The 7th Guest Review

This horror-puzzle title starts you off with a flashback back to 1935 where you witness a vagabond called Henry Stauf murder a woman and stealing her purse. He dreams of a doll which he begins to carve the following day. The doll is then traded for food and lodging at a nerby tavern where Stauf continues to have visions of toys which he begins to craft and sell. This leads to Stauf becoming a well known toymaker, who uses his new gained fortune to buy and build a large mansion at the outskirts of the town. The children in the town who owns the toys produced by Stauf starts to become mysteriously ill and begins to die. The flashback ends with Stauf leaving for his mansion never to be seen again.

The player then wakes up in the mansion, suffering from amnesia, having to piece together why they are here to begin with. Travelling through the mansion the player sees vision of ghosts and past events in the deserted hallways and rooms. The player meets six guests of the mansion, in their ghostly form, when encountering the visions. The guests finds a number of puzzles with instructions – that Stauf needs a seventh guest, a boy named Tad. Discussing it amongst themselves, some of the guests feels it is best to honor Stauf’s wish and give him the boy whilst others finds it best to help the boy escape Staufs plan.

As the evening progresses the guests starts to scheme against each other, committing murder or getting trapped by Stauf’s machines. The sole survivor of the event chooses to drag Tad in to the attic for an awating Stauf. Stauf has made a pact with the Devil, and has become evil – hence killing children. To complete his pact with the Devil he needs one last soul, that of Tad. Stauf kills the adult and grabs Tad with his devilish tongue. The player then realizes that he has been Tad all along, witnessing the past in a sort of purgatory. Finally being able to help himself, Tad escapes the mansion and Stauf is dragged back to Hell, not forfilling his end of the bargain.

When The 7th Guest came out back in 1993 it was among the first games ever to use live action video clips within a video game. The game also had a good sized world with pre-rendered 3D graphics, making it much more open-worldy – a thing that was unprecedented at the time. In most scenes there is plenty to look at. Mind you, the game came out in 1993 so the graphics are not impressive these days, but they were back then. Travelling through the mansion every room is unique and so are most of the puzzles.

The puzzles themselves are not overly hard, but does require a bit of strategizing and thinking. With the exception of one puzzle, the microscope puzzle. Back in the day the system CPU drove the AI for the mini-game, and the faster the CPU the harder the game, rendering it almost impossible to beat. That put aside it is still a very hard puzzle / mini-game to complete. Thankfully you can choose to ignore it, as the puzzle is optional. Also, if a puzzle is deemed too hard for the player they can visit the library and click on a book to get a hint. Do this enough times and you can skip said puzzle entirely.

Looking through the lenses back to 1993 The 7th Guest is an interesting game. With it’s fully pre-rendered 3D environment, live action video clips and complete voice over it certainly has a lot going for it. The story is good, quite dark and morbid, but nevertheless a fine mystery with a plot twist. The puzzles are challenging, but entirely skippable if you are in it for the story. Another strong suit for the game is the soundtrack which is quite good. It fits the different puzzles and rooms remarkably well and is one of those soundtracks that can be listened to after having played the game, and still enjoying it.

All in all The 7th Guest was an important game for it’s time. It is the game, alongside Myst, that accelerated the sales of CD-ROM drives, and was even called “The new standard in interactive entertainment” by Bill Gates. That being said it is an old, rough gem which undoubtedly will deter a younger audience, and is mostly reserved for the nostalgics or the die-hard fans of the genre. If that is your jam picking up The 7th Guest might be up your alley!