Game Review: The 7th Guest VR

By J.D.

Players: 1
Platforms: PlayStation VR2, Meta Quest, Steam VR

(Disclaimer: Just as I was finishing the game for review, a new patch was released that may have addressed some of the issues I bring up in the review.  Also, in general, VR experiences may vary wildly between people and setups.)

After first gracing computers in April 1993, classic adventure game The 7th Guest has received a VR remake courtesy of Vertigo Games. While adventure games have evolved a lot in the last 30 years, this new take shows that this game got its classic status for a reason.

The game begins one night when the player arrives at the abandoned mansion of toymaker Henry Stauf. Years ago, six guests were invited to the manor but Stauf himself was mysteriously absent. With the help of a spirit lantern that shows things as they were long ago, the player explores the various rooms of the mansion solving Stauf’s puzzles and uncovering the events of the night.  

Right off the bat, the game nails the atmosphere in VR. The mansion feels like eerily empty and like a ghost could pop out of any corner. The graphics aren’t super detailed but the art design gives the manor the perfect rundown feeling. This is also enhanced by the cutscenes that have been rerecorded with volumetric capture so you can view it as if it were taking place in the game world. The new actors bring an old timey feel to the story perfectly suited to the mid-1900s setting.

Adventure games like this live or die by their puzzles and The 7th Guest really shines here. There are 19 different rooms each with its own puzzles. Some were easy puzzles and some were more difficult but generally all of them are solvable if you put your mind to it. If you’re still stuck, you can find coins hidden in the rooms that can be redeemed for hints and solutions to all the puzzles.  

However, the puzzles are occasionally let down by wonky design or finnicky controls. Sometimes, it’s just things that can be pressed reacting to any part of my virtual hand that “touched” the surface or imprecise movement/rotation of objects I was holding. This might just be a limitation of the Quest 2 or caused by my play environment so your mileage may vary. While not a puzzle, another frustrating point was trying to trigger a cutscene after clearing a room seemed to require my standing in a very specific point that took me about ten minutes across multiple tries to find. This seems to have been fixed in the most recent patch but I was unable to test it.

Other than those control issues, there were two frustrating sections that really stuck out to me. The first was a puzzle with dolls. The first part of that puzzle involved reconstructing a few of the dolls that had been broken. Even with the added light from the lantern, it was still too dark for me to properly tell which parts went together based on the clues in the room. The second part of the puzzle was placing them at tables based on who liked whom/what. The connections I needed to make were shown in the room but I needed the spirit lamp to view it and it was scrawled across the room with looping lines that were obstructed by the room itself. I kept trying until I was finally frustrated enough to use coins to solve the puzzles.  

The second one that stood out was the final challenge. I was expecting a puzzle that maybe played on my knowledge of previous puzzles or was just super challenge. It wasn’t a puzzle. It was a game of chance that took me like five tries. As a challenge, I would have probably been more forgiving but as the last thing between me and completing the game, it causes the game to end more on a whimper than a bang.

Overall, I still enjoyed my time with the game. The puzzles that worked very much outweighed the few that frustrated me and the story and atmosphere made this a fun romp through an eerie manor.  In conclusion, even if it’s not always this remake of a classic adventure game is a party worth attending.

For More Information on The 7th Guest VR:
https://www.the7thguest-vr.com/

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Overall Rating: B

Pros:
+ Perfectly captures the spooky haunted mansion aesthetic.
+ Great adaptation of the original cutscenes to VR.
+ When puzzles work, they work.

Cons:
- Some puzzles are more frustrating than difficult.
- Occasionally finnicky controls.
- Disappointing final challenge.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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