WARNING: I’ve made absolutely no attempt to curb my bias here. This game is what got me into computers all those years ago and I just had to repost it!
Review of 7th Guest for iPad – 18th December 2010
In the summer of 1993 I received a copy of the 7th Guest as a present from my parents, and immediately I was enthralled. The first thing I noticed when opening the box was the stunning artwork, featuring the mansion of toymaker Henry Stauf, exquisitely architected by Robert Stein and his team.
In the box was a host of treats, including a stunning lithograph featuring one of Stauf’s enigmatic dolls. Behind that the two CD-ROMs containing the hours of live-action video, gameplay and 3D Studio-rendered graphics, with the remainder dedicated to the game’s haunting CD-audio soundtrack. And finally, nestled behind a small doorway was a “making of” video cassette which offered a detailed insight into how all the diverse elements of the 7th Guest came together. Later versions also shipped with a booklet entitled The Stauf Files which provided a new story arc featuring the investigative journalist Robin Morales. This also acted as a nice segue into the game’s sequel, The 11th Hour.
As a 13 year old kid, it was like having Christmas all in one beautifully packaged box. I can’t tell you how many countless hours I spent on my dad’s PC in the study, exploring all the rooms of Stauf’s sprawling mansion, looking for so-called “kinetic hotspots” like the hidden portal to the subterranean portrait gallery, screaming blue murder over the infuriatingly difficult Microscope puzzle (Note: this had to be dropped for the iOS version due to technical issues) and piecing together the (intentionally) fragmented storyline of what took place when 6 guests were invited one night.
In the near two decades since its release, there have been multiple ports of the game, including one to the long-forgotten CD-i platform. The latest and first one in 13 years is to the iOS platform, with both iPhone and iPad flavours being made available.
In firing up this game for the first time in years, the first thing I realise is how far the gaming platforms themselves have come. It’s easy to take this for granted in the age of the smartphone and the PS3, but I can still clearly recall the difficulty in setting up the game back in the 90′s: Correct VESA/SoundBlaster drivers? — check, MIDI/WAV volume balance — check, enough available Conventional/Extended memory — check. Indeed, the first puzzle of the game could be described as actually getting it up-and-running (later releases of the game did improve on this, thankfully). But it was all worth it as the game’s ouija board was revealed and that delectably evil voice of Henry Stauf offered that unnerving greeting: “Welcome to my… house.”
Players of the PC/Mac version will notice how true to the original the iOS port is. Thankfully, the clever team that has brought this version to us (under the direction of the game’s co-creator, Rob Landeros) has left the game for the vast majority intact, avoiding any George Lucas-style tinkering of its parts. One thing I did miss, however, was the game’s cinematic title sequence, which featured a bone-chilling crescendo provided by the musical genius George Sanger, aka The Fat Man. This introduction, which lead into the haunting exposition of Stauf’s “road to evil” (which is included in the iOS version), set the tone and atmosphere for the game in a way that had me checking my back as I explored the house’s darkened corridors. I distinctly remember at one time being a little freaked out having got lost in the vast maze that leads to the house’s crypt: as I rounded a corner and was met with a dead-end, Stauf offered his most chilling taunt of all, “Feeling lonely?”.
Now as I fire up the ouija board on my iPad and that skeletal hand beckons me deeper into the bowels of the mansion once more I can’t help but feel a certain sense of trepidation all over again: will I beat the house in the face of Stauf’s merciless taunts and “live to play another day”, or will I once more fall victim to the house having succumbed to my “mere mortal” weaknesses?
Either way I’m sure I’ll be reminded why this game made a such a big impact when it was released all those years ago: it’s straight-forward and intuitive gameplay, it’s uncompromising production values but most of all it’s focus on storytelling, which was way ahead of its time (my favourite of the camp cast of characters being the man-eating seductress, Martine Burden). As this latest incarnation spreads throughout the Internet, I will follow with great interest the thoughts and reactions of a whole new generation of Egos who dare to enter the mansion.
