Welcome to my house... The 7th guest is a puzzle adventure in the form of an interactive movie made by trilobyte in 1993. Together with rebel assault, it was one of the first games that made people want to get a cd rom drive. The game was quite successful and a sequel named the 11th hour was released.
You play as the mysterious 7th guest who gets an invitation to a spooky mansion owned by Mr. Stauff. He's a somewhat crazy guy who had visions that guided him to making dolls. They were so lifelike that children wanted to have one and Stauff became both famous and rich. Eventually, the children started to die. A disease or curse from these dolls was responsible for their illness.
Stauff, in his madness, sent invitations to several people and whoever could solve his puzzles, was granted a wish. You frequently see cutscenes of the other six guests who happen to have been around the mansion simultaneously while you, the 7th guest, arrive later. Apparently, they were pretty dumb and haven't solved a single puzzle or Stauff reset them for you.
The house it fully pre-rendered and all you can do is click on certain areas on the screen. You then move along pre-defined ways with a transition which is actually a video sequence streamed from the cd. These transitions are fairly slow. That will quickly become annoying, but it was probably a limitation by the low speed of the first cd rom drives that just couldn't read fast enough. Nevertheless, it was revolutionary at the time and certainly looks much more impressive than full-motion videos on the sega cd.
Not all puzzles are available from the beginning. After the first two, about half the house becomes available and after certain puzzles are solved, another batch becomes accessible while for the last two, you need to complete all other puzzles first.
Interactive areas on the screen are shown by changing the mouse cursor if you move over them. Cutscenes got a mask icon and puzzles show a brain. With a click you start them. There is little explanation. Some cryptic hints are given in the cutscene in the same room or by Stauff or your character during your attempt on solving the puzzle. If you can't figure it out, there is a clue book in the library. It gives you two clues per puzzle and if you read it a third time it will just complete it for you. If you let it auto-complete a puzzle, you don't get to see a cutscene as if you had finished it yourself. You can use the clue book's ability to solve puzzles on any but the last one.
How good are the puzzles you ask? They are ok, I guess. They are somewhat repetitive, not very creative and with the exception of the maze, there are no clues to be found anywhere in the house. Every puzzle is self-contained. In general, the reason why I don't find them very appealing is that almost all of them feel "mechanical" and those that don't are just terrible.
Let me compare these puzzles to zork: nemesis since I made a complete playthrough of that as well so you can verify my claims. In zork: nemesis there is a theme throughout the game that includes every puzzle. They are about logic and not just an algorithmic solution and you need clues found in other rooms of the game. You read books that add to the lore and put everything in a mysterious shroud. Of course zork: nemesis is a more modern and more recent game. Technology has advanced and the 7th guest had to deal with limitations that zork: nemesis didn't have to put up with. Still, that is no excuse for lazy puzzles. Take the old lucas arts adventures as an example. They are even older, but the riddles and puzzles are clever and fun.
So, how would I rate the 7th guest? It's a mixed bag. I think every adventure fan should try this game because it was important to the genre. I've waited for almost 20 years to play the game because I didn't have a computer back then when it was released, but read the reviews and imagined how great the 7th guest must be. I still want to like it. It sets up the mood nicely and if you accept the puzzles for what they are and don't question where they originate (cough, 8-queens-problem, cough). I'm working on the 11th hour, but i'd like to solve the puzzles myself if possible and therefore it may take one or two weeks for it to show up on youtube.
Дата на публикация: 7 февруари, 2023
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