BestyGames VR: The 7th Guest VR is full of clever puzzles and mysteries

The 7th Guest VR is the newest release for virtual reality platforms, piggybacking on the dark atmosphere that surrounds Halloween. However, this release, even though many people don’t know it, is a kind of virtual reality remake of a 1990s PC classic of the same name.

Developed by Vertigo Gamesthe same person responsible for excellent virtual reality games such as After the Fall, Another Fisherman’s Tale and Arizona Sunshine, the suspense and mystery game puts the player in the shoes of an investigator responsible for solving the mystery surrounding a mansion where terrible things happened. But to find out if this is a worthy remake of the 90s classic, check out this full analysis.

The mystery of the seventh guest

The game’s story follows exactly the same premise as the 1993 classic, with six guests being welcomed into an isolated and gloomy mansion, but with a dubious purpose. However, an unexpected seventh guest could completely change the plans previously hatched by wealthy and isolated toymaker Henry Stauf, who called the six original guests to the mansion.

The player takes on the role of an investigator who is supposedly helped by the spirit of a child who asks for his help to solve the mysteries that plague that mansion. With this premise, the player needs to explore the entire Stauf mansion and solve several puzzles to finally understand what is actually happening there.

Of course, not everything is rosy, after all, we are talking about a suspense and mystery game wrapped in an atmosphere of terror. Even though it doesn’t have as much scare appeal for scare’s sake, the game manages to bring a very satisfying atmosphere of suspense that leaves the player always with one ear perked up, looking for the moment when something will surprise him in some way.

The exploration of the mansion is done little by little, with secrets being discovered through solving countless puzzles as a kind of escape room, something that The 7th Guest VR also brought from its original 1993 game. Finally, the story has good twists and a very thought-provoking atmosphere, but what stands out most about this updated version of the classic game are the filming with real actors.

Scenes with real actors

The classic game The 7th Guest from the 90s was quite surprising in its time due to the presence of pixelated scenes recorded with real actors. These scenes (which are somewhat reminiscent of the technology used in the first Mortal Kombat) brought a fluidity and realism to the game that would have been impossible by other means in the early 90s. And even though The 7th Guest VR does not reach the same level of innovation, the quality of its material leaves nothing to be desired.

This is because in The 7th Guest VR we have scenes with real actors recorded with 360º cameras that allow the player to watch the cinematics from any angle they prefer, just not being able to get too close to the actors. This update to the technological theme used in the original game came in handy for a virtual reality game, giving commendable realism to the dialogue scenes and a unique image quality.

This in itself already demonstrates the commitment that Vertigo Games had to bring the 1993 classic to a new platform. We’re not talking about a lazy remake in which scenes are simply repeated on flat screens within virtual reality, completely taking away the player’s immersion. Quite the contrary, the dialogue scenes in The 7th Guest VR they were completely re-recorded with new actors, bringing excellent and even innovative realism, I would say, to the virtual reality escape room gameplay.

All of this, without losing the exaggerated and caricatured tone of the characters present in the original game. After all, even though The 7th Guest is a story of mystery and suspense that is very reminiscent of the tales of Agatha Christie, its characters and personalities are exaggerated enough to be almost forced. This may be strange to some, but it really brings back the soul of the original game. The 7th Guest VR.

New instinctive puzzles

In addition to the scenes with real actors, another highlight of The 7th Guest VR are your puzzles. These have also been reworked compared to the classic game. With new mechanics using and abusing the immersion that only virtual reality can provide, the puzzles can also be very creative and instinctive, even compared to other puzzle-solving games that we currently have in virtual reality.

Of course, the basics of VR puzzles are also present, such as pressing buttons in the right order, solving puzzles involving mazes and finding hidden objects. But even these are made with a certain personality that makes the gaming experience The 7th Guest VR be very enjoyable and thought-provoking, crucial characteristics in my opinion for a mystery game to remain playable until the end.

Some mechanics parallel to the puzzles still serve very well, such as the use of the mansion map to locate between environments, the ghostly lantern found at the beginning of the game that allows the player to see what the mansion was like while the investigated events unfolded and also the tips left by the seventh guest, which in fact serve as a kind of projective tutorial for the player to better locate themselves in their objectives in each environment.

A great return to the classic

The 7th Guest VR serves very well the objective of resurrecting a classic game that was previously forgotten in the distant 90s. Even though it manages to attract a lot of older players who had the original experience way back when, the virtual reality update also has the capacity to attract younger players who never got their hands on the point and click of the past.

Translated exquisitely and very respectfully into virtual reality, with commendable new features and without losing the aura of the original game, The 7th Guest VR is a great example of how old games can be brought to new platforms in order to completely revise their gameplay without losing their essence, while also not just being the lazy “more of the same” that some developers insist on doing in virtual reality .

The 7th Guest VR was released on the day October 18, 2023 and is available for PRAÇA via Steam VR, PlayStation VR2 It is Meta Quest 2version used to prepare this analysis.