Twelve Minutes Review: Wait A Minute...

How’s about this: a Twelve Minutes review in precisely twelve minutes? To perform this trick, re-read this article enough times, then after the allotted time, stop. Otherwise, read this once, then play the cinematic thriller. That would be the sensible option.

But should you buy it?

What’s the alternative – sporting a peg leg and eye patch, adopting a West Country accent and downloading a ‘backup’ from the bay? No. Buy it on Steam or sign up for Game Pass like I did as it’s currently included. 

Twelve Minutes is a game about being stuck in a loop where the protagonist (voiced by James McAvoy doing an American accent) learns that he’s repeating the same sequence again and again. Think Groundhog Day, only there’s no Andie MacDowell but Daisy Ridley, also with an American accent, and an abundance of skeletons in the closet.

We start our tale as our hero returns home to his wife, who has something to share over chocolate pudding. Not a euphemism. Mid conversation, there’s a knock on the door: it’s the fuzz. A lone ruffian storms into the place, searching for a pocket watch and accusing your wife of murder. WTF?! Before you can start recalling what you last saw Willem Dafoe in (the new Spider-Man but do check him out in The Lighthouse), he’s killed you.

However, like a Dark Souls game, death is only the beginning, and once again, you’re back in the room, but the events are playing out exactly as before. From here, you can explore the apartment, chinwag with the missus and do your utmost to prevent what just happened. Having the freedom to tinker, you can even kill wifey with a kitchen knife (a unique animation on each occurrence. Gotta collect ’em all!). But this is only the tip of the darkness blade as it’s about to get complex – both in story and gameplay.

The entirety of Twelve Minutes is from a top-down perspective within the apartment (with a slight exception), only occasionally shifting angles when hiding in a closet or looking through a peephole. This viewpoint means it’s harder to identify with the characters as we’re literally distanced, but this stance makes it easy to navigate around this somewhat claustrophobic playground.

There are only so many variations one can hear, but the subtleties in conversation and behaviour are impressive. With every question asked, Pandora’s box opens a little more, so you memorise the patterns for a ‘perfect run’; otherwise, you’ll end up repeating the loop and inevitably driving yourself (you, not the character) crazy. 

Visually it’s pretty good, but the animation is janky. I was surprised at the number of times the cast would skip frames or ‘jump’ into premeditated positions. If you’ve read more than one of my reviews, you’ll note that I’m not too bothered by these sorts of things, so to write about it means it happened a lot. It didn’t ruin the experience, it just broke the spell now and again.

Twelve Minutes is the epitome of rinse and repeat, only with a few tweaks here and there to unlock something on the next loop. Alas, through my eyes, it seemed that the only way to progress was through predetermined routes at specific times, meaning that there wasn’t much room for error. That’s fine, but having to tap through the same dialogue or clicking from A to B before X happens (your chap can’t run), can cause inflammation to your patience levels, and I usually have an abundance.

Without spoilers, approximately halfway through, it all became clear. Smugly knowing the direction a narrative is going needn’t spoil the experience: I know that having another whiskey will result in a hangover, but that won’t stop the fun now. Twelve Minutes still has a lot up its sleeve and makes for an immersive tale, pending you can find the right path. But don’t expect complete closure – even if you manage to get all the endings.

Once I’d uncovered the underlying themes, performing some tasks were a struggle. It reminded me of being forced to act out in the torture scenes from GTA V. There were elements of Ace Ventura’s rendition of The Crying Game as I rocked back and forth in the shower after the final, maddening conclusion. Damn Annapurna Interactive for making me do these things.

Is Twelve Minutes worth it? If you’re a fan of cinema and have the patience for marginal gains, a.k.a. minimal pay-offs, then yes. It’s a title likely to alienate those who can’t bear repeating sections as that uncompromising nature of making mistakes will result in loop after loop until you get it right. If you can get it right. What do I think? I liked it, but as per that last statement, repeating the same thing too often tested my patience.