Being in development since before 2015, Twelve Minutes has been a long time in the making. (Let’s just say I was excited when the game FINALLY released.) You can tell where developer Luis Antonio got his inspirations from – Twelve Minutes is part Groundhog Day, part Hitchcock thriller, with you at the helm channeling your best Sherlock Holmes/Beniot Blanc. (I’m on a Knives Out kick. Don’t judge!)
Do You Ever Really Know Someone?
You’re set to have a nice night with your wife when you realize you don’t have your keys. Thankfully, your dear wife has hidden them in a fake plant outside your door. You go in, and she greets you with the promise of your favorite dessert and some exciting news.
Except, it all goes to Hell. There’s a fateful knock on your door; a cop enters and accuses your wife of murdering her father eight years before. He’s demanding to know where a watch of his is, and she’s about to admit it… Except you’re dead.
But you’re not. You’re by the door again in the dim apartment, alternating between thinking you’re insane and wondering if the love of your life could be a murderer.
Welcome to Twelve Minutes.
Over and Over Again
You quickly realize you only have just over ten minutes before the cop shows up again. Twelve Minutes is a puzzle game set to a ticking clock; you spend the loops talking to your wife, investigating rooms, and working out different options for dealing with the cop and getting to your wife to admit what happened in her past.
I realized, after a set of loops, that doing nothing was a valid option. That stepping into the closet and hiding was an option that gave you access to the information you needed that you weren’t going to get any other way. (Did that loop end horribly? You bet. But I learned SO MUCH.)
In so many games, you must scrounge around a large map to find a needle in a haystack to advance an objective. I could find something out that was vital to the story by just waiting in a closet? I loved it.
Twists and Turns
It may sound strange, but when I finally started piecing things together and found myself in the end game, it was the most satisfying feeling. Again, a reminder. You don’t have to do anything. Experiment; don’t be afraid of getting launched into another loop. Yes, it can be maddening, but in one of the best ways, in my opinion.
I did not see the twist coming. If you’re reading this and you did, awesome. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it, to be honest. I haven’t been able to go back and get any other endings yet, but perhaps seeing more of the ends will make this clearer.
Wrapping it Up
McAvoy, Ridley, and Dafoe all deliver in terms of performances in the game, and you almost can’t believe they didn’t record lines at the same studio together. I could hardly tell the Husband was James McAvoy, but that’s because I hear Charles Xavier in my head when I see his face now.
COVID-19 made doing voice-over for the game challenging, as Willem Dafoe was hunkering down in Rome, and Ridley and McAvoy were both sequestered in England. Would their performances have been even better if they could have recorded in the same room? Probably. We’ll never know, but they were still great.
The TL;DR of the above paragraphs – they did the best they could with a not great situation.
Side note: With actors of their caliber, why wouldn’t they be awesome?
I have no complaints about how the game ran on my computer, either. I also played the game entirely with a controller, not a mouse and keyboard, so I can’t speak to how that felt. I just prefer a controller.
Twelve Minutes is available on Xbox Game Pass for Console and PC, and you can also purchase the game on PC and Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One for $24.99.
