Secret Files 2: Puritas Cordis (2008), developed by Animation Arts, Fusionsphere Systems, Keen Games, published by Animation Arts
Secret Files: Sam Peters (2013), developed by Animation Arts, published by Ravenscourt
Thus, I continue punishing myself with terrible adventure games made after the turn of the century. Secret Files 2: Puritas Cordis continues the adventures of Nina Kalenkow, who in the previous game was looking for her father, who had been kidnapped by a group of people trying to use alien technology to control the world. Again, the world is in peril.
The world is ravaged by natural catastrophes. As Nina's father is heading to the UN to chew fat with other scientists about these calamities, Nina is going to take a luxury cruise, where odd things begin to happen. What was supposed to be a relaxing holiday ends with the ship capsizing, and Nina is whisked into another adventure, where a religious organisation called Purtias Cordis is trying to cause an apocalypse.
Max Gruber, the co-hero of the first game, is in Indonesia with a photojournalist, Sam Peters, who has been covering a discovery there. As it happens, Sam is captured by Puritas Cordis goons, so Max needs to rescue her.
Some twists and turns later, both Max and Nina end up in the secret compound of Puritas Cordis, where their leader is just about the set his final plan in motion, to kill the world leaders. Nina and Max take care of him, and all is good again.
As with the previous game, the same pros and cons apply to Puritas Cordis. It is a relatively good-looking game, and the game engine works as well as you can hope. There's a hotspot detector, which simplifies the gameplay somewhat in terms of hotspot hunting. But, again, the puzzles are built around adventure game moon logic. Ít just isn't the kind of game I find enjoyable, but as it has been sitting in my library long enough, I decided to just push through it.
Again, you play the game as both Nina and Max, Nina being the main character with most gameplay. But, unlike in the first game, you get to play as a couple of side characters as well. The game begins by having you play as Bishop Parry, who is just taking a look at the old parchment sent to him by his friend. Another playable character is Max's old colleague, Sam Peters, who also got her own adventure, which begins from where her part in Puritas Cordis ends. Despite multiple characters, Secret Files 2 isn't a longer game than the first one, just a bit more flavorful.
I do find the puzzles a bit easier in Secret Files 2 than they were in the first game, but the difference is that there seems to be far more unnecessary loops in all of the major puzzles. As a whole, SF2 is more tedious and boring than anything else. It's the kind of game you'd want to see ending long before you get to the final puzzles, which are surprisingly easy in contrast to everything else that came before it.
Secret Files: Sam Peters is more of a mini-adventure. It begins more or less right where Max leaves Indonesia, and the first thing Sam has to do is to find a way to escape the island before the erupting volcano sinks her under. After getting to Germany, Sam gets a case of checking out strange goings on if Africa, where a strange new creature has been seen.
Sam Peters feels more like a DLC than a full-fledged adventure game. It's noticeably shorter than the two previous games and revolves more around brain teaser puzzles, like jigsaws and the like, than anything else. Perhaps, because it's a more restricted in scope, I liked it more than Puritas Cordis, despite its structurally a bit more disjointed and the two distinct parts of the game don't really have much to do with each other.
Although there was a 5-year gap between Sam Peters and Puritas Cordis, an actual Secret Files 3 was released before it. So that in mind, Sam Peter's is something of a surprising release. And maybe it's this time gap in between these games that explains at least some of the differences in puzzle design as well.
For what it's worth, Sam Peters is fun enough, but I'd wait for a proper discount to get it.
If you want to play Secret Files 2, you can get it from GOG and Steam. I wouldn't really recommend it, as there's no shortage of good point-and-click adventures out there.
Sam Peters can be found on GOG and Steam. Out of these two, it's the one I'd recommend getting, and although it is linked to Puritas Cordis, playing that isn't really necessary.
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