The 11th Hour is a puzzle based horror game that involves you finding your characters girlfriend in an abandoned mansion. This game like many other games of the 1990’s utilises FMV cutscenes throughout the game to further the story.
Whilst this is a FMV game it only uses the FMV content as cutscenes. This is unlike other games at the time such as Harvester; which used FMV content as both cutscenes and assets in game. I was also thankful of this since sadly the acting in the videos is bad. The cutscenes are poor quality and it isn’t worth watching them just to see how bad it is. Granted this game was made in 1995. Although, if you like watching bad/poor quality films then you may get some enjoyment from watching them.
Also some of the cutscenes are far too long in my opinion. The first cutscene used in game is 9 minutes long and after a few minutes I turned off. Primarily because, I had no interest since the quality of the cutscenes are comparable to a low budget straight to VHS movie. I also feel that due to the poor quality cutscenes many people will not be that interested in the story.
Throughout the game you will do various puzzles that are found in each room. However, this concept will be familiar to some. Since, on the steam description it openly states that this game is the sequel to the 7th guest. For those you have played it you will know what to expect. Gameplay wise it is a first person puzzle game that involves you exploring a mansion and completing puzzles in each room. Which, in turn will give you another puzzle to complete or potentially you could get an item for you to use. In short this game is a giant escape room with multiple rooms to complete.
This game features a wide selection of different puzzles to complete. Despite this being perceived as a good thing, a lot of the puzzles in the game are frustrating and obtuse. It is often that there are no hints provided in game on what to do; unless, you ask for a hint in the pause menu. Even then it will only tell you so much until you pester it enough. Generally the game will give you some hints or even do it for you if it feels like it. One example of this is a chess puzzle. In which you have to switch the positions of the black/white horses(as seen above).
In this puzzle you can only move pieces in the same fashion you do in a traditional chess game. This puzzle can easily take you at least 20 minutes to complete if you know what you are doing. It will also take significantly longer if you don’t. However, if you don’t know what to do you will end up searching for a walkthrough/YouTube guide for it. Whilst you will find a solution there is many people who are frustrated with the puzzle(s) in game. I and many others have noted that specific puzzle is difficult to do.
There is also the fact that many have mostly likely have given up with puzzle/game. Another thing to note is that when you play the game or attempt to solve the puzzles. The primary antagonist will frequently mock you whenever you are slow or manage get something wrong. After a while of hearing him insult you, the insults become boring overtime.
This game as much as it is an old game, technically the game is of poor quality. However some issues I think could be down to the port of the game I had played on. I did find that there are plenty of issues in the game. The first issue I had encountered is when I started playing the game the cursor had a blue circle that was moving around the cursor. At first I thought it was a bug as it disappeared when went into the game menu. But it is a visual hint to that a new clue is available. However, the game doesn’t explain this. As well I did experience some freezing and crashing of the game at times. Which is problematic if you don’t save enough it will eventually annoy you. Particularly, whenever you lose progress in game because of this.
Overall I cannot recommend the game in any context since the game itself has aged poorly to today’s standards.
