery and this one is just cryptic for the sake of it.
There's also 3 jumpscares that happen during the puzzles, the first time it got me pretty good and was a nice way to startle the player without feeling cheap, but when they do it a second time it just feels cheap, and the third time it's barely even a scare and more of just a cutscene, so I didn't really mind it all that much.
Regardless though the game is still super memorable off of it's charm alone, and I seriously recommend anyone who enjoys puzzle games like Professor Layton to give the game a shot, it's not to the quality of Layton's adventures but it's cheap and short, and you'll probably come out greatly enjoying some part of it.
Pull a gun on a gnome. DO it. I know you want to, it's all anyone ever wants. Be the puzzle master. The police? Questionable as always. That's why it's up to you.
Kind of like a more laid back Professor Layton game. I liked the artstyle, but it does have sort of a low-budget vibe. Puzzles are easy but relaxing for the most part. There were a couple which had some weird wording or were a bit unclear, but nothing too hard to get through. Story-wise it's pretty good as well, despite some heavy-handed dialogue (which btw is fully voiced!) and a rushed, mediocre ending. The humor didn't resonate with me entirely either, but I still chuckled a couple of times. Overall if you like puzzles / are a Layton a fan, definitely give it a go, given how cheap it is it's definitely worth it.
Imported from my Backloggery
Despite having enjoyable and sharp writing, that kind of reminded me of a Tim Schafer game at times, an interesting mystery and a cool vibe/art style, this game did not grab me at all. My biggest issue is that I really just wanted to see where the story was going, but I was interrupted by really annoying puzzles that felt cryptic and inconsistent. When I solved them, I didn't feel smart, I felt lucky. The way that they transparently make you feel bad for failing a puzzle bothered me too.
Despite having enjoyable and sharp writing, that kind of reminded me of a Tim Schafer game at times, an interesting mystery and a cool vibe/art style, this game did not grab me at all. My biggest issue is that I really just wanted to see where the story was going, but I was interrupted by really annoying puzzles that felt cryptic and inconsistent. When I solved them, I didn't feel smart, I felt lucky. The way that they transparently make you feel bad for failing a puzzle bothered me too.