Secret Files: Tunguska Review
18 October 2006 | By Simon Priest
A professor is mysteriously taken and his daughter will stop at nothing to find both him and the truth of Tunguska, a mysterious secret since 1908
A professor is mysteriously taken and his daughter will stop at nothing to find both him and the truth of Tunguska, a mysterious secret since 1908. This is a thrilling point and click adventure delivered with a great cinematic-esque experience.
From the initial scene setup, I could tell that this was not “just another” adventure game clambering for hard earned gamers’ cash. It’s surprising too see how movie like the whole game is, taking you from the usual puzzle and problem solving, to then casting you into cut scenes and plot points that keep you hanging.
The engine is very friendly for lower end machines, so no mega hog required. You can beef up the visuals with some anti-aliasing but beyond that everyone can enjoy the pleasant graphics. Characters aren’t heavily detailed but are certainly enough. The game incorporates 2D and 3D elements, which deliver great looking levels.
Your characters model Nina/Max will always be on screen, they walk where ever you left click and can use interactive hotspots with a right click – nice and simple. Items that have been picked up will appear along the bottom of the screen in the characters inventory. From there you can simply select one, try to combine with another object or with the surrounding environment. Sometimes inspecting a picked up item will actually result in it changing into something else, which is critical to remember.
The cursor changes when you hover over an object and easily shows if you can inspect, pick up/use or both. So for any who have never played this type of genre, you’ll have mastered the controls in a matter or seconds. For that reason, there is no tutorial so instead you’re thrown right into the story.
One area that usually is a big let down with point and clicks are the sounds, but Tunguska was having none of it. The voiceovers, though a little odd at times, are for the most part fantastic and keep you comfortably immersed. Music is composed well though it lacked a depth or passion which would have really brought out more for the player during the tenser moments.
The story itself was so well done; I couldn’t help but look up the supposed ‘true’ events of what happened in Siberia, 1908. Not wanting to give too much away I’ll say that you start out with the goal of finding your father, from there things escalate more and more until you delve into his buried past.
Nina isn’t alone for long; she’s soon teamed up with Max her father’s assistant at the Museum. This adds a great play mechanic as you can switch between characters, in one such level you need to have them work “together” in order to overcome the situation. Another is when Nina travels to Cuba and Max gets dropped off at Ireland, you can switch between the two different locations with the simply click of a button.
There’s no shortage of destinations in Secret Files, Berlin Germany, Siberia Russia, Havana Cuba, Ireland, all are great locales.
The challenges you face range from the quite obvious, to the more hardcore of adventure gamers. Sadly where the game can become a problem is when you really feel you’ve exhausted every possible action, and still can’t progress. There’s no hint system for the normal parts of the game so if you get stuck, expect to roam for a while until you figure it out – or pinch ‘inspiration’ from a walkthrough. Puzzles do come with a hint though, which can be accessed through the journal.
The journal keeps all major important story milestones jotted down for you, so if you forget why such and such has happened, a quick flick through can help refresh the memory.
The logic behind the levels is very sound, and I have to really applaud the developer Fusionsphere Systems. Take this obstacle for example, repairing a bikes flat tire. You have to pump the tube up, stick into a bucket full of water so Nina can mark the puncture, then apply glue to a rubber glove and slap it onto the tube. All these objects must be found first of course and then you have to just pause for a second, think how you would realistically solve the problem. It may not seem a big thing, but it’s better than Nina, the “bike tube whisperer”, just putting on some plaster she found on the floor, over the hole perfectly as if by magic and fixing the bike.
Of course some hurdles do need a little out-of-the-box creativity, bunging some animal fur into the vent pipe of a train carriage for instance, but I guess we can forgive ourselves for being a little rusty on that one.
Overall I am glad to say that Secret Files: Tunguska is a great, if not fantastic adventure game that any fans of the genre must get a copy of. It was surprisingly intriguing and has now perhaps spoilt things for me, as anything less than ‘Tunguska quality’ and I’ll be gaming elsewhere.
Top Game Moment:
 |
 |
|
| Visit a Russian sewer! | Great story cut scenes |
From the initial scene setup, I could tell that this was not “just another” adventure game clambering for hard earned gamers’ cash. It’s surprising too see how movie like the whole game is, taking you from the usual puzzle and problem solving, to then casting you into cut scenes and plot points that keep you hanging.
The engine is very friendly for lower end machines, so no mega hog required. You can beef up the visuals with some anti-aliasing but beyond that everyone can enjoy the pleasant graphics. Characters aren’t heavily detailed but are certainly enough. The game incorporates 2D and 3D elements, which deliver great looking levels.
Your characters model Nina/Max will always be on screen, they walk where ever you left click and can use interactive hotspots with a right click – nice and simple. Items that have been picked up will appear along the bottom of the screen in the characters inventory. From there you can simply select one, try to combine with another object or with the surrounding environment. Sometimes inspecting a picked up item will actually result in it changing into something else, which is critical to remember.
The cursor changes when you hover over an object and easily shows if you can inspect, pick up/use or both. So for any who have never played this type of genre, you’ll have mastered the controls in a matter or seconds. For that reason, there is no tutorial so instead you’re thrown right into the story.
One area that usually is a big let down with point and clicks are the sounds, but Tunguska was having none of it. The voiceovers, though a little odd at times, are for the most part fantastic and keep you comfortably immersed. Music is composed well though it lacked a depth or passion which would have really brought out more for the player during the tenser moments.
 |
 |
|
| There’s always plenty to interactive with | Dozens of locations |
The story itself was so well done; I couldn’t help but look up the supposed ‘true’ events of what happened in Siberia, 1908. Not wanting to give too much away I’ll say that you start out with the goal of finding your father, from there things escalate more and more until you delve into his buried past.
Nina isn’t alone for long; she’s soon teamed up with Max her father’s assistant at the Museum. This adds a great play mechanic as you can switch between characters, in one such level you need to have them work “together” in order to overcome the situation. Another is when Nina travels to Cuba and Max gets dropped off at Ireland, you can switch between the two different locations with the simply click of a button.
There’s no shortage of destinations in Secret Files, Berlin Germany, Siberia Russia, Havana Cuba, Ireland, all are great locales.
The challenges you face range from the quite obvious, to the more hardcore of adventure gamers. Sadly where the game can become a problem is when you really feel you’ve exhausted every possible action, and still can’t progress. There’s no hint system for the normal parts of the game so if you get stuck, expect to roam for a while until you figure it out – or pinch ‘inspiration’ from a walkthrough. Puzzles do come with a hint though, which can be accessed through the journal.
The journal keeps all major important story milestones jotted down for you, so if you forget why such and such has happened, a quick flick through can help refresh the memory.
The logic behind the levels is very sound, and I have to really applaud the developer Fusionsphere Systems. Take this obstacle for example, repairing a bikes flat tire. You have to pump the tube up, stick into a bucket full of water so Nina can mark the puncture, then apply glue to a rubber glove and slap it onto the tube. All these objects must be found first of course and then you have to just pause for a second, think how you would realistically solve the problem. It may not seem a big thing, but it’s better than Nina, the “bike tube whisperer”, just putting on some plaster she found on the floor, over the hole perfectly as if by magic and fixing the bike.
Of course some hurdles do need a little out-of-the-box creativity, bunging some animal fur into the vent pipe of a train carriage for instance, but I guess we can forgive ourselves for being a little rusty on that one.
 |
 |
|
| A James Bond or Lara Croft moment | Always think logically for ingame solutions |
Overall I am glad to say that Secret Files: Tunguska is a great, if not fantastic adventure game that any fans of the genre must get a copy of. It was surprisingly intriguing and has now perhaps spoilt things for me, as anything less than ‘Tunguska quality’ and I’ll be gaming elsewhere.
Top Game Moment:
TOP GAME MOMENT
The whole game was such a great experience, I can’t bring myself to define a moment – though seeing Nina navigate atop a train with heels certainly was amusing.
