Twelve Minutes Review

The entire build-up to Twelve minutes has been mysterious, even the final moments. The game features stellar casting and cinematic panache that elevates the experience of being trapped in a time loop. While time loops can be entertaining to watch, they are more frustrating to use. Similar to "Happy Death Day", twelve minutes can be frustrating in trying to break the vicious cycle that you are in. Although there are some moments of greatness, especially when you find a rhythm, it is too rare to fully enjoy them. Twelve minutes can pass quickly or seem like an eternity. Unfortunately, for Twelve minutes it's the former.

The opening of an elevator is the beginning of the game. This perspective gives you a unique insight into what happens. You will wander through a hallway looking for anything of interest. You will find the keys to your apartment and enter for the first time in a long line of repeat visits. Your wife will embrace you, talk about the apartment, have dessert, and then hear some major news. After a while, you will be interrupted by a single policeman who comes to your aid and arrests you and your spouse. As you are being led to the ground, questions about your wife's murder and the location of a pocketwatch lead to concern. You are then strangled from the behind, and it isn't clear what you have been asked. You are now back at the apartment's entrance, where your wife is leaving the bathroom. It has been twelve minutes since you were last there.

Listening, learning and experimenting are the key ingredients to what follows. You'll slowly but surely gain insight that will help you solve each problem. There are many narrative junctions that, once reached, will open up new paths. These branches eventually lead to a soft end, which is a way to restart the game. Others branches are dead ends that keep the loop going. These branches may not be obvious to you, so you will need to venture out and try them. As you wait for the right moment, impatience can set in. Just try another thing. However, experimentation is often not rewarded. It can lead to wasted time and repetitive dialogue. You can pass time in the game by showing some kindnesses, like allowing you to fast-forward dialogue or advance time by waiting in a closed closet. These moments are rare, however.

Twelve minutes The biggest problems are the small things like forgetting to turn on the lightswitch or missing a cue. It's easy to reset the loop by simply walking out of the front door, but it can be frustrating to go back to the beginning. Each loop is only twelve minutes long, so there is extra pressure to complete tasks on time. It's easy to feel overwhelmed. This is the type of game that you take notes, make thought bubbles and then eliminate the bad ideas. It's a lot of fun, and once you have reached the critical story lines, you will be drawn back into the mystery that continues well beyond when you thought it was over.

The man and his wife are on opposite sides of the arrest in the early loops. With little or no information, the man watches and then succumbs to the events that follow. The man begins to let his wife know the secrets of his time loops and the information he has. They begin to work together, and plead for their side. These subtle changes in time will let you know that you are making progress. However, you need to pay attention to every detail. It is difficult to give too much away about the game. It's worth it for the surprises and twists.

The characters in-game don't have names. There is no way to refer to them except the titles they are given (man, wife, cop). These shallow characters are enhanced by the Hollywood talents of Daisy Ridley and James McAvoy as the husband and wife. They do their best American accents to convincing degrees. Willem Dafoe is a great cop and doesn't ruin the immersion. Although their voices are excellent, the audio stitching could use some improvement. Everybody's delivery is affected by emotional swings.

Although I was expecting to be able play with a controller as there might be some direct control, the mouse and keyboard were much more intuitive with the point-and click mechanics. Until the game determines they are interactive, some items aren’t interactive. This is probably done to prevent the game from being broken in any way. However, it's still annoying when you find out. You can see the robots at work and how badly they are put together. There are some very sloppy animations. One time, the cop tried to walk past me, but couldn't get it done unless I forced him to.

Twelve minutes is an intriguing puzzler that provokes thought. It relies on trial-and error, even when it is purposeful repetition. This can be difficult to manage. It led to frustrations that made the four hours seem even longer. However, each discovery made me feel compelled to persevere. The ending was a surprise, but I found it to be a fun twist. It's best to let the things you guess or deduce work out and then your loop moves things forward. Twelve minutes is worth the effort if you are able to endure its confusing puzzles and unravelling narrative.