The 11th Hour (video game)
A horror puzzle adventure sequel to The 7th Guest.
Released in 1995, The 11th Hour is a horror-themed interactive movie puzzle adventure game. It serves as the follow-up to 1993's The 7th Guest. A version for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was planned but never came out.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Trilobyte
- Publisher
- Virgin Interactive Entertainment
- Producer
- James Yokota
- Designer
- Rob Landeros; Graeme Devine
- Programmer
- Graeme Devine
- Artist
- Robert Stein III; Rob Landeros
- Writer
- Matthew Costello; David Wheeler
- Composer
- George Sanger
Facts from the source article.
Plot
The narrative begins 70 years after The 7th Guest's events. In 1995, the player is Carl Denning, an investigative reporter for the television series "Case Unsolved." His producer and lover, Robin Morales, vanished three weeks prior in Harley-on-the-Hudson, New York, while investigating a series of grisly murders and disappearances in the town. Denning's only lead is a portable computer called the GameBook, delivered with a postmark from Harley, which displays Robin's plea for help. The story flashes back to the start of Robin's investigation. She interviews Eileen Wiley, the only known survivor of an encounter with Henry Stauf's mansion. Eileen confirms she lost her hand that night, claiming a dog bit it off, but offers no other details. Suspicious, Robin interviews Dr. Thornton, who treated Eileen. He reveals Eileen was not alone; her friend Samantha Ford was with her, and Samantha's family kept her involvement out of the papers. Samantha has been paralyzed from the waist down since the encounter. Robin's interview with Samantha is adversarial, but Samantha later visits Robin's motel room and claims that something supernatural held the girls down and raped them, then let them go, though the gate slammed on Eileen's hand, severing it. Both women became pregnant; Samantha had an illegal abortion resulting in her paralysis, while Eileen gave birth to a daughter, Marie. Samantha believes Marie is the mansion's offspring and is responsible for the murders and disappearances. Meanwhile, Robin begins a romance with local police chief Jim Martin.
Release
Trilobyte stated in 1993, before The 7th Guest was available, that it planned to release The 11th Hour by October of that year, but it was delayed over two years, eventually releasing at the end of November 1995. A port to the 3DO was planned with a May 1994 release date, later pushed to March 1995, then cancelled. A PlayStation release was slated for late 1994. Trilobyte intended releases for iPhone and iPad in Q2/Q3 2011, but postponed indefinitely in March 2012 due to technical challenges. In April 2012, the iOS app The 7th Guest: Book of Secrets was renamed Book of Secrets and updated to include a walkthrough and script for The 11th Hour. The game was re-released for Windows via DotEmu and GOG.com in 2012, and on Steam in October 2013.
Development
The makers originally intended more adult content in cut scenes; the published script included several R-rated sex scenes. Rumors of an uncut version led the makers to announce that the R-rated sequences were planned but never filmed. Many videos used location shooting; the fifth scene used a blue screen with a neutral blue drape. Macintosh Premier converted capture film into digitized images and videos, and a program called Wavelet compressed the videos. The game was developed by Trilobyte using a later version of the Groovie graphic engine than The 7th Guest. The music was by George "The Fat Man" Sanger and Team Fat.
Reception
Reviews upon initial release were mixed. A Maximum reviewer praised the graphics, puzzles, storyline, atmosphere, and lower gore compared to The 7th Guest, but concluded it was basically a more advanced version of its predecessor. Next Generation found it too similar and criticized long load times except on high-end computers. Steve Honeywell of Computer Game Review called it a "whopping disappointment." Arinn Dembo reviewed it for Computer Gaming World. In 2010, UGO included it in The 11 Weirdest Game Endings. By April 1995, Trilobyte planned a shipment of 250,000 copies; by December, U.S. retailers had ordered 500,000 units. Geoff Keighley noted it had the biggest ship-out of a PC game up to that point. Sales reached nearly 300,000 copies in the United States by May 1996. The game won several awards: 1995 New Media Invision Awards Gold for Games Strategy/Puzzle, Bronze for Consumer Interactive Movies; 1995 International Cindy Competition Honorable Mention for Consumer Games; and 1995 CD-ROM Today "Rommie" Award for Best Graphic Adventure.
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