The 7th Guest

Posted by Philip Jong.
First posted on 25 September 1997. Last updated on 05 December 2013.
Articles  »  Reviews
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In the dawn of the CD-ROM era, a little known company named Trilobyte sets off to develop a software that aims to harness the capacity of the CD-ROM to deliver the multimedia capability of the home computer. The end result is the market hit called The 7th Guest. With its incredible graphics and sound effects, The 7th Guest is considered to be the "killer app" that heralds in the market for…

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In this review, it is clear that the writer did not like this game very much. It is sad because THE 7TH GUEST is very impressive. I love puzzle games, but generally they just consist in very technically simple productions. In THE 7TH GUEST, you are immerse in an "Agatha-Christie-like" novel. Have you read "ten little negros" ? Of course, someone can say that there is more FMV than really playing parts, but the real goal is the puzzles, the story is the base of the game, but you play for the puzzles. It is clearely written in the manual. So if you play this game only as an adventure game, you are in the wrong way... THE 7TH GUEST is an atmospheric game, and it is a real success in this way. You begin the game, looking on this spooky mansion, you take a look on the first screen in this house, hearing THE 7TH GUEST main theme written by the great Fatman and the magic begun. You are not on a game but IN this game. The music is very complex, composed to be completely integrated in a sequence with particular guests talking and acting. The graphics are amazing and you explore the mansion looking for new rooms to look at like a child playing with a new toy.

Ok, ok, "the acting falls somewhere between horrid and laughable", but personnaly (maybe the actors did not want this second degree effect) this B movie feeling is exactly what I was expecting from a game like this, over-played like old movies on 30' years. And as it is said in the previous review, the script is very impressive, so you are always waiting to see what happened next. You play the puzzles to see what happened next. Of course, the trick of the stick and the carrot is as old as the world, but it's ok finally. Puzzles are interesting and you want to solve them, you will be able to discover another element of the bloody tragedy that happened in this spooky mansion and to find an answer to the first question of the hero : What am I, what am I doing here and why (the three basic questions of manking afterall)?!?

All is beautiful in this game : graphics, smooth animations, and this music is bewitching. The 25 minutes Original Soundtrack found in the second CD is by itself a good reason to buy the game, just to hear the Team Fat at work... The puzzles are beautiful and nice to play, difficult, and you are very proud of yourself when you managed to finish one of them. Of course, the original MS-DOS and Win95 releases of the game read very slowly the FMV. But with a Win95/98/NT patch released by Trilobyte and found on the web, FMV are faster and can be cut by a right mouse button click. The interface is very smooth and simple, and as I am french, the only real problem that I found on this game is that Trilobyte never release any subtitled version, the beginning is very hard for strangers to the schakespearian-speaking.

If you want to see a real bad game with a negative ever-increasing of FMV born from those years when video-game market discover CD-ROM, just look at FANTASMAGORIA, 4 CDs of blue screen acting from bad actors.

But to come back to THE 7TH GUEST, make your own idea. And if you like puzzle-games, try THE 7TH GUEST. We are in 2003, and I show the game to a friend of mine searching for a puzzle-game with an original atmosphere. I have no news from my CDs since 2 weeks. I think he liked it, isn't it ?

It is as simple as that : there are some games that have this little bit of magic that make them attractive, no matter why! You launch the game and next you can not stop, you are captive. THE 7TH GUEST has this little bit of magic, even if actors are sometime laughable, even if the story is sometime confuse... Just try it !

PS: Sorry if my english is sometime bad. Hey, just write to my old teachers!

France By Julien RIET • On 10 July 2003 • From Clermont-Ferrand - FRANCE

I just bought a brand new HP computer. And i have the orginal 7th guest. I tried loading it on my computer and it doesnt seem to be working. It says something about DOS i need, and i dont know if my new computer has DOS to support the game. Can someone help me to see if i need DOS or i need to get the updated version of this game.

United States By Kari • On 23 June 2003 • From Somewhere

PLEASE TELL ME WHERE I CAN BUY A COPY OF THE 7TH GUEST IN WINDOWS FORMAT. I HAVE IT IN THE OLD DOS, BUT SOUND SYSTEM IN NEW COMPUTER GIVES ME TROUBLE. THANK YOU

United States By SANDI MC CUNE • On 21 June 2003 • From SIMI VALLEY CA USA

Talking about the 7th guest

By kim jessen • On 18 October 2002 • From Denmark

Llegu?a esta p

By M?Alejandra • On 15 September 2002 • From Espa

Very Good

The Review offered for the Seventh Guest is all true, but--I beleive--fails to take several things into account. To say that the puzzles "distract from the gaming experience" is not true at all. The puzzles are a part of who Stauf (and his mansion) is. He was an eccentric genius and brilliant madman, and his puzzles add to the aura of the house, and its mystery. Also, talking about "skipping game animations" and "skipping the walking scenes" may make the game go quicker, but I beleive that the movement is best as is. Can you skip the views you get while walking around in daily life? Can you take a chess piece from one part of the other without picking it up and moving it? The realistic quality is certainly what was being strived for. I don't think that the Seventh guest is a game made for gamers. It is a game in which you must immerse yourself for the experience. That said, it must now be clear why the graphics are done as they are, and the animations played as they are.
However, I do agree with you on some points. The acting is hardly up to snuff. However, I should point out that Robert Hirschboeck, who plays Henry Stauf, and Micheal Pocaro, who plays Brian Dutton. were true thespians shining through the clouds of horrid broadway-yelling and really making their parts come alive. Also, Hirschboeck did an excellent job in the game's sequel, "The 11th Hour". The acting in the sequel was much better. Id like to add that I am NOT a gamer, or frequent computer game user. But the 7th Guest really interested me. I give it a 4.5 out of 5
Finally, where can I get a copy of the 7th Guest Movie script?
Bye: JB.

By JB • On 25 June 2002 • From Anchorage, USA

Saludos!
Les cuento que tengo The 7th Guest desde hace 6 a

By Diego Carranza • On 09 May 2002 • From Bogot?- Colombia

iv playe your game and it is allsome do you have eny outhe games like this one
besides 7th geussed


george mc

By george • On 12 June 2001 • From york pa

I have just bought 7th guest in the 1994 version, on two cd-roms. After installation on my windows 95 machine, the programma's gives the error message: "pcm sound hardware not found at port/irq in groovie.ini".
Please give some advice how this problem should resolved; maybe give the e-mail adres of Virgin Interactive Entertainment (Europe) Ltd.

thank tou

By john peters • On 07 December 1998 • From Netherlands
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