Puzzle Agent 2

Puzzle Agent 2 is a puzzle game dressed up as a point-and-click adventure. Lead character Nelson Tethers works in the 'Puzzle Division' of the FBI and returns to a town called Scoggins to investigate the unresolved case (from the original game) of the missing eraser factory foreman; Isaac Davner.

In each locale you visit, there are a few objects you can interact with; items of interest, people, or chewing gum. Finding chewing gum allows you to an extra hint whilst doing puzzles, and there's plenty of it just waiting to be found. Talking to people is done with a dialog tree and the characters are well voiced and fairly humorous. In the first game, the residents of Scoggins were constantly presenting Tethers with puzzles, but in this game it seems a much rarer occurrence.

When you are presented with a puzzle, you are given introductory text and the rules, then you have to solve it. The puzzles can be a variety of types, but there doesn't seem to be as much variety of the original game and mainly consist of picture rearrangements and mazes. I felt like the puzzles weren't integrated into the story as elegantly as they were in the original, which gave stronger context to the puzzles. Some puzzles may seem a bit vague, but if you don't understand them fully, you can take advantage of the hint system which gives you up to three hints. After submitting a successful answer, you are scored based on how many hints you used and how many incorrect submissions you gave. You might not care about the score system, since you probably won't replay them given that you now know the solution.

After completing the puzzle, Tethers will be able to progress to the next area. You don't even need to work out where to go next because Tether's tells you where to go, so it's just a case of clicking on the map. The point-and-click aspect isn't fully fleshed out and only acts as a way to dress up the game. Point-and-click games involve progression by solving puzzles based on your inventory and objects on the field, but you're never presented with these puzzles, which is a shame. The way it is presented is not a waste of time though, because at least it helps present the story which is usually lacking in puzzle games.

Like the original game, the characters act suspicious and Tethers must investigate yet another conspiracy. The evil looking garden gnomes known as Hidden People make their return, although now the plot introduces a group of mysterious astronauts. Although the plot is built up, it doesn't seem to reach the epic scale that it seems to suggest, nor does it fully explain why certain characters have acted suspiciously or what happened to some of the missing people. There's plenty of returning characters and the most prominent new character is Korka, who speaks in a strong European accent, reminiscent of Broken Sword's Nico. Like George, Tethers seems to take a strong liking to his new friend, so you think a romance may be on the cards, but she seems to go missing from the story part way through.

I really enjoyed the game's presentation since the comic-style graphics are cool and helps bring out the charm of the likeable and well-voiced characters. Some of the puzzles were great but I did find them a bit inconsistent in terms of difficulty. The majority of puzzles are really easy, but some are more cryptic, although most of those are artificially difficult due to the poor explanations. What this sequel needed was more puzzles and more variety, and what we got is a lot less. Many aspects of the game give you the impression that it was a bit rushed and unfinished, so in the end it seems like a lot of wasted potential and a big disappointment.