[Review] The Guest (PC)

The year is 1986. Evgueni Leonov is a scientist from Volograd who is in Boston to deliver a speech at a conference. Somewhere along the way he ends up a guest at the Oak Wood Hotel in Belmont, Massachusetts. “Guest” is a loose term here as you wake up as him in a hotel room, doors all locked (including the bathroom!). A message is left on your answering machine: “Take your pills! Go to bed!”

The room is tastefully decorated. Strange clues are left strewn around. Soon after finding appropriate items and solving some puzzles, you gain access to the dark bathroom, then out of the room to another dim room…and another …and another, until you reach the end of this obtuse and implausible tale which, I can only gather, is the result of someone who got high one night. The plot in the Guest made little sense to me and left me with more questions than answers: Was this scientist mentally ill? On hallucinogens? Were people trying to suppress him to do experiments on him?

The Guest is a puzzle adventure game that is a lot like the Room but really not as good. You can easily navigate around a room using keyboard and mouse. Every object you find can be stored in your inventory, but not all will be used which is something not seen too often in adventure games like this. Every dark room requires you to find a light bulb. The puzzles themselves can be mind-benders, and I think that in itself is the game’s strength. There was one maze of corridors I was made to walk though to reach the end; I was stuck in this hell for at least 10 minutes straight until I found my way out (rage quitting was imminent). Overall though, I think there is something to offer in the puzzles, but the Guest isn’t something I’d want to play again. There are better games out there…

2.75/5
The Guest
Team Gotham
2016