Puzzle Agent 2 Review Thread

[MusicallyInspired]

Originally Posted by Ted E. Bear

I regret not being able to play a full series.

Indeed. 'Tis a shame.

[IsaacDavner]

I'm really torn on this one (expect the following sentences to be all over the place, ranting, and generally making little to no sense).

The writing was probably the high point of the game. It was sharp, witty, and oftentimes even hilarious. In the first half of the game at least, Nelson is a fantastic, likable character who is great to play as.

The puzzle were pretty good overall. Probably better than the first game. It was fun to solve them, and for the most part they weren't frustrating or obtuse.

I have to ask though, what is up with the "Nelson's Run" puzzle? Is that really what decides which ending you get? Because it makes absolutely zero sense. Someone please explain it to me, though I don't know if I want to go through the entire game again just to see it.

Also, since I'm American the coin puzzle didn't bother me though the Digits in Space one was a little bit annoying. The Monosaki one at the end practically killed an already dying game for me though. Seriously, you're gonna end the game with a puzzle about the Gregorian calender?! The full-circleness of the Lunar Circuit puzzle was awesome and I got it on my first try, but the last two required puzzles were terrible.

The story/atmosphere was the big letdown of the game for me, especially since Puzzle Agent 1 became my fifth-favorite game of all time because of its amazingly creepy and darkly funny story/atmosphere. I swear pretty much everything about that story was pitch-perfect. But I digress.

The game felt creepy when you first get to Scoggins, with Bjorn disappearing into the shadows and all. Mrs. Garrett was great with the not giving you a room thing and I was genuinely afraid to go back outside (it helped that the lights were off and it was late at night).

However, the story slowly went as insane as Nelson did.

It was kind of creepy with the Brotherhood member and the dead astronaut at first, but the Hidden People didn't make much of an entrance. It started to become clear after that that PA2 was abandoning everything that made the story of Scoggins Erasers, Isaac Davner, and the Hidden People so fascinating--it was set on being a wacky Saturday morning cartoon instead.

I can't tell you how disappointing that was for me. The game had some really funny moments, but they didn't mean anything because the plot they were based around was so weak. Government conspiracy, Ed Davis the serial murderer, astronauts going insane and randomly kidnapping and killing people... What was the point of all of it? The Hidden People were the best part of the first game, but they lost their mysterious nature and became the protagonists suddenly. They were still my favorite characters, but we didn't even get to see a fitting ending for them.

I would think that Graham and co. loved their characters as much as I do, so the only explanation was that they were rushed. How could they just leave everybody and every plot thread hanging?

Believe it or not I have a lot more to say, but I'll hold off for now. Anyway, someone please explain the action "Nelson's Run" puzzle to me. Also, where were the robot puzzles found in the course of the story?

My ratings are as follows.
Puzzle Agent: 9/10
Puzzle Agent 2: 6/10

Glad I played it and it was worth the money, but it was profoundly disappointing.

[Ted E. Bear]

Nelson's Run changes only slightly the game pre-ending, nothing significant, just Nelson is able to get free of the lunar ray, or he must get some help by bigfoot; if you replay the puzzle sufficient times, there's a nice easter egg of playing it with different characters running instead of Nelson.
The robot puzzles are just bonus puzzles present in Nelson's office.

[Weeblerjake]

Am I the first one to say that I really enjoyed all the nods to the grickle cartoons, like Space Wolf in space after the Hidden People whisper to Nelson?

[Ignatius]

Originally Posted by IsaacDavner

Anyway, someone please explain the action "Nelson's Run" puzzle to me.

You have to connect the icons in the correct order. The order is given at the begining: Nasa-Moon-Ecuation-Hidden people.

You have to click and link the icons in that order, before they reach Nelson. And you have to do it three times.

[IsaacDavner]

I get it now, thanks. I also found like some have said winning Lunar Run three times changes Nelson to Principal Skeleton, three more times is a caveman (named Dank or something), three more times is a cow (maybe from Bone), then the cycle repeats

I also loved the robot puzzles and in general I like a game a bit better now, still not nearly as good as the first one but highly enjoyable. Getting all the Grickle references helped.

[VJS25]

My full review here:

PA1 review (for comparison)- http://joegamesaga.com/v/2011/06/1308447014
PA2 review- http://joegamesaga.com/v/2011/07/1310257805

My main gripe is that this would have been much better if it had been merged with the first game and sold as one long adventure game. With some very minor editing of the finale of the last game and the intro to this one, it could easily have been one fantastic game instead of one great game and one good game.

Also, needed more creepiness that was so well done in the first game! Played it on a friend's computer, but will still be picking it up myself.

[jeeno0142]

Originally Posted by Weeblerjake

Am I the first one to say that I really enjoyed all the nods to the grickle cartoons, like Space Wolf in space after the Hidden People whisper to Nelson?

I think you are. In which case, I wish to second it!

[asyncus]

I personally felt there were too much pause between the dialogues, moving of character when you are not able to interact with graphics/your surroundings, where absolutely nothing happens, that makes the game a bit frustrating. I don't know if this is about adding gameplay-hours The puzzles were fun. I kind of liked the first episode a bit more than this one.

[Stephen Brooks]

So far... (by the looks of it I'm about half-way through) I'm enjoying it. I'm very glad they made Puzzle Agent 2. In fact I wouldn't rank it much below the first game, which I enjoyed greatly (like 8/10), given that it's a casual game driven by mystery.

The puzzles themselves are quite easy for the most part, but on the other hand if they were harder I'd find myself being driven to take breaks and come back the next day to figure them out (I did this with the forest maze).

I've also just played the Back to the Future games and there's a bit of puzzle recycling (and sometimes rather easy puzzles) in those too. If that's the only way Telltale can get the games out on time, then fine. Otherwise maybe it's not just the FBI that would benefit from a department of Puzzle Research. Increasing the quality of puzzles would push both games from "good" to "great".

[gamingafter40]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this at length, so I'll throw it out here.

The character and camera animation in Puzzle Agent 2 seem significantly improved over PA -- there are more subtle facial reactions and gestures incorporated, the performance timing seems sharper, and there's more visually interesting stuff going on in general.

It was most noticeable for me when talking to Martha Garrett at the inn early on, as her repertoire has been expanded quite a bit. But there are lots of nice new things here -- the panning shots in town and in the forest, more closeup shots of characters, more full-body animation, better and more committed acting (animation-wise.) There's also more attention to detail -- things we can look at that don't contribute to the story directly, but enhance the atmosphere.

Like others, I thought the ending seemed a little abrupt as well, but as one of the things I like about the Puzzle Agent series is a certain Twin Peaks vibe, I really can't complain about sudden endings. I've certainly played old-school text adventures that end REALLY abruptly and illogically, I was happy to go with the flow here.

[crashboy765]

Warning: This contains SPOILERS to the final game.

I really loved Puzzle Agent 2. They got the original actors back, continued right after the first one, old locations, all that stuff. Plus new characters, with my favorite being Jim. What I hated was that some of the puzzles were downright terrible. You have to know alot of backstuff, like how the heck was I suppossed to memorize The first eight digits of Pi? Is this game for kids? Something else I didn't like was that three puzzles cannot be completed until later. Now, this was common in Puzzle Agent 1, (The Gnome Stealing our Stuff) but here, you don't have enough information to complete it, so it just makes you wonder why it couldn't be saved until later. Also, the ending made no sense. I mean I know it's Graham Annable, and you just have to go along with his wierd standards, but I just didn't get it. Anyways, I did like this game, but, sorry...

I do not have a vote for Puzzle Agent 3.

[tabstis]

I loved the game up until the point where the men in black arrived in Scoggins. The atmosphere seemed to go completely out of the window at that point. The ending was completely unsatisfying, there could have been a a far better bridge if the Hidden People had helped Nelson destroy the Lunar Ray rather than Bigfoot, although I appreciate the reference. The fate of most citizens was left badly or not explained at all.

The standard of the puzzles was, as stated before, shockingly low and I enjoyed the overall experience of the first game a lot more. Too much of Puzzle Agent 2 seemed rushed and not thought out as much. It felt like the crude revelation of the truth behind the first game with a few nice new ideas (Korka, Professor) but the secrets really weren't that shocking to me, and I felt as though the Grickle style should leave the truth behind the phenomenon unanswered.

Lastly, there's one plot point that makes no sense - how did Nelson get back to the hotel after being captured by the Astronauts???

[Admonisher]

Was anyone else bothered by the lossy speech audio? I don't understand why game developers settle for this, when they lavish such attention on the visuals. Audio is hugely important to me, and it's constantly distracting when it sounds hissy and overcompressed.

[Tjibbbe]

I finally had the time to play this through a second time and really soak in all the details. Just a great game.

Starting with the negative comments: Some of the puzzles weren't satisfactory for me. A lot has been said about the coins and the pi-puzzle. I didn't like them, but at least they were optional. I also really don't like number sequences in general, but that's mostly because I have always been embarrasingly bad at them.

The good stuff: Everyting else, pretty much. Loved where the story took us. I know some people didn't like the weirdness of the last half of the game. I do agree that all the answers seem to come a bit too quickly, but I loved all of it. It pretty much turned into Idle Thumbs the Game™. The animation really got improved, like gamingafter40 said. Presentation-wise this game was top-notch. I loved the little detail that the puzzles solved before and after your deal with Ingraham still use the Puzzle Agent 1 stamps. All in all, there where lots of little details I liked, and the voice acting, humor, story and presentation were all perfect. If I have to show someone the best that Telltale has to offer, I would probably show them Devil's Playhouse and the two Puzzle Agent games (and probably ToMI after that).

Favorite moments:

The beginning on the roof.

The milkshake scene.

Your first night in Scoggings.

All the bigfoot scenes. Cool dude, that bigfoot.

The Hidden People finally talking to you, and all the scenes that followed. Gnomes in space! Insane Nelson!

Getting rewarded for completing the game with a perfect score. That's something I thought was missing in the first puzzle agent, but getting a few extra puzzles is pretty awesome. I'll never finish that King's Challenge puzzle though (although I am expecting some sort of weird King's Quest teaser after solving it, so I'll keep trying).

Principal Skeleton! I wonder if he's going to play a big role in Puzzle Agent 3, or if his appearance on the postcard was just an easter egg.

The return of 3D Dank! I love it when old-school Telltale gets referenced like that. Throw Suitbro in there next time.

So yeah, it's pretty obvious that I'm up for Puzzle Agent 3. Especially if that teaser at the end wasn't just a red herring. That character is one of my favorite characters from the Grickle movies.

[WarpSpeed]

With my general time constraints on playing games, I'm probably the last person who pre-ordered it to finish, but I finally did. I thought the game was enjoyable, not as tense as the first one. Most of the tension here was thinking, Nelson, you really ought to not be saying these things to this person you just met.

As someone in the U.S. with a pretty good math aptitude, the puzzles were mostly straight-forward. Some of them might be too advanced math-wise for younger players, though. There were a couple of puzzles I had to let run at least once to see how they really worked, because I didn't understand what the instructions were saying, but it was better than the first Puzzle Agent.

I wish there was a way to unlock the bonus puzzles without having to go through again and win everything on the first try. Like I have time for that. Anyone want to post a spoiler thread with screen shots?

[Scrummy64]

I probably enjoyed the first game more because it was creepier and more enigmatic, but this was still pretty damn good. I agree that some of the puzzles were kind of disappointing; not only were a number of them recycled from the first game, but some of them were even recycled and used twice.

Still, I loved it. The story moves at a fair old pace compared to the first game, which not only went very slowly but also explained nothing (that's in no way a bad thing) - the speed of the story in this game can be both a good thing and a bad one. We get a lot of revelations about the goings-on in the previous game, such as what the Hidden People are really up to and why Isaac Davner was 'chosen', but some aspects of the plot are still unexplained (such as why the astronauts were appearing in people's dreams) or just don't even make sense (the story regarding the lunar ray was incredibly messy). It's possible that some of these questions will be answered in the likely Puzzle Agent 3, but seeing as it's hinted that the next instalment will be set in the Bermuda Triangle rather than Scoggins, it's difficult to see how.

I also enjoyed the Grickle references, the cameos this time including the Sasquatch, the Space Wolf and Principal Skeleton.
I'm intrigued to see if the Puzzle Agent series will explain the true nature of the Madness, which many Grickle fans have wondered about.

[Courtenay]

I wanted to like this game. I really, really did. But even though the music was pleasant, the graphics slightly improved and the puzzles slightly more challenging, I just couldn't get past the story.

Don't get me wrong, I kind of liked the idea of the Lunacy device in the woods, but it didn't seem to go anywhere. I was expecting it to be the source of madness, maybe the Hidden People and Astronauts not really being there at all, but rather side-effects of Nelson losing his mind. But instead it seemed to turn into a cookie-cutter government cover up story. At least all the loose-ends seemed to wrap up neatly by the time it was over.

That being said, the dialogue was still pretty humorous with some darn good one-liners thrown in (Kitimat Incident, anyone?), but overall it just wasn't enough.

[Zappanale]

Well, I just finished it. I did enjoy the puzzles, even if a few had descriptions that made me go "b-uhhhhh?".

My only regret is being forever stuck on 24/25 pieces of gum. Now I'm stuck at my desk, it's a bit late now. Ah well.

[SithlordDK]

Originally Posted by Admonisher

Was anyone else bothered by the lossy speech audio? I don't understand why game developers settle for this, when they lavish such attention on the visuals. Audio is hugely important to me, and it's constantly distracting when it sounds hissy and overcompressed.

Yup, 1st part had good audio (speech) quality, but the 2nd got the standard piss-poor-telltale-overcompressed-audio-feature

The game itself was not as good as the 1st one but still OK (even though I wonder what happened to Dr. Verteckt, I thought he had more to do with the hidden people *verteckt = german for hidden* he just disappeared)

Btw. were the Puzzle Agent games influenced by Twin Peaks... the strange atmosphere kinda reminded me of that awesome series .