The 11th Hour

Note this "review" is from what I remember playing T11H when it first came out. My overall opinion may change when get to play it again from GOG. While technically superior in almost every way to The 7th Guest, The 11th Hour fell short of T7G story wise. More video sequences, more in depth characters but unfortunately the characters weren't really ones anyone could care about. The music in the game was also a let down for me compared to the original coming off more as an experiment for Team Fat than producing something that it the overall theme of the game. However the gameplay itself was great, a bit more diverse than T7G to add some new elements. The story is passable if not memorable. It was a technical treat visually for it's time. A solid offering for it's time and worth a play or two but it won't leave you with the same sense of awe that T7G.

Whats wrong with the 11th guest can be very simple put. When compared to its predecessor 'the 7th guest' you can easily make the comparison of comparing 'godfather part 2' to the 'godfather part 3' In short, they tried very hard to make the sequel better than the original in every way, they unfortunately didn't success in any area. That sounds harsh, but totally true, it is inferior to its predecessor in EVERY way. Is it worth playing? play the 1st (massively superior) game and if you really enjoyed it, then go for it. If you don't like the first or found it a bit of a let down, don't even bother with this one because it only gets worse.

From the senseless story to the invasive and annoying sound effects to the obscene AI mini games, no part of this game is worth the time. Endless anagram puzzles are followed by repeatedly visiting the same few areas over and over while watching the occasional poorly acted cut scene. The only redeeming part of this game comes from the logic mini games, but that is not enough to save this one.

Speaking as someone who normall enjoys point and click adventure titles, and as someone who normally likes puzzle games, I had high hopes. This game did not deliver. Taking place some many decades after the original's setting, your character is trying to save a woman he only days before basically accused of screwing to the top, because of course he did. This game is definitively 90's, from the dialogue to the technology to the art style of the FMV sequences, this is definitely a 90's drama. Where does it fail? So many ways.....short of it is that finding the clues is an extremely tedious process, the FMVs are easy to gain out of order thus making the narrative difficult to follow, the villian is annoying to listen to (and loves the sound of his voice) and the puzzles are lackluster, uninspired and many times nonsensical. I finally gave up when I got to the train puzzle, as I was already not having a lot of fun playing this trainwreck (coincidence?) which, for those of you at home, having fun is kind of important when playing a video game. I finally just looked up the endings on Wikipedia. I do not recommend this game. Buy and play it at your own risk.

The 11th Hour is much more difficult than The 7th Guest and consequently I still go back every now and then to solve the puzzles I couldn't solve before. The story is fairly well written but since this is a game and not a movie, the plot does not move in quite the same manner as they would in a movie. Nevertheless, I think it works and avoids the various pitfalls that played interactive movies made around the same time, such as the Phantasmagoria games and Black Dahlia.