[Subtitles by danielsangeo] Okay, quiet. We gotta wait for the monkey. [monkey cries] All right, now we can start. Merry Game Dungeon. Welcome the
Christmas episode for "Puzzle Agent". Now unlike "Still Life", this
isn't technically a Christmas game, but it may as well be. We have snow everywhere, Santa, his helpers, reindeer... So, yeah, it doesn't get much
more Christmas than this. So, we start the game and
you play as Nelson Tethers, and you're an agent working
in the FBI's Puzzle Division. Now, I don't know if the FBI
actually has a Puzzle Division; that seems more like something
the NSA or CIA would have, but we all know agencies
have their rivalries so I wouldn't put it past them. Yeah, see? So you start your day solving puzzles when you get a call from your superiors
sending you out into the field. A Minnesota factory responsible for
manufacturing erasers for the White House has been shut down and they
want you to investigate. This is a surprise for Nelson
because he has a desk job and isn't much of a field agent. I like this a lot because this
actually isn't that far off. Hey, any of you out there
want to join the FBI? Guess what the number one most
desirable background you can have is. What do you think? Military
special forces? Police forensics? Psychology? Drug investigations? Nope. Accounting. Most of what the FBI does
is white collar crime so somebody who can crack puzzles
all day might be a good recruit, especially financial puzzles. Okay, moving on. We head to Minnesota and
I really like this opening music theme. This game actually has three composers. The music is mostly great and has this
mysterious vibe to it that fits well. There's still not enough of it because
you spend so much time on puzzles, it's going to repeat way too much. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention,
this is a puzzle game. It's actually really easy to figure out if you're going to like
playing this game or not. First question: Do you like puzzles? And, yeah, that's pretty much it. Although, even if you don't, you may
still want to watch a playthrough of it because this game has a quality story. ["The President could be fixing a mistake
with a Scoggins Eraser right now!" ["Yes, ma'am. That's why I'm here."] There's some real clear influences. Do you like the movie "Fargo",
the show "Wallace & Gromit", and some "Twin Peaks" and
"X-Files" thrown in there? If you don't like any of those, then,
yeah, you won't like this game at all. You don't like Wallace & Gromit? So this game is all about puzzles. It plays sort of like
a graphic adventure game except it cuts out everything extra, so
it's nothing but narrative and puzzles. I have to say overall, it's pretty nice. After playing so many
graphic adventure games that just don't care if you
progress more than 2% of the game, this is a little like
coming in out of the rain. I do think traditional
point-and-click adventures get more of a sense of
exploration and interactivity, but it's a fair trade giving that
up to not have total nonsense. I like puzzles but I don't like
knowing what I should even be doing to be the puzzle. I think, for me, my ideal
graphic adventure game would be something in between
this versus traditional ones. Now it's worth noting that Puzzle
Agent has ripped its gameplay style directly from "Professor Layton
and the Curious Village". I've read some people really
look down on it because of that but for me, it's not an issue. I think the main thing is, is the game
fun and are you getting a new experience? I mean, most real-time strategy games
are basically refinements of "Dune II" and I don't know how many first-person
shooters have similar gameplay. So, the game doesn't have too
have original gameplay to be good. It just needs to stand on something. Well, Puzzle Agent does that! The puzzles are good, but the
rest of it is just amazing. [monkey screeching] [alarms sound]
[monkey screeching] This game resonates with me. Like, you know how, theoretically, if you're exposed enough to a
powerful enough resonant frequency, your head will explode? Well, that's not really
what I'm talking about. I mean, this game just
captivated me on every level. This town is loaded with awesome
weird people full of personality. ["The whispers... of the
moon... crash too loudly..." ["The whispers... what?" ["Clear the path."] People keep alluding to how there's
something mysterious out in the forest and it's dangerous to be out at night. ["You won't see me out in
the woods after sundown." ["I don't wanna be out here after
dark, if you know what I mean." ["I don't, actually. What
DO you mean by that?"] There are bite marks on a fence like
there was some sort of siege going on. The sheriff likes to screw with
evidence for no reason at all. ["I've got security camera records
here of people leaving the factory. ["I mixed up the photos so we can
put them back in the right order." ["What?! Why would you do that?" ["You know how it is." ["No, I don't! That's evidence!"] There are adult themes like a handyman
trying to move in on this guy's wife since he's gone missing. ["No sir. Just think she's pretty." ["I expect you do as well."] This game straddles the edge where you don't know if half the
people are just crazy or stupid or if there really is something deeper
happening. It all just blurs together. ["Oh ya, the foreman, Isaac Davner,
they say he was killed in there." ["Is that so?" ["Well, not to be gossipy, but I heard
that the accident was caused by raccoons." ["Raccoons?" ["Ya, little creatures that live
in the woods around the factory."] I couldn't get enough of this. It raised my intrigue to maximum levels and then kept throwing great dialog
and good puzzles at me the whole time. It also creates this almost
horror movie vibe at times. When I first played this game, I thought I'd see how it is and
maybe play it an hour or two. So naturally, I couldn't stop playing and stayed up the entire night
until I beat it all in one sitting. For me, this was one of those games
that are so absolutely addictive, you can't stop and they start
to cause problems in your life. Like, yeah, will it REALLY matter if
you were an hour or two late for work or skip a day of school? Do you really HAVE to do
dishes, laundry, buy groceries, or really do anything except play more
of the game you're currently playing and have been playing for days? Man, those games are the best. They're so rare for me but I love it
when I discover a new one like that. ["Sweeter than moose milk in the mornin'."] And speaking of addiction, this
game has a good hint system. Now I barely used these because, again, I have to prepare my mind in
case I'm abducted by forces that need me to solve logic puzzles. But for all puzzles, you can have up to
three hints to make them easier to solve. And the way this works is
Nelson here is a gum addict. He likes to chew gum while solving
a puzzle and he likes his puzzles. Yeah, look at that big
bowl back at his office. But, uh-oh! Scoggins is all out
of gum and he wasn't prepared. ["...we've been outta
gum for quite some time." ["What?" ["Haven't seen a stick in
months. Anywhere in town."] So what this means is, if you need hints,
you need to find gum anywhere you can-- stuck to walls, tables, the
floor... beggars cannot be choosers. ["Gum helps me concentrate..."] I kind of wish they took this a step further where they could have a short animation
of him taking out a pocket knife and scooping that wad off the floor
and then drop it into his mouth. And he would probably look
disgusted because that's nasty, but he would do it anyway because
he's a junkie. This game rules. And speaking of hints, while I was
able to beat Still Life with no hints, I didn't quite make it on Puzzle Agent. Over all, I think Still Life's puzzles
are a lot harder than Puzzle Agent's, but there was one puzzle I could not solve. I'm going to show you what the hardest
puzzle in the game was, for me. It's actually the third puzzle in the game.
You wouldn't think that would be so hard. Anyway, you check into your hotel, but the
night clerk left your room number in code. So, here it is. What number am I in? Well, I tried the obvious thing of
counting the lines--there's ten of them. But, no, that wasn't it. Do the long lines represent bigger values? Do those block segments represent something? How do these two lines factor into it, then? I just couldn't figure it out. So I looked up the hints. "Numerals are great... but there are other
common ways of writing down numbers." No, I don't get it. I need more. "...try looking at the
spaces in between the marks." Oh, okay. That's five spaces, but
what about the two lines? Is that a 1? I do not get this! Okay, last hint. Okay, so that block segment IS important. What the hell does it mean, though? Is it a dot-dot-dash like Morse code? Okay, so everybody's shouting at me through
your screen, yeah, here's the answer: "Nine". I was completely overthinking this. My mother has accused me of not being
able to see salt on the table before and I guess that's true here, too. I can't do any of those
Magic Eye puzzles either. Now while making this video, at
first I thought I was losing my mind because, guess what? I just showed
you the 1.0 version of this puzzle. In the modern patched version,
it couldn't be more obvious. I think maybe they could've
made the final hint better, but I don't think they
should've dumbed it down. I'd rather have the game make
me feel stupid for not seeing it than just water it down for everybody. ["Grr!"] Oh, and when you DO complete a puzzle, it's a nice touch how it tells you the
amount of taxpayer dollars that funded it, and they display it using those LED lights
like you see on national debt counters. Everything you do
costs a minimum of $75,000. So if you decide to do some puzzle you
find in an old newspaper in an alley, boom, $75,000. Help a waitress
sort out her orders, $75,000. And that $75,000 in 2010 dollars. At the time of this video, it
would be closer to $82,000, but I think we all know this is just a joke. After all, Nelson works for the FBI. The game's acting like this
is the Department of Defense. ["Ooh, I'm gonna make some
hot dish for you later." ["Um, hot dish?" [Oh, you'll love it! I've never met a man
who didn't love himself some hot dish!"] Okay, awards time. Well, this one is no
secret-- All-time favorite. For my tastes, this is one of
the best games I've ever played. Now some people think this
was just an okay puzzle game. All I have to say to that is you just don't appreciate how there might be some sort of ancient evil
hopping around in the forest at the same time the townsfolk are spinning
conspiracy theories and trying to kill you. ["AAAAAH!"] One guy straight-up dies in
this game. I won't say who. ["Accidents happen, Mr. Tethers."] Look at this. Tethers sees a gnome
and, instead of staring at it, he draws first! That's my boy! How much do I like this
game? This is how much. This shirt has even protected
me since, when I ride the bus, sometimes old ladies like
to be grumpy and stare at me since they don't approve of my existence. Well, one time that happened,
I was wearing this shirt and this old lady started having
a staring contest with my shirt, like she was going to stare it
down. I'm not making this up. And guess what? She LOST. It's the only time I've seen one of
those bus ladies flinch. Thanks, Daryl. ["Spirits live in the forest."] Second award-- Gaming crack. When I feel like I literally can't
remove myself from playing a game, that's an achievement in itself. I guess it was kind of a mixed
blessing that this game is short. I would've like to see more
development of the side stories, but when a game is fantastic from
start to finish, how can you complain? ["Looks like someone doesn't want
me to see what's going on inside. ["Well, they probably shouldn't
have made this a puzzle then!"] Ye-heh-heah! And finally-- Grickle everything. Like a piece of a larger puzzle, this
game is part of the Grickle universe. The creator, Graham Annable, has been making comics and short
videos with this same theme for a decade now, and they're all awesome. This guy is like the Stanley
Kubrick of weird awesome cartoons. Honestly, Puzzle Agent is kind of
tame compared to the rest of these. I just want more, like
you know how Matt Groening has done "The Simpsons",
"Futurama", Life in Hell"... So, between all his stuff, he
has hundreds of hours of content. That's about the level I'd like
to see of the Grickle world. It won't happen because his stuff
is just too weird and awesome, but man, I can only dream of
him having a team of animators to keep screwing with reality. I would like to not know if there
are sinister things out in the woods or if my chicken will come to life
and get in a shootout with the cops. And he gives a taste of what that's like. Now, there IS a "Puzzle Agent 2"
and very briefly, I think it's good, but it's a game that didn't really
need to be made the way they did it. The ending to Puzzle Agent ROCKS but they revisited the same
location and the same plot and tried to explain things
that should not be known. Much like the barn from "Cult Tycoon", it lost too much mysticism from
people taking a peek behind the door. Don't get me wrong. I want a Puzzle
Agent sequel--I want fifty sequels-- but he needed a new case.
Scoggins was perfect. In fact, I want to talk about the
ending so I'm going to spoil it, but whatever. This game's awesome. You finally get factory open and you
discover the foreman who has gone missing. You learn this is
part of a larger conspiracy where the gnomes have whispered to him and are letting their madness incubate
inside him. That's so hardcore. What's the end game of this? Are
they going to turn him into a gnome? Nobody knows, but it's probably horrible. So you burst in and try to rescue
him, but--aww, hell. This is bad. And Nelson, my boy, doesn't hesitate. ...though he should open his eyes. ...oh god. But, he gets lucky and they ignore him. After all, they still have their prize. They carry him screaming off into the woods, Glori remains an abandoned
wife living in fear, the sheriff tried to kill you
and has succumbed to the madness, and good work on a job well done! You opened the eraser factory which was
your whole assignment to begin with. ["Sir, about the factory
foreman, Isaac Davner..." ["Doesn't concern us, Tethers. ["Any missing persons can be
handled by local law enforcement." ["But..."]
Don't worry, Nelson! You did your job! It's all fine! This is a hit-and-run ending. I love it. You accomplished your objective and we're just not going to worry about the
veil of our reality being slowly torn away. That's not your job. Mission accomplished. I love this game. If you want to get an idea of what
my unconscious mind is yearning for, go play it. Okay, everybody have a Merry
Christmas or December or whatever, and if someone gives you
a little wooden gnome, you might want to play it safe and
just throw that thing in the fire. [music] [music] ["Solved! Now maybe you can relax a little." ["...whispers... acrostical enigma... ["...maybe Baltimore
transdeletion... the whispers!" ["...Or not."]
Awesome! This is one of those games that I played forever ago and forgot about. Loved to see how much Ross enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed both of the puzzle agent games, sure the basic gameplay is very Professor Layton, but there aren't that many games like this on PC.
Also: Totally called it
I'm super into Fargo right now, which is about as obvious an inspiration as it gets. The art style is superb. Check out the grickle shorts this is based on.
Unfortunately, the puzzles suck. Like, children's panels on the newspaper crossword section. But I didn't really mind.
I still need to play the second one. I really liked the first one though, the setting and the production values really made it worth it.
Puzzle Agent 1 was pretty good, but be warned that Puzzle Agent 2 reuses a LOT of content and puzzles just in different configurations.
I feel like Ross is implying you don't really need to play the 2nd one, but I really think it's important to play the sequel. It wraps everything up and it's very satisfying to find out what the shit is going on.
If you ever pick up Puzzle Agent, PLEASE play both of them for the full experience.
I bought this game once upon a time but seem to have lost the account it was associated with or something as searching through everything I have I can't seem to find it, not on steam nor humble bundle. It's only a dollar or so on steam though so I am thinking about rebuying it since i never really got into it, and the way that Ross describes it makes it sound like my type of game.
Another one of these games will probably never happen since Graham Anable is living it up pretty well as a director at Laika, but I hope Telltale eventually finds the space to make some original adventure games again. I know their shtick is working on liscenced products and they're busier than ever making those for big propterties, but it'd be neat to see what happens when their writers and artists set out to make something new.
Puzzle Agent! I'm sure this was one of the first Steam Games I actually purchased.
I also didn't know there was a sequel, which I should go and find now.