The 7th Guest Remake Xbox Series X Review 9/10 "Stauf is back!" 🔦🕯️

The 7th Guest Remake Review – Wine, Whispers and the Wonders of Stauf’s House

A Haunting Journey Through a Reborn Classic

I can’t believe that it was back in 2023 when I reviewed The 7th Guest VR, of which this game is a port. Awarding it a 9.5/10, it was one of our highest-rated games ever, perfectly capturing as it does the essence of what makes The 7th Guest such a special game for so many whilst bringing it to the eyes of modern audiences. 

A huge boon here for me is that as much as I adored The 7th Guest VR, I struggle with motion sickness when playing in VR, and so it was tough to get through certain sections, and I had to play the game in bite-sized chunks. 

Whilst the move from VR does leave the cobwebs of some elements that now feel unneeded – such as the ability to pick up everything and rotate it in your ghostly hand – this realisation of Stauf’s manor and the guests and puzzles within is so strong that it feels fickle to focus on those aspects. As above, if you want to know my personal history with this title and get a deeper dive, check out my previous review of the VR version as it covers a lot of this ground.

Arriving at Stauf’s grounds in a small rowboat, you make your way inside and get to the heart of the darkness and evil that is the master of this house, all the while solving various logic puzzles and shining your torch onto the myriad paintings, items and furniture, which either ends up twisting and morphing, or briefly shows the item in question in its prior healthy state before the mansion fell to ruin and neglect.

The atmosphere in The 7th Guest Remake is so rich that I’ve genuinely found myself sitting and playing with a glass of wine, just standing still in-game drinking in the dusty surroundings and the wonderful music of Jonathan van den Wijngaarden who teases melodies and runs from George Sanger’s original compositions whilst making it his own in a cascade of woozy, dreamlike pieces. 

This is a dark, dark tale, and the lightly ghostly happenings and early brain-teasers eventually devolve into fiendish puzzles that will have you pulling your hour out in frustration as you sink deeper and deeper into the depraved world of Henry Stauf. 

A game that truly feels like an experience if you succumb to it, the kind folks at Vertigo Games have also included a free cross-platform purchase, so you get this version for free if you own the VR version - or vice-versa - a really lovely touch that makes my heart swell for these developers even more. 

SUMMARY

We here at GF are supporters of bringing games from the past into a modern light, and The 7th Guest Remake is an exemplary example in how well it captures the spirit and verve of the original whilst putting a personalised spin on it, all the while keeping the mood and quality at the fore. 

You may lose the incredible sense of immersion that VR naturally gives, but it hardly seems to matter when a game is as good as this. Whether it’s in 2D or VR…Stauf wants to see you soon.

7.5/10

🧊COOL🧊

(also available on PlayStation 5, PC)

Developer – Vertigo Games