Puzzle Agent (WiiWare) Review

Nelson Tethers, the hero in Telltale’s Game next WiiWare title Puzzle Agent, is in over his head. As lead agent for the U.S. Department of Puzzle Research, he’s about to receive the assignment of a lifetime, one that will finally put his barely-known Department on the map. As you visit the small mid-western town of Scoggins to solve the mystery, you are quickly faced with a variety of puzzles that stand between you and the truth.

Telltale Games, best known for its episodic incarnations of beloved franchises like Monkey Island and Sam & Max, developed an internal pilot program to bring new game concepts to market. The first effort, Puzzle Agent, aims to redefine the company’s legacy by giving it its own voice and showcasing what its talented developers can do when given full creative license.

The resulting game is a point and click puzzle game in the vein of Professor Layton, where you guide the main character through the story and lead him from puzzle to puzzle, where the actual gameplay occurs. The visuals come from Graham Annable, who has produced indie comics in the past, and those sensibilities carry over to the visuals here, which are bright and offbeat, with memorable characters and environments. They are simple, but effective in conveying character emotion. The dark, thick outlines give the visuals a carefree look, sort of like a crayon drawing.

The story begins at the sleepy offices of the fictional U.S. Department of Puzzle Research, where lead agent Nelson Tethers is enjoying a typically uneventful day. But a dream and a phone call later, you find yourself in a small town talking to locals and solving all kinds of puzzles. The basic flow is this: You view a short cinematic, you initiate further storyline contents by clicking on the environment at pre-determined areas, then you are given a puzzle to solve to access the next cinematic.

The game doesn’t deviate from that formula, creating a casual gaming experience that can also provide some real hardcore challenge with its varied puzzles. These puzzles range from simple jigsaw type ones, to more complicated, multi-tiered puzzles that you will probably have to pull out a pen-and-paper for. Overwhelmingly, the puzzles are fair and can be worked out with varying degrees of effort and ingenuity. I didn’t run into any puzzles that I thought were purposely misleading or unnecessarily obtuse, but some were insultingly easy, and others were just presented in a way that made it difficult for you to figure out what you were supposed to do.

Besides that, the issues I had with the game were in the storyline. Although the game has a mostly interesting story, it plays out too slowly, and clicking on various objects in the game world that are pointed out to you by a cursor or text seems a little redundant. And of course, the heavy similarities to Professor Layton means that the game isn’t as unique as it first appears when you get past the visuals.

Still, Puzzle Agent can be immensely creative on its own. Telltale Games, free from the shackles of intellectual property, took a bizarre turn in this one. The visuals are unique, a fresh approach on character design complemented by a unique game world who’s only purpose is to guide you from one puzzle to the next. And as the puzzles become more fiendish, the slowly unfolding storyline will still be enough to keep you wanting to rack your brain in solving them.

Puzzle agent certainly bodes well for Telltale’s ability to work on its own intellectual property, and although it has done a fantastic job of bringing back the Monkey Island series to WiiWare, it’s always welcome when you can experience something totally new from them as well. Certainly, they’ve been avid supporters of Nintendo’s WiiWare store, but it was still refreshing that they made the decision to bring this title there along with all the other platforms, a sign that the company values the fanbase that they’ve built through their previous efforts. And Puzzle Agent is a worthy addition to that distinguished list of games that Telltale Games have brought to WiiWare.