The 11th Hour

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Seventy years after The 7th Guest, Stauf's house is waiting again.

Platforms: PC, Mac
Stores: Steam, GOG
Price: Paid
Rated: Mixed on Steam (41% of 275 reviews); 3.5 out of 5 from GOG players (246 ratings)
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse: click to move between rooms, look at objects and play the puzzles.
Made by: Trilobyte
Released: 1995

What frightens A reporter searches the rotting mansion of the dead toymaker Henry Stauf for his missing producer, and the house shows him its murders in grim live-action scenes while Stauf's voice taunts him through puzzle after puzzle.
Content: violence, disturbing imagery, rated mature (esrb 17+).

The 11th Hour is Trilobyte's 1995 sequel to The 7th Guest. A television reporter goes into the decaying mansion of the toymaker Henry Stauf to find his missing producer, solving Stauf's puzzles and a treasure hunt of riddles while live-action scenes show what happened in the house.

About The 11th Hour

The 11th Hour was made by Trilobyte, the studio behind The 7th Guest, and released for DOS and Windows at the end of 1995, with a Mac version in 1998. It came back in 2012 on GOG and in 2013 on Steam.

It is set seventy years after the first game. Carl Denning, an investigative reporter, is searching for his producer Robin Morales, who vanished while looking into a run of deaths in a small town and the mansion of Henry Stauf, the toymaker whose house is said to hold a supernatural grip on the place. A portable computer arrives with her call for help, and Carl goes inside. Three mysterious women are his only guides in the house.

Like The 7th Guest, it is played in first person through pre-rendered 3D rooms, with full-motion video of live actors laid over them. Each room hides one of Stauf's puzzles: board games, logic problems and mechanical toys. On top of that there is a treasure hunt: Stauf sets riddles built from anagrams, ciphers and wordplay, and solving them by finding the right object in the house unlocks more of the video story. Its riddles are hard, and players still find some of them very hard today.

The horror is in the decay of the house, Stauf's mocking voice and the grim video scenes of murder and cruelty between the puzzles. The game is rated Mature. It suits players who enjoyed The 7th Guest or the Remake and want more of Stauf's house, and fans of 1990s FMV horror who do not mind difficult puzzles.

How to play The 11th Hour

Buy and install it from Steam or GOG (Windows).
Click to move from room to room through Stauf's mansion and to look at objects.
Open a puzzle by clicking the object that holds it, then solve it to move on.
Read each new riddle Stauf sets, work out the object it describes and find it in the house.
Watch the video scenes each solved riddle unlocks to follow Carl's search for Robin.

Screenshots

The 11th Hour screenshot: a bookshelf of red and green books between two bloodied skulls, a skeletal hand resting on one

The 11th Hour screenshot: a board puzzle of wooden discs joined by red lines with black and white pieces on a stained table

The 11th Hour screenshot: a dim wooden attic under sloping beams with a dress form standing by a broken window

The 11th Hour screenshot: a live-action woman runs out of a dark wooden doorway into green undergrowth

Tips

Many riddles are anagrams, ciphers or wordplay; write the letters down and try rearranging them.
Take puzzles slowly: there is no time limit and nothing hunts you.
Play The 7th Guest or its Remake first if you want to know who Stauf is.
Steam players report crashes on some systems; a compatibility mode helped them.

Questions

Is The 11th Hour a sequel to The 7th Guest?

Yes. Trilobyte made it as the sequel, set seventy years later in the same mansion of Henry Stauf.

Where can I buy The 11th Hour?

It is sold on Steam and on GOG for Windows.

Is The 11th Hour scary?

It is a slow puzzle game, not one of chases or jump scares. The fear comes from the rotting house, Stauf's taunts and grim live-action scenes, and it is rated Mature.

Are the puzzles hard?

Yes. Steam players single out the riddles, built on anagrams, ciphers and wordplay, as very hard.