Author: Shea Layton
Twelve Minutes places the player into an apartment escape room, confounding and perplexing in nature. Objects that seem ordinary may offer a clue to a necessary piece of information that will bring you one step closer to solving the mystery. To make it more difficult, the player has twelve minutes to find a clue before the time starts over again. It is not a brand new concept, but the execution of it in Twelve Minutes is both refreshing and enticing.
Twelve Minutes: (Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
Developer: Luis Antonio
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Release Date: August 19, 2021
MSRP: $24.99
The game starts off with the player taking control of a man, seeing him from a top-down view. He is in the hallway of his apartment building as he has come home from work. The second that the player takes control of the man, the mystery is afoot. The game allows the player to start investigating the man’s surroundings immediately, possibly already showing some clues before the player even has context to what they are for.
That is the beauty of the time loop mechanic: the player can’t just pick up everything and use brute force through the mystery. The game gives the player enough leniency to try their own ideas, seeing whether they will proffer another clue or end in dismal failure. But in order to get the clue for the next step, there is a specific order to which the player must follow to collect more information.
For those players who are impatient, it can be tempting to follow a guide and go step-by-step to see how the story culminates, but each time a clue is organically gathered, it is that much greater of a victory, no matter how small.
The man is greeted by his loving wife who tells him to settle in as she has prepared a special evening for him. Depending on how the player chooses to interact with the game, they can either go with the flow to see what happens story-wise, or they can shirk their wife’s touching surprise to begin gathering clues. As the night goes on, someone unexpected arrives at their door.
There are a total of five voice actors in the game, and each of them plays their part extremely well. The highlight for most people will be hearing James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe. The standout is, to no one’s surprise, Willem Dafoe, who captures the essence of a menacing villain. Daisy Ridley and James McAvoy also excel in their roles, being asked to perform in a variety of settings, to which they meet the challenge head on.
The mood of the game encapsulates psychological thriller. Luis Antonio stated that his influences came from Stanley Kubrick and some other well-known movies regarding time. Those influences are immediately seen the moment the game opens up, as the carpet pattern in the hallway is identical to the pattern in The Shining. On top of the visuals, music is used only to accentuate certain moods: helplessness, joy, or shock. The sound effects do a wonderful job of keeping the player on the edge of their seat. Each time the elevator chimes, the player will feel their stomach drop.
The clues and the mystery are difficult to ascertain, but because of the nature of the time loop, it never feels like the answers are unobtainable. The story unfolding pushes the player to press on, pleading to be discovered.
There will be no spoilers, but the way that the story culminates may make some people feel uneasy. That’s the point of it; Antonio does not want the player to feel happy about the ending. The player will feel triumphant for having solved the mystery through both space and time, but there is a certain voice in the back of the player’s head that says, “Was it worth solving this mystery to know what I know now?”
Verdict: Despite it being a shorter game, Twelve Minutes impresses from the moment the mystery starts until the moment the credits finish rolling. The fact that this was largely envisioned within the mind of one person speaks even further to the excellence of this game. You will not want to put this game down once you start it. Artistic and furious, frantic and subdued, Twelve Minutes is a game that will sit in your mind for days after it finishes.
Buy it
[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer]