Secret Files: Tunguska

Review - Proof that point 'n' click is far from dead...

The most disagreeable element of a point and click adventure is, oddly, the sometimes laborious task of pointing and clicking. Take the inevitable moment at which you become stuck for what to do next but are desperate not to resort to a guilt-ridden peek at a walkthrough, assuring yourself that there must be a logical solution to your troubles. After sixteen hours of toiling and no development except for a blinding migraine, you discover that the item you needed consisted on-screen of one pixel hidden in the deepest depths of the most obscure location. By the time the ordeal is all over the prospect of another such goose chase is enough to put you off from continuing for good. Deep Silver hope that won't happen in Secret Files: Tunguska, thanks very much to a few simple interface aids that, despite revealing the location of points of interest never give the game away completely. Hoorah!

The game's storyline centres on the phenomenon of Tunguska, a real-life story based in the sparsely populated Siberian region in 1908. Though there is still some ambiguity, general consensus amongst those that have visited the area is that the airburst of a meteorite passing close to the earth's surface caused what is sometimes referred to as the Great Siberian Explosion. The energy of the blast was estimated to be similar in power to that of Castle Bravo, the USA's most powerful nuclear bomb. It felled in excess of 60 million trees in an area spanning over 800 square miles. Some believe that the blast is proof that a doomsday-style event on Earth is a real possibility. In Secret Files: Tunguska you follow the story of Nina Kalenkow and Max Gruber. Nina is the daughter of Vladimer Kalenkow, a scientist who was involved in an expedition to Tunguska some years before the game is set. Nina pays her father a visit at work to find that his office is a mess and that he is nowhere to be seen. The police appear to be apathetic to her cause so she decides, with the help of Max, to locate the whereabouts of her missing 'Daddy', kidnapped for his knowledge of Tunguska's mysteries.

The game plays very much like a traditional point and click adventure in that the gradual collection of items and solving of puzzles will lead to progress through the game's numerous storyline chapters. To lift from an early example, you must come to the aid of a little girl whose bicycle has a flat tire. Using a combination of objects that include sticky tape, a bucket and a rubber glove, the problem is solved and your grateful little friend reveals to you some very interesting information... However, as touched upon earlier, the search for these items is made easy thanks to the inclusion of a 'search area' icon. Clicking it causes the appearance of many onscreen magnifying glasses that alert you to the location of helpful clues and items. This means that your time is spent more on playing about with different combinations of pieces in your inventory, rather than tirelessly searching for that single thing you knew you needed but just couldn't see. Hints are also given in the form of Nina's description of items and a riddle menu which nudges you in the right direction with regard to some of the game's more taxing puzzles. Nina and Max can also combine to solve certain tasks, gaining clues and inventory items from individually accessible areas. It's hard to convey until you play The Secret Files: Tunguska, but Deep Silver have managed to plot the difficulty curve and level right - never making the next step too obvious, but neither, if you take the time, leaving you sobbing in desperate frustration either.

Even if, sadly, you do for some reason reach that unhappy stage at least you've something pretty to look at through your cloudy, tear-filled eyes. Not only is Nina a thing of beauty, (not bad for a 3D-rendered virtual being at any rate), but every location reeks of a time-taken quality with every detail tended to. Each character has been captured using motion sensitive devices which gives them a full range of flawless animation, whatever the task their involved in. The models are full of texture and detail too, whether viewed at a distance or at close range. Of similar impressiveness are the pre-rendered background environments that manage a gorgeous symbiosis of 2D and 3D models. Referring to the bicycle example once again, the contented girl reaches for the static 2D object which you fixed and, on touch, transforms in into a full 3D replica on which she cycles away. The superimposing of objects this way is nothing less than a surprise when it happens and always pleasant to watch. Not forgetting, too, individual details such as animated skylines, real-time shadowing, cinematic storytelling sequences and a plethora of other neatly animated details, all of which demonstrate a title gleaming with artistic quality.

Character voices are all spoken in perfect English which might detract from the believability of some of the scenes in foreign countries, but Deep Silver have employed a team that includes, in the German version at least, the 'German' Angelina Jolie. Her talent obviously rubbed off on some of the American voice-actors, at least to the point that while conversations are a little wooden at times, there are enough witty lines to make even the longest of cut scenes worth watching.

Secret Files: Tunguska proves that that despite a lack of mainstream attention, the genre of point and click adventuring is still alive and well. Furthermore, it manages to iron out some of the genre's most deeply set problems and invent sensible solutions to them - big, red, clickable arrows appear at the exits to each scene, making for quicker travelling, waving goodbye to a task of moving a slow character to where you want them to be a thing of the past. Secret Files: Tunguska signifies a new era for point and click adventures, both in terms of playability and stylistically - don't miss it!

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