The game received press attention for making live action video clips a core part of its gameplay, for its then-unprecedented amount of pre-rendered 3D graphics, and for its adult content.

A plot of manipulation and sin is gradually played out, in flashback, by actors through film clips as the player progresses between rooms by solving twenty-one puzzles of shifting nature and increasing difficulty.

Other puzzles include mazes, chess problems, logical deductions, Simon-style pattern-matching, word manipulations, and a difficult game of Ataxx, similar to Reversi.

This game, along with LucasArts' Star Wars: Rebel Assault and Broderbund's Myst, helped promote the adoption of CD drives, which were not yet common.

A drifter named Henry Stauf kills a woman to steal her purse, beginning a series of deplorable acts.

These visions all take place on a night sometime after the deaths of the children, where six guests were invited to the Stauf mansion: Martine Burden, a former singer; Edward and Elinor Knox, a dissatisfied middle-aged couple; Julia Heine, a bank worker who reminisces of her youth; Brian Dutton, a fellow shop owner; and Hamilton Temple, a stage magician.

They learn that Stauf wanted them to bring him a seventh, uninvited guest: a boy named Tad who entered the house on a dare.

Having made a pact with the evil force that gave him his visions and killed the children, Stauf has transformed into a horrific creature.

Ego realizes that he is the spirit of Tad, witnessing the events of that night over and over but previously unable to help; the house has been a purgatory for him.

[citation needed] Portion of Sanger's "The Game" leitmotif The in-game music had conventions similar to the use of leitmotif in Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, wherein each guest was assigned a musical theme; where Peter and Wolf used instrumental changes for its characters, The 7th Guest, conversely, used stylistic variations on the melody of Sanger's "The Game".

The 7th Guest was the brainchild of game designer/graphic artist Rob Landeros, and a Virgin Mastertronic programmer, Graeme Devine.

The developers chose to use 24-bit Super VGA graphics and a simple, textless, TV remote control-like user interface to make the game the answer to the question "What would Mom play?

[13] Devine created the GROOVIE game engine, which allowed continuous streaming of data from CD-ROM,[14] ran on multiple platforms, and was reusable.

While praising the "rich, enjoyable gaming experience" from the graphics, sound, and puzzles, the reviewer found that the minimum system requirements were unrealistic and that as of May 1993 many players, including him, encountered stability and software incompatibility issues with their computers.

The reviewer concluded: "I feel I have been deprived of the full pleasure that Guest has to offer by the inability to get the game to run satisfactorily ...

[33] The magazine stated in April 1994 that the game was "consistently ranking high in our [reader] polls and a proven bestseller", and recommended it to puzzle fans who "want to see and hear some of the most exceptional computer graphics and music created to date".

[35] The 7th Guest won Electronic Entertainment's 1993 "Breakthrough Game" award, while Myst claimed an honorable mention in the category.

GamePro's review lauded the "sinister" story line, the challenging puzzles, the beautiful graphics, and the generally creepy tone.

[17] Power Unlimited gave the CD-i version a score of 70% writing: "Horror thriller with beautiful computer graphics, full-motion video footage and spoken word/music in hi-fi stereo.

[47] Trilobyte also released a compilation game made up of the puzzles from both The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour as well as Clandestiny titled Uncle Henry's Playhouse.

[54][55] In July 2015, developer Attic Door Productions, having received licensing from Trilobyte for a commercial release pending success in gaining sufficient public interest and funding, began a Kickstarter campaign for an unofficial fan game to The 7th Guest titled The 13th Doll.

Its story centers on a grown-up Tad, the original seventh guest of the first game, revisiting the house to face his past; Robert Hirschboeck reprised his role as Stauf.

The newer game engine also allows the player to explore the house freely, moving away from the original "on rails" movement.

[57] Adventure Gamers gave the game 3 out 5 stars and summarized that "While it doesn't quite rise to the level of the classic horror puzzler that inspired it, The 13th Doll is a fairly enjoyable tribute that ought to please those who spent the past two decades wanting more Stauf.

[59] In April 2019, Trilobyte and MojoTouch released the remastered 25th Anniversary Edition of the original game (on Windows 7-8-10 platforms), replacing the previous version on Steam and GOG.com.

Apart from the digitally enhanced original movie clips and sound, the release contained a completely reworked control system, a map, the possibility to skip scenes and new menus.

The release also contained a large amount of extras: three new language soundtracks and subtitles, deleted features, and behind-the-scenes clips, 36 tracks audio, a complete novel and script, along with a Making of featurette.

Vertigo Studios and Exkee developed a virtual reality version of The 7th Guest for Meta Quest, PSVR 2, and Windows-based VR headsets.