ferry;;sadhonker;;adams;;big red timemachine;;secret files tunguska;;2006;;point and click;;adventure;;deep silver;;animation arts;;Fusionsphere systems Ferry "Sadhonker" Adams

SECRET FILES: TUNGUSKA

By Ferry "Sadhonker" Adams on May 20, 2016

Can anyone tell me what the hell happened here?! Here I am, looking at my Big Red Timemachine HQ, only, this isn’t my HQ. What’s with all the glittery stuff lying around the place? And where the hell are my robot servants?! I can’t even leave this place for a few days without someone coming in and buggering it all up! Do you know how hard I worked to get everything just right? How many hours I put into achieving the perfect industrial look, with a dab of menace and just a hint of mystery worked into it?! Damn all this happy colorful stuff… AND WOULD SOMEONE MIND TELLING ME WHY THERE ARE UNICORNS IN MY OFFICE?!

That’s it, I can’t work here! So, let’s just jump right into the timemachine and start making our way towards 2006, far away from all this rainbow-colored nonsense! Instead, we will be looking for a game that will take us halfway across the world in order to solve an old mystery. So come with me as we delve into the mysteries of Secret Files: Tunguska.


First released in 2006 by Fusionsphere Systems, Animation Arts and Deep Silver for PC, Secret Files: Tunguska lets us make the acquaintance of Nina Kalenkow, a resourceful young woman and daughter of noted scientist Vladimir Kalenkow. One day, her father suddenly disappears. The police don’t seem to think it’s anything serious, so Nina starts an investigation of her own. With the aid of Max, a young researcher and colleague of her father, she starts to piece together the clues that she hopes will lead her to her father. Everything the duo finds out points in the direction of an expedition that her father was planning to undertake. The purpose of this expedition was to investigate the cause of a mysterious disaster in Tunguska, Siberia, back in 1908. Back then, people saw a giant glowing abject fall from the skies, triggering a giant explosion and a raging inferno that effectively reduced the Tunguska region to a pile of smoking ash.

Their quest leads our dynamic duo to places all over the world. They visit Berlin, Moscow, Cuba, China and finally, the Antarctic. As they get closer to the truth, it becomes apparent that they are not the only ones searching for her father and the knowledge he allegedly possesses. Nina and Max will have to use their wits and solve numerous puzzles in order to find out what is really going on. Will they find Nina’s father, or is the old man lost to them? And will they discover what it really was that caused the destruction of the Tunguska region, all those years ago?


Secret Files: Tunguska is a classic point-and-click adventure with a immersive story, excellent-looking artwork and a really nice voice cast and soundtrack. As you progress through the game, you’ll have to solve numerous environmental puzzles to get past certain points in the story. The chemistry between Nina and Max really helps to give the game a more human face and keeps things light, despite of the seriousness of the main subject of the game. It contains enough mystery to keep the game interesting from start to finish, without ever losing track of the story. The story itself is intricately woven into the game and the puzzles are challenging, without ever being impossible to solve.

Just like another fantastic series of games in the genre: Broken Sword, Secret Files manages to present you with beautiful locations, interesting characters and the inkling of a love story. The environments are really beautiful and help you to immerse yourself in the story. Overall, Secret Files Tunguska is a top-notch adventure that fans of the genre, especially if you liked the Broken Sword games, will definitely not want to miss. It even spawned two sequels, featuring Nina and Max and a short adventure, featuring female reporter Sam Peters. So if you’re into puzzle solving, exploration and having conversations with people all over the world, you just need to play Secret Files: Tunguska. And while you’re at it, make sure to also pick up Secret Files 2 and 3, because they rock! I can’t really vouch for Secret Files: Sam Peters, simply because I haven’t played that one yet, but if it’s anything like the first three games in the series, then you can’t go wrong!


Now, alas, our time together for this week is up and I’ll have to go back to my HQ and do some serious redecorating, not to mention try and find out where my robots have gone to. Oh well, up and at ‘em, I always say. See you guys in a couple of weeks, when we will be searching for another great game from the past. And, hopefully, with a completely restored Big Red Timemachine HQ, significantly less glittery stuff and a definite lack of unicorns!


SECRET FILES: TUNGUSKA
Fusionsphere Systems & Animation Arts (website in German) & Deep Silver
2006