When I bought the first Puzzle Agent, I went and bought the 2nd one as well, because both were on sale for dirt cheap. I’m glad I did, as it finishes up the story left in Puzzle Agent 1.
This game feels more like a DLC to the first game than a full-on sequel. There’s not much change in the …
When I bought the first Puzzle Agent, I went and bought the 2nd one as well, because both were on sale for dirt cheap. I’m glad I did, as it finishes up the story left in Puzzle Agent 1.
This game feels more like a DLC to the first game than a full-on sequel. There’s not much change in the art style, world, or gameplay. You can read my first review for more on that. If you were in the mood for more Puzzle Agent 1, this game has you covered. There’s no change up in how puzzles are presented or solved. I did notice an increase in math related puzzles this time around. There were more occasions where I found myself busting out a calculator to figure out the solution. They don’t reuse all of the same puzzle styles from the first game, they do mix it up a little with sliding block puzzles and the like. Outside the math ones, I found the puzzles in this game were much easier and there weren’t as many with multiple answers. One thing that annoyed me is this game gives you an achievement for every puzzle you solve. When it comes to achievement/trophies, I prefer the ones that aren’t just handed to you.
After witnessing the traumatic kidnapping of the factory foreman by the gnomes at the end of the last game, Nelson decides to return to Scoggins, MN to learn the truth for himself. Puzzle Agent 2 is basically a victory lap around Scoggins as Nelson ties up loose ends. The story does feel a bit rushed in parts and goes outright batty in others. You meet the sheriff and a local waiter again, both who previously tried to kill you, but it’s just waved off as water under the bridge. The town seems to be a lot more on edge during this visit. People have begun to go missing at an increased rate, but most townsfolk seem to not really care. Nelson does meet a few new characters like the college professor who is pretty chill and forthcoming with info and there’s a love interest who is as big a puzzle fanatic as Nelson. He’s smitten until he learns she has a crazy conspiracy room dedicated to Bigfoot.
The story does do a neat thing where you don’t immediately see the gnomes again upon your arrival. They show up later in the game and for most of the story, townsfolk are telling Nelson that the gnomes aren’t real. Even the gnome worshipping cult admits they’ve never seen them. It sets up this possible twist that maybe Nelson was just going a bit crazy in the first game, that there were no gnomes. Instead, the game veers off to even stranger territory and now I’ll go into spoiler territory. Turns out the gnomes are actually aliens from the moon and there’s a crashed lunar lander in the woods of Scoggins. That’s why Nelson’s had hallucinations about astronauts. Of the three astronauts, two went crazy and started abducting people, the third changed his identity, went into town, and started working as the factory foreman. Well, the government rolls into cover this up and Nelson goes rogue, allying with the gnomes to help them get back home.
All in all, this game is all over the place. It feels shorter than the first entry. And where Puzzle Agent 1 had a story that starts as a slow burn as you methodically pick apart the mystery and get sucked into the weird. Puzzle Agent 2 doesn’t have that same Twin Peaks style spooky weirdness to it that the first had. When your sequel is set in the same location as the original entry, it’s harder to do a spooky mystery when you the player already know what’s up. It’s much more a high adventure through a land of conspiracies. This game does wrap up some plot threads left hanging from the first game. And for that I can recommend giving it a play.
