Secret Files Tunguska Review
PROS
- There is a silly charm to the serious-headed story
- Nice adaptation of interface to touchscreen
- Large, fully-voiced story with plenty of locations
CONS
- Cumbersome voice acting
- Unintuitive puzzles
- Range of options makes trial-and-error feel exhausting
VERDICT
Secret Files Tunguska certainly won’t be for everyone. Fortunately, it sticks close enough to the classic point-and-click adventure tropes that you'll know what you're getting yourself into.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
There is a simple question to ask yourself before playing Secret Files Tunguska: if you wanted to eavesdrop on a conversation, would your first instinct be to sellotape a mobile phone to your target's cat?
If the answer is yes, then Tunguska's puzzles will be second nature. However, if this confluence of events seems unreasonable, and trial-and-error seems like a chore, then this may not the point-and-click adventure for you.
Fortunately, the touchscreen conversion of the original PC game's controls does make randomly pairing items together an intuitive process. Tapping anywhere on the screen sends the heroine Nina to the desired location. A magnifying glass icon highlights any points of interest in the world, and tapping on these allows you to inspect or interact with the object.
The instinctive controls mean that it is only the game's internal logic that stands between you and progress, which is where things start to get problematic. The chains of events required to solve problems seem to borrow heavily from the more tongue-in-cheek puzzles of the old Lucas Arts adventures, which feels odd set against Tunguska's serious tone.
The conspiracy-filled story that sends Nina out searching for her missing father sits poorly against this cartoon logic. Getting a fridge magnet from a young lost girl for fixing her bike tyre is an odd event at best, but the peculiar 5-part process required to use this magnet to get an address feels a little convoluted.
Saying that, while the goofy puzzles may juxtapose the story's tone, it does add to Tunguska’s strange charm. The stilted voice acting and dubious script are at times laughable, but everyone's commitment makes it feel quite endearing.
Secret Files Tunguska is a game popped straight from the classic point-and-click adventure mould, with all of the problems that entails. Which brings us back to the conundrum of the cat and the sellotape. If that puzzle makes sense to you, then Tunguska may be just the game you're looking for. Baffled parties need not apply.
Screenshots
$4.99
