12 Minutes Reviews
Twelve Minutes is an immaculate construction of narrative that manages to take an extremely compact apartment space and spin an incredibly substantial story in it.
12 Minutes is an excellent narrative experience thanks to its chilling story, top-notch voice actors, and unique and intriguing gameplay loop.
There's a lot to like in Twelve Minutes, but when you start to get into the puzzles at the core of the game, things begin to get bogged down.
Luis Antonio's smart timeloop starring James McAvoy is an absorbing yarn... if you can see past its frayed edges
This stylish, twisted take on movies such as Rear Window and Chinatown marries noir sensibilities with puzzle gameplay
Twelve Minutes is a good adventure game, but its puzzle design makes it feel— mature, cinematic presentation aside—like something of a relic. If it was released in 1995, you'd be ringing up the LucasArts hint line for help and getting scolded by your parents for running up a massive phone bill. But it has its charms, and the way the story is gradually peeled back, growing more disturbing with each loop, is effectively done. There's a huge amount of emotion, drama, and conflict squeezed into this tiny, dingy three-room apartment. But also a lot of frustration as you struggle to determine precisely the correct sequence of events to let you move the story forward and finally get some closure.
Twelve Minutes unravels its mysteries so well as to leave you pondering long after you finish the game — I’m still trying to wrap my head around the ending, and I know I’ll be thinking about it for a long time to come.
Twelve Minutes' strong narrative and star-studded cast of voice actors make it a solid mystery thriller that is slightly held back by clunky movements and occasionally janky controls.
It could have been one of the most impactful indie games of 2021, it will be one of the big disappointments of the year. Despite an interesting concept on paper, Twelve Minutes completely misses the execution. Between obscure, sometimes abstruse puzzles and illogical actions, we hoped that the narrative would raise the level but it is not so.
Review in French | Read full review
Twelve Minutes is a nice little point-and-click adventure game that will leave you stunned. Some points of frustration can make the game longer than it needs to be. Can get tedious at times if you're stuck.
While I was intrigued by the narrative, and enjoyed the performances, Twelve Minutes was an experience I’d had enough of by the time I completed it. There are just enough seams, jank, and clunk around that the act of playing the game felt like a task at times. I absolutely applaud the effort though. Twelve Minutes is an audacious first crack at a unique narrative structure, and one that will certainly lead to more refined and robust takes on this style of experience.
Twelve Minutes takes advantage of a time loop to tell us an intricate story, managing to motivate player's creativity in trying to prevent seemingly inavoidable situations. Featuring a breathtaking voiceover, it lacks in credibility when it tries to amaze and horrify at any cost, while successfully managing to blow the audience away. It will give you a fulfilling afternoon, and if you love point and click adventures you shouldn't miss it. You can easily see the first two or three endings, but unlocking them all needs quite an effort.
Review in Italian | Read full review
James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe do an absolutely fantastic job at bringing the three main characters to life but even they can’t lift the frustration and tedium of having to repeat the same actions over and over again. Unfortunately, by the time you finally figure out how to change the outcome of the loop, the ending will make you wonder if it was even worth it.
I really wanted to like Twelve Minutes, but by playing through it multiple times I've come to understand that in order for the timeloop to concept to really work in videogames, it needs time to breathe - both in physical game world terms and also in the various elements that it requires players to solve and master in order to progress. As it is, Twelve Minutes is an undeniably stylish looking and sounding thriller that finds itself summarily undone by poor writing, unwieldy controls and a shoddily frustration execution of its overarching timeloop concept. A shame.
At times maddening, but always fascinating, Twelve Minutes is a unique vision worth experiencing. It blends disparate genres and explores a twisting narrative using a terrarium of the mundane.
Experimental and unique, 12 Minutes forgoes some classic gaming standards in favor of a stylized, cinematic approach.
Twelve Minutes is atmospheric and hugely ambitious within its tight time limits, although the game is held back by unsatisfying narrative payoffs.
12 Minutes is a brilliant, complex, dense and very smart point and click adventure, which amazes each time you play it, thanks to its many, many branches. Served by a talented and rightfully toned cast, 12 Minutes is a rare and outstanding experience all the way.
Review in French | Read full review
Twelve Minutes fully embraces its time loop conceit to amp up tension and provide players with a cleverly directed puzzle to solve. Discovering the whos and whys of the game's central event in bite-sized increments is just as satisfying as interacting with its simple adventure-style interface. Its A-list casting and unanswered plot elements might distract from the overall package, but at its core, Twelve Minutes is a satisfying thriller that asks some dark and disturbing moral questions.