Honestly? TTG can do so much better...
I love the Animation, it was captivating and very effective in creating that creepy feel of a wierd town in the middle of nowhere. The game was genuinly creepy and mainly thanks to the animation.
The puzzles on the other hand... Some where fun, most were tediouse and the repetition really broke me. How many times can I do the same retarded pipe-rearranging puzzle? I mean, seriously, you can't think of anything better than yet another one of the stupid "travle the snow and hit all the X on your way"? There were 3 of these and another two puzzles that were suspicously similar >.>;
Basicly, I liked the idea, but disliked the execution.
Well for me, it was quite amusing. The animations were beautiful and the dialogues were awesome. The story itself was hilariously silly. But, there are 2 main problems. First of all, the puzzles all tend to be rather easy and silly, and the few ones i got stuck on were unclear in my opinion. Second, the game was too short. By the time it ended, i was expecting that I was just half through, with a bulk of tough puzzles coming my way. So for me, it felt like an incomplete experience, and I would have loved to be tested more than that.
I love it. It might be a tad more simplistic than other Telltale games are but that makes it better. The vibe in Puzzle Agent is closer to any of the classic Lucasarts games than any Telltale game has been so far. If I have one criticism, it is that it's impossible to move Nelson around the areas he's in. I don't mind whether its point and clicking ala Scumm, or arrow key controls ala everything since Grim Fandango but it would be good to implement some kind of player controlled movement so more exploring could be done. For instance, there were times when it was impossible to see some of the gum unless you clicked on the area where it was hidden.
I want more! I want more puzzles. Harder puzzles! More hidden people! More hidden puzzles! More creepiness! In the end I had more questions than in the beginning. I want to go back to scoggins.
I loved the game, but expected more puzzles to be scattered all over the world. You implemented a sort of exploration system, only not to exploit it enough. I want to feel like I've stumbled across something secret, a puzzle that not many have actually found!
The game was also really short, even for an episodic gaming thing like you guys do. I think I may have played Telltale Texas Hold'em for longer than this (though to be honest, that's a whole different genre of game).
ooh, creepy and mysterious; definitely reminiscent of Maniac Mansion or at the very least the creepy town feel.
This is undoubtingly a wonderful game; first off the idea of giving you a star rating on how well you did the puzzle is indeed genius, it gives you an incentive to try more and not give up so easily.
Secondly, the music and animation is delightfully moody and fresh, the ranges from piano pieces to eerie harp solos really established the intended presence that the scene required.
And finally the puzzles, some like the Hotel key one were frustratingly difficult, others like the bugs and fish one were incredibly rewarding and some were incredibly easy (slotting objects together so they don't overlap), overall a very nice range of puzzles of the frustrating, the hard and the easy. Therefore, the difficulty of the puzzles was just perfect for me.
Comparisons to other games? I never really could get into the Proffessor Layton games - the puzzles just seemed too abstract. Compared to your other games...not as good as Wallace & Gromit or Sam & Max, but definitely better than Strong Bad...(yet to play TOMI to give a comparison)
All in all, a finely polished game that ends too soon - I was expecting to visit the school and other areas, for that reason I'm in two minds on whether to return to the town - most of the characters were ones that although fun and intriguing, but they really don't need a second/recurring appearance. The red monsters (or whatever they are) are in definite need of a reappearance...maybe they could be the season's mystery, and they could be operating all over the country?? I really enjoyed the open-endness of the ending - and it makes me want more, just new locations please! And thanks to Telltale to making another gem of a game and again putting a big grin on my face.
One of Telltale's best!
I enjoyed the animation and the plot that gave me this creepy feeling. Some of the puzzles were good, but some lacked information given and hade multiple answers even though only one of them is "accepted". The length was good, but it could have been longer and the puzzles could have been better/harder. I also like that this game isn't as open as your other games because I feel that when you close it off like this the story is told in a better way. Crossing my fingers for another episode fast because I really enjoyed this game.
Wonderful! Played it at my friends today. I can't see any reason why a full series of this couldn't sell extremely well as a standalone Nintendo DS release.
Given the immense popularity of Professor Layton, this would more than please the appetites of the millions who bought that game, perhaps even supersede the current Puzzle Game Champion.
Just finished it. I have played Professor Layton and thought I should give this a go. I first tried the demo, but it never really interested me. Until I actually finished I today. The end of it made me want to buy it so I did. Took me 3 or 4 hours to finish, although I gave in to a few puzzles and used quite a few hints. The story was great, made me play want to play more and more. I would like to see more of this, just not now. Maybe next year.
I love it. Great writing, awsome storytelling, and a welcome departure from the well worn formula of TellTaleGames. This one actually made me jump out of my chair a couple of times (creepy gnomes) as well as made me laugh out loud. Another series that I will be looking forward to. Telltale, you continue to show me why you are my drug.:guybrush:
The puzzles on the other hand... Some where fun, most were tediouse and the repetition really broke me. How many times can I do the same retarded pipe-rearranging puzzle?
So I guess you complain if you're given a book of crosswords that "It's just the same stupid filling-words-in-boxes puzzle over and over again?"
I'm betting the repetition allowed the game to be longer - each distinct type of puzzle requires programming, but if you can reuse them a couple of times you get more gameplay from the same amount. I didn't find the 3-4 versions or levels of the same type of puzzle annoying (though obviously some on here did).
A friend told me your stupid game left him hanging from the celling 3 times exactly. (Ergo: He loved it, he loves the music, he loves Bjorn and those dammit gnomes!).
A most excellent experience! I would have liked to see some tougher puzzles, if not in the main storyline, hidden ones for people wanting more of a mind bender. As for the art-style, writing, atmosphere and everything that makes up the rest of this title was right up my ally. Looking forward to seeing more chapters under this IP. As there will be more.. right?! RIGHT!?.. right.
My impressions of the game were quite well. I think the game needs a little work. For instance, I believe there should be a few more things to click on and just a bit more adventure in the game. I think the puzzles should be kept because I thought they were kinda cool. Also, I think they should do a full game rather than an episodic series with the game if they decide to do more.
I wasn't sure entirely before I played the game how much I'd like a pure puzzle game like this. Now that I've tried it, I must say that this is not what I want from an adventure game. I can accept the occasional puzzle in adventure games and survival horror games, but when every puzzle is like an IQ test, it's a bit much.
So, while I agree the game is good - it's not what I want from an adventure game, and I'm not sure I will buy any more of them, at least for a long time. And from what I've read, I won't like Professor Layton either.
The atmosphere (just wonderfully Twin Peaksy), the music, the voice acting, the creepy soundeffects, the puzzles, I wouldn't change a thing!
Some people might think the puzzles were too easy. However, I don't mind a couple simple ones in between, as long as you don't put in some tougher ones as well. (BTW: I didn't find them repetitive at all.)
It took me two evenings to get through and that's just about the way I like it. I prefere games that don't take forever to complete.
I would definitely buy a season of this game in an instant! Go on, send Agent Tethers on his next mission.
I LOVED the atmosphere, the artwork, the gnomes, the soundeffects, the mysterious twin-peakish story, all of that. (Loved how gnomes would interrupt and disrupt puzzles - just brilliant!)
I also love puzzles. I loved for example Pandora Directive (ah, the nostalgia) because it was full of puzzles, and more recently Safecracker, which actually was just a series of puzzles bound together by a flimsy excuse of a plot. I was very excited about the game exactly because of the puzzles.
But.
Most puzzles were too simple. I spent next to no time solving them. The few that had me baffled, it was more because of the rules than the puzzle itself. I thought some of the puzzle rules were not very clear. Take the elevator puzzle: It was not clear that all the elevators would move at the same time, following the same command, or even that they would move one square at a time. When I read "an elevator will stop when it hits a wall", I assumed it would keep following an "up" command until it found an obstacle. Maybe it was me, but there were a few other puzzles that could be clearer in their description in my opinion.
Other puzzles, like the object arranging ones or the jigsaw-style ones, almost allowed you to cheat. Many objects clicked together while I was trying to rearrange them to have a better look at them! So what might have been an engaging puzzle almost solved itself.
All in all, I would really really love to see a whole season of this game. (Did I tell you how much I loved the atmosphere and the artwork?) But I believe it needs some serious rethinking in the puzzle design department.
The game is great, really well spent at 10 USD, the music, the characters, everything, just a few comments, story + puzzles + ending = great game. Make a full season please.
The room key puzzle was really hard for me, like really hard, had to check a walkthru only for that puzzle (only puzzle in the game that was that hard for me)
There is way too much gum available, I ended with plenty surplus.
I had to use real paper like crazy, we need some sort of drawing surface or something for it. I dont complain I love using paper for the puzzles.
The game felt short, sort of linear. The puzzles that required to form a shape are definetly too easy with pieces snapping into each other.
I really liked the setting, the world, the characters, everything, need more. This is the first time since the original Castle of Dr Brain that I love so much a puzzle game, but this one has an amazing story, but easier puzzles.
I'm really enjoying the atmosphere and humor, it's one of the best iPhone games I've played so far, and the puzzles are mostly pitched perfectly for my level of ingenuity ool. BUT - sometimes i find myself working out an answer which then proves to be incorrect not because of problems with my logic or working out, but because of the unclear wording of the instructions. I just flew into a rage upon finding that I'm only supposed to count the crows, not all the birds, in the Quorum of Crows puzzle. I was particularly enjoying that puzzle, too. The wording is not at all clear and caused me to fail the puzzle mutliple times, until i was forced to look for a walkthrough.
Good game, liked it was a few hours of fun play time. Nice music, nice story (the nordic people really spoke to me ). Would love to see more episodes, only thing which dragged the experience down a bit was the interface on the ipod/iphone where the string drawing was hard to do since it didn't always draw the string and the fact that the quit and submit buttons sometimes where on top of the puzzle field causing you to press them accidentally.
Thank you for give this game free in the BTTF pre-order. I didn't buy Puzzle Agent before because I wasn't sure about how exactly was the game. Now, I'll certainly buy every other chapter of Puzzle Agent you publish
The story is boring, the insane number of puzzles annoying, the graphics horrid (yes, I know why, but that doesn't help the fact that it IS a major eye-sore) and the interface is just plain lousy.
Nice music, one or two laughs, but that's it on the plus side.
Good thing it came for free with the BTTF pre-order, otherwise I would've been very angry for the waste of money. :P
the graphics horrid (yes, I know why, but that doesn't help the fact that it IS a major eye-sore)
Uhm, the graphics are fantastic. They match the art style of the cartoons perfectly. If you don't like the style, then there you go, but that doesn't mean the graphics are bad.
I got the game with BTTF (don't remember why I didn't jst buy it when it came out, I'm sure there was a reason) and have played it a little so far. Its certainly interesting and I think I would quite happily see more episodes of it. My only "complaint" so far is that having the pieces click together in the initial jigsaw puzzle guides you too much.
Oh yeah and the first few puzzles don't really set you up for the room key puzzle (where I've stopped for the moment). Its like it goes from easy, fairly easy (does the snow bike turn on the square with the log or before it, does pass traffic lights mean go over them or simply near by) to hard (room key puzzle).
I also thought the feel of it was great. Made me think of the movie Fargo. The puzzles were very simple but they were pretty decent. I would do more of these episodes if they start to solve what happens to the foreman and develop some more characters. I wouldn't pay more than $4.95 for an episode though. These are no Monkey Island. But they are pleasant in their own way.
Well, that was mostly fun, though I don't know if I'd necessarily want to play through an entire season of it. Perhaps if episodes were spaced out more than every month or six weeks....
One recommendation I would make, though - the hints were usually no help at all. Either I solved the puzzles without them, or was still none of the wiser after all three. (And why "hint" at soemthing that's either irrelevant - like 24 hours on a 12 hour clock - or which is obvious from what's in front of you anyway?!)
Just finished playing Puzzle Agent and I loved it!
All of the puzzles were really fun. Some I found very easy and others very hard, but I feel they balanced each other out and solving all of them was very enjoyable. Also I found the hint system really useful, I liked that you had to collect gum to use them and I often found I only had to look at the first clue to get my brain jump started; Helpful without being too obvious and spoiling the fun.
Annable's artwork is great and really complements the great story and characters. I would so buy one of those critters to stick in my window
Really great voice acting as well. Bjorn in particular got me roaring with laughter all the time. Yep.
I completed the game a couple of weeks ago, and it's still lingering in my mind. The story, characters and atmosphere are/is FANTASTIC. I absolutely LOVED the game. As much as I've enjoyed the other TT-games, this is the best, i think. Although some of the puzzles got a little repetitive, i still loved it.
Late arriver to this game (meaning I got it free with BTTF pre-order) and so have only just finished it.
I REALLY enjoyed it, but when the credits started rolling at the end, was it just me, or did anyone else expect them to suddenly stop and the game to continue? (a la Guybrush in Curse of Monkey Island when he "dies" on Blood Island). I expected him to basically ignore his boss and go back to Scoggins on his own steam and solve some more puzzles to get to the bottom of what really was going on there. Maybe that was the idea for Season 2 though... (hint, hint)
I would have liked to see more logic type puzzles and less 'move pieces around to fit a shape' (found that just by randomly clicking and dropping you could get pieces to attach to others automatically and solve 70% of the puzzle like that - the rest was then easy), but that might just be me.
Loved the game, especially the artwork, the atmospherics and the music. I was incredibly frustrated by some of the puzzles because -other people had said it as well- the instructions are not clear at all in some of them. For example, in the lifts puzzles, I had no idea what to do, because I didn't know all the lifts would move at the same time. In most cases I'd know what to do after the first try was rejected, but of course that hurt my rating, and :mad:
I really REALLY liked this game. Wanted to buy it after trying the demo, but I was still hoping for a XBLA release; now I gave up about Telltale's support on Xbox 360 and renewed my PC, got The Devil's Playhouse and preordered BTTF having free access to Puzzle Agent too.
The full game really intrigued me, I enjoyed every moment, good locations, wonderful art style, perfect music and atmosphere... Loved the characters, the dialogues, everything is both eerie and magical, creepy and funny, always coherent and without dead zones.
Beautiful concept and design, something different from both a puzzle game and an adventure game, the way puzzle-solving is being stuck into the story is so witty!
Puzzles are quite easy but not on the silly side, they're always honest and never stop you too much from enjoying the events; you actually WANT to solve them to see what happens next... And you usually get out gratified.
Sure there are possibilities to improve the experience, differentiate puzzle, adding more characters and locations, customize global difficulty and so on, but I've been impressed from the good quality of this pilot and would definitely buy a full series.
I absolutely adored this game. My only complaints were that the puzzles were very inconsistent in difficulty (some would have me staring at the screen for more than an hour, while others could be solved at a glance) and that the ending could have used a bit more resolution. I understand the ambiguity, but a tiny bit more would have been swell.
Thought the game showed promise, also thought it nice to see a different artstyle. Too bad I, like so many others, never got past the second puzzle. Planned to pick it up when I'd make my next larger purchase here, so quite happy it was given with the BTTF pre-order.
So...yeah, impression is it seems like a nice game, too bad it's broken beyond playability and made me hold off getting the Poker night at the inventory till I could check out if it had similar game breaking bugs.
Bit of a pity really since I've got so many other Telltale games which I hadn't had trouble with. Problems with bugs never really crossed my mind.
I got the game with BTTF pre-order. I sincerly was never going to buy a game called "Puzzle Agent", i'm not a puzzle fan, so i have installed it because i was bored, and it was free. Well, now that i've finished it in few hours i totally love it! The atmosphere, the music, the graphics and the characters were fantastic! I can't wait for the second episode, good work telltale!
Comments
I love the Animation, it was captivating and very effective in creating that creepy feel of a wierd town in the middle of nowhere. The game was genuinly creepy and mainly thanks to the animation.
The puzzles on the other hand... Some where fun, most were tediouse and the repetition really broke me. How many times can I do the same retarded pipe-rearranging puzzle? I mean, seriously, you can't think of anything better than yet another one of the stupid "travle the snow and hit all the X on your way"? There were 3 of these and another two puzzles that were suspicously similar >.>;
Basicly, I liked the idea, but disliked the execution.
Game is clever as heck. My first Tell Tale game. (Make more for Mac!)
This is a game which needs a full series.
The game was also really short, even for an episodic gaming thing like you guys do. I think I may have played Telltale Texas Hold'em for longer than this (though to be honest, that's a whole different genre of game).
Telltale Texas Hold'Em is the Telltale game I've played the most (I still play it once in a while) and I own all the downloadable ones!
This is undoubtingly a wonderful game; first off the idea of giving you a star rating on how well you did the puzzle is indeed genius, it gives you an incentive to try more and not give up so easily.
Secondly, the music and animation is delightfully moody and fresh, the ranges from piano pieces to eerie harp solos really established the intended presence that the scene required.
And finally the puzzles, some like the Hotel key one were frustratingly difficult, others like the bugs and fish one were incredibly rewarding and some were incredibly easy (slotting objects together so they don't overlap), overall a very nice range of puzzles of the frustrating, the hard and the easy. Therefore, the difficulty of the puzzles was just perfect for me.
Comparisons to other games? I never really could get into the Proffessor Layton games - the puzzles just seemed too abstract. Compared to your other games...not as good as Wallace & Gromit or Sam & Max, but definitely better than Strong Bad...(yet to play TOMI to give a comparison)
All in all, a finely polished game that ends too soon - I was expecting to visit the school and other areas, for that reason I'm in two minds on whether to return to the town - most of the characters were ones that although fun and intriguing, but they really don't need a second/recurring appearance. The red monsters (or whatever they are) are in definite need of a reappearance...maybe they could be the season's mystery, and they could be operating all over the country?? I really enjoyed the open-endness of the ending - and it makes me want more, just new locations please! And thanks to Telltale to making another gem of a game and again putting a big grin on my face.
I enjoyed the animation and the plot that gave me this creepy feeling. Some of the puzzles were good, but some lacked information given and hade multiple answers even though only one of them is "accepted". The length was good, but it could have been longer and the puzzles could have been better/harder. I also like that this game isn't as open as your other games because I feel that when you close it off like this the story is told in a better way. Crossing my fingers for another episode fast because I really enjoyed this game.
Given the immense popularity of Professor Layton, this would more than please the appetites of the millions who bought that game, perhaps even supersede the current Puzzle Game Champion.
My money is on my main man Nelson Tethers.
I'm betting the repetition allowed the game to be longer - each distinct type of puzzle requires programming, but if you can reuse them a couple of times you get more gameplay from the same amount. I didn't find the 3-4 versions or levels of the same type of puzzle annoying (though obviously some on here did).
So, while I agree the game is good - it's not what I want from an adventure game, and I'm not sure I will buy any more of them, at least for a long time. And from what I've read, I won't like Professor Layton either.
The atmosphere (just wonderfully Twin Peaksy), the music, the voice acting, the creepy soundeffects, the puzzles, I wouldn't change a thing!
Some people might think the puzzles were too easy. However, I don't mind a couple simple ones in between, as long as you don't put in some tougher ones as well. (BTW: I didn't find them repetitive at all.)
It took me two evenings to get through and that's just about the way I like it. I prefere games that don't take forever to complete.
I would definitely buy a season of this game in an instant! Go on, send Agent Tethers on his next mission.
RomanH
I LOVED the atmosphere, the artwork, the gnomes, the soundeffects, the mysterious twin-peakish story, all of that. (Loved how gnomes would interrupt and disrupt puzzles - just brilliant!)
I also love puzzles. I loved for example Pandora Directive (ah, the nostalgia) because it was full of puzzles, and more recently Safecracker, which actually was just a series of puzzles bound together by a flimsy excuse of a plot.
But.
Most puzzles were too simple. I spent next to no time solving them. The few that had me baffled, it was more because of the rules than the puzzle itself. I thought some of the puzzle rules were not very clear. Take the elevator puzzle: It was not clear that all the elevators would move at the same time, following the same command, or even that they would move one square at a time. When I read "an elevator will stop when it hits a wall", I assumed it would keep following an "up" command until it found an obstacle. Maybe it was me, but there were a few other puzzles that could be clearer in their description in my opinion.
Other puzzles, like the object arranging ones or the jigsaw-style ones, almost allowed you to cheat. Many objects clicked together while I was trying to rearrange them to have a better look at them! So what might have been an engaging puzzle almost solved itself.
All in all, I would really really love to see a whole season of this game. (Did I tell you how much I loved the atmosphere and the artwork?) But I believe it needs some serious rethinking in the puzzle design department.
The room key puzzle was really hard for me, like really hard, had to check a walkthru only for that puzzle (only puzzle in the game that was that hard for me)
There is way too much gum available, I ended with plenty surplus.
I had to use real paper like crazy, we need some sort of drawing surface or something for it. I dont complain I love using paper for the puzzles.
The game felt short, sort of linear. The puzzles that required to form a shape are definetly too easy with pieces snapping into each other.
I really liked the setting, the world, the characters, everything, need more. This is the first time since the original Castle of Dr Brain that I love so much a puzzle game, but this one has an amazing story, but easier puzzles.
Poor show.
Eco.
Over all a great game though
Yes, I solved all puzzles, that's not the reason.
The story is boring, the insane number of puzzles annoying, the graphics horrid (yes, I know why, but that doesn't help the fact that it IS a major eye-sore) and the interface is just plain lousy.
Nice music, one or two laughs, but that's it on the plus side.
Good thing it came for free with the BTTF pre-order, otherwise I would've been very angry for the waste of money. :P
May I ask why you're upset at the fact that a puzzle game has lots of puzzles?
Uhm, the graphics are fantastic. They match the art style of the cartoons perfectly. If you don't like the style, then there you go, but that doesn't mean the graphics are bad.
Oh yeah and the first few puzzles don't really set you up for the room key puzzle (where I've stopped for the moment). Its like it goes from easy, fairly easy (does the snow bike turn on the square with the log or before it, does pass traffic lights mean go over them or simply near by) to hard (room key puzzle).
One recommendation I would make, though - the hints were usually no help at all. Either I solved the puzzles without them, or was still none of the wiser after all three. (And why "hint" at soemthing that's either irrelevant - like 24 hours on a 12 hour clock - or which is obvious from what's in front of you anyway?!)
All of the puzzles were really fun. Some I found very easy and others very hard, but I feel they balanced each other out and solving all of them was very enjoyable. Also I found the hint system really useful, I liked that you had to collect gum to use them and I often found I only had to look at the first clue to get my brain jump started; Helpful without being too obvious and spoiling the fun.
Annable's artwork is great and really complements the great story and characters. I would so buy one of those critters to stick in my window
Really great voice acting as well. Bjorn in particular got me roaring with laughter all the time. Yep.
Please make more..
I REALLY enjoyed it, but when the credits started rolling at the end, was it just me, or did anyone else expect them to suddenly stop and the game to continue? (a la Guybrush in Curse of Monkey Island when he "dies" on Blood Island). I expected him to basically ignore his boss and go back to Scoggins on his own steam and solve some more puzzles to get to the bottom of what really was going on there. Maybe that was the idea for Season 2 though... (hint, hint)
I would have liked to see more logic type puzzles and less 'move pieces around to fit a shape' (found that just by randomly clicking and dropping you could get pieces to attach to others automatically and solve 70% of the puzzle like that - the rest was then easy), but that might just be me.
Game was too short for my taste, imho too
The full game really intrigued me, I enjoyed every moment, good locations, wonderful art style, perfect music and atmosphere... Loved the characters, the dialogues, everything is both eerie and magical, creepy and funny, always coherent and without dead zones.
Beautiful concept and design, something different from both a puzzle game and an adventure game, the way puzzle-solving is being stuck into the story is so witty!
Puzzles are quite easy but not on the silly side, they're always honest and never stop you too much from enjoying the events; you actually WANT to solve them to see what happens next... And you usually get out gratified.
Sure there are possibilities to improve the experience, differentiate puzzle, adding more characters and locations, customize global difficulty and so on, but I've been impressed from the good quality of this pilot and would definitely buy a full series.
So...yeah, impression is it seems like a nice game, too bad it's broken beyond playability and made me hold off getting the Poker night at the inventory till I could check out if it had similar game breaking bugs.
Bit of a pity really since I've got so many other Telltale games which I hadn't had trouble with. Problems with bugs never really crossed my mind.
P.S.: That gnomes will be in my nightmares