Secret Files 3

This game is a quintessential old-school point-and-click adventure. Although the animation and graphics may seem somewhat dated, it's still enjoyable. It will appeal not only to fans of the series but also to those who enjoy this genre.

I have mixed feelings about Secret Files 3. While the voice acting got better, and the environments look beautiful as always, the other aspects of the game have drastically decreased in quality. The story is boring and feels rushed, the puzzles have been lowered in numbers and quality which is a shame because those were my favourite parts about the previous titles along with its goofy, self-aware humour. The playtime is also shorter, and there aren't much memorable moments. We also don't get to see Max that much. Overall, Secret Files 1&2 were much better games with memorable moments and enjoyable, interesting puzzles. As a saving grace, SF3 atleast leaves a nice aftertaste with its final cutscene and artwork extras. I suppose the developers didn't have enough time and budget to flesh out the game to its fullest potential, and it's sad, because I loved these guys' previous titles a lot.

[h1] Introduction [/h1] "Secret Files 3" is a 2012 released, german point-'n-click-adventure developed by Animation Arts and serves as a direct sequel to "Secret Files 2: Puritas Cordis" and "Secret Files: Tunguska". As of 2026, it marks the final entry in the main saga centred on Nina Kalenkow and Max Gruber. One last time, Nina sets out to uncover a world-spanning conspiracy and save not only her fiancee, but the entire globe... [h1] Story [/h1] The game starts off in the year 48 BC, in the besieged city of Alexandria, Egypt. The thief Menis-Ra is hired by two mysterious, robed figures to destroy papyrus scrolls that are kept within the city's library. In the present time, Nina Kalenkow and Max Gruber finally prepare for their wedding. Their happiness is only clouded by Ninas increasingly disturbing nightmares, who seem to have a connection to her previous adventures. And when Max suddenly gets arrested and accused of terrorism, Nina settles out to find the truth behind all of these strange occurences.... All in all, the story had some really interesting plot points and kept me engaged, although I must admit that I found it to be way weaker than in previous installments. The reason for this was the convoluted way of presenting it and, paradoxically, the fast pace in which the game proceeds through its narrative. This led to dramatic tension on one hand, but it also made me wish that the devs had taken a bit more time to explore the different plot threads more thoroughly. The way it is now, I feel like a lot of potential in this narrative was unfortunately left untouched. Even the connection back to the first game that could have been an amazing asset, feels incredibly underused in my opinion. The same can be said about the side characters. Where the first two games and "Lost Horizon" benefited from a cast of likeable, quirky and therefore quite memorable characters, all the characters in "Secret Files 3" are incredibly bland and basically exist only to fullfill exactly one role within the games story. There's no chance of getting to know any of them since the game already pushes on to it's next location and there's no room for extensive dialogue with any of them. [h1] Gameplay [/h1] Once again, the game is a classic, 2.5D-Adventure. We accompany our heroine Nina as she travels around the world, collecting and combining all sorts of different items, solving puzzles and piecing together the hints we gather along the way. If we ever get stuck on a puzzle, there's a bunch of ingame help systems to point us in the right direction. Just as with its predecessors, "Secret Files 3" provides us with a hot spot finder as well as with an ingame journal that provides hints for the early stages of the game. On top of that, the difficulty for some of the puzzles can be selected upon approach. Speaking of the puzzles, they felt very logical and a bit too easy for my taste. I didn't use any of the ingame help and never really struggled or got stuck. The reason for this might be the same as mentioned above, to accelerate the pacing and create dramatic tension, but it also made me wish for more complex and difficult puzzles.... I still remember the cat puzzle from Secret Files: Tunguska" (mean!) and the whole section set in Paris from "Secret Files: Puritas Cordis" (annoying!) but I seriously doubt that I will remember any part of "Secret Files 3" in half a year... everything just felt too simple and went by too fast for that. On the positive side, the game boasts a roster of five playable characters, although Nina is still the main protagonist an the other four are limited to one small scene for each of them. On top of that, the biggest revolution in terms of gameplay is the inclusion of player choices. On two different occasions during the game, the player has to make a decision on how to continue the game. These two decisions lead to one of four different endings for the game. While this may sound spectacular, it is , again, very underused in reality. The choices have no direct consequence for the game and only result in different outcomes for the text based conclusion of the game. Again, I wish this idea would have had a much greater impact on the game itself. [h1] technical aspects [/h1] The graphics were never really outstanding in this series and that stays true for the third installment. The various locations still look clean, but they manage to be less interesting and stunning than in the earlier games somehow. The character models still look worse and lack facial animations during close ups to display any form of emotions, unfortunately. The character animations are clunky as ever and even worse, the devs decided to exclude any display of "special animations". Whenever Nina uses an item within the game world, we never get to actually see it. The screen simply fades to black and we return after the acion has been performed in the off. Even worse, in one occasion, when Nina uses a measuring stick to pull something towards her, she only raises her hand and the item magically floats towards her. We don't see the stick that is supposed to be in her hand at that point. These cut animations are pretty bad for a 2012 game, especially since the predecessors didn't use these kinds of cheap skips. [h1] Conclusion [/h1] "Secret Files 3" marks the conclusion for the adventures of Nina and Max and it's a pretty bumpy ride in my books. It is still an enjoyable adventure game with logial puzzles and an interesting narrative. On the other hand, it falls short in comparison with its predecessors and especially "Lost Horizon" by the same devs. THis game sinply lacks any memorable sequences or characters and feels pretty rushed at times. On top of that, it's playtime of around 7 hours is agains way shorter than that of the other games in the series. All in all, "Secret Files 3" is not a complete letdown, but it still serves as a somewhat disappointing conclusion to one of my favourite adventure series. [h1] Score: 5/10[/h1]

As a Point & Click adventure game, it's ok, way to short and the story feels rushed compared to the previous titles in the series, and it doesn't help that while beign short it feels they padded parts of it with a dream segment that you need to redo the actions 5 times as a puzzle. As a Secret Files game it's the worst in the series by a good margin, while voice acting in the english version got better, the story got worse, much worse, and that made the game feel rushed. The ending also is incredibly abrupt and when you guess the game is picking up to let you know about the mystery, it just ends and you get a slideshow and a gag reel. I would only recommend picking it up if you played the other games in the series and want to complete your collection and maybe give it a try. Otherwise for anyone that just wants a nice point and click game there are way better titles for the same price even on sale, only grab if you have played almost everything else.

Alors que dire... Comme un peu tout le monde, j'ai trouvé ce jeu moins bien que les deux premiers. Le scénario m'a quand même bien plu, même si c'est un peu vite balancé. Pas très compliqué, le jeu se termine assez vite, mais bon ça ne m'a pas trop dérangé. Mais la fin est vraiment baclée... Vraiment déçu la dessus... Quelques trucs pas top non plus : -Parfois le perso est dans la même pièce que d'autres perso et personnes ne la remarque o_O -On passe très vite d'une scène à l'autre... -Un effet rewind à un moment un peu long... Malgré tout, content de l'avoir fait ! Il existe un patch fait par Ghylard pour avoir des sous-titres en français (dispo via planete-aventure.net)

TLDR: Für unter einen 5er, wenn man großer Fan der Reihe ist und unbedingt wissen will, wie es ausgeht, meinetwegen. Aber ich sage euch gleich, dass Enttäuschung vorprogrammiert ist. Da es einfach ein großer Schritt runter vom Niveau der Reihe ist, kann ich es einfach nicht wirklich empfehlen. Wer es doch unbedingt spielen will, kann gerne mal in den Steam Guide schauen, den ich erstellt habe. Das Gute - Manche Rätsel gibt es in einer leichten und einer schweren Version. Da die Rätsel aber insgesamt so stark im Schwierigkeitsgrad wandeln, und man vorher nie weiß, welches Rätsel nervig wird, bringt es auch wieder nicht sooo viel. - Die Sprecherinnen und Sprecher machen einen tollen Job, wie immer - Die Graphik sieht recht gut aus, die Musik ist nicht schlecht - Ich mag die Outtakes und das „Was geschah mit…?“ immer noch, aber es ist deutlich halbherziger als in den anderen Teilen Das Schlechte - Der Plot. Und da hat man schon den Großen Salat, denn das ist bei einem Adventure leider das A+O. Hat jemals jemand gesagt: „Mensch, Geheimakte ist super, aber es wäre doch noch so viel besser mit abstrusen Zeitreiseelementen!“ Nein, oder? Genau das ist leider passiert. Man kapiert irgendwann gar nichts mehr und die Regeln, was in welcher Ebene der Realität möglich ist, ändern sich ständig. - Max kommt praktisch nicht vor und sein neues Charaktermodell sieht komisch aus - Das Tagebuch wurde ersatzlos gestrichen, sodass man auch keine Unterstützung dabei hat, den wirren Plot nachzuvollziehen und die „Rätselhilfe“ ist ein absoluter Joke. Gefühlt ein Satz wo du gerade bist, und was dein übergeordnetes Ziel ist, egal wie viel Fortschritt man in der Szenerie schon gemacht hat. - Das gekünstelte „Your Choice Matters“ System. Ich hätte es gar nicht gebraucht, aber wenn man es schon einführt dann bitte richtig. So macht es nämlich gar keinen Sinn. Man versteht schon bei dem individuellen Hauptmenü kaum, welche Option was beeinflusst. Bei den Enden ist es auch irgendwie dumm [spoiler] wenn ich also Kassandra, die ich seit 5 Minuten kenne, komplett im Regen stehen lasse und ihr nicht helfe, kommt diese als Konsequenz als Gast auf meine Hochzeit… ah ja… interessant [/spoiler] - Die Humor/Drama Ausbalancierung. Ich liebe den Humor von Geheimakte. Es gibt auch hier noch ein paar gute Momente, aber wenige, da alles so ultradramatisch ist. Und wenn sie dann kommen, die Klopper, dann passen sie wirklich gar nicht in die Stimmung und Situation. [spoiler] Als Nina Max erzählt, dass sein guter Freund Emre sehr wahrscheinlich tot ist und dieser raushaut „ja, ja Emre hat es nie mit den Weibern gehabt“ (oder so ähnlich) war das schon irgendwie unpassend als Reaktion auf den Tod eines Freundes. [/spoiler] Schade, dass diese wirklich gute Reihe so ein etwas unglimpfliches Ende nimmt. Man hat ständig das Gefühl da hätten die Developer noch super viel draus machen wollen und mussten es dann alles stark begrenzen (allein schon die Gesamtlänge des Spiels deutet darauf hin).

Niesamowita gra, trochę dziwna fabuła, ale nadal świetna część serii!

storyline was really awful. lots of busywork ( repeating actions over and over and over again - literally turning back time and adding another step, x5, alternating between lights or power and having to keep going back to flip the breaker for each UGGGHH, etc), and still a short game at under 5 hours. yikes.

Avventura grafica coinvolgente, la storia è ricca di mistero e colpi di scena, mentre gli enigmi sono ben progettati e stimolanti senza risultare frustranti. Nei panni di Nina Kalenkov, il giocatore si trova coinvolto in una trama ricca di enigmi, antichi segreti e cospirazioni che affondano le radici nell'Antico Egitto, con continui colpi di scena legati al destino di Max. Le ambientazioni curate e l'atmosfera intrigante rendono l'esperienza piacevole per gli appassionati del genere. Un ottimo titolo per chi ama le avventure punta e clicca con una trama avvincente.

:o)