 Nelson Tethers is an agent in the FBI's puzzle research division. He has been given a case in Scoggins, Minnesota to find a missing person. But the puzzles here run much deeper and more complex than anything he could expect. This is going to require every ounce of his puzzle solving abilities.
1. Gameplay
Puzzle Agent was at times fun, at times frustrating, and at times extremely disappointing. I loved the simplicity of the story. Most of the puzzles were just complex enough to be challenging without seeming impossible. It targets a niche audience (those who love both video games and puzzles), but presents everything in a way that flows smoothly. It could have been a great game like Scribblenauts that I recommend to anyone who loves puzzles...  I looooove puzzles! …except for the ending. Basically, Nelson Tethers, the main character, is sent to a tiny town in Minnesota because there’s a puzzle-based mystery involving the factory that manufactures all of the erasers for the White House. Nelson uncovers a possibly sinister plot involving little red gnomes with a love for puzzles and a knack for kidnapping people. Then, when the player is finally about to rescue the factory’s foreman and potentially put the mystery to bed, the gnomes come out of nowhere, kidnap the foreman again, and Nelson is called off the assignment. No seriously, the end of the game is “D.C. doesn’t care anymore, come home.” While this might happen in real life (which makes me wonder whether this was supposed to be satirical), this isn’t a satisfactory ending at all. If I’m going to go through all of the trouble of solving these puzzles, getting into the factory, and being feet away from the answer to the greatest puzzle in this game (“WTF IS GOING ON?!”), I would like the satisfaction of the answer. Seriously, the game gives me a bunch of brainteasers to deal with but the story doesn’t bother solving the most important puzzles in the entire game.  "What the heck is going on?!" Why do the gnomes love puzzles? What are “the whispers” that are making people obsess over puzzles? Why do the gnomes want the foreman? What mystery are the townspeople and, potentially, the gnomes hiding from me? Why do the gnomes hide out in the forest around this town and nowhere else? Who was the astronaut in the beginning of the game and how was he relevant? This is a Telltale game based on some books, so maybe the books offer greater insight into the story. But having never read the books (even though I am considering doing so now), I need to have questions answered without requiring additional source material.  I saw an episode of Dr. Who like this. If love puzzles, this game can be a lot of fun. I definitely enjoyed most of it. But the ending was extremely premature. If you get this game, you’ll probably need the sequel in order to make sense of things.
This game took me around 3 hours to complete, which is too bad because some of the puzzles were pretty engaging. As I mentioned before, the story was good but ended extremely abruptly. If the game was intended to be episodic, it wasn’t presented that way.
I honestly couldn’t tell whether this game was meant for kids or adults. Many of the puzzles were the kind of brain teasers I would do in late elementary school and early middle school, but many still had the same problems I remember encountering back then. Sometimes solutions were so obvious that I had to question whether there was some trick answer I didn’t notice. Other times the puzzles were so ambiguous that I couldn’t tell what the pattern was at all. Difficulty level seemed to spike and drop dramatically at times. I never felt like completely giving up, but there were a few times when I felt like the puzzle was unfairly designed. 2. Parental Notices
While the main character does fire a few shots from a handgun, he never actually hits anyone or anything. As a result, violence is not a factor in this game.
Sexuality is not a factor in this game.
One character can be seen smoking a pipe in this game. Other than this, substances are not a factor.  Is it even lit?
Gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
This game’s story includes little magical gnomes that are based on Nordic folk tales. However, because these creatures are more “magical” that part of any organized religion, religion is not a factor in this game.
The player is an agent of the “Puzzle Division” of the FBI. While he adheres to and upholds all laws, he does occasionally run into people that are less than cooperative. However, it is difficult to say if any laws are actually ever broken in this game. As a result, anti-law is not a factor in this game.
There are no multiplayer modes available for this game.
Extreme sports are not an issue in this game.
A number of the story elements are loosely magical in nature. This almost always revolves around the “little people”, small red gnomes that have some supernatural abilities and very unclear motivations. They are definitely magical, but their magic is hardly ever visible in the game.  What is going on here?
There are no additional factors in this game.
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