Way too easy! And too short!

[clb]

I've played all other TellTale adventure games, and for a change, I found it was actually very relieving not having to walk around looking for clues randomly when you're stuck. Just solve some puzzles, and watch the story unfold while you're at it.

The minuses:
- Way too easy! There were very nice puzzles, but on average, perhaps one in four was something requiring some work. Have a look at the Island/Castle of Dr. Brain and you know what I mean. Get me the expert puzzles with the NP-hard games! I'm not scared to reach pen&paper to crack these. I'm happy to sit down to think while listening some nice music (want more of it in game!). Make a difficulty slider or more hint options for those taking the ride mostly for the story.

- Too short :/ I was saddened by it ending so suddenly. I didn't really get the feeling of having "warmed up" for the game yet.

- Non-pixel perfect (/alpha-test masked) item selection in the jigsaw puzzles, and no bring-to-front on click. This made me so mad in several occasions. Inexcusable! Also, make the Reset ask for confirmation! (or give a "Undo Reset" option) Those connect the items -puzzles don't require much thinking, but still take some time to complete, and accidentally pressing reset instead of submit makes you lose a lot of effort.

- the hawks puzzles. Several ways to solve the hot hawks as other people have mentioned. The "how many socks to form a pair?" puzzle. The "Security Screwup" photo ordering puzzle. C'mon!?

The pluses:
- The bird photos on the phone wire. Great!
- The night shift time puzzle.
- Apart for a few cases, the avoidance of huge reuse of the puzzles.

Loved the cartoon animation a lot! Loved the music and the atmosphere!

Most likely, if the puzzles get more entangled (and I hope, even hidden!), the sequels are definite pre-orders. Thanks for the game!

[der_ketzer]

Originally Posted by clb

- The night shift time puzzle.

That was the only one that was not logical to me.

[LordKinbote]

Originally Posted by der_ketzer

That was the only one that was not logical to me.

It was completely logical, and had only one solution.

[doodinthemood]

it definitely didn't have only one solution. There is no reason why the last two shifts couldn't be the other way around.
Furthermore, it made no sense at all how the last shift happened despite the explosion, and the penultimate shift continued for an hour despite the explosion.

[Laserschwert]

Originally Posted by clb

Too short :/

Unbelievable that people still don't get the concept of episodes...

[richmcd]

Originally Posted by doodinthemood

it definitely didn't have only one solution. There is no reason why the last two shifts couldn't be the other way around.

I think Bernie's clue was supposed to indicate that the noise occured during his shift. But I agree that's not really clear enough.

[TonViper]

That's right, and one of the other clues tell you that Bernie didn't have the last shift.

[doodinthemood]

Originally Posted by TonViper

That's right, and one of the other clues tell you that Bernie didn't have the last shift.

No it didn't.

[NotFury]

The puzzles were too easy, and the only hard ones were too vague.

And how the hell approved that eraser puzzle! OMG!

With all the item matching puzzles and stuff (which sucked), it felt like playing a kids game. But it certainly wasn't.

And I hated how puzzles repeated so many times, or were just slight variations of each other.

[BoneFreak]

Originally Posted by Laserschwert

Unbelievable that people still don't get the concept of episodes...

Except this isn't *necessarily* an episode. There are some things clearly different about this:
1. Different Price tag. Sure, it's about $1 more than a regular Telltale episode, but those are just if you want a single episode, but it'd be better to get a full season of games to pay less (buying episodes seperately is roughly $45, compared to seasons' $35). Furthermore, a whole season is almost like playing 3 big games, and with a whole season purchase, is roughly 10 dollars per "full game".
2. This was supposed to be something to give people the whole feel of how the series would go. So naturally, they should've had a good worth of gameplay.

But then again, the game was released right before the deadline, so they didn't have much more time left.

[NickTTG]

Originally Posted by doodinthemood

it definitely didn't have only one solution. There is no reason why the last two shifts couldn't be the other way around.
Furthermore, it made no sense at all how the last shift happened despite the explosion, and the penultimate shift continued for an hour despite the explosion.

I just finished playing through the game, and this was one of my favorite puzzles. and YES, if you use your mind, you can deduct that it happened on his shift. He said there was a boom an hour before the last shift. Which means he was the 3rd shift, otherwise he wouldn't have heard it.

[doodinthemood]

Sure he would have heard it. It was an explosion, after all. The area is very small. He's expected on in an hour. etc. I assumed that everybody would have heard it, and he was just telling us what time it was.

[Urd]

@clb
This are presiely My points I have about the game, and I want to emphasize the Annoying selection Bevaviour of the Jigsaw Puzzles, my Fiancee got totally mad at this one due to uncontrollable pieces.

@Time Shift Puzzle
The Town is small, the area not necesarrily.
The Sherrif cleary said he didn't know when the explosion happend, therefore he didn't heard it, meaning: you can't assume that averyone heard it, tehrefore only bearny defetifely heard it, and the only person who MUST have heard it, is the person on Shift.
If you Assume Common sense like "It was a friggin explosion, they MUST have heard it", you can also assume, everyone looked at their clocks and remember the time.

Although, yes it may be weird to make shifts after the Accident, Pops shift doesn't nececarily had been done at all, the Solution would also work, if you assume, the Shift hadn't accured.

[nodoctors]

Originally Posted by doodinthemood

it definitely didn't have only one solution. There is no reason why the last two shifts couldn't be the other way around.

I completely disagree. The fact that he's the one that heard the noise an hour PRIOR to the next shift even beginning, proves that he can't be the last guy working. I don't think more proof needs to be added to the statement.

Originally Posted by Urd

Although, yes it may be weird to make shifts after the Accident, Pops shift doesn't nececarily had been done at all, the Solution would also work, if you assume, the Shift hadn't accured.

This particular puzzle is mostly mathematical. The key rule is that they all worked from midnight to midnight. To properly solve this puzzle, all people have to work, and knowing of Pop's specific 3 hour shift helps quite a bit. Attempting to solve it through the assumption that Pops' shift never happened leaves everybody else's shift times too ambiguous.

[kderby]

If this the only Scoggins episode then the plot left way too many unanswered questions.

If there is going to be a series that goes back to Scoggins and ties up all the loose ends, then fine, just make sure you keep track of all them and tie it up at the end. I don't want to live through another "Lost"!

[doodinthemood]

Originally Posted by nodoctors

The fact that he's one of the ones that heard the noise an hour prior to the next shift even beginning, proves nothing at all.

fixed

[prizna]

Originally Posted by kderby

If this the only Scoggins episode then the plot left way too many unanswered questions.

If there is going to be a series that goes back to Scoggins and ties up all the loose ends, then fine, just make sure you keep track of all them and tie it up at the end. I don't want to live through another "Lost"!

or Escape from Monkey Island

[Thorbie]

Wow. Just finished it. What an amazingly innovative game! I loved every minute of it...well except for the time I spent on that crows on the wire puzzle or that snowmobile puzzle tracking the hidden person... The rest were awesome. The animation is great. I loved the return to 2D (with the technology nowadays, 2D has no excuse but to be this perfect). The interface was very very simple point and click. I'd love a complete series preferably to solve the mystery in Scoggins, but I'd love another Puzzle Agent game set ANYWHERE. I love Graham Annable's drawing style and the humor is really refreshing and doesn't bash you over the head with gags. Am I the only one who laughed uncontrollably when Sheriff Bagh purposely rearranged the security photos and attempted to justify it? It was almost a joke to the player along the lines of...you're playing a puzzle game, what did you expect?

I also loved the parody of more traditional adventure games. I must have done hundreds of "rearrange the pieces" type puzzles in the last 3 Tex Murphy games, but let me tell you, never have I been interrupted and almost crapped my pants as a hidden person pops onto the screen and steals a piece of the puzzle.

I do think the game was a bit short, although I found it to be a little longer than the average Telltale episode (counting the number of puzzles that is). The dialogue was a bit limited, but the whole game sort of felt that way, kind of like an introduction to Scoggins. The game after all was just a pilot and I hope they're planning on making more.

I felt the game was overall the most easily playable Telltale game I've ever played. While I loved Tales of Monkey Island, it's kind of hard to pick and choose episodes out of order and each game isn't a consistent experience. Many times with other Telltale games the long and extensive dialogue (or internal commentary) can get tedious (Sam & Max and Strongbad) if you aren't in the right mood to hear it all. Puzzle Agent really streamlines the commentary (although Grickle usually has no commentary). Also I love Puzzle Agent's more limited location orientation. You have a single screen and typically can go inside a building, but otherwise use the map. I get more frustrated in other adventure games having to run around all over the place with no idea what I'm supposed to do next. I had no issues with knowing what to do next. In fact I think I would have liked exploring more with a slightly less linear storyline so we could explore the town in full as well as follow where the clues take us. While not perfect, the game's main flaw is that there isn't more episodes yet. Just an extremely unique gaming experience which really goes to the core of why adventure gamers are adventure gamers.

Btw, am I the only one who thought Mr. Scruffman was the Grickle version of Scruffy from Futurama?