Puzzle Agent

7/10 - Nice little point & click adventure in which you have to solve puzzles to make progress.

Didn't much care for any of the puzzles. I liked the story even though it was short and the artwork was good. But the puzzles were only difficult because the rules were confusing or because they lacked context. Otherwise they were all pretty easy. Only had to use a pen and paper on a few.

Ryan George Style Pitch Meeting:

Publisher (without glasses): So, you have a quirky little puzzle game for me?

Game Designer (with glasses): Yes, sir, I do!

Publisher: Oh, okay, cool. So, what’s the gimmick here? Is it like a Match-3, or—?

Game Designer: Oh, not at all! It’s a mystery adventure game where you play as an FBI agent solving puzzles to uncover the dark secrets of a weird small town!

Publisher: Oh, okay, so like a detective game?

Game Designer: Kinda! But instead of actual detective work, you just solve puzzles people randomly throw at you until the story progresses!

Publisher: Wait, why are people just... randomly giving the FBI agent puzzles?

Game Designer: Oh, because that’s just how this town works! Everyone here communicates exclusively through puzzles! You ask someone for directions? They make you solve a puzzle. Need to open a door? Puzzle. Want to order a sandwich? Buddy, you better be ready for a logic grid.

Publisher: …So these people have lost their minds.

Game Designer: Absolutely! This town is deeply unwell.

Publisher: Okay, so what kind of puzzles are we talking about?

Game Designer: Oh, you know, just a bunch of completely unrelated brainteasers—you’ll have:

>Jigsaw puzzles where you put a ripped-up note back together,

>Spot-the-difference games that somehow hold national security secrets,

>Logic puzzles where you have to figure out who sat where at a dinner party for no reason,

>And sometimes, a guy will just hand you a pile of toothpicks and ask you to make a giraffe out of them!

Publisher: Wow wow wow, wow. That is entirely random.

Game Designer: Oh, super random! You’ll have no idea how these puzzles relate to the story!

Publisher: And they’re all easy, right?

Game Designer: Oh, super easy, barely an inconvenience! Except for the ones where we deliberately make them stupidly vague just to watch players suffer.

Publisher: Oh, making people suffer is tight!

Game Designer: Right? Sometimes you’ll be staring at a puzzle for 20 minutes thinking, “This makes no sense,” and then it turns out the answer is hidden in some obscure dialogue a guy mumbled an hour ago!

Publisher: Very cool of you to do that!

Publisher: So tell me about our protagonist!

Game Designer: Oh, he’s this nerdy, socially awkward puzzle-obsessed FBI agent named Nelson Tethers!

Publisher: Oh, so he’s a genius detective?

Game Designer: Not even a little bit!

Publisher: Oh.

Game Designer: He solves cases exclusively through puzzles and has no real detective skills whatsoever. If someone confesses to a crime, he’ll still be like, “Hmm, I better solve this Sudoku just to be sure.”

Publisher: So he’s just bumbling through this town annoying everyone?

Game Designer: Constantly! He’s out here interrogating people who just want to buy groceries, demanding they give him puzzles. And the townspeople are all like, “Bro, just leave us alone.”

Publisher: So he’s deeply unlikable.

Game Designer: Oh, aggressively unlikable!

Publisher: Fantastic.
The Big Plot Twist: It’s Puzzles... All the Way Down!

Publisher: Alright, so what’s the big mystery he’s uncovering?

Game Designer: Oh, so get this—there’s a secret underground Puzzle Factory where people have been designing puzzles to control people’s minds!

Publisher: Oh my god.

Game Designer: Right?! So you’re solving puzzles to figure out how the puzzle factory works, and—wait for it—you have to solve puzzles to STOP the puzzles!

Publisher: Wow wow wow. Wow.

Game Designer: It’s puzzles inside of puzzles inside of puzzles!

Publisher: That just sounds like a nightmare.

Game Designer: Oh, absolutely!
The Villain: A Very Polite, Very Ineffective Bad Guy!

Publisher: So who’s the big bad guy here?

Game Designer: Oh, it’s this creepy old man running the Puzzle Factory, and he’s just… incredibly weird.

Publisher: Oh, is he like super evil?

Game Designer: Not really! He just kinda stands around being mysterious.

Publisher: So he just lets the FBI agent shut down his whole operation?

Game Designer: Oh, for sure. He doesn’t really stop you at all. If anything, he’s kinda helpful.

Publisher: Wow, very considerate!

Game Designer: Right?! He’ll ominously be like “You’ll never uncover the truth...” and then immediately gives you a puzzle that reveals everything.

Publisher: That’s... the worst villain I’ve ever heard of.

Game Designer: Thank you!

Publisher: So let me get this straight—this is a game where:

✔ You solve a bunch of random puzzles that barely connect to the story...
✔ You play as a super annoying, socially awkward FBI agent...
✔ The villain is polite and doesn’t do much...
✔ And the puzzles suddenly spike in difficulty just to make players miserable?

Game Designer: That’s exactly it!

Publisher: Well, okay then!

Game Designer: Great!

Publisher: Wow wow wow. I’m just… I’m speechless. What else you got?

Game Designer: Oh, well, I was also thinking of adding a level where you have to... solve a puzzle to open a door... and then solve a puzzle to close the door... Very deep!

Publisher: What?

Game Designer: What?

Publisher: Well, okay then!

Game Designer: Great!

[hr]

The SUS Files: Sussy Erasers – The Crewmate Clue

[Scene: FBI Office – Night]

Mulder’s desk is a disaster—"Puzzle Agent" screenshots, red string, erasers, and suspicious cheese slices cover every surface. A crude map of vents labeled "SUS?" is pinned to the wall. Scully enters, already regretting this conversation.
Mulder’s Descent into Madness

Mulder: Scully, the Hidden People… they’re venting. They’re among us.

Scully: Mulder, it’s a puzzle game.

Mulder: No! It's a confession disguised as a game! Nelson Tethers? An FBI agent investigating a puzzle-based conspiracy? Too convenient, Scully. This game is trying to tell us something!

Scully: It’s telling us to solve puzzles.

Mulder: Exactly! It’s conditioning us to obey orders! The factory, the cheese, the erasers—it’s all a distraction! A mind-control experiment!
The Puzzle Agent Breakdown

✔ You play as Nelson Tethers, a socially awkward FBI agent sent to investigate a shutdown at an eraser factory.
✔ Instead of real detective work, you must solve a series of increasingly bizarre puzzles because… reasons.
✔ At first, it’s fun—spot-the-difference, jigsaw puzzles, logic riddles. Then suddenly, you’re deciphering cryptic nonsense created by an eldritch being.
✔ The town is full of weirdos who either ignore you or drop ominous hints. The villain? An old man who barely does anything.
✔ The game ends just when things get interesting. No closure. Just an abrupt stop.
The Realization

Scully sighs, picking up an eraser. She pauses.

It’s simple. Too simple. A rounded, minimalistic form… almost like… like a…

Scully: Mulder… this… this eraser…

She turns it over. A faint, visor-like indentation. A chill runs down her spine.

Scully glances at Mulder’s conspiracy board. The red string forms… a crewmate.
The Final Revelation

A notification pings from Mulder’s laptop.

NEW PLAYER HAS JOINED THE GAME.

The screen flickers. A dark, crewmate-like figure lingers at the edge. Its unblinking eye stares at them.

A single red message appears:

"SUSPECT DETECTED. ELIMINATING WITNESSES."

The office light flickers. A vent slides open.

[EMERGENCY MEETING SOUND EFFECT]

[FADE TO BLACK]

Final Thoughts

Mulder’s Review:
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4/5 Suspicious Erasers!) – Weird, fun, but unsettling. Puzzle difficulty ranges from “cute” to “this was written by a cryptid.”

Scully’s Review:
⭐☆☆☆☆ (1/5 Crewmate Erasers!) – "Mulder lost his mind over this game. I fear for him."

Final Verdict? A great indie game… or a government psyop. Either way, we recommend it.

[END]

[hr]

In Scoggins cold, where secrets hide,
Nelson Tethers must decide.
Puzzles twist, the answers tease,
Erasers lurk, cheese brings unease.
Hidden whispers, truth untold,
Mind erased, the case runs cold.

Really good humor and entertaining puzzles.
A game I loved coming back to.

I don't usually play point & clicks or puzzle games but really enjoyed the Twin Peaks in Northern Minnesota vibe of this one. Most of the puzzles were achievable, I definitely used the popular Steam guide to cheat on the hard ones. Overall great experience.

I like Fargo.
I like Twin Peaks.
The puzzles are good.
The characters are funny.

This is is a fine game.

An interesting and off-beat comedic mystery game. It wears the Fargo and Twin Peaks inspirations on it's sleeve. A lot of the puzzles feel poorly explained, like they were just missing an extra page of text. Honestly there should just be a 'test' button before you submit your solution, but the story is interesting enough to carry it for the few hours it takes to beat it. The art was strange at first, but I actually grew to love it. Great voice acting all around, in my opinion.

this game is great! hope they make a sequel!

I am afraid I actually would hesitate to recommend Puzzle Agent to everyone, but to me personally it is a very special game. I keep returning to Scoggins Minnesota every winter, impatiently waiting for my visit during the rest of the year, just to meet again Isaac Davner, Martha, Bjorn, Glori and others (my favourite character being Alfred from Puzzle Agent 2). I wish I could do cross-country skiing there in winters (and spend my summers at the beaches of Plunder Island as depicted in Monkey Island 3). And if I were a billionaire, I would certainly sponsored creating as many Puzzle Agent sequels as I would be able to afford - the game as it stands now is clearly unfinished, with some bizarre moments not explained and lots of missing people to be found (though most likely in psychiatric institutions).

Wait, I thought I bought a game with a white big doggo wearing a brown cap as a protagonist... He's hooman.

Highly underrated.

This review is powered by red wine.
This game is fucking amazing, the storyline is gripping, the puzzles are enter-fucking-taining. Its a great game to play with others locally, not like anything we've played before. Puzzle agent 2 is great aswell, with this 90% discount on at the moment its really a no brainer/

Played on Steam Deck: 720@60 on 6 watts

Its Fargo with puzzles instead of murder.

More Steam Deck Reviews here: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43052238-Ideal-for-Deck

cons: a little easy
pros: everything else

Wow it suprised me how much i loved this.

Its a very short story, but its got impact. The mystery, the humor, the music, the exciting moments of spooky tension. Like its legitimately a great story that is perfectly balanced in tone.

The puzzles can get REALLY tricky. some i just straight up guessed. Others where really great. And others, i wouldnt have failed if they had explained the rules better. But most of them were very engaging and a ton of variety to the puzzles.

So while i might have been frustrated sometimes i had a blast.

Fun short visual novel with puzzles. Most puzzles are quite easy but some are pretty hard. Story has horror/mystery & comedy elements.
Reminds me of the game "Professor Layton".

Cool hand-drawn style. Great voice acting & music.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3388613080
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3389526672
Worth checking out👍

Fun little game with an unique art and animation style

Such a fun story line! Some of the puzzles really stumped my brain (AGHHH MATH) and I got jump scared by a gnome lol. Would recommend.

its layton in canada for very cheap. just get it

Puzzle Agent is a very fun story based puzzle game, i would recommend this game because of the art and vibes The story in this game is also amazing and very enjoyable. all of the mechanics are perfect and overall I wouldn't change anything. in conclusion you should play this game

Thank's Ross.

spent way too long on some puzzles than i'd like to admit. the puzzle descriptions sometimes can be a bit "misleading" which made me got few of the puzzles wrong on the first try, decided to open a hint, only to realize that what the puzzle meant is different than what i initially thought it was.
but overall a solid little game with a really charming presentation :)

Funny Little Puzzle Game 10/10.
Takes about 4-5 hrs to beat.
Had more fun with this $1 game than i did with $120 AAA games.

Wonderful little game. Grab a snack, a drink and spend an afternoon on it, you won't regret.

Slow paced and not for the people who like speed. Most conversations seem to drag on and the story isn't that interesting.

It takes around 6 hours to complete both this and the second one, and I do recommend playing them together.

It's really good, too bad the second game kinda ruins it with the asinine plot and baffling twist.
7/10

pros

✅ cartoony and cute hand drawn background artwork and character models
✅ an intriguing detective story. you're playing an FBI agent who investigates why the factory that supplies the White House’s erasers has suddenly stopped production in a small town.
✅ there are nice variety and fun to solve puzzles
✅ well made cartoony cutscenes
✅ charming, likeable, quirky main and side characters
✅ there are some nice and relaxing background musics
✅ decent voice acting
✅ there are in game collectibles
✅ there is a quick travel map, which prevents some backtracking
✅ you can get hints when you're stuck in a puzzle

cons

❌ game is short
❌ unskippable closing credits
❌ there is no manual save. only auto save
❌ some very easy puzzles (if you want to some challenge)
❌ there are no steam achievements and cards
❌ some of the puzzles are re-used
❌ the game presents half of a story, and it concludes abruptly with a cliffhanger.

Overall, this is an decent point and click puzzle game.

i suck at puzzles but i want to play this game

It's kinda unique from what I've played before from Telltale, this is a great one too

Un-tethering this mystery was was mind-full...

Super fun, kind of short game. Came across some easy puzzles, simply completed by visual graphics and moving pieces around, and extremely difficult puzzles to anyone who is not good at wordplay or thinking outside the box (I.E. myself when I haven't had enough sleep). One puzzle I found was a lot like a PLC Progamming puzzle... kind of fun.

Highly recommended to anyone who is inerested in puzzles with eerie story moments and on-par voice acting. Oh, and nicely-done artwork..

While I think some of the puzzles could use better explanations, this game was a blast to stream and play with other viewers. Definitely worth its price. I will be playing its sequel soon as well- I've already purchased it.

Starts off easy and starts getting much more difficult. Fresh and entertaining

I liked the game! I thought some parts of the puzzle were difficult but the story was good! Would recommend.

Ross's Game Dungeon, but real.

Some great puzzles to solve and a interesting and funny plot so far!

Quite nice, not too difficult.
Could have been longer or with a more fleshed out ending.

Pretty good

Ingesting story and puzzles, it was good. some puzzles were dumb as hell especially the gear puzzle

I love the art style, I love the humor, the puzzles are fun, and Scoggins is delightfully weird and creepy in just the right way. If you like puzzles, you'll like this game.

As a fan of Graham Annable, aka Grickle, I was thrilled to discover that he had collaborated with Telltale Games to create Puzzle Agent. Grickle’s distinctive style shines through in this point-and-click adventure, making it an enjoyable experience for anyone familiar with his work.

The game immerses you in the town of Scoggins, where you help the main character, Nelson Tethers, solve puzzles to uncover the mystery behind the closure of the Scoggins eraser factory. Reflecting Grickle’s style, the game and its characters exude a charming eccentricity that echoes the nature of his animations.

The puzzles present a mixed bag in terms of difficulty. While some are easy to solve, others are challenging to the point of frustration. This inconsistency can sometimes detract from the overall experience, as the varying difficulty levels may disrupt the flow of gameplay. However, despite these frustrations, the game’s charm and engaging mystery keep it enjoyable.

Though it doesn’t take long to finish, the game leaves a positive impression. It’s a fun and intriguing mystery that perfectly blends Grickle’s unique aesthetic with challenging puzzles, making for a memorable and entertaining experience. Whether you’re a fan of Grickle’s animations or just looking for a charming puzzle game, Puzzle Agent is definitely worth checking out.

Good puzzle game

didn't like it

ඞ

Good but some puzzles can be confusing(7/10)