The 7th Guest (25th Anniversary Edition)
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| Released on April 1, 1993 and remastered in April of 2019 for the PC (among other computing platforms) by Virgin Interactive Entertainment, and developed by Trilobyte, The 7th Guest features dozens of perplexing puzzle rooms in a horrific point-and-click adventure setting |
The early 90's was such a banner era for computer games. With the CD gaining prominence as the dominant medium, games began to feature more complex graphics and more high quality music. This era was kickstarted by several high profile "must have" titles, among them Cyan's Myst, and Trilobyte's The 7th Guest. Both games drop the player off in a mysterious locale, Myst's fantastical, and The 7th Guest's the pure horror of a haunted house.
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| Personally, I think going up these steps is a wise decision |
I was all over Myst at the time, and played through it several times, on my friend's Mac and on my family's PC. I only heard about The 7th Guest, though, as my classmates bragged about experiencing horror elements that I was sure my mom would frown upon. However, with the 25th Anniversary remaster of the game released...on the 26th anniversary of the game in 2019, and the 30th anniversary of the original release coming next year, I figured it was finally time to give the game a chance.
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| The town I prefer is the 90s |
I must immediately admit bias here. I have apparently missed the aesthetic of early 90's CD-ROM games, as I fell into this game like into a warm blanket on a cold night. The game's opening intro is a sort of lo-fi, early 90's cinematic dream, detailing how the evil drifter, Stauf, murders a woman to steal her purse, then uses his ill-gotten gains for ill means, creating a toy company that results in several children's deaths, before he steals away to his enormous mansion outside of town, never to be seen again. The player character, Ego, awakens in this seemingly abandoned mansion one night, with no memory of how he got there. Ego soon finds, however, that the house is only abandoned by the living. Ghosts, several of whom seem quite sinister, run rampant through the mansion's halls.
Thankfully, as much as I enjoy this intro, it is concise, and the gameplay starts quickly. The player is given access to a small amount of the mansion's rooms. Each room is home to a devious puzzle. As the player solves rooms, more rooms around the mansion become unlocked. The player will have to unlock them all to reach the attic, and the game's ending.
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| Like who ate the last piece of cake |
The mansion was a top-of-the-line 3D environment nearly 30 years ago. Now, the low-res polygons have a charming throwback quality, and along with the low-res cinemas that work as ghost animations, actually give the game a bit of a timeless, haunting quality. I particularly love the cinematic of a female ghost walking backwards down a hallway, casting an invisible line, then making a motion that she's reeling you in. This is the trapper keeper of haunted houses, and I love it. The music also accentuates the spooky retro vibes, featuring fun pieces with fusions of jazz and lounge tones with Middle Eastern and carnival textures, and ambiance like a cold, creepy wind that flows through one of the most prominent tracks.
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| The game loudly yelling "COME BACK!!!" at you when you exit was legendary on the sixth grade playground at False River Academy |
As the player roams the house from a first-person perspective, opening each now room is its own special reward. Each room has a unique flavor, and the tricky, but often fun puzzles within round out this enjoyable experience. While some of the puzzles can be solved quickly, there are a handful of serious headscratchers here. Some require simple pattern recognition, others tax the player's memory, and some are nearly opaque in their design. Thankfully, the house's library contains a puzzle book that includes hints for each puzzle...it's even possible to get the puzzle book to solve a puzzle for you. I don't recommend using this feature often, though. I only used it twice, but once I realized it was an option, I had to exercise some serious willpower to stay away from it. Thankfully I did, which made completing the game a lot more fulfilling. I'm of a mixed opinion over whether including this option to skip a puzzle completely is a good idea. I guess it does unlock the game to everyone. With that said, a solid playthrough of the game, solving all of the puzzles in the mansions' many rooms, will take 15-20 hours...if you don't cheat your way through.
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| The both blessed and accursed puzzle book |
To top things off, the narrative here is actually a pretty good ghost story. Hey, I love ghost stories, though, so there's some more bias for you. Speaking of stories, this 25th Anniversary Edition comes with a plethora of extras, including a full-length novelization of the game in PDF form. Other bonuses include the game's soundtrack, a PDF copy of the original manual, the script, deleted scenes, a making of featurette, and more.
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| I heart ghosts |
As for game improvements, there's a map now, which shows which rooms you've already solved. The cutscenes are skippable now, which is great if you're not on your first play through. The graphics are slightly sharpened, but thankfully, are allowed to keep their retro charm. The soundtrack also gets a bump in quality. The controls are also slightly updated. Overall, while some may be annoyed that the updates are so minimal, I prefer to think of this edition as a slight quality of life enhancement on the original, which also allows it to run on modern computers, and features a cornucopia of extras. But hey, if you want to just emulate the original? Go for it. In fact, the 25th Anniversary Edition comes with the original version of the game as an extra! If you have any love for early 90's retro CD-ROM games, The 7th Guest is a must play, in any iteration.
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