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    Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent

    Game » consists of 9 releases. Released Jun 30, 2010

    Puzzle Agent follows FBI agent, Nelson Tethers, as he tries to find out why the eraser factory that supplies the White House has mysteriously shut its doors.

    Short summary describing this game.

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    Overview

    The first in Telltale Games Pilot Program, Puzzle Agent features art and characters created by former Telltale Games employee and creator of Grickle, Graham Annable.

    Story

    The game follows Nelson Tethers, an agent that is part of the FBI's largely ignored "Puzzle Investigation Division." After the White House's latest shipments of erasers stop arriving and are instead being replaced by mysterious letters with obscure puzzles, Tethers finally finds work. Further investigation leads him to the shutdown eraser factory in the wintry forest town of Scoggins, Minnesota. However, upon arrival, he begins to realize that things aren't quite as they seem.

    Once Tethers reaches Scoggins, he realizes that the eraser factory is locked up with a large, complex lock that requires a large gear to open. He talks to the sheriff of Scoggins, Sherrif Bahg, and learns that the factory's foreman, Isaac Davner, has been missing since the factory has been shut down. During his investigation, Tethers observes little red gnome people that keep popping up out of seemingly nowhere. The residents of Scoggins believe that the gnomes are nothing more than a myth, and call them the Hidden People.

    Tethers learns from the townsfolk that there is a group called the Brothers of Scoggins who believe in the Hidden People. Tethers goes to a lodge where one of their meetings is taken place and sees Glori Davner, the wife of Isaac Davner, to be participating in the rituals, along with three other men. Sheriff Bahg, however, shows up and informs Tethers to not be such a busybody. Tethers learns that the Brothers of Scoggins are holding on to the pieces of the gear that will open up the lock to the factory. Although both Glori Davner and Sheriff Bahg attempt to stop Tethers' mission to reclaim pieces of the gear, Tethers is ultimately successful and manages to open the factory.

    Once inside, Tethers finds Isaac Davner in a distraught and mentally unstable state of mind. However, the moment Tethers attempts to get closer and save Isaac, a legion of Hidden People invade the room towards Isaac. Tethers wildy shoots at the Hidden People, but the Hidden People are able to stop his bullets by simply catching them with their teeth. Unable to do anything, Tethers watches as the Hidden People take Isaac out of a window and carry him far away.

    Nelson Tethers returns to his office in the FBI Puzzle Research Division, with the eraser factory now fully functional. Isaac Davner is still missing, however, but that is of no consequence to the FBI: Isaac's disappearance is not something for the FBI to handle, but rather the Scoggins law enforcement.

    Telltale have mentioned that the game was made with inspiration from certain TV shows and movies such as Twin Peaks, The X-Files, and Fargo, as well as other works by The Coen Brothers, David Lynch, and Stanley Kubrick.

    Gameplay

    The gameplay is similar to that of Professor Layton, featuring condensed brainteaser-like puzzles within a larger story-based game. You control Tethers with a point and click interface as he explores the town of Scoggins, talking to and sometimes helping its inhabitants in order to gain more information and progress further through the game. Helping people will often involve solving puzzles which are presented to you with a short description and, once completed, your performance in them is evaluated, grading you with a star rating and deeming whether your performance was acceptable or otherwise. Agent Tethers is able the think better while chewing gum, but because the town of Scoggins doesn't get any shipments of gum until the spring, Tethers is forced to find ABC (already been chewed) gum, stuck on places all around Scoggins. Throughout the game you'll find these obtainable hints, and can stockpile them for use during a puzzle. The more hints used during a puzzle will affect your grading, with the total number of hints available during each puzzle being capped at 3. The last hint available usually gives you part of the answer, which makes the gameplay accessible to those people who aren't Puzzle Agents working for the FBI.

    Visuals

    The game's visuals combine Graham Annable's 2D, hand-drawn characters with a mixture between cell-shaded 3D, and 2D environments. The animations can be considered "choppy" and consists of far fewer frames of animation that one would expect to see in an animated TV Show or Movie. The drawing style and animation together lead to a distinct visual style that sets Puzzle Agent apart from any other game.

    System Requirements

    PC

    Minimum

    • OS: Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7
    • Processor: 2.0 GHz
    • Memory: 512MB
    • Graphics: 64MB DirectX 8.1-compliant video card
    • DirectX®: DirectX 8.1 or greater
    • Hard Drive: 220MB
    • Sound: DirectX 8.1 or greater sound device

    Recommended

    • OS: Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7
    • Processor: 3 GHz Pentium 4 or greater
    • Memory: 1GB
    • Graphics: 128MB DirectX 8.1-compliant video card
    • DirectX®: DirectX 8.1 or greater
    • Hard Drive: 220MB
    • Sound: DirectX 8.1 or greater sound device

    Mac

    • OS: Mac OS X 10.5 or newer
    • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo processor
    • Other: not recommended for Macs with integrated graphics

    External Links

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