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Whither The 7th Guest-Style Puzzle Adventure?
Deunan writes "While poking around on the Internet, I discovered a DirectX front end for the classic The 7th Guest CD-ROM puzzle adventure. After some further searching, I stumbled across a more recent pitch for 7th Guest III: The Collector [apparently the game was in development in 2002/3, and there's an interview with designer Rob Landeros about it, but it seems to be stalled.] I was wondering what killed interest in it - are 'thinking' games just not popular anymore?"
Personally, I really miss 7th Guest style games. 7th Guest was actually what first sparked my interest in computer games. I played it at a friends house and thought it was amazing. I then purchased a CD-ROM for my 386 and bought the game. I was in heaven!
;-)
Anyone know if 7th Guest (or 11th Hour) can be run on Linux somehow?
Then I realized to play the 11th Hour I needed four more megs of RAM (to up it to 8).
7th Guest was my first adventure game after Myst, and I loved it; between the music, the characters, and the atmosphere, I was entertained for hours and still look back with fondness upon those simpler days. I recently saw footage for The Collector, and while it did bring back some memories, I do not believe such a game can succeed anymore. The prime thing to consider is that these days, games as a whole can and are more complex so why should gamers be forced to play mostly mundane puzzles to progress a decent plot? There are different adventure-puzzle fans, some like them woven into the story, others like them part of the environment, and others still prefer the 7th Guest style of actual puzzles placed throughout the game.
These days, many years later, I personally lean towards the first two options, since these days it is technologically possible to weave puzzles into games & environments, where as 7th Guest smells slightly of playing puzzle games just to play puzzle games. We've all heard the mantra, 'Adventure games are dead' which I wont bother debating for or against since I think the statement is a bit overly dramatic, but games like 7th Guest lived for a reason, and they have died for a similar reason. Gamers no longer need games-within games to enjoy them, for the games themselves are plenty enough, so the successful adventure games have moved on with this for the most part.
I honestly hope that 7th Guest style games move on, and start with something new; I feel we need games that make the environment an intrical part to the story & gameplay, not abstract puzzles placed in locations, a tired concept. We need games in which the story is not merely a device to drive gameplay; we need games that the gameplay has many levels of depth, and offers freedom for different types of players; we do not need another adventure puzzle-game. Harsh and sad words, especially coming from a genuine fan of these games, but honestly spoken...
"What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon
That's what was cool about The Seventh Guest (and the 11th Hour as well):
the puzzles for the most part required actual reasoning and couldn't be brute-forced.
I remember this one chess-derived puzzle which almost reduced me to tears.
Good times!
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.
I've heard very good things about the Syberia games, though I've never played them - I'm a huge fan of Myst though. The Myst games have always been at the top of my list for absolutely amazing "thinking" games. I can't stand puzzle games that force you to solve puzzles for nothing more than plot advancement, where it feels like half of the puzzles were only put in for the sake of having puzzles, with no thought to how they relate to anything.
Myst has always felt more like the puzzles were just there - parts of the environment. Most of the time they're some mechanical contraption that you need to figure out. First you need to figure out what it does, then how it does it, and finally what you need to do to make it work. The way everything fits together so neatly, it feels like the designers actually went to these places and wrote down what they saw, rather than creating it out of nothing.
Aside from having fantastically designed puzzles, and beautiful graphics, the Myst series has one of the most intriguing settings I've ever seen. The story and environment are top-notch. I'm eagerly awaiting Myst 4 to see how the story unfolds.
Another popular (but horrid) game in this genre was Phantasmagoria. Horror movie inspired hackishness.
The Myst games were great, but Riven was silly hard. The marble puzzle at the end haunted my very dreams. Uru seems to be much easier, so maybe Cyan got complaints about Riven's difficulty.
I came across the exact same queen puzzle in my Scheme programming class at university. The horse one, I can't recall if it was placement or movement ( I think it was movement of a horse to the other side of the board), but an actual board was useful for that too.
I would accept those kind of puzzles in a game with a similar format, if the payoff in story was big enough. I like chess! :)
click-clack, front and back. I'm not moving this car otherwise.