gzsfrk
07-26-2010, 11:41 PM
Title: Puzzle Agent
Platform: PC, Mac
Platform Reviewed: PC
Developer: Telltale Games (http://www.telltalegames.com/)
Publisher: Telltale Games (http://www.telltalegames.com/)
MSRP: $9.95
Writer: Matt 'gzsfrk' Williams
Puzzle Agent Review
If Professor Layton were a narc...
As a young child, did you ever read Highlights magazine? For those not familiar, it’s a children’s publication targeted at grade-schoolers which contains learning exercises, coloring pages and (always my personal favorite) puzzle activities. Whether it was the “find these hidden items in the picture” pages, mazes, or the pathing problems where you had to follow a string through a tangled mess and arrive at the correct object on the other side, I couldn’t have been happier at school than when I was using my No. 2 pencil to help some mischievous little cat find its lost mitten through a tangle of yarn. Today I enjoy brain teasers such as crosswords and Sudoku, although I occasionally bemoan the lack of whimsical fun associated with such “grown up” puzzles. But with the release of the brilliant Professor Layton games on the Nintendo DS in recent years, I’ve once again been able to transport back to those days when puzzles weren’t just puzzles--when they had a purpose, a point, a story. Having voraciously consumed both The Curious Village and The Diabolical Box and now impatiently awaiting the release of the third Layton game (scheduled for release stateside in September), I was pleasantly surprised to find another game which follows the Professor’s formula very closely, albeit while having its own very distinct look and feel--Puzzle Agent (http://www.telltalegames.com/puzzleagent), an episodic adventure by Telltale Games.
http://evavhost.com/i/reviews/pa_2.jpg
In Puzzle Agent, you play as Nelson Tethers: the FBI’s top (and only) agent in the Department of Puzzle Research. As the game begins, Agent Tethers receives orders to investigate the mysterious closing of an eraser factory in chilly Scoggins, Minnesota. Upon his arrival in the quaint town of Nordic heritage, he sets off to uncover the truth surrounding the incident at the factory, and along the way uncovers a dark secret about the town and its peculiar inhabitants. While the story is by no means Pulitzer worthy, it’s very smartly written and engaging, with pretty good voice acting to boot. Rather than just being an incidental construct within which a bunch of puzzles were randomly placed, the story is engaging, and while playing I was genuinely eager to progress the plot and learn what was going to happen next. It also has a surprisingly dark sense of humor and--despite the game’s overall whimsical tone--there were a few genuinely creepy moments.
http://evavhost.com/i/reviews/pa_3.jpg
Aiding the story is the game’s unique art-style: a sort of rough pencil sketch and minimalist animation which is both charming and appropriate to the puzzle theme. Drawn and animated by veteran media and video game artist Graham Annable (whose previous efforts include work on various Lucas Arts titles including Full Throttle and Curse of Monkey Island), the visual style is reminiscent of the animated New Yorker comics you can view online (http://www.newyorker.com/online/multimedia/animations).
As for the puzzles themselves, they cover a wide range of brain teasers, from visual mind-benders to logic riddles to pathing problems, with even a few genuine puzzle-puzzles thrown in where you have to assemble various pieces to either fit in a given space or to make a particular shape. While they range from simplistic to fairly challenging, none of the brain teasers in the game should stump veteran puzzlers. However, in the event that you do get stuck, the game has a built-in hint system which provides progressive clues to solving the game’s riddles, albeit at the cost of reducing your score for that puzzle. On the downside, there’s a relatively small number of puzzle challenges; 37 to be precise. Considering the Layton games have over 130 puzzles each, that seems a bit sparse. But then again, those were full release games, so perhaps the comparison is a bit unfair.
http://evavhost.com/i/reviews/pa_5.jpg
Of course, the real downside to Puzzle Agent has to do with its episodic nature: it’s brief in duration and short on closure. While being able to finish the game in about 2 hours isn’t so bad, not getting a conclusive or truly satisfying ending initially soured me on the game a bit. However, once I came back to the fact that, again, Puzzle Agent is the pilot for what is intended to be an episodic series, I could actually appreciate the merit of the ending in that context. I just had to think of it like an X-files episode, where definitive endings and plot closure were frequently in short supply. But unlike X-files, for which viewers had the comfort of knowing that the story would be continued at a later time, Telltale has yet to announce future episodes in the Puzzle Agent series—a fact which leaves me anxious. For what it’s worth, though, the fact that I’m nervous at the possibility of there being no more entries in the series should be as strong a recommendation for the game as I can give, since I am eagerly anticipating further adventures with Agent Tethers.
So if you fancy yourself a puzzle jockey, and especially if you enjoyed the Professor Layton games, picking up Puzzle Agent should be a no-brainer. Despite the short duration and relatively small number of puzzles, it’s an immensely satisfying game with a pleasing visual style and a wicked sense of humor.
Score: 4 out of 5
http://evavhost.com/public/4.gif
The Good
Excellent writing, with an engaging story that develops between (and sometimes during) puzzles
Nice, clean penciled art style that suits the puzzle-solving theme of the game perfectly
Good variety of brain-teasers
The Bad
Fairly short, even by episodic standards; may be pushing the value-proposition a bit at ten bucks
The ending provides little in the way of answers/explanations/closure
Minimal replay value
The Ugly
The red gnomes—I see them when I close my eyes... MAKE IT STOP!!
Platform: PC, Mac
Platform Reviewed: PC
Developer: Telltale Games (http://www.telltalegames.com/)
Publisher: Telltale Games (http://www.telltalegames.com/)
MSRP: $9.95
Writer: Matt 'gzsfrk' Williams
Puzzle Agent Review
If Professor Layton were a narc...
As a young child, did you ever read Highlights magazine? For those not familiar, it’s a children’s publication targeted at grade-schoolers which contains learning exercises, coloring pages and (always my personal favorite) puzzle activities. Whether it was the “find these hidden items in the picture” pages, mazes, or the pathing problems where you had to follow a string through a tangled mess and arrive at the correct object on the other side, I couldn’t have been happier at school than when I was using my No. 2 pencil to help some mischievous little cat find its lost mitten through a tangle of yarn. Today I enjoy brain teasers such as crosswords and Sudoku, although I occasionally bemoan the lack of whimsical fun associated with such “grown up” puzzles. But with the release of the brilliant Professor Layton games on the Nintendo DS in recent years, I’ve once again been able to transport back to those days when puzzles weren’t just puzzles--when they had a purpose, a point, a story. Having voraciously consumed both The Curious Village and The Diabolical Box and now impatiently awaiting the release of the third Layton game (scheduled for release stateside in September), I was pleasantly surprised to find another game which follows the Professor’s formula very closely, albeit while having its own very distinct look and feel--Puzzle Agent (http://www.telltalegames.com/puzzleagent), an episodic adventure by Telltale Games.
http://evavhost.com/i/reviews/pa_2.jpg
In Puzzle Agent, you play as Nelson Tethers: the FBI’s top (and only) agent in the Department of Puzzle Research. As the game begins, Agent Tethers receives orders to investigate the mysterious closing of an eraser factory in chilly Scoggins, Minnesota. Upon his arrival in the quaint town of Nordic heritage, he sets off to uncover the truth surrounding the incident at the factory, and along the way uncovers a dark secret about the town and its peculiar inhabitants. While the story is by no means Pulitzer worthy, it’s very smartly written and engaging, with pretty good voice acting to boot. Rather than just being an incidental construct within which a bunch of puzzles were randomly placed, the story is engaging, and while playing I was genuinely eager to progress the plot and learn what was going to happen next. It also has a surprisingly dark sense of humor and--despite the game’s overall whimsical tone--there were a few genuinely creepy moments.
http://evavhost.com/i/reviews/pa_3.jpg
Aiding the story is the game’s unique art-style: a sort of rough pencil sketch and minimalist animation which is both charming and appropriate to the puzzle theme. Drawn and animated by veteran media and video game artist Graham Annable (whose previous efforts include work on various Lucas Arts titles including Full Throttle and Curse of Monkey Island), the visual style is reminiscent of the animated New Yorker comics you can view online (http://www.newyorker.com/online/multimedia/animations).
As for the puzzles themselves, they cover a wide range of brain teasers, from visual mind-benders to logic riddles to pathing problems, with even a few genuine puzzle-puzzles thrown in where you have to assemble various pieces to either fit in a given space or to make a particular shape. While they range from simplistic to fairly challenging, none of the brain teasers in the game should stump veteran puzzlers. However, in the event that you do get stuck, the game has a built-in hint system which provides progressive clues to solving the game’s riddles, albeit at the cost of reducing your score for that puzzle. On the downside, there’s a relatively small number of puzzle challenges; 37 to be precise. Considering the Layton games have over 130 puzzles each, that seems a bit sparse. But then again, those were full release games, so perhaps the comparison is a bit unfair.
http://evavhost.com/i/reviews/pa_5.jpg
Of course, the real downside to Puzzle Agent has to do with its episodic nature: it’s brief in duration and short on closure. While being able to finish the game in about 2 hours isn’t so bad, not getting a conclusive or truly satisfying ending initially soured me on the game a bit. However, once I came back to the fact that, again, Puzzle Agent is the pilot for what is intended to be an episodic series, I could actually appreciate the merit of the ending in that context. I just had to think of it like an X-files episode, where definitive endings and plot closure were frequently in short supply. But unlike X-files, for which viewers had the comfort of knowing that the story would be continued at a later time, Telltale has yet to announce future episodes in the Puzzle Agent series—a fact which leaves me anxious. For what it’s worth, though, the fact that I’m nervous at the possibility of there being no more entries in the series should be as strong a recommendation for the game as I can give, since I am eagerly anticipating further adventures with Agent Tethers.
So if you fancy yourself a puzzle jockey, and especially if you enjoyed the Professor Layton games, picking up Puzzle Agent should be a no-brainer. Despite the short duration and relatively small number of puzzles, it’s an immensely satisfying game with a pleasing visual style and a wicked sense of humor.
Score: 4 out of 5
http://evavhost.com/public/4.gif
The Good
Excellent writing, with an engaging story that develops between (and sometimes during) puzzles
Nice, clean penciled art style that suits the puzzle-solving theme of the game perfectly
Good variety of brain-teasers
The Bad
Fairly short, even by episodic standards; may be pushing the value-proposition a bit at ten bucks
The ending provides little in the way of answers/explanations/closure
Minimal replay value
The Ugly
The red gnomes—I see them when I close my eyes... MAKE IT STOP!!