The 11th Hour

aka: 11H, The 11th Hour: Der Nachfolger von 7th Guest™, The 11th Hour: Het vervolg op The 7th Guest™, The 11th Hour: Kontynuacja gry The 7th Guest™, The 11th Hour: La Suite de The 7th Guest, The 11th Hour: The sequel to The 7th Guest
Moby ID: 567
DOS Specs
Buy on DOS
$4.00 used on Amazon
Buy on Windows
$5.99 new on Steam
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Description official descriptions

The 11th Hour is the sequel to the widely successful game, The 7th Guest. It utilizes a much improved video compression engine by Graeme Devine and is also the game which brought forth Trilobyte's eventual demise.

This time you play the role of Carl Denning, boyfriend to the reporter Robin Morales. Robin has mysteriously vanished while trying to delve into the secrets of the rotting mansion of the once evil mastermind, Henry Stauf.

The game features new puzzles, redone graphics and indeed an improved engine - much smoother, with 16 bit graphics and an entirely new soundtrack. The basic gameplay is still similar to its predecessor: the player walks through the mansion, watches FMV sequences and solves logic riddles. The so-called GameBook, a laptop, can be consulted to receive puzzle hints.

Spellings

  • 11-й час - Russian spelling
  • 第十一小時 - Chinese spelling (traditional)

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Credits (DOS version)

7 People

Lead Programming
Music
Sound Programming
Additional Graphics / Artwork
Director
Writing
Dialogue
Story
Sound Design
Engineering
Package Design (FRA+GER+UK)
  • Root Associates London

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 63% (based on 32 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 60 ratings with 4 reviews)

As a strategy game, it is great. As an adventure, it is not.

The Good
The 11th Hour is exactly what it should be: the sequel to the very successful 7th Guest. A ghost story, inside a strange house, with many weird elements. And blood. And gore. And everything that could scare the player.

The best thing about the game is undobtely its technical parts. The graphics are really fantastic (and they are still great). The 640x480 Super VGA backgrounds had 16 million colors and demanded a powerful hardware when released. Not only the panoramas were beautifully designed, but also the videos were amazing. The 11th Hour was everything an interactive movie should be (and interactive movies were very popular back in 1995). The over 2 hours of full-motion videos (30 frames per second, just like in TV), spread over 4 CDs, were much better than most videos at the time, including the acclaimed Phantasmagoria ones. Everybody wanted to test the capabilities of their new multimedia hardware in 1995 and The 11th Hour was the ideal game for doing that.

The music was also great and contributed to a great atmosphere, although not remarkable. The sound effects were also magnific. They were both very well executed.

Of course, if you want to create a scary ambience, you have to affect the player senses. Trilobyte used unprecedent graphics and sound to do that.

And, if you like solving hard puzzles, this is the game for you. Although there is a story and there are adventure games elements, the game basically consists of a series of puzzles to be solved. The puzzles were more difficult than they were in The 7th Guest could take hours or even days to be sorted out.

The Bad
Nobody could ever complain about The 11th Hour technical qualities. But there are lots of problems in this game.

First, there's a problem which concerns interactive movies in general, and that's why they were practically abandoned. They were, with a few exceptions, much more 'movies' than 'interactive'. You just had to sit and watch the game do everything because videos are just videos: they were filmed, they cannot be changed by the player. So, they are not interactive.

The 11th Hour was just the case: it was less interactive than most interactive movies. There's no actual adventure in it. It's just puzzles. It is nice in the beginning, when everybody is stunned with the beautiful graphics, but it gets annoying very quickly. You cannot really take part on the events, as your main role is to solve puzzles which are not exactly connected to the story. So, it seems like the story is just a background to give a proper atmosphere.

Besides that, the acting is terrible. The actors are definitely not professionals.

These are basically the same problems of The 7th Guest. Compared to its antecessor, we could say that the story in The 11th Hour is not so good and involving. And that the atmosphere is not quite the same, despite the much improved graphics and sounds.

And, as the puzzles are too difficult, the game is definitely not a choice for beginners.

The Bottom Line
The 11th Hour is a very nice strategy game, which features difficult puzzles and a great atmosphere, just like its predecessor. And it is a crap adventure game, as it lacks interactiveness.

DOS · by Mumm-Ra (393) · 2003

Bigger, badder, but not quite better.

The Good
Trilobyte upgraded the groovie engine, with better graphics and interaction. The videos were clearer and not nearly as pixelated as in 7th guest.

The acting was about the same, hammy, but interesting. Stauf came back with a whole collection of snarky comments for the player. The puzzles were as good if not better than the ones in the original game. Some of the anagrams were pretty cool.

The Fatman came back to create the soundtrack, a definite highlight of the game. You can even play the tracks as the 2nd CD has CDA tracks on it.

The developer did a good job of aging and destroying the house so it looks like several years have passed since the original.

The Bad
4 freaking CDs. Swapping wasn't bad because the game swaps out only during milestones in the game.

The story makes even less sense then the original. The raunch, as mild as it is, was kicked up a notch to give it a more adult feel.

And the really frustrating anagrams brought the gameplay to a standstill.

The Bottom Line
Plays solidly on XP machines, give it a try and see a could've been classic.

Windows · by Scott Monster (986) · 2009

The first was a whole lot better.

The Good
Well, I have to admit this game is technically amzing. The video compression engine is unbelievably smooth - I managed to play this game on a 486 with quad speed CD-ROM at 640x480, 16 bit in full framerate - it appears Graeme Devine really took his time in writing a new engine from scratch. The video playback is truly phenomenal.

The puzzles are great and as difficult as they were in the first, with the nice addition of a bizarre PDA thingie and another type of puzzles (where you have to find an object by using a clue) and the graphics were revamped to 16 bit - a definite improvement.

The one truly great thing about this game is the music - as fluent and atmospheric at it was in The 7th Guest, simply magnificent.

The Bad
Well, the storyline is much less interesting, the acting is quite horrible (better than the first though...) and the game is simply not as polished as the first. The sequel to one of the best games ever wasn't done with nearly as much teamwork and it shows - the game somehow leaves a sour taste in your mouth. There's also a great deal of pointless profanity and sexuality in the game which adds nothing to it.

All in all, it's inferior to the first and not much fun to play... but maybe it's just me.

The Bottom Line
A technically amazing game which lacks the amazing WF (wow factor) of the first.

DOS · by Tomer Gabel (4539) · 1999

[ View all 4 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Patch for conversion to Windows 8 Mystic Sunshyn Aug 18, 2013

Trivia

Alternate version

A more explicit "R-rated" version of the game with partial nudity was planned at one time. While it did not get to production the script for the R-rated version can be found in the Prima Official Strategy Guide. The bad ending of the game is actually from the R-rated version, but slightly toned down and missing one effects shot. No one seems to want to fess up to being responsible for this script either, as in interviews the writer, director, and Trilobyte all deny writing it.

Cancelled port

A 3DO version of this game was in the works, but the project was scrapped due to the public's lack of interest in the console. Some promotional catalogs even listed this game with a firm release date of August 9, 1995, but needless to say, the game never came out. Still, references to this game in various catalogs and gaming magazines have resulted in countless books and web sites erroneously listing it amongst the 3DO software library.

Development

AutoDesk 3D Studio was used during development by Trilobyte for graphics and 3D design in both The 11th Hour and in its predecessor, The 7th Guest The 11th Hour was one of the pioneering games which took advantage of CD-ROM drives that could run faster than single or double-speed. Utilizing technology like quad-speed drives provided players with the availability for a better experience, performance-wise, because of their enhanced CD drives.

Game updates

A new engine allows Windows '95 and DirectX compatible gameplay. Look for it in the company's website.

Hidden features

Disc 1 came with wad file levels for Doom and Heretic modeled after the Stauf Mansion. Disc 1 also includes JPEG screenshots and WAV sound files from the game so that you can create your own Stauf desktop theme. Look for them in the GOODIES folder.

In the setup menu, users can choose between standard graphics and "spooky mode", which will transform the game's visuals from full color into faded black-and-white.

As many users recall, there was a cheat code in The 7th Guest that would unlock every room and puzzle in the house. Entering this cheat code ("Zaphod Beeblebrox") in The 11th Hour will only result in laughter and taunts from Stauf.

Completing the game will add a new saved game in slot 0 called "Open House". Using this game, players have full access to the entire house and can play any of the puzzles as many times as they'd like.

Missing subtitles

Game publisher, Virgin Interactive Entertainment, publicly stated that they were going to have/add text into the game for the express benefit for the hearing impaired. They did not follow through with this which greatly frustrated and disappointed many players and prospective players alike.

Packaging

European Limited Editions of the game were released with a clock packaging but the game is otherwise the same.

References

The game is littered with visual references (some subtle, and some not-so-subtle) to its predecessor: The 7th Guest. One such example is a pile of old, dusty game boxes for The 7th Guest in the laboratory. Surprisingly (and somewhat shamelessly), the game developers even included a 7th Guest CD-ROM as an answer to one of Stauf's riddles!

In the chapel, click the "rolling eyeball" cursor on the small bowl off to the side. Upon closer inspection, you will notice a torn piece of paper sticking out with the word "MISSED" printed on it. This is a sly reference to (or possibly a jab at) the bestselling CD-ROM game Myst. The inclusion of a torn paper was probably meant to mock the plot of Myst, which has the player search out a series of vacant islands for pages that are missing from two mysterious books.

Awards

In the German gaming magazine PC Player (issue 01/1997) The 11th Hour received a special award for the "Worst Script in 1996".

In the May 1996 issue of Computer Player, the game was named in the top 20 list of IBM PC games of that time, earning it #12th place. By the following month's issue, the game was dropped down to #16th place.

MC Microcomputer magazine listed The 11th Hour as the #1 top game of 1995.

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  • MobyGames ID: 567
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Tomer Gabel.

Macintosh added by Martin Smith.

Additional contributors: Jeanne, Scott Monster, Alaka, Echidna Boy, formercontrib, Zeppin, Paulus18950, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, Lain Crowley, Harmony♡, WONDERなパン, Zhuzha.

Game added December 13, 1999. Last modified February 29, 2024.