Secret Files: Tunguska

Introduction

"Secret Files: Tunguska" is a 2006 released, classic Point-&-Click-Adventure and the debut of German developers Animation Arts. By the time of its release it was well received by critics and fans and together with other successful releases such as Black Mirror or Ankh, it managed to revive the entire genre of Point-&-Click-Adventures.
Personally, I have a very strong connection to this game as it was the very first PC game I bought and played after being raised by consoles until that point. So "Secret Files: Tunguska" did not only spark my love for Point-&-Click-Adventures, but also marked the starting point of my transition from console to PC and will therefore have a very special place in my heart.

Story

But before I get carried off by nostalgic feelings, let me talk about the game itself (this is a review, after all, isn't it?). As the title of the game suggests, the story revolves around the real Tunguska event, a mysterious, incredibly large explosion that took place on June 30, 1908 in the East Siberian taiga. The fact that the exact cause of this explosion is still to be determined make it the topic of a vast array of theories, ranging from a meteor impact to the landing of an alien space ship or the impact of a micro black hole.
Wladimir Kalenkow, a scientist working at a Museum in Berlin, used to investigate the Tunguska event and took a trip to the region in his youth. Now he's mysteriously gone missing and the player takes the role of his daughter Nina Kalenkow, who tries to uncover the reasons behind his disappearance. Soon accompanied by his fathers assisstant, Max Gruber, our two protagonists embark on a Journey that leads them around the world to exotic places like Cuba, Ireland and even Antarctica. Without spoilering too much, the story of Secret Files: Tunguska effectively channels the vibes of early Dan-Brown-Novels and throws in a bit of Indiana-Jones-Adventure for the sake of it. And while the mystery is of course, a bit over the top and unbelievable, the game is aware of this and manages to present it's story in a tense and interesting enough way to keep me engaged. On top of that, Nina makes for a charming and cool heroine with a quite corny sense of humor.

Gameplay

As already mentioned, the game is basically a classic Point-&-Click-Adventure. You move your character around several locations, pick up and use a wide array of items and try to combine them to solve problems and riddles in order to move on. Over the course of its play time, the game serves up basically everything you would expect from such a game, including a dose of pixel hunting now and then. One of its strong points is the introduction of Max as a second playable character, as this mechanic is applied in a creative way throughout the game. Sometimes both characters are in the same location and need to assist one another to make progress, sometimes they split up and you can switch between the two of them at any time, exploring two different, completely unconnected locations.
On top of this gamplay twist, "Secret Files: Tunguska" manages to streamline and modernise several aspects of its genre predecessors. Gone is, of course, the verb based menu. An interactive cursor will automatically pick the right action for each item and will tell you if an object can only be looked at or is interactable. On top of that, the developers ditched the help hotline from Monkey Island days of yore and integrated a hot spot viewer: by pressing "Space", all interesting objects on the screen will be revealed, thus effectively eliminating the rage inducing pixel hunt of other adventures. Together with the fact that most puzzles are designed pretty logical, these features greatly reduce the difficulty of the game. Maybe that's why this game was such a great introduction to the genre for me!

a bit on technical aspects

Considering the time of it's release, the graphics of "Secret Files: Tunguska" still hold up pretty well. Of course, don't expect anything too fancy, but especially the backgrounds of its eclectic locations are beautifully drawn and a joy to look at. The character models however really show their age and lack a bit of detail in comparison to the backgrounds. This is only intensified by the clunky animations which were a technical weak point of the game even in the time it released. To be honest, I saw better animations in way older games, but it wasn't a major deal for me.

Conclusion

As mentioned in my introduction, "Secret Files: Tunguska" holds a very special place in my heart and because of my nostalgic feelings for it, I would even rank it among my favourite Point-&-Click-Adventures of all time. My recent replay proved to me that it still holds up as a really good game almost 20 years after its initial release and is worth playing if you're a P&C enthusiast. While neither story, characters or puzzles really stand out in its genre, they blend together so well that somehow, this game becomes more than the sum of its parts. On top of that, it's quite a long game. Despite remembering especially the beginning parts of it, it took me 11 hours to finish and got me stuck on one or two occasions.

Score 8/10

Really enjoy this one every time! The backgrounds, the (German) voice-acting (lots of familiar voices to be found!), the little jokes and references here and there, the engaging story. It's fun!

And while the puzzles in Secret Files may not be the most challenging ones, I'd say they're the most logical and intuitive puzzles in a point&click adventure game which isn't an easy thing to achieve.

Comment in English and Turkish
İngilizce: I am a big fan of Adventure and Point Click Games. Secret Files Tunguska remind me the games like "Broken Sword" and "Prisoner of Ice". Well, it is not a masterpiece (like monkey island series) maybe but really good game to play. I really enjoyed the story. And graphics still OK for this time. A bit of some puzzles are a little weird, but I like the story, mystery and characters relationskip. Game is long and it is a good thing. Definitely worth to pay!

Türkçe: Adventure ve Point Click Games'in büyük bir hayranıyım. Secret Files Tunguska bana "Broken Sword" ve "Prisoner of Ice" gibi oyunları hatırlatıyor. Eh, belki bir başyapıt değil (Monkey Island serisi gibi) ama oynaması gerçekten iyi bir oyun. Hikayeyi beğendim. Grafikler bu zamana göre hala fena değil. Bazı bulmacalar biraz garip ama oyundaki hikayeyi, karakterlerin ilişkisini ve gizemini sevdim. Ayrıca oyun uzun sürüyor ve bence bu harika bir şey. Parasına kesinlikle değer!

One of my favorite games. I like old-fashioned point and click adventures. No pixel-graphics. Easy to see hot spots, and a special button to push to highlight all of them, in case you miss one. Long length - travel from Berlin to Siberia to Cuba to Ireland to Tibet. Museum, mental hospital, campsite, train, castle, and more. Pick up lots of inventory items and figure out how to use them together and on hot spots. No puzzles (except for one in a cave near the end, which is easy). Conversations are quick and non-repetitive. Good story and characters.

good game

It was in my backlog for god knows how many years. I wish I've played it earlier. Mystery combined with that EU vibe was a combo I did not know I needed

The story is very interesting, well-made and well-presented.

The puzzles tho.. really 50/50. Many of them make no sense imo and there were atleast 20 places were I would not have been able to progress on my own and only made it because I read a walkthrough.

That is also the reason that I will not play the 2nd game or any other of the 'Secret Files' - games.


I would give it a 6/10 (9/10 for the story).

I don't know what to think of this game, it starts off with really easy puzzles, but at some point the solutions become nonsensical. Last 1/3 of the game i was in a cycle of spending an hour to find a solution, then solving one puzzle, then wandering around again for another hour. All in all I manged to solve the game in 16 hours.

I was going to say this game holds up really well being from the turn of the millennium, but was surprised this game was released in 2006. Graphics and menus seem a bit dated for its time.

I guess since the game was good enough that I was motivated to finish it, I will give it a thumbs up. Not nearly as good as the Syberia series, but probably if you are a hardcore PnC fan and looking for something to play, get this at discount.

Classic, give it a try!

max fell into that simp role like he been goonin to his boss's daughter for years, 10/10

I really wanted to recommend this game. The story is a decent one. It was the thing that kept me hooked and going through a game with ludicrous solutions to puzzles, throughout the whole thing. In my opinion, a good PnC adventure will include characters giving clues to puzzles in their narration, Ie. (I wonder if this thing will break with a little mechanical push). There is none of this in this game, and the puzzle solutions are, many times, not what a reasonable person in that situation would think of. Sometimes there are solutions that simply would never work in real life. I felt throughout the whole game that I had to be able to read the minds of the devs. to be able to figure out what to do. I had to rely on a walkthrough the entire game. Maybe you are more patient then me. Go for it. Maybe you have all the time in the world to figure out these silly solutions. If so take a crack at it. It's disappointing because, like I said, I really enjoyed the story. I don't know if I am going to continue with the series. The puzzle crafting would need to really improve. I'll read some reviews and then maybe.

This game was so incredibly boring and I also couldn't stand Nina's extremely stupid comments any longer.

Despite the negative review, I would like to point out that the game runs smoothly, even though it is 'a bit older'. For anyone who wants to try out the game: go ahead, on sale it only costs $0.99. And what I call 'extremely stupid comments' may be, to others, a good sense of humor. Who knows.

This game is a quintessential old-school point-and-click adventure. Overall, it is well-designed, featuring an intricate story and solid gameplay that provide great satisfaction. If you're a fan of this genre, it's definitely worth trying at least once. Despite the passage of time since its release, it still holds great value for rediscovery.

A masterfully crafted puzzle experience, 10/10 needs more jam.

This review is not sponsored by the shadow men. I do not take their skull money

Decent point & click adventure game with item combination and few puzzles.
Charming environments even though game is visually quite dated.
Story is interesting but gets a bit strange closer towards end.
Simple, funny voiced dialogues, a bit naive protagonist.
Some item combinations don't make sense.
Might require a guide in few areas.
Still runs on modern systems.

A classic point-and-click adventure game in the vein of Broken Sword.

3.5/5 Stars

Not bad, some non-linear problem solving and seemingly added steps to ordinarily straightforward actions. But I enjoyed the switching between persons and hotspot finder.