The 7th Guest

Description

The 7th Guest is a combination puzzle-solving and action-adventure video game that takes place inside of a derelict mansion. Explore the eerie mansion's 22 rooms and work through its over 20 challenging puzzles to piece together a story of vengeance and horror that unfolded in the 1930s. The story takes place in the mansion.

Henry Stauf, who became famous as a manufacturer of children's toys, was the owner of the home. Henry was once a destitute vagabond and a robber, but he was inspired to create a magnificent doll by a vision that came to him in a dream. The doll was so incredibly lifelike that it sold like wildfire. The sudden success of Stauf's toys brought him both fame and cash, transforming him from a poor man into a wealthy one. However, things took a tragic turn when owners of the doll became infected with a vicious and fatal virus after playing with the doll. Those children did not make a full recovery.

Following the occurrence of these circumstances, Stauf withdrew into seclusion on his estate, ceased production of his toys, and remained cut off from the rest of the world for an extended period of time. When six persons were given invitations to a party at the estate, a rather peculiar event took place. By finding the answers to the puzzles hidden throughout Stauf's "fun house," you will be able to travel through time and discover what happened to them and the unidentified 7th visitor on that tragic night.

The game is played from a first-person perspective and utilizes a point-and-click interface with animated cursors themed by scary movies or television shows (skeletons, bulging-eye skulls etc.). It was one of the very first video games to be distributed on the then-revolutionary CD-Rom format. Real actors and actresses bring the story to life throughout a number of full-motion video cut scenes, and the graphics have been rendered in SVGA in their entirety. A completely created and orchestrated musical composition is played in tandem with the pictures.

You will not be able to complete the game until you have solved all of the riddles in Stauf's manor. Each puzzle that is successfully completed will allow you to access new rooms or new movie sequences. There is a wide variety of puzzles to choose from, including the well-known "eight queens puzzle," another game in which the objective is to build a sentence by rearranging the letters, and others. You can try going to the library if you are stuck; there you will find a book that will give you hints on the puzzle. If the suggestions aren't enough, the puzzle will automatically be solved for you once you've looked through the book a sufficient number of times.

Later, more restricted editions of the game came packaged with a supplemental movie that featured a "behind the scenes" look at the creation of the game as well as interviews with the people responsible for its production.