A classic puzzle game that has suffered some with time, but still a fun game for all ages.
The 7th Guest, being a puzzle game, is filled to the brim with puzzles. The puzzles themselves aren’t directly connected to the game; rather, they are brain teasers that you may recognize from outside the game, such as the infamous microscope puzzle, which is a reworked version of Conquest. Most of these are not terribly difficult, but there are a few that can really get irritating, and sometimes feel downright impossible.
Trilobyte was kind enough to include a hint feature in the game, so if you ever get stuck, you can almost always slip down into the library and peek at the book on the table, read the print on the page, and get transported back to the room the head-scratcher that you are stumped on is located. The first time you do this when working on a puzzle, you will receive some rather cryptic advice. The second time will reward you with a more helpful clue. The third, the puzzle you were working on is solved. This can come in handy, but when overused, certain doors of the house will refuse to unlock, leaving you stranded.
After completing one of the mansion’s many enigmas, you are usually rewarded with an FMV scene that furthers the plot. The story of The 7th Guest is interesting; an old toy maker named Stauf has invited six guests to his house, and left them cryptic notes that inform them that a 7th guest is to arrive that night. Whoever completes a service involving that guest will be rewarded with his or her heart’s most secret desire. As you play, you learn about Stauf’s plans, and witness the six guests suffer gruesome fates. The story that unfolds throughout the game is pleasantly creepy, but the FMV scenes that tell it are shown to the player out of their proper order, which can be confusing to the player. Also, your role is never really explained until the end, and even then it is a little mystifying.
As stated before, The 7th Guest’s graphics were positively phenomenal for its time. Today, they won’t be winning any beauty contests, but they are still astounding. The mansion the game is set in looks great, and is appropriately spooky. The characters in the FMV scenes, on the other hand, are a little grainy. Since you really can’t make out the actors’ facial expressions all that well, they must use exaggerated body movements and speak with a somewhat dramatic flair.
The sound of The 7th Guest is also quite remarkable. The walking around music and the music found in the game’s puzzles sound superb, despite the fact that they are over 10 years old at present. The sound in the FMV scenes is also quite well done; voices echo at the correct level according to the size of the room.
The main problem with The 7th Guest is getting it to run. There is a win32 patch floating around, and players can also use something called DosBox, but even then, some things just aren’t right. The most annoying quirk is the fact that the game crashes every 3 or 4 puzzles, so it is necessary to save constantly. Also, I encountered a few instances where the music refused to kick in, specifically in the piano room scene, the falling action, and the ending credits (This may be owed to the second disc being played in a CD player to listen to the game’s soundtrack). Then of course, there is the fact that everything moves several times the normal speed. For example, when something tries to pry its way through a painting canvas, it’s over in two shakes, rather than moving at the slow speed it used to, and is a tad less frightening because of it. But, this may just be the result of the game’s running on a modern machine.
The 7th Guest, despite having suffered some over the years, is still a fun game that should not be missed if it can be helped.
*For the uninitiated, FMV, or full motion video, is a technique in games that involves playing film clips of live actors.