The 11th Hour is the sequel to The 7th Guest and is primarily a puzzle game. Unlike it's predecessor, whose puzzles were inventive and thought-provoking; starting off relatively easy and becoming harder as the game went on, this title is nowhere near as intensive. To begin with, about half of the "puzzles" are actually board games you play against the computer, one being, very obviously, Connect 4. The problem with these is that the computer is annoyingly precise at choosing the best possible move and victory often comes down to luck. There is a guide that can attempt to solve these for you, but even then, I have still lost. The 7th Guest had only one of these games and it could be skipped with no repercussions. The puzzles that are actually brain teasers, which The 7th Guest excelled at, are poorly arranged as well. One of the mid-late puzzles involves spiders on an 8-pointed star. It would be very easy if you did not have to complete it in 7 moves. Compare this to the knight puzzle, one of the first you encounter, which is much more challenging and has no arbitrary move limit. Had they simply swapped the two, the progression would make much more sense. There are so many cases where the puzzles do not equate to their point in the game. I liked the word-play, scavenger hunt part. In here you had to figure out a clue Stauf gives you and identify which item in the house he is referring to. The logic to some solutions requires quite a stretch at times, but for the most part, it was enjoyable in a Carmen Sandiego sort of way. Finally, the story. It was very superior to The 7th Guest in the sense that it had a clear progression, with a beginning, climax, and resolution that was easy to follow and was unveiled the more you progressed through the game. Was it particularly moving? That is up to the player, but I enjoyed that you had your choice of endings. Overall, The 11th Hour was a sequel that delivered in style, but felt lazy in creativity.
