Why The 7th Guest Remake On PlayStation 5 Is A Puzzle Fan’s Dream Nightmare
Within minutes, the creepy atmosphere of this sinister, haunted house completely grabs you and refuses to let go. You find yourself wandering a full 3D world in a tense first-person view, surrounded by gorgeous visuals that make every single corner feel deeply unsettling. A mysterious toy maker has invited a strange group of people to his mansion, and as the honorary seventh guest, you are left to unearth why they were brought here and what dark fate befell them. It instantly reminds me of the classic House on Haunted Hill film, setting a perfectly eerie tone for a genuinely brilliant puzzle adventure.
QUICK NAV: [Specs] [Gameplay] [Performance] [Settings]
The 7th Guest Remake PlayStation 5 Review
- Developer: Vertigo Games
- Publisher: Plaion
- UK PlayStation Store Link: Buy The 7th Guest Remake on PSN
- Download Size: 29.83GB download size.
- Trophies: Platinum trophy with 29 trophies to collect.
- Cross-Buy Bonus: You get the PlayStation 5 version and the PlayStation 2 VR version of the game as a separate download.
- Save Slots: 3 profile slots available.
The 7th Guest Remake PlayStation 5 Review
The core hook here is incredibly cool because you are essentially the 7th Guest wandering through a living nightmare. As you explore, you watch ghostly images of the other guests play out the horrific and strange events that happened that fateful night. They do not see you at all, but you see them as clear as day. Any room or hallway where a scene plays out will leave a neat clock symbol behind, allowing you to re-watch the drama again if you missed a bit of dialogue. When characters are talking but are not directly standing in the physical scene, neat portraits of them show up on your screen so you always know who is speaking. To help navigate this madness, the Ouija board acts as your main menu. It shows all the rooms, tracks your progress, offers helpful tips, and guides you through the mansion’s secrets. You are also given constant guidance from an unknown lost soul represented as a child, which keeps the mystery moving forward.
Puzzles are absolute constants throughout the estate, and they are brilliantly varied, even if they usually carry the same grim theme. You get helpful cursor icons to show if an object can be interacted with, which is massively welcome, even if it occasionally feels like leftovers from the VR version of the game. So many objects and items can be played with or picked up, giving the house a heavy, tangible reality. Your magical lantern is a total thing of beauty; when you shine it, you can bring items back from the dead and repair things to exactly what they once were. It shows in real time how an object or picture looked originally compared to how it looks now, and the sheer effortlessness of how it does this completely amuses me. If you get stuck, you can find hidden Stauf coins scattered around to buy hints and solutions. You do get completely left to your own devices early on, and it can be highly frustrating trying to work out what the game expects of you, but it is also deeply rewarding when you finally figure a tough puzzle out for yourself. Plus, when you drop items, they will eventually be returned to where they came from, and subtle markers like butterflies or circles will try their best to guide your path. When opening doors, you can even choose to just swing it open or hold the handle and creepily open the door slowly to build the tension.
The 7th Guest Remake PlayStation 5 Review: Performance & Fidelity
- Awesome Graphics: The presentation is incredibly sharp and beautiful throughout the entire mansion.
- Near Film-Like Quality: All the characters in the game are real actors, meaning the graphics look like full live-action video instead of pixel art or poorly rendered avatars.
- Brilliant Lighting: The lighting work is absolutely top-notch, casting gorgeous, realistic shadows that amplify the spooky atmosphere.
- Effortless Visual Transformations: Shifting objects from ruin to pristine condition with your lantern happens instantly and seamlessly without a single hitch.
Settings, Customisation & Control Details
- Barebones Video Settings: The video menu features just a single gamma slider and absolutely nothing else to tweak.
- Standard Game Options: Includes invert axis toggles, sensitivity sliders, a vibration toggle, and a field of view (FOV) slider.
- No Control Remapping: You cannot remap or change the controller inputs in any way at all.
- Movement Mechanics: Running requires manually holding the left stick down, and you cannot swap it to a toggle format.
- Zero Accessibility Support: The game features absolutely no modern accessibility options like dyslexic-friendly fonts or colourblind support.
- Saving Mechanics: There is no dedicated save button or manual save system, so you never truly know exactly when the game last saved your progress.
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The 7th Guest Remake PlayStation 5 Review
Summary
What Makes The 7th Guest Remake Worth Playing?
The atmosphere in this game is utterly incredible and grabs you the second you step through the front door. The visuals look fantastic, especially the brilliant lighting that casts creepy shadows everywhere, and having real actors instead of basic rendered avatars gives the story a near film-like quality. The lantern mechanic is a genuine thing of beauty, effortlessly transforming ruined items back to their original state right before your eyes in a way that totally amuses me. The puzzles are diverse, numerous, and highly rewarding to solve on your own. It is a wonderfully made experience and a fantastic game to play with other people sitting on the couch with you, because you will definitely need an extra pair of eyes to help figure out some of the solutions. It has completely convinced me to go back and check out the original game.
The Biggest Frustrations In The 7th Guest Remake
It gets highly irritating early on because the game completely leaves you to your own devices, and you will waste time wandering around frustrated, trying to figure out what it actually expects you to do. The options are incredibly thin, too, giving you a basic gamma slider and absolutely nothing else to fix the visuals. Control-wise, it is a total letdown since you cannot remap the inputs at all, and making me hold the left stick down to run without a toggle option is just annoying. There is also a complete lack of modern accessibility settings, so do not expect dyslexic fonts or colourblind options here. To top it off, the lack of a dedicated save button means you are entirely at the mercy of an invisible auto-save, leaving you guessing when your progress was actually backed up.
The 7th Guest Remake Overall Verdict: Is It Worth Playing?
This is a remarkably well-crafted ghost story that honours its roots while looking absolutely stellar on modern hardware. The puzzle design and eerie atmosphere make the mansion a joy to explore, even when the lack of guidance leaves you temporarily scratching your head. It suffers from a disappointing lack of basic control mapping and accessibility options, but the core adventure remains incredibly strong. If you love spooky mysteries and clever brain-teasers, this haunting invitation is absolutely worth accepting.
