Review for Secret Files: Tunguska. Game for PC, Nintendo Wii and Wii U, the video game was released on 30/10/2006
It's been almost thirty years since Maniac Mansion, one of the very first point and click in history originally released for the Commodore 64 and Apple II in 1987, but the genre between ups and downs has continued to have its say in a video game world dominated by action and shooter, often one the heated soup of the other. In recent years, the now dying Telltale has been thinking about it, with its high-quality creations often based on third-party IPs, thinking about it in a sector that has historically been gradually shrinking its user base. has given new life to an electro-play sector unjustly set aside.
Unfortunately, every story has a happy or unhappy ending and, indirectly, with Telltale probably a good part of the productions worthy of this sector have disappeared.
The title we will talk about today, Secret Files: Tunguska, is precisely a graphic adventure originally created in 2006 by Jörg Beilschmidt and revived in a renewed guise by Deep Silver for Nintendo Switch, inspired by the famous Tunguska Event. For those unfamiliar with it, it is an extremely mysterious event that occurred in a locality in Siberia on the morning of June 30, 1908, following the possible impact or explosion, not yet completely certain, of a large meteorite or comet.
The extraordinary event, which still today in the east is at the center of myths, legends and speculations on the verge of conspiracy, caused the felling of millions of trees and the glow of the explosion was felt up to 700 km away. In this atmosphere of nebulous enigmaticity, the (mis) adventures of Nina Kalenkov, daughter of an important scientist who has mysteriously disappeared, take place. Our heroine, armed with courage, will begin to investigate the disappearance and, almost immediately, her research will push her to Siberia and, indeed, to the very remote region of Tunguska.
Siberia I love you!
Let's start immediately by analyzing what is probably the beating heart of every graphic adventure, or the plot. Secret Files. Tunguska does not shine particularly from a point of view of narrative interweaving and characterization of the characters. The engine on which the events narrated during the adventure move will be neither original nor particularly surprising and elaborate, especially since around the middle of a complete run of the game, which usually is around 10 hours, we will have enough elements to get a clear enough picture of the story. In addition, as already mentioned, the thickness of the characters will be "relatively thick" and even the protagonist will be rather obvious and bent on clichés, like a sort of Lara Croft wanna be faded and reduced to the bone.
Secret Files: Tunguska focuses a very large slice of its gameplay on the classic canons of the genre, without actually proposing novelties or expanding classic concepts with the addition of particular mechanics. Here, after a small number of dialogues are removed, we will be called for most of the time to carefully observe the game environments in search of points of interest (we will have a special optional function to highlight them), of objects or anything else, which we will need to proceed forward. In principle, the average level of the puzzles proposed by the game will not be particularly challenging and, a Die-Hard fan of point and click will not run into particularly challenging puzzles, also given the tendency of the game to "reduce the possibilities" of solution thanks to a limited choice of usable objects, as was the custom of the graphic adventures of a few years ago.
Ars logic
Although the title is not extremely difficult, there will be sections that are rather difficult and at times illogical or totally unrelated to what is happening around us, which will make the fluidity of the title rather zigzag. In addition, the aforementioned function present in our diary that will directly indicate what to do in the scenario, will have the function, on the contrary, of facilitating the life of newbies in the sector who perhaps approach a graphic adventure for the first time. Nevertheless, the title as a whole will be sufficiently enjoyable, also and above all for an unexpected comic streak that transpires in many situations and dialogues triggered by the protagonists of the game.
From a purely technical point of view, the Switch adaptation (the latest in a long series of "hops" from platform to platform) brings with it a series of arched eyebrows. The first, undoubtedly, concerns the inexplicable complexity of the commands, which will be quite complex and will even partially vary depending on the mode in which we will use the Nintendo hybrid (i.e. in portable mode, connected to our trusted TV or in table mode). To come to the rescue is the possibility of using the Switch touch screen, which will immediately prove to be the most logical choice in many of the mechanical situations to be faced and which, unfortunately, will force us almost directly to use the Nintendo console in portable mode. for convenience.
Technique… mind!
The Switch version of the title brings with it some important graphic improvements, although the title always shows its true age despite the "facelift". Although the aesthetic improvements are evident, such as a different color saturation and a series of higher resolution environmental textures, some details will "throw in our face" the full weight of a game released in the "distant" 2006, such as a defined woodiness of the movements and animations or details of the faces of the rather spartan and ancient characters. Also in this case, the Switch's portable mode, taking advantage of a “reduced” screen, will help us to make these limits less evident, which on the contrary will be too visible on a normal TV.
Generally, no notable bugs or imperfections were found and, at least from this point of view, the game ran smoothly. The sound sector, at the same time, is rather anonymous and negligible, going to weigh down the overall yield of the title even more. Indeed, if we dwell on the dubbing (the title has not been translated into Spanish), we will notice a certain lack of acting, which will be joined by an inexplicable latency between sound and subtitles.
Ultimately, Secret Files: Tunguska is a mediocre title that, despite the best efforts, shows its age and all its limitations in full. Although the title is ultimately passable, an outdated and only partially modernized technical sector, together with a series of questionable choices and a script not exactly worthy of an Oscar, make it a valid choice in case ... there are no other valid choices .
► Secret Files: Tunguska is an Adventure-Point & Click game developed and published by Deep Silver for PC, Nintendo Wii and Wii U, the video game was released on 30/10/2006
