Review of The Seventh Guest VR Rating ****
Although I enjoyed this puzzle game, I can only give it four stars due to some playability issues I encountered. So, let me start with that. The first issue I encountered was related to height adjustment. I play all VR games seated. When I first started The Seventh Guest, I was ten feet tall and unable to reach things like doorknobs. No problem, they smartly offer a height adjustment. So, I select height adjustment and see that I can only increase the height; I can’t lower it. (Note: I am using the HP Reverb G2 headset and controllers.) This forced me to enter the Mixed Reality Portal and lower my height to approximately knee height.
The next issue I encountered, and one that persisted throughout the game, was the problem with the integration of the lantern and spirit board with the controllers. As soon as I tried to grip anything, I either immediately brought up one or the other. This problem was especially frustrating when trying to solve puzzles that required manipulating game pieces or controls.
Another frustrating issue was that I encountered rooms that were locked or were chained, which I believed were another puzzle to be solved. Take the kitchen, for example. There is an outer room with a doorknob that serves no purpose. The same is true for a garbage chute door that has a chain on it. It’s not part of the puzzle, but I sure wasted a lot of time trying to figure out how to enter these areas.
Despite the issues mentioned above, I would recommend this VR game to all puzzle game enthusiasts. The graphics and sound were exceptional. The goal of the game is to solve puzzles related to various rooms in a haunted mansion. The puzzles were all unique and not particularly easy. There were maybe four or five puzzles that I spent way too much time on and finally had to resort to a walkthrough. I will say that the developers did include a hint system, which I found to be only moderately helpful. Now, part of the problem may be user error, as I have since learned that the coins found lying around in each room can provide additional information. Not only did I not know that, but I also didn’t know how to use them.
While I’m on the subject of difficult puzzles, I will mention two that I found nearly impossible. I’ll start with the piano. There is one puzzle that requires you to press piano keys in a certain pattern. There is a painting above the piano that cues you into the fact that there are six keys that have to be pressed in a particular order. There are blood smears on the piano keys to help you identify the keys. Even though I knew that I had to play six keys, and even though the blood smears were supposed to guide me, I could not figure out any discernible pattern with the blood smears. I remember a similar puzzle in the game Myst. But with that puzzle, you were able to hear the pattern before trying to reproduce it.
Another puzzle I found particularly difficult involved recreating a specific shadow pattern by arranging discs that turn. At first, I thought I was supposed to recreate the two animals on both sides of the controls. It didn’t take long to see that the goal was to reproduce a pattern revealed on the wall behind you. This was another lost several hours. For one, since you could adjust the height of each disc, I didn’t know if that was part of the puzzle. Even when I resorted to watching a walkthrough video, it took me several viewings to get the exact alignment.
The best puzzle games give you just enough information to allow you to figure them out and also provide subtle hints to help you when you are stuck. For the most part, the majority of the puzzles in this game followed that rule.
The one puzzle I enjoyed the most turned out to be a game, and it was also the last puzzle to solve. The saving the soul’s game was fun once you figured out how to play it. It was also a satisfying end to the game.
Lastly, the little vignettes that played throughout the game were well done and brought the game up to another level.