In psychology, and butting up against mindfulness theory, is the concept of flow. If you’ve seen Pixar’s Soul, you’ll already be familiar with flow, a state of mind that occurs when you become so deeply and pleasurably immersed in an activity that you mentally disconnect from time and space. Life narrows down to focus in on what you’re doing in that present moment, and nothing else matters.
Flow ties in nicely with new indie game, Twelve Minutes, from Portuguese developer Luis Antonio, and publisher Annapurna Interactive. The point-and-click time loop thriller is its most enjoyable when the player enters a state of flow in regards to the innovative demands of its puzzle solving. A discovery during one time loop triggers a chain of revelations to pursue in successive loops, bringing you closer to the truth each time. When this happens, Twelve Minutes is incredibly satisfying and engaging.
Unfortunately, though, the effect isn’t sustained, especially in the last third of the game. When you lose your flow, Twelve Minutes becomes tedious and frustrating, with repeated playthroughs of the same loops resulting in little to no progress. The way that the game seesaws between the two extremes of fulfilment makes Twelve Minutes difficult to unreservedly recommend.
Sketching the plot
Let’s take a step back, though, to outline what exactly is happening in Twelve Minutes. After a long day at work, an unnamed husband gets back the miniscule apartment he shares with his also-unnamed wife. The wife has a surprise to share over a celebratory meal. It’s an intimate, enjoyable evening until a police officer bursts in, accusing the wife of murder – and demanding an antique pocket watch.
It doesn’t really matter what you do at this point – resist, argue, cooperate, flee – you end up beaten into unconsciousness or dead. That is, until a second later when you step back into your apartment to repeat the past ten or so minutes. There is one key difference, though. Thanks to the previous loop, you now have new knowledge to exploit, in order to hopefully save your wife, yourself, and eventually break the mysterious loop.
Polishing up point and click
In terms of gameplay, Twelve Minutes can best be described as a point-and-click mystery adventure. It’s clearly designed for adult audiences, and oozes visual flair, but its demands on the player remain straightforward and standard to the genre: pick up and utilise objects; and listen for dialogue clues to guide your actions and unlock new explorable conversation trees.
You don’t even have any control over the time loop other than learning its reset requirements, and being able to fast forward through verbal exchanges you’ve had before.
That said, Twelve Minutes does introduce some upgrades to the point-and-click formula. Reflecting its Hitchcock inspiration, the game includes multiple item red herrings, so not everything in the apartment has a puzzle-solving purpose.
That design choice is paired with greater realism and a sense of tactility. For example, if you don’t want your wife to see you doing something, close the adjoining door first or she could end up angry and uncooperative for the rest of the time loop. Another example is that you can move around objects largely as you like. As long as there’s space on a surface, or the husband doesn’t veto your action as ridiculous, you enjoy an unusual amount of freedom to impact your environment.
It’s worth noting that Twelve Minutes’ creator, Antonio, was art director for the stylish, stylised The Witness. He brings a similar panache to Twelve Minutes, which takes place almost entirely from a top-down perspective. This unusual point of view gives the game a simultaneous claustrophobic and cinematic auteur feel, which is appropriate as the filmographies of Stanley Kubrick, David Fincher, and the already-mentioned Hitchcock, are mentioned as inspirations.
Although unstated in marketing material, Christopher Nolan and Park Chan-wook should really also be added to that list, because their influences shine through in certain style choices, themes and story beats.
Pedigreed vocal performances
With all this talk of film, it’s a good time to mention that Twelve Minutes features vocal performances by James McAvoy (as the husband), Daisy Ridley (the wife) and Willem Dafoe (the cop). That’s a risky move on paper. The involvement of big names may be effective in generating hype and making headlines, but movie stars don’t necessarily make great voice actors. Watch some all-star DreamWorks animated films if you need an example of how the two performance styles are very different beasts, with different demands.
Fortunately, much like Annapurna Interactive’s Maquette, Twelve Minutes has hit the jackpot with its celebrity voice cast. It helps that British McAvoy and Ridley have American accents in the game, which lets them fade into their characters, instead of distracting with their A-list presence. There’s no attempt to hide Dafoe’s distinct voice, meanwhile, but there’s no need. The seasoned actor is just as convincing whether menacing, expressing remorse or interacting warmly with others.
The vocal performances in Twelve Minutes are definitely a highlight, enriching the game experience and heightening the tension in this literal race against the clock.
Stripping away the satisfaction
Reading the review up to this point, it probably sounds like Twelve Minutes is unmissable. Just look at all those strengths. However, as already noted, the game can slip into a state of painful monotony, particularly towards the end, when the success or failure of a loop typically hinges on a single dialogue choice. Stumble, and you’ll have to re-set up that exact same moment, which can take several minutes. That doesn’t sound like much, but when it happens repeatedly, the frustration mounts quickly.
Players who find their flow, and breeze through to the “end,” are less likely to feel this, but should you get stuck replaying one loop version, the game loses a good chunk of its enjoyability.
This is the nature of time loop media, of course, but Twelve Minutes takes things a step further. The game has several endings, but only a few lead to the end credits and a complete restart. Resolving everything in what appears to be the best outcome for all the characters – something that provides a strong sense of player accomplishment – does not guarantee escape from the loop.
After a certain plot twist, Twelve Minutes continually evades a sense of player satisfaction. Instead, it relies on an unclear object interaction to reach the final scene. Miss that, and you’ll be playing out the game’s longest conversation, and its set-up, over and over.
In the end, Twelve Minutes rewinds a lot of the goodwill generated by its strong individual components. It’s a divisive game, deliberately obtuse and avoidant of answers. That being said, it’s also fulfilling to have something to brood over, and theorise about à la Nolan’s Inception. The Internet is already peppered with an ever-growing number of “Twelve Minutes endings explained” articles, review comments and forum threads.
So kudos to Antonio and the rest of that team that shaped the game. Twelve Minutes may not be consistently engrossing and enjoyable, but it’s a prime example of games as ambitious, thought-provoking art.
Twelve Minutes released on Friday, August 19. It’s available on PC (through Steam) and Xbox. It’s also currently playable with Xbox Game Pass.
| Twelve Minutes review | |
Your enjoyment of Twelve Minutes will largely depend on how quickly and smoothly you puzzle out the time loop thriller, but overall the game seesaws between fulfilling/deeply engrossing, and frustrating/tedious. Still, it’s stylish, cinematic and ambitious – worth a few loop attempts even if you don’t push on to the obtuse, unsatisfying final act. |
7.5 |
| Twelve Minutes was reviewed on PC | |