History VideoGame / SecretFiles

** In the third game, Nina must [[spoiler:soak a teddy bear in gasoline, set it on fire, and then ignite the said gasoline to cause an explosion in a post-apocalyptic dream sequence]].

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Nina can potentially abandon both [[spoiler: Cassandra and Max]]. The former is put into suspended animation, and the latter is saved anyway, but if you don't save him, [[spoiler: Nina calls off their wedding.]]

** In ''3'', if you combine the hammer with the chain while you're in Turkey before using the former to crush some red earth, you won't be able to feed the red earth into a pressure gun, which you have to do in order to make sure you can cross a pit, as you cannot use the hammer for its intended purpose once it's hooked to the chain.

* ChurchMilitant: Puritas Cortis, Jay Shelton, and posthumously, Zandona.

* ContrivedCoincidence: [[spoiler: Jay Shelton]] believes this, and believes that there is no way Nina and Max, who know each other, simply stumbled onto his plans in two different places halfway around the world in the second game. [[spoiler: Truth is, he's wrong, it was a complete accident.]]

* SadisticChoice: Nina is offered one by [[spoiler: Jay Shelton: Tell him about the Church Intelligence Services conspiracy or he kills Max. Nina, having stumbled onto the plan, knows nothing. Cue Jay shooting Max.]] [[spoiler: Jane Cunningham]] offers Nina another one in the third game [[spoiler: Get her a radioactive element called deterrium or Max dies.]]

* FissionMailed / NonStandardGameOver: Just before the final confrontation in the sequel with [[spoiler:Pat Shelton, head of Puritas Cordis, as Nina sneaks up on him at the top of his command tower, if the player does anything else than throw a bowl of soup at him, Pat will then shoot and kill Nina. He then belittles her for being so foolish up to this point. We then get a GameOver screen and for a moment we are tricked into thinking the games up to this point would never have such a thing...but then the whole thing is actually an ImagineSpot and the whole scene gets rewinded, likely due to adventure games having a rule against killing the player character since the complaints of the old Sierra games. Nevertheless, this is still quite a shocking roundabout twist on that rule.]]]]

* ButThouMust: If you choose not to get the deterrium in the third game, [[spoiler:Jane will punch you out and take it anyway.]]

* FissionMailed: Just before the final confrontation in the sequel with [[spoiler:Pat Shelton, head of Puritas Cordis, as Nina sneaks up on him at the top of his command tower, if the player does anything else than throw a bowl of soup at him, Pat will then shoot and kill Nina. He then belittles her for being so foolish up to this point. We then get a GameOver screen and for a moment we are tricked into thinking the games up to this point would never have such a thing...but then the whole thing is actually an ImagineSpot and the whole scene gets rewinded.]]

** The two major decisions you make throughout the course of the third game have no immediate impact on the story whatsoever. Regardless of whether or not you choose to save [[spoiler:Cassandra, you'll always end up getting caught and trapped in a shipping container aboard a freight carrier off the port of Cadiz]]. And towards the end of the game, when [[spoiler: Dr. Jane Cunningham forces you to disable a force field by poisoning Max so that she can retrieve deterrium for a dangerous experiment, you can either choose to deactivate the force field so that Max can be saved, or to leave it on and let Max die. No matter what you choose, Dr. Cunningham will get that force field offline one way or another and then accidentally leave her antidote for you to give to Max and save him, which you ''must'' do to continue the story.]]

* NonStandardGameOver: If you approach [[spoiler: Shelton too carelessly at his control panel, we're treated to a scene of him pulling a gun out and killing Nina with it. Although this is subverted as it's revealed to be Nina imagining what would happen if she took that action, likely due to adventure games having a rule against killing the player character since the complaints of the old Sierra games, this is still quite a shocking roundabout twist on that rule.]]

* MortonsFork: Near the end of the sequel, Nina [[spoiler:is faced with three different choices when Puritas Cordis threatens to kill Max if she doesn't tell more about her new allies]]. Whichever one you choose, [[spoiler:Puritas Cordis shoots and presumably kills Max anyway]].

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Nina names a robot she creates "Electric Death Bitch"

* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: Max]] pulls these off in the first two games. Once with a crane hook, and another with a helicopter. It's the CERN assistant who does this in the third game.
* BlackCloak: Much of the mystery of the first game revolves around mysterious figures in ominous black cloaks who kidnapped Nina's father so Nina is naturally wary of them. It turns out [[spoiler: [[RedHerring they did this to protect him]] [[CreepyGood and stop the true villain's plans.]] Although their sect remains a mystery with morally ambiguous motives.]]

* NiceHat: Max sports a safari hat in the second game. It stays on his head during explosions [[spoiler: and when he gets shot in the chest]]

* DisneyDeath: Near the end of the sequel, [[spoiler:Max is presumably gunned down execution style, but [[PocketProtector is saved by a small steel door he hid underneath his shirt.]]

* MortonsFork: Near the end of the sequel, Nina [[spoiler:is faced with three different choices when Puritas Cordis threatens to kill Max if she doesn't tell more about her new allies]]. Whichever one you choose, [[Puritas Cordis shoots and presumably kills Max anyway]].

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: How the BigBad typically meets his end. The first game uses a GiantWallOfWateryDoom in Antartica, so it [[HumanPopsicle puts the bad guys on ice]], the second has [[StuffBlowingUp a self destruct sequence]] and the third has them get sucked into a black hole.

* Meganekko: Cassandra

* NonStandardGameOver: If you approach [[spoiler: Shelton too carelessly at his control panel, we're treated to a scene of him pulling a gun out and killing Nina with it. Although this is subverted as it's revealed to be Nina imagining what would happen if she took that action likely due to adventure games having a rule against killing the player character since the complaints of the old Sierra games, this is still quite a shocking roundabout twist on that rule.]]

* BlackCloak: Much of the mystery of the game revolves around mysterious figures in ominous black cloaks who kidnapped Nina's father so Nina is naturally wary of them. It turns out [[spoiler: [[RedHerring they did this to protect him]] [[CreepyGood and stop the true villain's plans.]] Although their sect remains a mystery with morally ambiguous motives.]]

* ParanoiaFuel: The final battle in the second game involves Nina needing to outmaneuver [[spoiler: Shelton as she scrambles up and down a building. Each floor, she needs to figure out what to do but take too long and Shelton suddenly appears and pulls a gun out and fire, forcing, Nina, the player character to another floor. It's even scarier if you remember that you could get a NonStanardGameOver before if you approached Shelton too carelessly.]]

The first game, ''Secret Files: Tunguska'' ([[TheTunguskaEvent named after the explosion caused in 1908 in Siberia]]) follows Nina Kalkenkov, an average Russian woman, visiting her father, Vladimir, at his office in a Berlin museum only to find him missing and his office a wreck. The police being [[DefectiveDetective singularly unhelpful]], she tackles the problem herself, aided by one of her father's co-workers, and later boyfriend, [[AdventurerArchaeologist Max Gruber]]. The two uncover an investigation he undertook to Tunguska in the 1950's, as well as a world domination scheme that's also interested in the same investigation.