Should’ve stayed in the past
This is a review taken from Gog.com
The 11th Hour tries to capitalize on the first game in the series – The 7th Guest – by wrapping what little gameplay it has in a slick FMV movie with a story that feels straight out of fanfiction.net by a writer trying to create some Twin Peaks/X-Files lovechild. It’s completed by some truly laughable acting by most of the cast and some very strange practical/visual effects. On an odd level I began to enjoy it because of the absurdity.
What I couldn’t enjoy were the “puzzles”. Good luck getting through most of these without a guide… which you technically have in game but doesn’t do nearly a good enough job nor do you really want it to because you’d rather it all be over than to continue on another step much like our protagonists.
The “gameplay” consists of you getting a clue from a PDA that you must somehow decipher in order to find either another clue you must decipher or the next puzzle which you must solve to unlock a video snippet of the movie which will eventually tell the entire story of the house and your current situation. An example of these clues are “Winter coat worn for a mixer” and then you have to somehow understand what object the clue is pointing to and in which what room. Did you guess tonic water… because that’s what it is.
The puzzles are mostly retreads or variations of some you find in The 7th Guest. At their worst they’ll have you moving pieces around a board forty-some times in a specific order before you finally solve it; at their best they’ll actually test your mind trying to find a solution and you’ll feel good about yourself for a split second before you realize you’re only a couple hours in this trainwreck.
Overall, as bad as the writing and acting are, they are the best thing about this game. Everything else is just a delivery method of completing that story. If you buy it, follow a guide and revel in the B-rated glory.