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)

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

More Puzzles, more walking....

The Good
First of all, let me say that I rated The 7th Guest fairly high, mainly due to the fact that it was groundbreaking technologically when it released.

Which is why I think that The 11th Hour isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

The only 2 things I liked are the Graphics and the Sound,

Graphically, the game (although mostly in Black and White) is good. Gone are the days of smoothly walking around Stauf's Mansion. Now head bobbing movements are added along with a flashilight.

The sound/music is pretty much the same as the original. Creepingly eerie, but childish in a way.

The Bad
OK....

First of all, for a puzzle game, the puzzles are kinda stupid. Your PDA holds all the clues for the puzzles, along with a helper (the girl you are looking for) to help with the anagrams. Although you can get clues to the puzzles, the game offers to solve them for you EVERY time. Why bother publishing a game that you can easily walk through without doing anything?

The anagrams are particularly weird. Some are real easy to figure out, while others are SO obscure, you'd have to be a Cryptic Crossword specialist to figure the meaning out. Couple that with the fact that after you solve the anagram, you have to look through a DARKENED house, armed with only a flashlight, and you have to find the item described by the anagram to unlock the next room. All in all, it produces tons of needless mouse-clicking and re-re-re-exploring the house.

And Control... Well if you thought it was bad in 7th Guest, it's EXACTLY the same here. Once you click on an area... you are sunk. The fact that it spans 4 CD's doesn't help much either. Sometimes you end up swapping CD's back and forth... which gets tiresome after a while.

The Bottom Line
Bottom Line: Hardcire 7th Guest fans will flock to this like birds attacking a human dipped in honey and rolled in birdseed. Other people... It's iffy. You may or may not like it. Basically it's a game you'll either love or hate. No recommendations for this one.... and I hate doing that to a game.

Windows · by Chris Martin (1155) · 2000

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.