A promising escape room game, marred by bugs and infuriating technical issues.

Puzzle games are perfect for VR.

Where else can you combine the intricacies of solving a difficult riddle, with magic or technology that simply doesn’t exist in real life?

There have been some great examples of games in this genre, The Room VR: A Dark Matter, currently holds the top spot in this category on the PlayStation VR2 (PSVR2) – mainly because it was essentially the only one released. At least until now.

Created by Vertigo Games, the egotistical “geniuses” who released the mess that is Hellsweeper VR in September, The 7th Guest VR is a recreation of the 93 computer game of the same name – minus the VR of course.

To summarize the plot, you enter the mansion of some creepy weirdo, who never goes outside or gets seen by anyone. While there you are tasked with solving puzzles and journeying further into this decrepit home to solve the mystery into which you’ve been dropped.

In 93, the computer game was celebrated as a revelation, combining puzzles with live action video clips to further the story. This game connects itself to the original in only the most basic of ways – the overall plot – dropping you into a haunted house in which you can fully immerse yourself.

In VR, you as the player are visiting the mansion years after the events which you are tasked to solve, took place.

Equipped with a magic lantern – sorry no genie here – to help change the perspective of the room and solve puzzles around you, players embark across many rooms and the puzzles tailored to each. The lantern is very similar to the glasses that are given to you in The Room VR, which allows you to see hidden writing, through shiny surfaced objects, and more as you progressed.

As you make your way through The 7th Guest, ghostly apparitions of the other guests appear around you – just like in the original –  adding to the story as you move along. You can even walk around the ghosts as they do their haunting thing.

Like any good escape room, you find yourself trapped until you solve the puzzles in front of you. As you progress the puzzles become increasingly difficult – as any challenging game should.

The problem here is the many flaws within the puzzles themselves.

Certain rooms have puzzles which are basically the same as the one you completed three feet away, others have been designed in such a way that you feel the need to rip out your hair. This should not come as a surprise, considering some of the disgusting shortcuts these developers have taken in other games – speaking again of the atrocity that is Hellsweeper VR.

While most of the puzzles are fun, there are some MASSIVE glitches involved – including some refusing to complete unless you reload from a previous point.

In all, there are 17 rooms, and dozens of puzzles to complete, culminating in a very supernatural game of Sorry – yes you read that right, the final game is basically a twisted take on that boring gem.

What is truly annoying in this game are the wonky controls and technical issues that show developers once again didn’t optimize for the powerful technology in front of them.

Leave it to Vertigo Games to piss gamers off by releasing something that doesn’t load as quickly as it should – leaving you with a black screen for a few moments, and wondering if the game crashed after walking into a room. Janky controls that don’t do what they should are another issue – these can make it awkward to open a door, avoid touching wrong places on a puzzle, and even get you stuck in places, which again, raise the need to reload from a save point.

At other times, your audio will probably get randomly softer for no reason, or cut out all together.

Finally, a few times throughout your playthrough, it may look a little blurry. No this is not your eyesight, you’re not having a stroke, it’s just more bugs. While this didn’t happen often, it was expected considering who made the game.

Overall, The 7th Guest is a large, and for the most part, entertaining escape room that keeps you engaged – albeit slightly frustrated, for about six hours. The length here is nearly triple that of The Room VR, (but it’s not nearly as good as that game).

If you want a solid game that will not have issues, please spend your money on The Room VR: A Dark Matter. Yes it’s shorter, but the quality is leaps and bounds ahead of The 7th Guest. 

If you want something new, this game has its moments, but don’t expect to get through it without issue.

Vertigo Games is hopefully putting all their effort into Arizona Sunshine 2, the sequel to the popular VR zombie game, which is due out later this year.

Ensuring their biggest title is free of issues must be the reason why they’ve released so many flops recently, right?

Looks like The Room VR still holds its place as the best escape room game on the headset.

The 7th Guest VR was reviewed after purchasing from the PlayStation store at full price.