Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent Review

From TellTale Studios come a puzzle game that deals in both mystery as well as unique puzzles. You will be playing the roll of Nelson Tethers, an individual who is a master at puzzles, and through the game you're going to prove just that. You have finally received a field assignment and must venture off to a rural town to solve the mystery of the eraser factory. You'll meet many interesting individuals, and will encounter many obstacles in your path, but nothing will truly stop you from solving the biggest puzzle there is.

Graphically this looks like a well done hand drawn game. It's done in a 2D manner, but utilizes cut scenes to give you a full world effect. Each piece of the town that you'll be visiting fits their name, and also gives you the distinct sense that you're actually moving the distance portrayed on the map. The puzzles are also clearly shown, though there are times where I believe that the screen is taken on slightly too much at times. 

There's this soft mystery-esque music that will be playing the entire game, but its played in such a way that after a while I forgot it was even there, it blended so well into what I was doing that I didn't even give it a second thought. There's also dialogue happening in different scenes as you investigate, and for the most part it actually works. There were times during the game where the voice acting just stopped and if you weren't paying strict attention you might have missed a thing or two.

The controls are going to be your usual setup for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad. You're going to use the touchscreen to accomplish everything in this game. 

I'd like to start off by saying that I hope that there's more to come from this series, though I felt like there wasn't too much to the game (I finished it in one sitting), I found it really enjoyable and challenging. Now for the most part it was the puzzles that were challenging, but there were also flaws that made the game challenging in ways I'm sure it wasn't meant to be. First off trying to retrieve gum from the scene you were in took some patience as I was constantly tapping on the area to pick it up, but all it did was re-highlight was was around that area. After several tries, each time, I was finally able to collect the gum. This unfortunately bled over into the puzzles as well. Perhaps its because I have slightly larger fingers than the normal person, but trying to drag objects or getting close to the right side bar created issues in the solving of the puzzles. Overall, however, there weren't too many issues with the actual puzzles. I was definitely challenged by some of the puzzles, and really enjoyed the sense of accomplishment when I got that Approved stamp.

From my experience TellTale Games isn't going to steer you wrong, and this is yet another example of that. If you're looking for a puzzle game with a mystery wrapped in it, and enjoy some interesting characters you need to check this game out, and then cross your fingers that we see more. This game gets an 8.4 out of 10.

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