The 7th Guest
Developed by Trilobyte Games
The 7th Guest is a game from my childhood that I have completed multiple times but had the chance to recently play again with a new Steam release that emulates the game via the ScummVM platform. It was an interesting experience going back and playing a game that I have completed multiple times. While I played this at a young age, it’s still a fairly mature game with lots of questionable content for the time of it’s release. The 7th Guest is a first person adventure game based around a collection of puzzles that has you figuring out the secrets of the Stauf mansion. This is a legend in the gaming industry, but times change and the experience this time was far different than the last time I played it nearly a decade ago. It’s dated, it’s at times difficult and unfair, it’s par for the course for classic adventure games. There’s still a lot to love with The 7th Guest, but whether you want to put up with it is at your discretion.
The gameplay of The 7th Guest is extremely simple to follow as you move around the mansion exploring creative rooms and searching for puzzles and easter eggs. This game has no inventory or items to find, just rooms filled with puzzles, full motion video sequences, and spooky secrets. Instead, the game relies a lot on locked doors and returning to old areas in order to find where to go next. There are many paths to complete the game, but they all end up taking you in the same areas as the story gets slowly pieced together. Unfortunately, this form of story telling is ineffective at times when characters who die are suddenly appearing in FMVs in other rooms. It might not be the best way to tell the story, but at times it’s real convenient from a gameplay standpoint. The movement of the game is extremely slow paced and moving from room to room uses static screens with motion transitions. It was a way to get past the technical limitations of the release year, but unfortunately it shows its age greatly as you spend a lot of time waiting for your character to move to the next room. Puzzles also work at this same slow speed. It’s still playable, just don’t expect the fastest of gameplay.
The 7th Guest follows the tale of Henry Stauf who was an incredible toy maker that made dolls for children. When the children began to mysteriously die, Stauf disappeared and his mansion was left to rot. He was a big fan of creating puzzles and six guests are one day sent invitations to the abandoned mansion as special guests. What none of them know is that there is a 7th guest in the building that no one knows exists. The game puts you in control not as any of these guests but as a character unaware of why he is even in the mansion. The story plays out with live actors in full motion video scenes showing the ups and downs of each character. It’s a bit cheesy at times, but extremely ground breaking as this was one of the first major FMV games to be a commercial success. The technology is dated, but it’s still fascinating to see how a game like this existed over two decades ago.
The real meat of The 7th Guest are the puzzles and this is where I have the most issues with this game. I can stand the outdated graphics, the questionable story, and the at times laughable acting, but when puzzles become so difficult and frustrating to the point of not being able to complete them, then I just can’t finish this game. I planned on finishing this game in a single sitting and I couldn’t because of one late game puzzle that has you jumping dots in order to outscore your opponent. The computer AI had near perfect play every single time and making one mistake during the entire game meant you would definitely be losing. Unfortunately, this kind of a randomly generated puzzle can’t be beaten by a walkthrough or a guide. Brute force and learning how to play it was time I didn’t want to invest in this game. So many puzzles involve things that take a lot of time like switching positions of pieces on a chess board or navigating a large maze while being taunted by the voice of Henry Stauf. I can forgive a lot of things, but the puzzles are what prevented me from actually finishing this game. It’s better than some old point and click games that become literally unbeatable if you make a wrong move, but it’s still a real deal breaker for me. At least the inferior sequel to this game added the ability for in game hints and skipping puzzles if you ever became truly stuck, but this one has a much more unforgiving design.
Graphically, this game looks terrible with it’s low resolution graphics and laughable full motion video, but yet the game still manages to have a real unique style and character. The mansion is filled with rooms that are distinctive and each have their own style. The characters are all unique and have unique vulnerabilities and flaws that show. I don’t think that this game is going to scare anyone with how much the age shows, but if you know before hand that the game is old I don’t see any problem. One interesting thing I found about the game was because I was playing this while streaming it I was messing with the contrast to try to brighten it up for viewers as the visuals are very dark in this game. I quickly learned that the creators used darkness to cover a lot of flaws and it was an interesting insight on classic game design. The things this game does with the technology that was available at the time is truly remarkable and I don’t want to insult this game just because it’s ugly by today’s standards. The one thing that I do really enjoy about this game and it’s sequel is an original soundtrack by The Fat Man. This game has some awesome and iconic music that shouldn’t be skipped. In addition to the fantastic soundtrack, you are constantly hearing the voice of Henry Stauf as you move through the mansion and if there’s anything that you will take away from this experience, it’s his words. His voice acting is a great part of why this game is so iconic and it’s much better done than any of the live action guests.
I have a real hard time saying this but I don’t know if The 7th Guest is worth playing anymore. Sure, I had a pretty good time playing it, but most of that was just nostalgia peeking through and as time moved on the flaws really became apparent and took away greatly from the experience. If you have a fascination with full motion video games like I do, this is definitely one with a lot of historical value that I recommend checking out, but for those casual onlookers it’s a bit of a mess. If you do want to pick this up, I think $5.99 is an acceptable price point and you will get at least a few hours of entertainment out of it. Turn the volume up, the lights down, and enjoy the game for what it is, a creepy adventure game with a lot of heart.
braktheman 
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