10.9 hours played
Written 1 month and 25 days ago
[h1]Introduction[/h1]
"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.
[h1]Story[/h1]
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.
[h1]Gameplay[/h1]
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!
[h1]a bit on technical aspects[/h1]
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.
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
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.
[h1]Score 8/10[/h1]
