Twelve Minutes review: A game that feels like an eternity
Source: Annapurna Interactive
Yous're minding your own business when a cop busts into your apartment and arrests both you and your wife. While you're trying to figure out what's going on, the cop starts interrogating your wife, asking her questions near a watch and a murder that you know nothing about. The cop punches yous in the face, and you find out that you're stuck in a time loop that'southward only 12 minutes long. You lot tin can't leave your apartment, and no affair what you exercise, the cop arrives. What comes afterwards is but a typical weekday night.
Twelve Minutes, from former Rockstar artist Luis Antonio and Annapurna Interactive, has an intriguing premise at its middle. It combines the complex logic of signal-and-click adventure games in one of the smallest environments imaginable, an apartment. Then, it tasks yous with using a limited amount of resources to figure out the mystery. With a gorgeous and gloomy fine art fashion, and an amazing voice cast total of A-listing Hollywood stars, Twelve Minutes was shaping up to be one of the summer'south almost predictable indie games.
We've spent well-nigh six hours with Twelve Minutes, and while the pattern of both the environment and the core gameplay loop are meticulously crafted, the game suffers due to its repetitive nature and birdbrained logic. Information technology's a game that wants to do a lot with a footling, which makes some of it impressive, simply information technology ultimately gets bogged down past its own details.
Twelve Minutes
Lesser line: There's a lot to like in Twelve Minutes, merely when you kickoff to go into the puzzles at the cadre of the game, things begin to get bogged down.
The Good
- Gorgeous, minimalist art fashion
- Neat voice interim
- Intriguing premise
The Bad
- Puzzles become likewise dumbo
- Time loop makes game feel repetitive
- Trial-and-error gameplay might not exist for everyone
Twelve Minutes: What I liked
Source: Annapurna Interactive
| Category | GameNameXXX |
|---|---|
| Title | Twelve Minutes |
| Developer | Luis Antonio |
| Publisher | Annapurna Interactive |
| Genre | Indicate-and-click adventure |
| Minimum requirements | Windows 7 Intel Core i5-2300 / AMD Phenom II X4 965 2GB RAM NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450, 1 GB / AMD Radeon HD 5770, 1 GB |
| Game size | 2.04GB |
| Play time | 6-viii hours |
| Players | Singleplayer |
| Launch price | $25 |
Twelve Minutes is a game filled with purpose. First off, it wears its influences on its sleeve. The scene is moody correct off the bat, with a Shining-inspired carpet leading into a small-scale, dark apartment. The minimalist environmental design does a lot of heavy lifting to help you lot get to know these characters. There simply seem to be ii cups in the whole apartment, the place seems to be covered in blankets and non rugs, and the light switch in the sleeping accommodation tin electrocute somebody at any time. A thunderstorm rages outside while instrumental music plays on the radio. As the cop approaches your apartment, the storm gets closer.
It's tough to say when this game takes place. Cellphones exist, but the couple listens to old-timey songs on the radio. There's no Goggle box in the flat, nor whatever computers. The married woman sits on a modest couch and reads a book. It makes the whole matter feel out of time, which works well with the more classic nature of the story, its Kubrick and Hitchcockian inspirations, and the murder mystery at its center.
Other elements like the voice acting add personality and livelihood to the game. James McAvoy (X-Men: First Course) and Daisy Ridley (the new Star Wars trilogy) voice the couple, who get unnamed, and Willem Dafoe (Spider-Homo) plays the cop. As expected from this caliber of actor, the performances are neat. While none of them are specifically known for vox interim, they bring a grounded amount of emotion to each line commitment and imbuing the characters with subtle bits of personality.
There are and then many puzzles to solve, and fans of the genre will probably find a lot to similar here.
All of this holds up Twelve Minutes and its setup, which is basic just clever. The 12-minute time loop (although information technology usually ends up being around v minutes) is succinct and easy to sympathise, which leaves room to larn about what else is going on. What Antonio manages to do in such tiny space is impressive, with basic objects having multiple uses and the three rooms in the flat going much further than expected. The histrion does eventually run into some walls and obstacles with figuring out the mystery, simply that'southward to be expected in a betoken-and-click game. There are so many puzzles to solve, and fans of the genre volition probably find a lot to like here. There are few things as satisfying as combining two unrelated objects and getting a new upshot.
It all sounds cracking on paper. What brings it all downwardly despite the great setup, however, are the details.
Twelve Minutes: What I didn't similar
Source: Windows Key
Successful point-and-click adventures caryatid a thin line between confusion and understanding. On one paw, you want the game to be complex and the puzzles to be dumbo, regardless of whether information technology's the kind of game with few clickable items or one with multiple items you lot might need to combine. On the other hand, it notwithstanding needs to have a foundational logic that makes sense and is established to the player, whether the logic lines upwardly with reality or not.
The game has yous not only learning the relatively tiny world you're placed into but perfectly learning all of its quirks.
Twelve Minutes, unfortunately, has issues straddling this line, which is odd because information technology seems to tick all the boxes. It has an underlying logic, a distinct ready of parameters to work inside, and set goals to accomplish. However, to get to that end point is a complicated task that requires not only understanding the game's logic, but breaking information technology downward to its tiniest elements. The game has you not only learning the relatively tiny globe you're placed into just perfectly learning all of its quirks. This might exist engaging for some who dearest digging into the minutiae of how games work or who similar taking things apart, but my experience wasn't enjoyable. It required non simply paying attention to where objects were and how they affected the characters, merely how long sure things took, what certain pieces of dialogue meant, and how the absolute correct sequence of events can lead to one specific outcome.
For example, I ran into one obstacle trying to get my married woman and the cop out of the picture. There'southward a knife in your apartment that you can apply for a multitude of tasks, including violence, but stabbing your wife is … problematic, and stabbing the cop is impossible. In this case, y'all would demand to get the cop to apply a light switch that would assassinate him, but information technology would but do so if information technology had already been turned on and off. So not just would you need to know that the light switch was dangerous, but you'd need to get the cop to affect the light switch and to make sure you lot set it in the proper identify for electrocution. In another, I had to notice that the wife went to become a drink at a sure time.
Source: Windows Central
It simply gets more complicated from at that place. You have to take stock of everybody's habits and what slight changes tin have a huge effect, which requires a lot of trial and error. This would be fine, simply remember, you're stuck in a time loop. That means you're playing out the same scenes over and over. At times, it feels like y'all're stuck in a never-ending loop, which puts a damper on the experience. Occasionally, the game will throw yous a os and speed up time for you if you're waiting for something, but otherwise, you have very few options for skipping dialogue or events that might go repetitive. If y'all click on the screen, you can fast forward through dialogue slightly, merely non speedily enough to brand a divergence. When yous've been playing through the same few minutes for hours, you're excited when something changes, but go back to feeling stuck when yous have to return to the grind.
The game'due south mechanics are overwhelming, and that leads to some other trouble. Thank you to the small parameters of the game, the reveals frequently feel like letdowns. You brainstorm the game knowing you accept to find a watch and to convince your wife that you're stuck in a fourth dimension loop. Information technology doesn't accept that much more to understand what has happened and why your wife is being defendant of murder. So when you finally are able to talk to her about the murder, it feels underwhelming, especially if information technology took yous hours to complete that task. At that place's a sense of relief that yous accomplished something, but the story then doesn't have whatsoever bear on. When a game focuses likewise much on mechanics, other elements suffer, and that's certainly the instance here.
Twelve Minutes: Should you purchase?
Source: Annapurna Interactive
Twelve Minutes was one of the more than predictable indie releases of the summer, and for good reason. Annapurna Interactive has a sterling reputation for publishing unique titles similar Donut Canton and Sayonara Wild Hearts, and so being under its label feels like a stamp of approval. The game also has an incredible voice cast, and an intriguing premise. It all sounds like it'll lead to a great experience. It'due south also available on Xbox Game Pass, so Xbox players tin can get the chance to play it for costless and figure out if information technology's one of their favorite Xbox games.
Unfortunately, while the game has some nifty tricks up its sleeve, it almost has besides many tricks. It gets defenseless up in its own logic and creates extremely dumbo and hard-to-parse scenarios that sometimes rely on breaking downwards even the concept of time. Thanks to the fourth dimension loop, the trial-and-error nature of it gets repetitive very fast. The game should have 6 to 8 hours to consummate, simply information technology feels similar an eternity. Information technology feels as if you're constantly telling the game to hurry up.
The nigh diehard point-and-click fans might find something to love here since figuring out how to move forward does feel great, and the internal logic does line up in a way that is occasionally satisfying. Nonetheless, because of the cyclical nature of the game, narrative reveals and puzzle solutions feel anticlimactic. After the hype, the peachy design, and the intricate setup, the whole thing feels anticlimactic.
Twelve Minutes releases on Aug. 19 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series 10|S.
Twelve Minutes
Bottom line: There'south a lot to like in Twelve Minutes, from the smashing fine art style to the incredible voice acting, but once yous get into the puzzles at the core of the game, y'all begin to realize you're the one who might be stuck in a loop.
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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/twelve-minutes-review
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