The 11th Hour is an exploration puzzle solving mystery game that was released for Windows in 1995 and on Mac in 1996.  It is the sequel to The 7th Guest and takes place in the same mansion as the first game, only 60 years later.  The player takes on the role of Carl Denning, an investigative reporter who is looking for the missing producer of his TV show in the Stauf mansion.




Most of the house is closed off when the game starts.  Stauf provides subtle hints as to where to go or what to look for on a kind of pocket computer that was mysteriously delivered to Carl after Robin's disappearance..  As Carl solves more and more puzzles, more of the mansion opens up to him.  Fair warning: While some of the puzzles can be solved with a little trial and error (like the book swap), many may have you pulling your hair out (like the knight puzzle).

Put all the green books on the left and all the red books on the right in exactly 4 moves.  No big deal.


Using only legal knight moves, exchange the position of the white knights with the black nights.  It takes at least 40 moves and you will want to cry.


If at any time you become overwhelmed, you can ask for a hint.  If you ask for a hint enough times, the game will offer to perform the next step in the puzzle for you.  It wouldn't be much fun, but it is possible to complete the entire game without solving any of the puzzles yourself if you just keep asking for hints.  In a pre-internet gaming era, this was an interesting tool to give to a player.  The player always has to make the choice to bare down and solve the puzzle themselves or take the easy way out.

Most of the story is told via FMV cutscenes.


It's hard to pick which is worse, the quality of the video or the quality of the acting, but the low quality of both are part of the charm of the game.  There are 3 different endings for the game but they don't have anything to do with how you play. You are given a choice at the end of the game and that choice determines the ending FMV.  One of these choices leads to one of the weirdest and most disturbing endings to a video game that I have ever experienced. 

While the quality of the FMV is certainly dated, the gameplay holds up surprisingly well.  Good puzzles that make you think will always be good puzzles that make you think.  In this game, knowing how to solve a puzzle doesn't always make the puzzle a breeze and in a few puzzles, the AI is fighting you, so there is always challenge.

We can't talk about The 11th Hour without mentioning the game's music.  Off, haunting, moody, creepy, The Fat Man did a fantastic job on The 11th Hour.  Check it out (Dolls of Doom and Mr Death are my personal favorites):

https://soundcloud.com/th...-music-from-the-7th-guest

The 11th Hour is a little bit of a cult hit.  Most who have played the game remember it fondly.  The creative team behind the game has made several (failed) attempts at crowd sourcing a sequel.  Once on Kickstarter and a second time on Crowdtilt.  Trilobyte's own web page still lists The 11th  Hour as in development for iOS even though the project has been scrapped for over a year.  It seems odd to me that a game remembered so fondly would have such a hard time getting a crowd funded sequel or at least an iOS port.

Still, the game is terrific, so if you don't mind putting yourself into a little think tank for a while, The 11th Hour is definitely worth your time.  It is available on PC and Mac by itself for $5.99 or in a bundle with The 7th Guest for about $10 on both Steam and Gog.com. 

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