Once in awhile, I like to stray away from my usual Thursday old-school reviews and do something a little different. Most of the time, I like to review console games, because I have tons of them and all I have to do is pop them in and play. However, I sometimes forget that throughout the 1990s, I actually played a lot of PC games as well. I’ve made no secret of my love for games like Doom II and Day of the Tentacle, but I was also a huge fan of a little game called The 7th Guest. While I would love to play through this game again, older PC games are hard to find and even harder to get running on a modern-day computer; alas, all I have is my memories, which are more than a decade old. Therefore, I am skipping the usual review and replacing it with more of a simple look back this week.

Originally released in 1993, The 7th Guest is a noteworthy game for several reasons. As a young gamer, I was dazzled by the cut scenes, amazing (for the time) 3D graphics, and voice-acting; the game was also among the first games ever to be released on CD-ROM, and helped drive the format. In addition to being a landmark in the history of PC games, The 7th Guest also featured a disturbing, scary, and adult storyline that predated the ESRB by a year, so it did not have any kind of rating to let parents know how mature the content was.



The story behind 7th Guest starts with a simple poem, perfectly setting the tone for things to come:

Old Man Stauf built a house, and filled it with his toys
Six guests were invited one night, their screams the only noise
Blood inside the library, blood right up the hall
Dripping down the attic stairs, hey guests, try not to fall
Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen
But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy, sick, AND MEAN!

The game’s chilling antagonist, Old Man Stauf, was a toymaker who committed some evil deeds before reaching great success. However, as his dolls became more and more popular, a strange virus starting killing all of the children, ending his career. His last great act was to build a huge mansion, which is where the game takes place. Some time later, six guests are invited to stay at the mansion; the player takes on the role of the title “seventh guest”, and the game is presented in a first-person view.

The guests are forced to solve puzzles in order to gain their hearts’ desires, but they quickly end up turning on each other in order to get Stauf’s prize. As the player, you must make your way through this mansion solving the puzzles, many of which are very difficult (or at least they were when I was ten). Along the way, you will see what is becoming of the other guests as they try to make their way to Stauf, and let’s just say that it is not pretty.



As a child, I remember being completely freaked out by this game, even though I loved it. Before the dogs jumped through that window in Resident Evil, and before Pyramid Head invaded Silent Hill and my nightmares, this was probably the scariest game imaginable. Every time a puzzle was solved it was both a blessing and a curse, because I never knew what Stauf had in store for me next. Still, this game was a staple in my house back in the day. My brothers and I made countless attempts to solve the tricky puzzles, despite having a Stauf voice-over taunt us at every turn. I’m honestly not sure if I ever beat it or not; I sure would like to give it another try, though.

The game had one official sequel, called The 11th Hour, which I know I played but don’t remember nearly as well. I would love to see 7th Guest get a remake treatment, maybe for the Xbox Live Arcade. I really want to know if this game is as disturbing and difficult as I remember it being, or if it was just over my head because I was too young to fully comprehend it. Either way, remembering the hours spent in Stauf’s mansion has just made me want to go back and play some more. Maybe if I can track down my old copy, I can find a way.

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