The 13th Doll: A Fan Game of The 7th Guest

Seeing that you're probably only interested in this game after you've played either the 7th guest, the 11th hour or both, this review will be for people who enjoyed those games In short, did you enjoy the spooky mansion and it's puzzles? then you'll enjoy this. The game continue's many years after the 7th guest, you can play as 2 main character. either a grown up tad, haunted by his past, or docter richmond, who tries to cure him with exposure therapy by going back to the mansion. The story takes place over these 2 characters, you pick one, and play the entire storyline as that character. At the time of this review i've finished Tad's storyline. The mansion is mostly as you remember, just with a bit better graphics, and a lot better quality on the video's. don't worry, all the weird things in the mansion are just as corny and 'scary' as back with the 7th guest. The puzzles themselves we're Really good in my opinion. there isn't really 1 that i would call just flat out bad, some a bit irritating, but they are all interesting, and mostly fair challenges. The music is what you would expect from this series, with other words, it's really good and fits the tone. Stauf returns with his snarky comments, and i couldn't be happier. especially when i'm procrastinating my work to play this game (if you know, you know.) Overall, I really enjoyed it. would i recommend it to people who never played any of the games? not really. it's gameplay is dated, the looks are quite old and the game is quite slow. but for people who know and love the original? Definitly play it. I had a really good time with it and will hop back into the game to play the other route soon.

[h1] An amateur fan game that fails to live up to the 30-year-old original. [/h1] [h3] 3 out of 10 [/h3] The 13th Doll is a sequel to 1993's The 7th Guest. It's a puzzle adventure game made in the same style as the original, full of creepy imagery, spooky music, and a story that is haunting...or at least, that's what they were shooting for. Unfortunately, they missed it on almost every single level. The graphics are extremely basic. Scenes that are meant to be scary are dull. The music is either generic or downright wrong. I mean, I was walking down a long and dark hallway with happy, bouncing music playing. It completely spoiled the mood. And the puzzles, the main draw of the game, are boring. The challenge is there, but it lacks all the charm of the first game. I remember being creeped out with the 7th Guest. The story was creepy, and the movie scenes were horrifying, at least by 90's standards. The original soundtrack by The Fat Man was gleefully macabre. It's still one of my favorites. This game has none of that. I normally wouldn't be so hard on them, they aren't a professional game studio after all. But if you are paying money then you should get the value of what you pay for. The one saving grace that this has is the original actor that played Henry Stauff reprises his role. It is honestly fun to see him having a blast with this game. Unfortunately, you won't.

I love the goofy acting and a lot of the puzzles, but a lack of common game improvements makes it annoying. If you play, keep in mind two things: 1. You should manually save. There is no chapter select, and if you reach credits you can not reload for different endings. 2. There is no in-game way to lower the volume of jump scares.

It's a really well made fangame. 10/10, had a blast playing it. I regret that i didn't get the soundtrack with the game, tho... The interactive elements bore amazing homages to the original but still kept uniquely itself and I love that. Wife bought it as a birthday gift and we completed one route...the multiple routes with different endings to the routes give the game nice replay value. Epic game. Well done I also loved the throw back to the team that created the original game in the names of this one's creators. Shout out to Kevin "Sneezy" Snethen and The Special Waste, also love how the crew's names were hidden as easter eggs through the gameplay. Honestly a 10/10 game.

It's cheesy, acting is horrible, but the game is a good addition to the series. Actually getting Robert Hirschboeck to reprise his role as Stauf is clutch. Some of the puzzles were less intuitive than they should have been. Chances are you'll need to look at a guide to see what the purpose of a puzzle is, let alone the solution for solving it. For the completionists out there, put a shopping list together before playing because going back through the game is PAINFUL. There is no way to skip the various cinematics (did I mention the bad acting?). You're going to want to minimize how many times you watch these sequences. This sounds like a mostly negative review, but please know that I enjoyed this title greatly. Aside from the gripes above, it's amazing that this was put together by fans of the series. I recommend picking it up if you liked The 7th Guest, and/or The 11th Hour.

A spoopy homage to a game that revolutionized gamemaking in the early 90s, [u]The 13th Doll[/u] does a great job capturing the feel of [u]the 7th Guest[/u] without treading any of the same paths. The puzzles are all in keeping with the aesthetic and vibe of the original, while only one was a direct pull. The house was exactly like I remembered it! The music was very evocative of George Sanders' original score for [u]T7G[/u] without being overly derivative. Good show, everyone! The acting was either appropriately overdone (like the original) or... just terrible. There was no in-between. One of my favorite things about [u]the 7th Guest[/u] was how hard the actors committed to the bit. Some of the actors here in [u]the 13th Doll[/u] seemed to struggle with the balance between taking the material seriously and letting go and having fun with it. The game designers also seemed to have a bit of a struggle with when their game is taking place: cultural references (like "Sesame Street") were strange anachronisms in a game that seemed like it was set when electricity was a new, big deal. Costuming was a solid attempt from a completely amateur team. The story, which wove in a new character through [u]the 7th Guest[/u] original story, was interesting and in keeping with its source material. I loved the five different (standard) endings! It made it feel like my choices matter. The graphics seemed like they used assets from the original game, which was nostalgic and cool on the one hand, but a little offputting on the other, because some of those assets were weirdly shiny which made everything feel EXTRA fake. In one area, the walking animation down a corridor was VERY FAST so I felt like I was on a train, but only moved like five in-game feet? Very weird. The hidden objects were mostly in reasonable places, but a few took advantage of the shiny edges of the rendering to hide. Gave me angry-eyebrows cuz it felt like a trick, but it wasn't most of them so I'll allow it. In general, [u]The 13th Doll[/u] was a solid romp through my memory and a beautiful homage to an industry-changing game. If you have the experience of [u]the 7th Guest[/u] as part of your video-gaming history, you will probably really enjoy [u]the 13th Doll[/u]. If you haven't, then you'll probably find it hoky and uninteresting with a lot of gaps in storytelling. For me? It was really great. My favorite part was how all the backers were embedded in the game. Well done.

First off, thank you Attic Door Productions for sending me the boxed Collector's / Backers Edition! I was really eager to find out what became of this game, of which I first heard back in 2004. It then vanished in 2008 to re-emerge many years later. Now, after having completed both the game's narratives I can safely say The 13th Doll, a Fan game of The 7th Guest is a success. It achieved what it set out to do and even excelled in some aspects over the original. The sheer determination of the team is commendable and the love for this project can be seen in every scene. I would however only recommend it if you played the (original) The 7th Guest and (somewhat) enjoyed it. There are also a lot of hits and misses that even for a die hard 7th Guest fan, I'm still not sure what to think of it. Let's take a look at a few: [u]Visuals[/u] + The FMV looks crisp - 3D models look outdated + excellent animation (skeleton in bath, classic cursors) + paintings/photos/documents and drawings are astounding - low res textures + fun animations (the 'pool' table being my favourite) [u]Setting[/u] + new (story relevant) locations to visit - some are 'underdressed' (too empty, too sparse (graveyard, final attic)) + creepy vibe /eerie atmosphere (Dining Hall, 2nd floor) - some too clean and shiny (some lights bounces off everything including carpets) + some genuinely scary (FMV) scenes [u]Characters[/u] + Stauf is back! - Stauf doesn't sound at all like he did in the 1st game and at first I thought they had replaced him - a second taunting character (female this time) who steals Stauf's lines - some genuinely bad acting (not hammy like the original) [u]Sound & Music[/u] + some amazing tracks! - some harrowing tracks that I had to mute - during some important scenes , like the Stauf Family Album, the music was so loud that I couldnt hear the voice over. No option to turn this down in the menu. - total silence in the end attic room, not even a creak of the floorboards - can't remember any sound effect (apart from some puzzles) - the music played in Dutton's room really suits Temple's room much better [u]movement[/u] + roam free across the mansion! + teleport to any room (you have visited or need to be) - still wandering around aimlessly [u]Inventory[/u] - In contrast to the original, you now have an inventory, but it is poorly managed; there is no item description or image in the inventory 'menu' and the purpose of where to use it only becomes apparent in the end. A simple to do list would have saved me a lot of time looking for scattered parts. [u]Puzzles[/u] + some puzzles were better than the original (with the heart puzzle being my favourite) + some puzzles were just as cool as in the original (maze solution in picture frame) - some puzzles were just as frustrating, slow or tedious as in the original! (piano puzzle and a few others) -/+ some puzzles were over before they started - some puzzles left me utterly clueless, even with the hints provided - some puzzles were just there to torment me (3 in a row) and defy logical thinking [u]Story[/u] + play two separate individuals with their own paths, story, puzzles and locations - I personally couldnt get into the story the first two playthroughs but eventually worked it out afterwards I'm actually shocked to learn how similar it was to my experience playing the original. :)

its a classic...