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Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent
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Graphics & Sound:
Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent is a new, and original (sort of) IP from Telltale Games. While most of their games are inspired by well known, and long-loved licenses, Puzzle Agent sprung from the mind of one of their own, animator Graham Annable, though he has left his Creative Director position to pursue his YouTube cartoon and traditional comic series, Grickle, which is where Nelson Tethers draws its inspiration.
Annable's simplistic, almost childlike style is what defines his series, and that crazy look is very prominent in the Puzzle Agent game as everything from characters to the world have a very 2D and rough-edged feel to them.
Sound is another strong aspect of the game and everything from the voicework to the various background sounds come off clear. Of course, little else could be expected by Telltale Games since they always do a great job of converting the licenses' style into the interactive media.
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Gameplay:
In Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent, you play as the sole member of a little known branch of the F.B.I. Our hero spends his days in a dark corner of headquarters minding his own business and trudging through papers and trying to keep his mind sharp. Quite frankly, a lot of this setup sound like the events leading up to Agent Mulder's life before a cynical Scully is assigned to his division (is it a shame that I had to stop and decide if most gamers out there are too young to get an X-Files reference?).
Anyway, as the only member of the mostly forgotten U.S. Department of Puzzle Research, Tethers doesn't get a lot of business. So imagine his amazement when a strange dream and series of puzzles lead him to the sleepy and snowy town of Scoggins, Minnesota. His assignment will take him through a series of puzzles that don't bother to hide themselves in the story in any form or fashion. Because of this, the flow between story and puzzle is highly disjointed and completely breaks you out of the game's events to make you solve almost laughably simple problems (more on that later).
Granted, this isn't new, and there have been many games that have decided not to integrate the challenges into the story. Classics like The 7th Guest and its sequel, The 11th Hour from the mid-90's are probably my earliest recollection of some games. This isn't a bad thing, it is just not something current adventure gamers might be expecting. Because of this though, Puzzle Agent feels less like a pure adventure title and more like a puzzle/adventure blend. |
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Difficulty:
Unfortunately, one of the more disappointing aspects of Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent is the challenge level of the puzzles. Where I've always admired Telltale's solid balance of problems that feel neither too easy nor too tough, I found pretty much everything in Puzzle Agent to be a cakewalk. There were a couple of puzzles that took a bit of time, but nothing was anywhere near challenging in the grand scheme of things. Of course, this can be excused if the aim was to try and appeal to a wider audience than Telltale's standard hardcore adventure fans, which seems to be the case given the gameplay shift mentioned in the previous section.
For the times you need it, the game does offer a hint system. As you go through the story, you will find and pick up gum, both new and mostly used. These bits of bubble gum apparently help Tethers think better, so whenever you are stuck, using up a stashed bit of gum will grant you a hint to solving the proposed puzzle. |
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Game Mechanics:
Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent's biggest mechanic, the puzzles themselves, end up being somewhat disappointing. As I said before, they are generally easy to solve problems that merely take a bit of patience to solve instead of reasoning and logic. One of the possible exceptions to this is a puzzle that requires some foreknowledge of film negatives and trying to determine which photographed lawn gnome from a negative is no longer in a display. This particular puzzle requires a bit of working out as you not only have to remember that the images are flipped, but that the colors are as well, and since they are wearing green and red, you will have to remember that green in the negative is red in real life and vice versa.
Outside of this puzzle though, the game presents basic issues like putting jigsaw puzzles together, following lines as they zig-zag across the screen, placing logs on a ski slope so you bounce in the right directions (or similar situations) and so on. This game's series of simpler puzzles might be great for bringing in more casual gamers, but it might leave a bitter taste for some of Telltale's more hardcore followers.
While the puzzles were simple, the story was still fun to go through. In the end, Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent is a nice distraction for Telltale fans, but could very well be the key to opening up the genre to a wider gaming audience. If you are a typical Telltale follower and are interested in Puzzle Agent, then go in with open eyes and realize the game probably won't pose much of a challenge for you.
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-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer |
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows XP / Vista, 2.0 GHz Processor, 512 MB RAM, DirectX 8.1 Sound Device, 64 MB DirectX 8.1-Compliant Video Card, DirectX 9.0c or Better |
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Test System:
Windows 7 Ultimate, Intel i7 X980 3.33GHz, 12 GB RAM, Radeon HD 5870 Graphics Card, DirectX 9.0c |
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