Come on-a my house, my house. I’m gonna give you everything.
-Rosemary Clooney
What happens when a beloved game series fades into obscurity? Should it be left in the past? Should it be re-mastered for new audiences to enjoy? Both of those are valid options, but what about when the fans want a new entry so much? What about when the die-hards take it upon themselves to make a brand new title in the series? Well, let me introduce you to The 13th Doll: A Fan Game of The 7th Guest.
When The 7th Guest arrived on PC (and Philips CDi) way back in 1993 it was widely regarded as an extremely important piece of software. The legend goes that this was a game that impressed many big names within the industry and wowed consumers so much that, in tandem with Myst, it prompted a boom in sales of CD-ROM drives required to play it. However, it was Cyan’s masterpiece that grabbed the lion’s share of public attention and spawned a super-successful series of sequels: most notably 1997’s Riven.
On the other hand Trilobyte, the developers of The 7th Guest, found themselves struggling to replicate the success of their first outing. The official sequel, The 11th Hour, was a competent and, in my opinion, mostly unfairly maligned follow-up that seemed to find itself unable to make its mark amongst numerous similar FMV games available on the CD-ROM format that its progenitor helped to establish as a new norm.
Another few attempts from Trilobyte followed including the cartoonish Clandestiny, the more adult-themed TLC, and a collection of mini-games compiled together as Uncle Henry’s Playhouse. Sadly, their masterwork fell into cult-classic status and the series Trilobyte became renowned for – much like the mansion in the game – lay dormant. Waiting. Several aborted attempts to revive the series have revived a little interest, not least an abandoned third game and TV show alongside a successfully Kickstarted board-game.
However, the team at Trilobyte have now handed the keys to the mansion over to Attic Door Productions: a team of dedicated fans who have been working on their own continuation of the saga for well over a decade. In fact, this project first came to my attention way back in the mid-2000s whilst I was still at university. Having been a fan of the series myself for many years, I was pleased to know there were others out there with as much love for the story, as well as having the appropriate technical know-how to resurrect this sleeping giant of a franchise.
Finally, on Halloween 2019, the fruit of the fans’ labours had arrived. The 13th Doll: A Fan Game of The 7th Guest arrived on Steam. With the blessing of the original game’s creators and the lead actor Robert Hirschboeck on board to reprise his career-defining role as the series’ villain Henry Stauf, this seemed to be a perfect recipe for soup… I mean success.
Visuals: 7/10
I may be in the minority here but I find older horror movies much more terrifying than modern ones. In my view, contemporary CGI, whilst visually impressive, lacks that certain other-worldliness that some of the more practical effects used in the 70s and 80s contributed to. Not to mention just how stop-motion animation really can freak me out! Similarly, the effects used throughout The 7th Guest, though severely dated by the time I played it, still had such a profound effect on me that it remains one of the few games I have played that gave me actual nightmares!
For The 13th Doll, the team at Attic Door have stuck strictly to the same formula: create something that keeps the budget low and the creepiness-level high. In mimicking the style of the original game, The 13th Doll certainly looks the part. The new locations – the Asylum and Stauf’s toyshop – are designed in such a manner that they could easily fit within similar games of the 1990s such as Shivers or Phantasmagoria. These areas provide a breath of enjoyably stale air before heading towards the game’s central and most iconic location: the Stauf Mansion itself is meticulously recreated with every room, every object looking like a perfectly preserved relic of a bygone age. Arriving at the foot of the staircase in the Foyer – the site of so many gaming memories – felt just like being welcomed home!
This level of nostalgic polish is even evident in the mouse-pointer on the screen. In exactly the same way the original game operated, The 13th Doll allows you to move around and investigate as your cursor turns into a beckoning skeletal hand. It will morph into a range of icons: chattering teeth to signify a paranormal occurrence, a drama mask for a cut-scene and a pulsing brain to mark out the location of a puzzle. This is all very familiar to those familiar with The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour, and veterans of those games will feel right at home in the presence of these familiar icons.
There are, however, a few graphical limitations with the current build of the game. For instance, it took me a good five minutes to find my mouse-pointer on the title screen: just a minor inconvenience but considering my excitement levels for this game were through the roof, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to play it properly. Additionally, some of the hauntings appear to be rather janky in their animations, some of the mansion’s doors appear to be a great distance away from their hinges and the camera can tend to clip through objects in order to swoop to its destination.
Despite these minor distractions, there were never any game-breaking problems throughout my playthrough and certainly nothing that would disrupt the level of immersion crafted throughout. Overall, the game certainly looks the part. It’s a modern take on a classic formula, much like it’s a brand-new game that’s decided to wear a convincing 7th Guest costume to go trick-or-treating. However, there are many parts where it would be very difficult to tell this game apart from its predecessor, and in that regard, there is no greater compliment I can offer.
Audio: 8/10
Audio was always an important part of Trilobyte games back in the 1990s, especially considering the push towards compact-disc media. So much so that the original PC release of The 7th Guest could be played in a regular CD-player to experience the full soundtrack. Musical pieces such as ‘The Game’ became staples of the series and I am pleased to say that The 13th Doll includes variants on very familiar themes as you explore the Stauf Mansion. Once again, this continues to reinforce the idea that the game feels as though it’s a forgotten gem from the mid-1990s.
The 13th Doll misses a slight step, however, in that it doesn’t include any vocal accompaniment to any of its music. This stands out to me as a small missed opportunity considering The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour both had full songs composed for them. The song over the first game’s closing-credits, ‘Skeletons in my Closet’ is still a favourite all these years later, as is The 11th Hour’s cheeky title-screen ditty ‘Mr Death’. It feels a little unfair to criticise a fan-made title for something like this, but it is something I feel could have added to the overall presentation of their final product.
Incidentally, the audio levels felt a little unbalanced as there were several instances in which I had to turn the volume up to listen to dialogue, then straight back down to avoid having my eardrums assaulted by the volume of the music. A minor inconvenience but something that was essential to do since the narrative was so essential. Speaking of which…
Narrative: 9/10
This is where The 13th Doll absolutely shines. It’s evident right from the very beginning that this game was created by a group of extremely passionate fans of The 7th Guest and that even minor story-links to the previous entry are researched and carefully implemented. The story is intended as a ‘Part II’ to continue the original narrative rather than stray into side-story territory or jump into the modern era as The 11th Hour did.
Essentially a direct sequel, the story begins exactly as the original game ended: with our young hero Tad Gorman escaping from the mansion having defeated evil toymaker Henry Stauf in the Room At The Top. Years later, a now older Tad (played superbly by Hunter Menken) is locked away in an asylum and mentally tortured by the events that took place that fateful night. His new doctor, Marcus Richmond (portrayed by Mathias Blake) believes that returning to the mansion could be the key to unlocking Tad’s memories and eventually curing him. The two of them head back to the site of Tad’s trauma unaware of the lurking evil that awaits them.
Brilliantly, The 13th Doll offers players the option to play through the game as either Tad or Richmond with a unique storyline and selection of puzzles for each. The two characters’ paths cross over at various points throughout their exploration of the mansion and it is genuinely exciting to see familiar moments from one scenario mirrored in a second playthrough as the opposing character.
Tad is guided through his journey by the figure of The Woman In White who instructs him that finding the pieces of the titular 13th doll is the key to defeating Stauf for good. On the other hand, Richmond is manipulated by Stauf who exploits his desire for fame, as well as the object of his affections Nurse Vollmer, coercing him into completing a machine designed to fully resurrect the mad toymaker. This dual-narrative offers plenty of opportunities for Attic Door to explore the world of The 7th Guest in further detail and really play around with both the good and evil sides of the characters involved.
This is all well and good but the star of the show, as always, is Robert Hirschboeck thanks to his portrayal of the toymaker himself: Henry Stauf. Famous through the series for his witticisms and put-downs of the player upon failing to complete puzzles, Stauf is back and in fine form! Although now sharing insult-duties with other characters, his voice is unmistakable in its kindly sarcastic delivery and I found myself giggling with sheer nostalgic delight every time he piped up to poke fun at my lack of progress. Another fan-favourite returning character is the Woman in White, whose purpose is expanded upon much more completely in this game. Tad discovers one version of what happened to her, whereas Richmond discovers another, leading both down very separate motivational paths.
It still felt, however, as though there were some plot-points that could have been expanded upon. For example: one cut-scene depicts a soldier in full uniform delivering a message to the player, where another showed an unfamiliar stabby-man approaching the camera wielding a dagger. I don’t know who these guys were or what their relevance was to anything else in the story, but their sole appearances were quite startling!
Similarly, I feel as though I must have missed a lot of scenes dealing with Richmond’s mother. I only recall a couple of mentions of ‘scissors’ in relation to her (thanks in no small part to a stand-out performance by Leo Cody as a malevolent ‘Ghost Girl’ apparition put there to tease and taunt Richmond) but if there are extra cut-scenes fleshing-out her character and the effect she had upon our secondary-protagonist then I would love to go back and explore further to find them.
Ultimately, as a glimpse back into the universe Trilobyte created almost thirty years ago, the narrative was strong enough to transcend its origins and ultimately pose as many questions as it resolved. All of this made it feel just like the sinister family reunion it was meant to.
Gameplay: 8/10
The gameplay itself is relatively simple: you’re stuck (mostly) inside a haunted house. Inside each room of the house is a puzzle. Solve the puzzle and more of the story is revealed as well as more rooms and puzzles becoming unlocked. Solve all the puzzles and you’ll see all the story. It’s an extremely formulaic idea, but one I feel has been criminally overlooked. A lot of games in the first-person puzzle genre are less focused on single-screen puzzles but more open in terms of finding switches or inventory-items. I can only think of a few other games that fit into this niche that 13th Doll occupies: the classic Jewels of the Oracle and more contemporary The Witness are two that spring instantly to mind, but I am glad that The 13th Doll has brought this idea of ‘individual puzzles’ right up to date into gaming in 2019.
Updating The 7th Guest’s usual formula, however, are not only the extra areas outside of the mansion, giving more flavour to the town of Harley-on-the Hudson, but also the way the game allows the player to interact with the world. For the first time in the series, the player isn’t limited to point-to-point movement but now the areas are free to roam around in first-person and explore in real depth. This was certainly a pleasure when I first entered the familiar environment of the Stauf mansion. I was revelling in the unprecedented amount of freedom the game had offered me in exploring the entrance to the mansion, when all of a sudden…
ARGH! As I was wandering around near the doors to the lounge and music room the camera yanked control away from me, spun around and made this fool leap out causing me to leap half a foot out of my chair! Once I’d calmed myself back down, I remembered myself: this is a ghost story… a cheesy one, but a ghost story nonetheless. This put me a little more on edge for the rest of my two playthroughs, half-expecting comedy and half-expecting horror around every corner. Attic Door, you succeeded!
As I previously mentioned, each characters’ scenario contains puzzles that the other does not, with no repeats throughout the roughly seven-hour run-time of each. All the puzzles were easily controlled by simple mouse-clicks and were designed for thought rather than skill – in the sense that there were no click-and-drag or accuracy-based solutions. Everything’s there in front of the player, waiting for them to solve it. There is also a welcome (or unwelcome, depending on your perspective) return of games played against the AI. Thankfully there’s nothing as merciless in The 13th Doll as the infamous Microscope Puzzle from The 7th Guest that had most players screaming at their monitors “I’m going to have to start again.” They can all be beaten, but just in case you are struggling the game offers hints and the ability to bypass puzzles or games that are giving you a hard time.
Accessibility: 8/10
The game itself is easy to pick up and play, whether in short bursts or mammoth playthroughs. Everything is controlled very simply from navigation to clicking on objects and puzzle-pieces. I played the game from start to finish using a Steam controller and had no issues whatsoever, aside from weirdly being able to only type letters F and R when naming save-games. I will now forever remember that my save-game once I reached Brian Dutton’s room was named “rfffrfff” but this is a minor point in a game that otherwise controls perfectly well.
It is also worth pointing out that since almost 25 years have passed since the last entry in the series, the game can also appeal to newcomers. In fact, adding in Dr. Richmond as a playable character who was not present during the events of The 7th Guest can make his storyline an ideal choice for first-time players whereas Tad’s storyline probably appeals more to those who had previously joined him on his first adventure in the mansion.
That said, this is clearly intended for those familiar with The 7th Guest and its story. Some of the cut-scenes in Dr. Richmond’s storyline are deliberately shown to make Stauf a more sympathetic character. For instance, the line where the origins of Stauf’s wife are described: “She was a drifter, moving from town to town, robbing a gas station here, a grocery store there…” was lifted straight from the opening cut-scene of the first game but with roles reversed. Those who know the story will recognise this immediately but new players, like Richmond himself, could be fooled by Stauf’s trickery.
Challenge: 7/10
The puzzles make up the main gameplay aspect of games in this series and thankfully The 13th Doll is filled to the brim with them. From chess-piece puzzles to logic games, there’s a puzzle that suits everyone’s unique method of reasoning. Thankfully, gone are the obscure item-hunts from The 11th Hour that could really hinder progress through completely unfathomable word-association and anagrams, this time focusing on single-screen puzzles that are, for the most part, relatively difficult.
That said, the puzzles in this game don’t quite stack up to those present in the earlier games in the series. In fact, there was nothing in this game that gave me as much trouble as, say, the Chess Bishops in Edward and Elinor’s room from The 7th Guest; or the one where you had to move the Music Room furniture in The 11th Hour. Truth be told, a lot of the puzzles in The 13th Doll are simplified versions of the ones featured in earlier games, making this seem like an Easy Mode, by comparison.
There were some that gave me problems: the cake puzzle in the Dining Room took me longer than it probably should have, as did the one on the clock-face in the Foyer. Admittedly, even though the clues given made perfect sense afterwards, it took a while for me to really understand what was going on in those puzzles. However even the games against the AI – usually a major difficulty spike in these games – didn’t take much longer than half an hour to figure out a strategy and beat. These puzzles gave off a sense of major satisfaction, but I couldn’t help thinking that there could have been a little more to them in the long-run.
Then there’s the maze. Oh, sweet merciful lord, the MAZE! Those who remember The 7th Guest sending you down into a seemingly neverending sequence of identical corridors will remember that every incorrect path prompted Stauf to murmur the immortal words “Feeling… looooonely?” Well, I have some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that the maze is now irritating-voice-clip free. The bad news is that the maze itself has grown exponentially since Tad’s first visit to the mansion. It is now ridiculously huge. Even using a method of hugging the right wall, it still took me almost an hour to get through it and arrive at the Crypt. I am reliably informed that in a recent update, Attic Door have hidden a clue to solving the maze somewhere in the mansion. This is some consolation for future plays but still doesn’t excuse what a tiresome beast that section of the game was.
Replayability: 8/10
The 13th Doll certainly focuses on a minimum of two full playthroughs – one as each character – in order to experience all that the Stauf mansion has to offer. Some of the rooms are closed off to Tad whilst others are inaccessible as Richmond, yet even in rooms where the two characters cross over, different puzzles are on offer. For instance, the main Foyer area houses the Clock Face puzzle for Richmond, whereas Tad has access to a Chess Knights puzzle instead. Also, just like in The 11th Hour, there are multiple endings to discover which add a slight aspect of extra replayability. However, this is simply a matter of reloading a save-game and making a different decision when prompted. Nothing too strenuous, unless you forgot to save after the final game against the AI.
There are other secrets to find within your exploration of the house. Some of the Steam achievements are linked to finding and discovering secret coins and the names of Kickstarter backers scattered throughout the numerous rooms. The coins are extremely well-hidden: I did not find any of them at all during my Tad playthrough, accidentally stumbling upon my first one when I was part-way through Richmond’s storyline. These, in addition to the numerous respectful nods to lines of dialogue and solutions from The 7th Guest, certainly give me the motivation I need to go back and search every nook and cranny of the mansion.
My Personal Grade: 9/10
As a fan of The 7th Guest, purchasing The 13th Doll on release was a no-brainer for me. Whilst I’ve been waiting so many years for this project to come to fruition, what I wasn’t prepared for was a game that surpassed every expectation I could possibly have had. A game that not only showed the care and love for a series that only the most dedicated of fans could provide, but also a fully-fledged entry into the series that can stand upon its own merits.
This isn’t just a modest fan-game as suggested in the title; this is a full game and a more-than-worthy entry into the canon of an established and beloved series. Hopefully the talented bunch at Attic Door can build upon what they have achieved and take on even greater challenges. On the strength of this, their debut game, I am dying to see what they’ll do next!
As for my overall recommendation: if you have any love for The 7th Guest then this game is essential. If you enjoy puzzles and have, for some reason, not played The 7th Guest… play that one first and then play The 13th Doll. From the perspective of a fan, it is hard not to recommend this to anyone and everyone, and I imagine the amount of enjoyment you will get from The 13th Doll could depend on your level of familiarity with its predecessor.
That said, viewed as a stand-alone game and not purely as a sequel, it is still extremely playable, and I imagine it may help to bring awareness of the series to a new audience. When the fans of a game are this dedicated, it goes to show just how great of an influence the original was: surely that’s an enticing prospect to guests new and old. Altogether now: “Old Man Stauf built a house and filled it with his toys…”
Aggregated Score: 8.0
The Regional Exclusive Mage is an avid video-game collector and literature enthusiast. When he isn’t educating the younger generation, he can be found sharing a wealth of obscure gaming knowledge as TeacherBloke85 on Twitter.
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