Secret Files: Tunguska Reader Review

I have to say I'm really enjoying this game. I'm not very far into it, but it has a nice traditional adventure feel to it; and as someone who's been playing these things from text only gems such as Wheel of Fortune and Countdown to Doom through Gabriel Knight and Hotel Dusk, I'm feeling right at home.

Everything is quite handily laid out, and so far the puzzles have been mostly logical (although inevitably I've wanted to do things slightly differently to the way the development team have set things out, but that's a problem with many games in the genre I think).

The protagonist, Nina, replete with feisty pony-tail isn't annoying so far, and the DS is handling the visuals nicely. The hand-held format suits this style of game so well, especially as you don't need to "hunt the pixel" for items of interest - you can just press a shoulder button to highlight things you can interact with, and get on with the job of working out what to do.

There are a few rough bumps to the game - the opening text describes the Tunguska event as taking place in June 1900, when it was actually 1908 - it's a pretty glaring discrepancy given that the Tunguska event is the whole basis of the game, but perhaps it's more down to a translation issue than any slipshod work from the development team.

On the whole, if you're an adventure fan with a DS, check it out - I'm much preferring it to the repetitive dialogue style of Hotel Dusk, and it saves state nicely when you close the lid for those "I need to get off the tube now" moments.

Now if someone can just port Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father to the DS, along with Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, I'll be a very happy bunny.