All the way back in 2014, I played a game called Puzzle Agent.
With so many years before I finally played Puzzle Agent 2, it’s not a big surprise that when I started it up, I realized it was a direct sequel to a game I remembered nothing about.
Fortunately, Puzzle Agent 2 includes a summary of the first game’s story in the form of case notes, so I was able to catch up on what was happening as I returned to the strange town of Scoggins.
You play as Nelson Tethers, an FBI agent in the Puzzle Division. Unsatisfied with the way the Scoggins case was wrapped up, he returns to the puzzle-obsessed town to unofficially continue his investigation into unexplained disappearances, gnome sightings, and other mysteries that arise the deeper he digs into the town’s secrets.
Puzzle Agent 2 is structured a lot like a Professor Layton game. You visit various locations around Scoggins, solve puzzles either presented by other characters or found in the environment, and click around to gather hint coins pieces of gum you can use to gain puzzle hints.
The range of puzzle difficulty is oddly varied. A couple puzzles depend on you having very specific knowledge (like the digits of pi), while others are so easy I thought I must have misunderstood the instructions.
As for the story, I have mixed feelings about it. The atmosphere is great, the dialogue is filled with funny moments, and the mystery is compelling and exciting… except when I reached the end, I realized I still had questions. While the final explanation for the mystery made sense overall, it made some scenes and details feel out of place.
Some parts of the story just feel a bit rushed.
With that said, Puzzle Agent 2 was a fun game that took me a bit over 3 hours to beat, so if you’re looking for a bite-sized Layton-esque mystery while we await the next Professor Layton game, it’s worth checking out!
It took me a long time to notice the weird gnome thing in the title picture, and now he’s all I can stare at…
The Hidden People! Yes, the mysterious gnomes that live in the forest are an important part of both Puzzle Agent games.
Ah yes, Puzzle Agent was a strange one, but the puzzles themselves were decent. I believe I played this one, but it’s been so long that even my memory is foggy… Glad you finally got around to it haha
Yeah, I was surprised when I saw just how long it’s been since I played the first one.
Pieces of gum? Huh wonder if that’s a gumshoe reference
“gumshoe” is slang for detective, so it could be.