Secret Files: Tunguska

Point-n-Click, Mystery

October 31, 2006 (N. America)
Septembr 29, 2006 (UK)

Fusionsphere Systems
The Adventure Company (N. America)
Deep Silver (International)

Third Person

"The major weaknesses of Tunguska lie in its story, atmosphere and character development – all crucial areas for an adventure game. Even though all the elements for a good mystery are present...nothing ever clicks. To make matters worse, Nina acts and sounds like she sprang from some teenage television drama and the developers’ efforts to add “coolness” to her character only adversely effect the game’s atmosphere and make it impossible to identify with the character.

"In the visual department, Tunguska is exactly how a 3rd person adventure should look like. Instead of trying to impress with 3D stunts and fanfares, Tunguska instead offers gorgeous backgrounds with warm colors that are a pleasure to look at, nicely designed characters and some beautiful cut-scenes. Musically the game scores pretty good also, but things quickly sour with the voice acting, which leaves a lot to be desired – especially Nina.

"If you love inventory puzzles, and that is what you mainly want from an adventure game, then Tunguska is certainly worth checking out. Unfortunately, it offers little of everything else and overall you will be left unsatisfied. That doesn’t mean that Tunguska is a bad game as it is certainly better than a lot of movie-like minimal interaction “adventures” that have been released in the past couple of years. It just doesn’t do anything to make it stand out from the crowd."

Ed. note: Tunguska 2, currently in development, will feature different voice actors for Nina and Max