The 7th Guest

The Good
7th Guest is a fantastic visual game. Back when games were on floppies, here this one comes on a CD! The technological leap ot CD based games had arrived. For better or worse, now we are stuck with them.

The graphics for its time are astounding. A fully rendered 3D house with intricate puzzles and ghost like actors. It amazes me just walking around in the game how fluid the graphics were... and this was 7 years ago.

The gameplay... hmmm... How to sum it up. It was unique. If you are into puzzles... especially in the mathematical puzzle-type books, you could probably find all the solutions at your local library (or in my case, I had solved them originally on paper - check the telescope puzzle for an example). Some original puzzles were good, including the Coin/Card flipping puzzles.

Sound was eerie. Period. The "Come Baaaaack!" When you leave the game sends chills down my spine every time I hear it. And the background music is creepy in a childish way - which fits right into the game itself :)

The Bad
Some of the puzzles - as mentioned in other reviews - are too darn hard. The telescope game is one I NEVER solved. If you like Othello/Ataxx, then you got this one solved, but the AI in that game alone ruined the "move around the house and solve puzzles" mood for me.

The control - as in walking around the house - could be very difficult at times. It only took a single click of the mouse to go from Point A to Point B, and if you didn't want to go there, well tough... you went anyway. It could get very frustrating trying to move around the house.

The actors could have been better, and the plot was decent, but seemed very vague and fractured. Maybe because of the puzzles you chose to solve and the order that they are solved in?

The Bottom Line
Depends on your taste. This is pure puzzle solving extravaganza with a decent plot woven in. Like puzzles? This ground-breaking game is for you. Dislike puzzles? Try a different game.