Secret Files: Tunguska

 PC
Metascore
66

Mixed or average reviews - based on 26 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 26
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 26
  3. Negative: 0 out of 26
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  1. GamingExcellence
    73
    The ability to search your surroundings is a much-needed feature in the genre, and makes the game, and the genre as a whole, a lot more enjoyable when you don’t have to continually search every pixel on the screen.
  2. Adventure Gamers
    70
    A highly-polished game, but suffers from an uninspired design. While it remains mostly pleasant to play, it is not as satisfying an experience as it ought to have been.
  3. Gamers Europe
    70
    It has a fine mixture of humorous moments, special effects and seemingly random solutions that are sure to make it a cult classic. All you need to get through it is a few old episodes of MacGyver, a spare mouse and a Nancy Drew mystery novel.
  5. GameZone
    70
    Tunguska is a decent adventure game, but one that doesn’t rise above the crowd in any significant way.
  6. Game Chronicles
    70
    Tunguska is one of those shining stars that even though it could have been better it is about the best that you can get for a game that you will only play once.
  7. WHAM! Gaming
    70
    And the story's intriguing.
  8. Digital Entertainment News
    70
    Despite lacking any significant innovation, the game features solid gameplay that minimizes obtuse puzzle-solving in favor of object interactions.
  9. GameSpot
    62
    MacGyver-esque inventory puzzles make this an acceptable, if exceedingly conventional, adventure.
  10. Eurogamer
    60
    It makes some small progress in freeing point-and-click from the needless bonds of tradition but is it really a compelling, imaginative experience that proves mouse-based adventuring isn't dead? Nope. Not even close.
  11. VideoGamer
    60
    Tunguska suffers from a lack of true writing quality, which in the end is what matters the most, and what made the classic LucasArts adventure games so much fun to play. One for genre fanatics only.
  12. AceGamez
    60
    I really wanted to love Secret Files but I walked away feeling disappointed. The moment I finished it, I cleared it off my hard drive, since there's practically no replay value and no part of the game that I enjoyed enough to replay.
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  13. Computer Games Magazine
    60
    However, the puzzles are downright asinine, suffering from illogical design and poor execution. [Mar 2007, p.72]
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  14. PC Zone UK
    58
    An adequate and traditional (read 'hugely dated') point-and-click, and there's some charm to the puzzles and story. [Jan 2007, p.76]
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  15. PC Gamer
    58
    Tunguska's lush, atmospheric background art and slick FMV cut-scenes add measurable value to the experience, but its terrible English voice dubbing--Nina sounds like a teenage Nancy Drew--and the puerile(and occasionally sexist)dialog are often excruciating. [Feb. 2007, p.70]
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  16. PC Gamer UK
    52
    A game so monotonous, it's inspired a new word - 'tediocre'. [Christmas 2006, p.90]
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  17. RewiredMind
    50
    There are games out there that are five and six years old that do point and clicking better than this. That’s not to say that it’s distinctly flawed, because it runs along just nicely. It’s just not very good.
  18. Just Adventure
    50
    It just doesn’t do anything to make it stand out from the crowd.
  19. GamesRadar+
    50
    Even with the aid of the magnifying glass, the pacing of Tunguska's plot still crawls at a snail's pace.

Awards & Rankings

71
#71 Most Discussed PC Game of 2006

User Reviews

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User Score
7.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 59 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 34 out of 59
  2. Mixed: 20 out of 59
  3. Negative: 5 out of 59
  1. ghorahn
    Jan 2, 2012
    2
    When I started the game, I noticed a few things: (1) The voice acting wasn't great. (2) The dialog was....not good. Sometimes embarassing. AndWhen I started the game, I noticed a few things: (1) The voice acting wasn't great. (2) The dialog was....not good. Sometimes embarassing. And (3) the puzzles were the 'combine some items' type, which are a good adventure game staple....but there were about as contrived as 'puzzles' of this type get. Before long, I was sick to death of guessing what inane 'improptu tool' I was supposed to make with the things in my inventory. And the voice acting was, all to often, bordering on abysmal. (To be fair, a few of the actors do a good job...and I feel like those were the same voices that seemed familiar from anime dubs.) But between the weird 'never use contractions' thing, the odd phrasing and word choice (that I imagine stems from the US version of the game being translated from a non-English language original), the fourth-wall stuff ("I managed to open the door! Don't you love playing adventure games where the main character addresses the audience?") and the main character's voice acting being all over the place in terms of quality, I was having a hard time bringing myself to slog through this game. So...I looked up a walkthrough. I don't like wasting money by buying a game then just plowing through it, but this game wasn't giving me a reason to play it. So by the time I finished the game, I'd seen the extent of its dull, inane, meandering story; I'd heard plenty more bad voice acting; I'd enjoyed plenty of robotic animation; I'd had to play 'hunt for the pixels that I can click on to find an item that the walkthrough tells me is there' more times than I'd liked; and I'd gone through puzzles that, had I played the game organically, probably would have meant resorting to systematically trying to combine everything in my inventory until I stumbled across the right pairing. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone unless they'd run out of other adventure games to play and needed one that would probably taken them a long time to get through. Upside: the game runs without crashing. That's worth a 2, I suppose.… Full Review »
  2. AE
    Dec 21, 2009
    7
    Although the story starts off pretty good, it turns into a sack of "what's happening" quite soon halfway into the game. Some of the Although the story starts off pretty good, it turns into a sack of "what's happening" quite soon halfway into the game. Some of the dialogues made me wonder if the developers even looked / listened to it themselves. Worst part about the game must be some of the puzzles, where there's absolutely no hint, just trial and error and the solution is something rather over-the-top. At some point you even have to go back to the very beginning to pick something up that has never been there before. The ending is a bit "meh" as if they ran out of ideas. Another thing that had me groan a few times is the walking speed which cannot be adjusted. The graphics look pretty decent for its time and there's plenty of original stuff in there as well. All in all, it's a very decent point and click game which has the continue-to-play value, but mostly a 1-time-experience.… Full Review »
  3. SvenSomething
    Nov 9, 2008
    2
    the interface is good. the graphic is okay (for an adventure game). the story is weak. but worst of all is the puzzle design: you spend most the interface is good. the graphic is okay (for an adventure game). the story is weak. but worst of all is the puzzle design: you spend most of the time moving the mouse cursor inconsiderately across the whole screen, trying to find out the one and only working combination. there are not even comments if you try something different. nothing. obviously the game designers did not ask themselves what approaches the players will try and how the game should react to it. no, the contrary is the case: the player has to guess what the game designers cooked up. and if he finally found the solution by monotonous trial&error then often it is so far-fetched that the player wonders why none of the other 99 far more plausible actions he tried before did work (or got at least a response). puzzle design is the most important thing in an adventure game. even more important than graphic or story. there are adventure games which are fun to play in spite of laughable stories or poor graphics, just because of good design. unfortunately puzzle design is where "secret files: tunguska" fails.… Full Review »
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