The force of two thousand atomic bombs is, according this game’s retail box, the power of an explosion that lit up the Siberian countryside in June of 1908. Such a massive blast serves as the catalyst for the events of Secret Files: Tunguska, a recently released adventure title from Fusionsphere Systems. You play primarily as Nina Kalenkov, a young woman whose father gets nabbed by an unknown party, sparking her search. She’s joined by Max Gruber, one of her father’s coworkers. Starting off in their hometown of Berlin, Nina and Max follow a twisting series of leads across the globe, visiting pubs in Ireland, asylums in Cuba, and the Himalayas, among other locales. Though the story and characters aren’t the strongest around, the game manages to stay entertaining thanks to a convenient interface and some interesting puzzles.
As a third-person point and click adventure game, Tunguska still manages to shake off the dust that often settles on this genre’s gameplay. First, it’s got a button that shows all the spots that can be inspected or manipulated onscreen. This isn’t really anything new, we’ve seen other games with glowing items or sparkles or whatever, but it’s definitely appreciated. You’ll accumulate quite a few items while moving through each area’s generally static screens, many of which can be combined. While it’s fun to see what items fit together, combining them can occasionally feel more like random chance than an exercise in logic. For instance, who would have thought a wrench should be combined with a hollow street sign? Even though some combinations don’t make a lot of sense, they’re still easily accomplished by clicking through every item in your inventory.