The 7th Guest Remake: Splendid reimagining of a classic mystery

Vertigo Games has reworked the rooms, puzzles, and even live-action cutscenes to make this version of 7th Guest a solid reinvention of the classic puzzle thriller.

The Stauf Mansion that serves as the playground The 7th Guest was once hallowed grounds in PC gaming as the game was one of the first truly immersive 3D mystery thrillers to really bring aura and interaction at the level it was playing. And for its innovations, original developer Trilobyte created what was considered to be a “killer app” that drove CD-ROM technology to popularity. Developers Vertigo Games and Exkee already had history with this classic, having previously developed The 7th Guest VR, but this remake adapts the VR game and brings that version to traditional screens and platforms. Worth noting because Vertigo and Exkee have built a very impressive return to one of gaming’s most influential mystery thrillers, even if I find the acting a little too hammy at times.

Old man Stauf built a house and filled it with his toys

The 7th Guest Remake (much like The 7th Guest VR it is based on) is complete reimagining of the original game. The Stauf Mansion, its inner workings, the puzzles that litter it, and even the guests themselves have all been updated with new designs, new interactivity, and even new FMV acting and voice lines to help deliver the mystery.

For those unaware of the nature of The 7th Guest, it’s a murder mystery in which the player takes up the role of a disembodied figure visiting the mansion of mysterious toy maker Henry Stauf, as if drawn by it. There, they find a derelict, yet grand manor in which six guests once stayed one night, but never left. You will enter the home, learning through ghostly visions what happened to them, as well as solving puzzles that “help the house remember” the way it once was. This involves a lot of walking around the house, taking in the sights, discovering puzzles, using environmental clues to solve them, and unlocking further rooms in which you can do the same and further unravel the mystery. Along the way, the increasingly disturbing visions of what became of the guests play out bit by bit as you thwart the malevolent spirit of Stauf and his puzzles.

I really like the design of The 7th Guest VR’s visuals and sounds. Having played the original, it’s interesting to see this environment reworked into a walkable space. It’s made even more interesting by way of a spirit lantern that can be used to interact with various parts of the game. The light of the lantern reverts the objects and spaces it casts light upon to times long past. You can use it to reform broken records, restore broken props to working form, and discover secrets washed away by history. It’s almost like there’s a second world in the game, hidden from view until you shine the lantern on it. Meanwhile, there’s a dreary atmosphere in the sound design that really drives home the mysterious and ghostly nature of the game. The only part that sometimes took me out of the experience was then when you entered a room for the first time, sometimes certain elements and textures would pop in as the room loaded upon walking in.

A standout aspect I was really happy to see is that The 7th Guest doesn’t shy away from the iconic FMV representations of the original. The characters in the original 7th Guest were acted out by actors in the visions of the game in grainy and dramatic FMV sequences. Here, they’re a little more cleaned up, but it’s still an FMV of sorts. It’s sort of holographic. You can actually walk around the characters and see them from different angles, but they are still undoubtedly real folks acting out the roles and not 3D models of the characters. It’s quite a cool twist on what the original FMVs offered. I will say I find the original 7th Guest’s acting hammy. It wasn’t entirely for me, but it seems they brought that aspect forth to the remake, too. Some of the reworks of the characters are pretty good, but there were definite cheese in this plot that was thicker at some points than others. Still, it’s a small caveat when the rest is so immersive and interesting.

Six guests came one night, their screams the only noise

The majority of what you’ll be doing in The 7th Guest is exploring and solving puzzles. In the old 7th Guest, players were confined to canned views of certain areas. You would click a part of the screen, your character would move there in first-person, and then you could interact with anything on that view of the space. The 7th Guest Remake immediately improves upon this system by letting you actually move around the space as you will, with proper mouse-and-keyboard or twin sticks on a controller.

First off, that means we get to see sides of The 7th Guest that simply never could have been seen before, and it’s interesting to see the spaces that Vertigo Games and Exkee filled in with that in mind. It makes the house feel more alive than ever. The second, arguably equally cool part of that is that it adds much more interactivity and immersion to the puzzles. You don’t simply arrive at a puzzle screen that acts as a minigame the way it was in the original. You search the room picking up envelopes and papers and reading them, looking at bits that could matter to your current challenge, and messing with props in ways where you’ll not only engage with the prop or the puzzle space, but the environment as well. One of my favorites included using a magician’s hat (the kind you pull a rabbit out of) to cheat the laws of dimensions and physics.

Some of the puzzles in The 7th Guest did indeed go over my head, but thankfully the game has a robust hint system. If you search extensively, you’ll find Stauf Coins that will allow you to buy hints to any puzzle. You can have it give you clues or just outright offer you the solution. Still, once you solve a puzzle, you can’t unsolve it and try it again. I would have liked to go back and engage with what I missed after the solution was shown to me, but there’s not an option to do that outside of starting a new game. I do, however, appreciate that it makes you search for those coins if you’re going to have the answer handed to you.

Old man Stauf was waiting there, crazy, sick, and mean

I really like this reimagining of The 7th Guest. The expansion of the house into a properly immersive explorable space should be cool to anyone who wandered these cobweb-laden halls and rooms and unraveled their secrets in the original. I especially like that they didn’t shed the FMV qualities of the original, even if I still find their approach to it a bit campy. I also quite enjoyed how the remake of the house extended to the improvement of the puzzle designs. This game will properly test wits and investigative skills, but if you can’t crack it, finding some Stauf Coins will keep you moving along nicely. The 7th Guest is such an important part of gaming history, and while I’d suggest watching a playthrough of the original so you can really appreciate the remake, I think The 7th Guest Remake is still its own solid puzzle thriller.

This review is based on a PC copy provided by the publishers. The 7th Guest Remake is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

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Review for
The 7th Guest Remake
8
Pros

• Great reimagining of the Stauf Mansion
• They figured out how to keep the FMV
• Puzzles have taken on a great new dimension with the remade house
• The lantern adds another great layer to exploration
• The sound design helps to sell the haunted house well
• Solid currency-based hint system

Cons

• The acting is sometimes very hammy
• Once you solve a puzzle, you can't go back
• Texture pop-in on entering a few of the rooms