Secret Files: Tunguska

My review of Secret Files: Tunguska, which appeared in the January issue of PCGamer.

Tunguska, if you don’t know, or didn’t see that episode of the X-Files, is a region in Siberia famous for a mysterious huge explosion which occurred in 1908. To this day, the cause remains a mystery, and scientists have touted various theories from a comet exploding before impact to UFOs or one of Nikola Tesla’s experiments going wrong. My theory, however, is that the Tunguska event was simply an explosion of mediocrity, caused by an inexplicable mingling of tweed jackets, Richard and Judy and easy listening tapes. And certainly, the epicentre of this explosion of indifference would have been Secret Files: Tunguska.

In the game take we the role of Nina Kalenkov, who can be described using words like “spunky,” “heroine” and “kleptomaniacal”. Nina’s dad, who was researching the Tunguska event, has mysteriously disappeared without a trace. Actually, that’s a big lie: he has left a trace the manner of some incredibly esoteric clues, all of which seem to be attached to the tail end of a woefully obscure puzzle, which in turn lead to a tedious international trail of lies, conspiracies and cults.

And that brings us to the puzzles. Whereas in Lucasarts adventures the puzzles and story were beautifully intertwined, here they just feel awkward and obscure. Every one involves clunkily combining every single thing in your inventory until they work, and none of the puzzles seem to make any logical sense. For example: a man’s on the phone and you want to listen to his conversation. But rather than simply pressing your ear against the window, you tape your cellphone to a handy cat, let it in to the house and then call it from the phone box outside. What’s not explained is how exactly this lets you listen in - does the cat answer the phone?

The story itself is reasonably interesting, but any intrigue is obliterated by the sheer monotony of the endless chain of puzzles. People who love their point-and-clicks might find some value here, and it could make a perfect gift for someone’s weird mum. But if not, avoid it like the Siberian winter.

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Labels: Review

posted by Henry @ 3:56 pm