Puzzle Agent 2

Here's Puzzle Agent 2, the sequel to... Puzzle Agent, obviously. I played the first one last year and found it to be decent, but the game ends on a cliffhanger that required a sequel to finish up the story. FBI Puzzle Agent Nelson Tethers basically solved a mystery of why the local eraser factory in Scoggins Minnesota has been shut down (yeah, that's really the central mystery to the first game) but was forced to leave the town and return to work with many questions unanswered. After some time, Nelson decides to take a vacation to return to Scoggins to figure out what has been going on and why everyone in town seems so paranoid. Where the first game had Nelson running around town finding new puzzles everywhere like Professor Layton, Puzzle Agent 2 is a more linear game that basically turns into puzzle, then exposition, then puzzle, exposition, and so on without much exploring town or adding many new characters. It wasn't that there was some 'magic' in the first game that the second was missing, it just felt like the second game was a lazier effort. Lots of the similar puzzles and re-used environments and plot points. Oh well. I do still really like the art style here at least, and now the series is done so that'll be the last we hear of Nelson Tethers and Scoggins and puzzle agents.