Puzzle Agent

Puzzle Agent combines indie comic artist Graham Annable's distinctive narrative and visual sensibilities with Telltale's storytelling format. White House inquiries to the Scoggins Eraser Co. are being answered only with curious puzzles, so Nelson Tethers from the U.S. Department of Puzzle Research is dispatched to investigate.

The gameplay layers brainteasers, mazes, logic puzzles and riddles at every turn through Scoggins, Minnesota. Each puzzle reveals more of the larger mystery, including the clinically pre-occupied townspeople, secret societies and the peculiar sounds coming from the forest. And the gnomes. There's something strange going on with the gnomes.

When stuck on a puzzle, Tethers chews gum to help think. Finding and collecting gum wads around the town unlocks hints for the harder brainteasers. Annable's signature pencil-line aesthetic anchors the visual identity, and Telltale's voice acting and dialogue framing make the off-kilter setting genuinely creepy in places. Short and dense, with the kind of off-beat tone that's harder to find now than when it released.