Puzzle Agent impressions!
Jake
Telltale Alumni
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What is the mystery of Scoggins?
What the heck is going on Scoggins, Minnesota? When White House inquiries to the Scoggins Eraser Co. are answered only with curious puzzles, the U.S. Department of Puzzle Investigation's Nelson Tethers is sent on the case.
As the government's sole Puzzle Agent, Tethers has his hands full: the strange case of Scoggins plunges him into a mystery that will challenge every ounce of his expertise, and possibly his very wits too. Tethers must overcome brainteasers at every turn, including mazes, logic puzzles and riddles. He soon realizes that these - along with the clinically pre-occupied townspeople, secret societies, and mysterious sounds from the forest - are intimately connected to the core conundrum. And what's with the gnomes?
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So you guys have been playing it a bit, I hope! What do you think? Let's talk Puzzle agent!
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Comments
Cannot get further though since my PC seems to be too slow and there is no option to turn down the quality setting like in W&G, ToMI and S&MS3. Or at least I don't see it.
The thing that threw me was how may puzzles. Everytime I click something theres a new puzzle to do,I was hoping to have a quick look and then go back to work but now i can't stop!!!!!
Well done.
The puzzles arent too hard nor too easy, just right! Well, at the moment anyway! Hoping they will get challenging further on.
The music is just perfect so far, and the voices are great -- the little Minnesota touches are hilarious (hot dish!).
I'm already hoping for a full season!
Money.
That's because there is nothing in the game that the "higher quality" settings in Sam & Max/TOMI/W&G use. There's no depth of field, glowing lights, shadows, etc. This game runs at around the equivalent of quality 1-4 on those other game's sliders.
Your best bet to improve performance is to lower your screen resolution in graphics settings!
Great job Telltale.
Also, a question. Since this is a pilot, is this thread going to be used to help determine whether there is a full season?
I'm having difficulties finding the menu though, what a puzzle! ;d
Click the puzzle folder icon in the top left corner, or hit "esc." That takes you to the in-game menu with stats and things. From there you can also go to the main menu if you'd like.
It's not an indie game, Telltale is a commercial company.
Hee, you're right! I hadn't walked into the hotel yet. ;0
The voice acting is fabulous, and so is the art. I'm not as bothered as I thought I was going to be by grickle's low framerate style of animation throughout the game.
This may have been inspired by proffesor Layton, but I must say I'm enjoying this a lot more. Layton gave you 5 puzzles at a time before you were given more story, whereas Puzzle Agent gives you one puzzle, followed by a chunk of story, which makes a lot more sense.
I'm suprised with just how cinematic this game is.
Have a feeling this won't be a cakewalk to complete. Hopefully it won't be too short a game. Think maybe I'll have another go at it again. Kind of funny how Telltale released it with only a few hours left in June.
Hope to see a full season
This one is fun though. Can I start quoting this game yet?
"Those guys brought it in when I ordered my pie... THAT I'M STILL WAITING FOR!!!"
Now, the other thing. For the most part, I had no issue with the puzzles. However, two gave me trouble and I don't think it was my fault. First is, "The Maw of Madness", which gave me trouble because I didn't know that if a hole wasn't filled, the "Logic" stream wouldn't continue to travel. That caused me some trouble when I came up with a solution that had a blank in it.
Other one was "Hydraulic Headache". Now, this one is, on retrospect, more of my fault then the other. Because the lifts are numbered, I assumed incorrectly that the lifts had to be placed in that order, which can be done in that number of moves, if the lifts had to be in order.
Only other thing I have to say is this. I hate to go back to Layton, but there was one thing I missed from that game that this one could have used. Drawing on the puzzle. It's not a big thing, considering I could use a pen and paper to help me out when I needed them, but for iPod/iPad users, this may be a bigger deal.
*NOTE: If I missed something that would have solved one of my complaints, disregard it. It's what I get for playing so late at night.
One last time, I want to state that this is a great game. I'm really happy I got it and played it in one run through. I really hope this goes well, because I would buy a full season of this in a heart beat.
I haven't had to pull out a pen and paper for a computer game in years. Thank you for this awesome, memorable experience. Way to go, team TTG!
Also, Gnome jump-scares during puzzles was brilliance.
First thing that crossed my mind was: "Ooh, this looks cool" and the way the assignment was presented was interesting.
After Nelson had been going around Scoggins for a while, I started to feel a bit bored. The puzzles were fun, but everything else was just him asking routine questions with rather plain answers. Though right after I felt that I walked out the diner, heard the joke about the tracks, encountered the first gnome and cool weird things started happening.
Now I want to figure out the mystery, but I have to go to work.
I enjoyed the newest Layton, but didn't like the story much at all. I hope the interestingness of Puzzle Agent will keep escalating throughout the episode(s) and thus end up better than it's inspiration.
Also, I like how the puzzles in Puzzle Agent feel much more connected to the world and the story than Layton's "This reminds me of a puzzle".
The puzzles in Puzzle Agent are connected better for sure.
But what really needs to happen is something more in the way of character development. The base for an interesting story is there, but not the exploration. There are interesting characters. The wife doesn't get enough time, Bjork doesn't. Sheriff gets most of the time and he comes across well, but you have all these people who might be interesting condensed into a two hour timeframe of gameplay.
I would have really liked more of that world and more of those people - and not like Sam and Max style where the characters are essentially joke walls, but something with some meat. I know Telltale doesn't really do character development (some efforts in ToMI not withstanding) but this is one area where it would have paid off for the game.
Overall it took about 3-4 hours maybe but I think I got my moneys worth. Although I mostly bought it for that 50% preorder deal. But I got a good game out of it. And pretty please more installments please. I need my puzzles and twin peaks part of my brain stroked more.
Is it as good or as long or as puzzling as Layton? As satisfying? All I know is I paid $10 for Puzzle Agent and I believe it was worth every penny. The music was beyond fantastic. Great atmosphere. Really loved the minimalistic artwork. The voice-acting was aces, kid! Aces!
Sure, a handful of the puzzles fell flat, including one I solved correctly (given the stated rules) twice, only to have it be rejected. I'm looking at you, final gnome-delivering bird puzzle. But it says something when I am so captivated I play through an entire episode in one sitting.
And, yes, I also have tiny scraps of paper on my desk with Bernie-Pop-Al-Iggy-Pearl-Flo-Pat scribbled on them. And
Second episode, please. Like, yesterday.
Grand job, Telltale.
that sums it up right there. I can play the others only on 3 and below. Anyways I played the game a little bit and plan on completing it. I did the first 2 puzzles (before I had to go) and I really like the game so far. The music is excellent the game looks just like handdrawn and animated which is a big plus.
I like the puzzles so far but was a little irritated that I did not need to turn the pieces of paper for the first puzzle (but I guess the first puzzles are designed to be a very easy start in the game, I hope I will see how hard they may get)
The music, story (or what I've seen so far), characters, and character voices are all really good. I also like the way you've done the cursor. I like that it sends a small radar out from the point where you've clicked, which allows us to see the hotspots for that area. It's a really good way of doing that, I think. Anyway, I'm going to get back to the game now.
Glad I wasn't the only one!
But yeah, I would love to know if we're going to see more Puzzle Agent or not, it was absolutely brilliant.