It’s Like my Charade’s Answer
Puzzle Agent has an indie flavor with a professional degree of polish that makes for an enjoyable twist on the standard adventure game. Players will assume the role of (or guide the actions of, depending on your personal degree of immersion) FBI Special Agent Nelson Tethers. Agent Tethers works in the bureaucracy’s obscure Puzzle Research Division. While the title might cause one to think that this Division is home to a legion of agents, engorged with federal resources, all tasked with uncovering dastardly schemes of criminal masterminds, it is not. The Puzzle Research Division appears to just be Agent Tethers, all by his lonesome, and his primary job is to sit quietly in a basement office/storage room and solve crossword puzzles all day.
The story begins when Agent Tethers is whisked away from his ennui to investigate a case in the town of Scoggins, Minnesota. It appears that the town’s eraser factory has stopped production. His job: make the erasers flow. Why on Earth this somehow falls into the jurisdiction of the Puzzle Division is unknown. Maybe it is because you use erasers when solving pencil puzzles? Perhaps it is because there were some vague references to puzzling replies to all inquires as to why the sole source of the White House’s puzzles has ceased production? Its probably best not dwell on it.
The town of Scoggins seems to be perpetually covered in snow and is filled an assortment of interesting citizens who all seem to be aware of more than what they are telling. Some make reference to “the Hidden People”, mythical figures in the town’s history and may have something to do with the factory foreman’s disappearance. The entire game feels reminiscent of Twin Peaks and Deadly Promotion, complete with an awkward main character that narrates his own investigation. The dialogue and mood of the game effectively convey the sense that Tethers is an outsider disturbing a community that just wants to be left alone.
The game’s sound design is excellent. All of the characters have distinct voices and sound appropriate for the town of Scoggins which has a rich Norwegian/Swedish/Minnesotan heritage. The town is covered in snow and Agent Tethers is only able to move around on a snowmobile as it looks like no one is either inclined or able to plow the roads. The dreamy music and handful of ethereal sound effects really help establish a feeling of isolation in the community of Scoggins. The town, if you can even call it that, is well within the borders of America, but the FBI offices of Washington DC feels worlds away. The town almost feels dead; just like winter.
The graphics could either be described as minimalistic or impressionistic. Graham Annable’s take on the human form draws one to the expressive eyes of the character, but it does not provide a lot of detail for the rest of the body. The surroundings are drawn in a similar fashion that primarily conveys the impression of a setting, but virtually no details. It almost looks like every male character is virtually identical, bald men with protruding triangles for noses and no mouths. The Sheriff only stands out due to his strong enthusiasm for the moustache. There is no animation to speak of, merely a sequence of drawings that convey what the character is doing. For example, Tethers getting on his snowmobile is conveyed with five deliberately spaced images which forces players’ imagination to fill in the spaces and provide the actual movements. If nothing else, the look of the game is distinct, serviceable and definitely gives the impression that the game was worked on by a very small team.
As this is a Telltale game, it is probably easy to imagine that this is structurally a very basic adventure game. You talk to people and tackle puzzles to solve the mystery. The interesting part is that the puzzles are not strictly contained within the environment. When a problem is presented, an aside is made to an abstraction of the problem, a self-contained puzzle that does not require you to hunt all over an enchanted forest for a medallion. The medallion is right next to the haunted crypt, you just have to figure out how to use it to open the door. This deliberate insertion of puzzles into the game allows the rest of the game to focus of interesting scenery and characters, instead of devolving the screen into a pixel hunt where players have to click on everything to make sure nothing is missed.
As a cute touch, because he is a government worker, whenever an answer is selected by the player, our protagonist submits the answer in an envelope to the FBI. Depending on how many incorrect guesses are made, more and more money is added to a scoreboard reading “Cost to Taxpayers”. If you get stuck with a problem, there is gum scattered throughout the world that can be traded in for hints. These are particularly helpful with visual puzzles as the hint will make reference to various parts of the puzzles or will even show part of the solution. There are three hints for each puzzle, I never found that I needed to use all three. I rarely had to use any gum as most of the puzzles are fairly straight forward and should be no trouble for adventure game veterans. Logic, mazes, and jigsaw puzzles are all on display. The artwork in the puzzles is consistent with the artwork in the environments but is not particularly evocative or impressive.
Puzzle Agent is a good game with some excellent voice work, interesting puzzles, and makes a great alternative to LucasArts and Myst clones. Players are scored on puzzle performance, but there is no incentive to go back and try for a higher score. And even if there was, as you already know the answer, it would be child’s play to get a perfect score. So like many adventure games, once you have played through it once, there is no reason to play it again. But with Puzzle Agent, it is easy to recommend taking the trip through Scoggins.
Charade:
My first is the end of a good Friday night,
My second gives metric scales fright,
My whole is this game’s obvious inspiring light.