- Publisher: Luis Antonio , Annapurna Interactive
- Release Date: Aug 19, 2021
- Also On: iPhone/iPad, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
- Critic score
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- By date
- Unscored
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Sep 17, 2021Twelve Minutes has great potential as a high concept thriller with its stellar technical design, critically acclaimed cast and initially organic gameplay, but ultimately its narrative direction and pacing leaves a lot to be desired.
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Edge MagazineSep 10, 2021Even when it's going wrong, Twelve Minutes exerts an uncommonly firm grip. [Issue#363, p.114]
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Sep 2, 2021Twelve Minutes is one of the most interesting games of 2021, but it might not be one of the best.
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Aug 24, 2021While 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.
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Aug 24, 2021Twelve Minutes is an engrossing adventure that is more about the journey than the destination. It’s not the most thrilling or thought-provoking story out there, but it still satiates that mystery craving. The star-studded casting elevates the atmosphere, and the involvement of the player is a unique way to take on the classic point-and-click genre. Though you’ll have to suffer through lengthy moments of tedium and irritation, there’s a lot to unpack and discover in this intriguing tale.
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Aug 22, 2021Combined with a concept that is both seductive and risky, the plot of 12 Minutes easily maintains interest even in its elements of resolution. Also if one feels Luis Antonio's imperfections in terms of technique, his learning from the great thrillers of cinema is just as visible. But the title divides between the frustration that can cause redundant loops and the quite captivating atmosphere of the place. If the game is as accessible in its mechanics as thorny in its timed puzzles, the experience will naturally be smoother for those able to progress by limiting loops.
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Aug 19, 2021At 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.
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Aug 18, 2021Twelve Minutes represents a videogame experiment born from a series of suggestive intuitions. The choice of setting the title within the confines of a small two-room apartment, combined with the mystery that constantly permeates the work, certainly represents one of the most valuable aspects of the Indie published by Annapurna Interactive. Unfortunately, a scarce malleability, the limited possibilities of interaction and a narrative evolution that makes excessive use of artificial solutions prevent Luis Antonio's work from fully expressing its starting potential.
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Aug 18, 2021There'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.
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Aug 18, 2021When Twelve Minutes hits, it hits hard. But I feel there’s, at times, such a disconnect between what it wants to do and say that it’s hard to reconcile its moving parts into anything I’d consider truly great. Performances waver as often as they wow, and that’s a result of a very ambitious game. Narratively speaking, it’s got the hallmarks of a Nolan film, and just like any good Nolan film, you’re going to boil the kettle and postulate into the midnight hours.
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Aug 18, 202112 Minutes is something unique and experimental, and like any experiment, there are going to be some hiccups. As it turns out, this game’s main fault was that it, by its nature, rips time from its players. But between those moments, it tells a brilliant story, one in which you can go back to any chapter and decide to do a rewrite. 12 Minutes certainly won’t be for everyone, but if you’re looking for a change of pace, the game comes recommended highly.
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Aug 22, 2021Twelve Minutes is a clever and well written psychological thriller, but in the end it chooses to abandon the logic and forces the player to act in a forced way.
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Aug 18, 2021Gripping point and click adventure with some unintuitive moments and an unsatisfactory conclusion.
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Dec 2, 2021Twelve minutes is a puzzle game with the theme of time loop. Although the scenes are rich in details and the art design is attractive, the mediocre gameplay and bad ending ruin everything the game has come before.
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Aug 26, 2021Twelve Minutes is an indie game that has been eagerly anticipated for years, mainly due to its unique concept. A man is stuck in a twelve-minute time loop and it's up to you to adjust little things and steer events in a different direction. In practice, that idea appears to lend itself less well to a game than hoped.
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Aug 20, 2021The excellent atmosphere and the cinematographic ambitions of Twelve Minutes are not enough to make it an unforgettable experience. Underneath lies a sloppy point & click game, serving a disjointed plot with far from captivating stakes. As for its time loop concept, it induces too many inconsistencies and repetitions in the course of the adventure to be fully satisfying.
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Game World Navigator MagazineNov 30, 2021It’s one of those cases where it’s really hard to rate a game. It has a great concept and good plot delivery, but actual gameplay is incredibly frustrating. You’re stuck in the loop along with your character, with no way to fast-forward the events, and you have to meticulously try every possible combination, until find the trigger that will open up a new option. And then you re-check it all over again. [Issue#256, p.44]
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Oct 8, 2021In cramming a time-looping murder mystery into the confines of a small inner-city studio apartment, Twelve Minutes offers much to appreciate, though the execution suffers somewhat from the limitations such a premise inevitably brings with it.
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Aug 31, 2021Twelve Minutes starts off strong and pulls you in with an intriguing premise and interesting gameplay loop but is let down by a poorly executed shock twist, finicky controls, and occasionally obtuse puzzle design.
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Aug 27, 2021These 12 minutes are first intriguing and addictive but the second part of the game feels really repetitive and the plot loses all of its interest and quality.
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Aug 27, 2021Twelve Minutes has an intoxicating premise about a man stuck in a time loop, backed by a Hollywood cast of voice actors that immediately presents the game with a veneer of cinematic prestige. But just as it quickly captivates the player with the tantalising promise to unravel all its mysteries, it also loses all that steam just as rapidly with its unbelievable twists and unspeakable violence, resulting in a conclusion that’s as mind-boggling as it’s nauseating. In the end, Twelve Minutes can’t seem to rise above its film influences, as it grinds to an unsatisfying, disconcerting halt.
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Aug 18, 2021In the end, I enjoyed some of my time with Twelve Minutes. Its story is genuinely gripping, and the cast’s performances are excellent, solidifying the game as a believable world. In many ways, developer Luis Antonio has created something truly remarkable here. But so much of Twelve Minutes is an exercise in frustration and repetition. You’re going to need a lot of patience to keep going, and ultimately, I’m not sure if it’s entirely worth it.
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Aug 18, 2021Twelve 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.
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Nov 19, 2021Since 12 Minutes locks us in the confines of a small apartment, one would expect a high level of interactivity and variety, but after a few time loops you realize that you’re given a very limited set of useful actions. The gameplay quickly devolves into repeating the same routine actions with miniscule changes and unskippable dialogue in hopes that you get a new result.
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Aug 18, 2021A clever time loop setup devolves into frustrating repetition.
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Aug 22, 2021But those A-listers simply can’t offset the core frustrations. I wanted to know more, was desperate to progress and its story had its hooks into me, but the harsh time restrictions made Twelve Minutes often feel like a chore. If you can stick with it then its story is weird, violent and, at times, pretty shocking, but this is a game I think perfectly sums up how a time loop would actually feel: annoying, frustrating, pressurised, claustrophobic. As a game, it’s just not as entertaining or – ironically – as time conscious as it needs to be to succeed. In the best time-loop games, you have the freedom to experiment with one thing before trying another. Offsetting the repetition is easier. In Twelve Minutes, stuck in those same four walls, those same dozen minutes can feel like as many hours.
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Aug 18, 2021There's quality within this intriguing time loop, though by the end you're left wondering whether the core idea is a good one after all.
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Aug 18, 2021As far as I can tell, I made it to the true ending of Twelve Minutes. However, in conversations with co-workers who have also reached that point, we haven’t been able to decipher what it all means or what the game is trying to say. It aspires to grapple with Big Life Questions, and I imagine that many players will find it to be a text ripe for that kind of discussion. For me, Twelve Minutes is more about the journey than the destination — but maybe I’d feel differently if I could wipe my memory and experience it fresh, exploring undiscovered paths to new conclusions.
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Aug 18, 2021Twelve Minutes' time loop puzzle is layered and weird, but its short time limit doesn't find the sweet spot between tense and frustrating.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 227 out of 513
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Mixed: 141 out of 513
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Negative: 145 out of 513
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Aug 20, 2021The idea is good. But not executed well. Frustrating loops and some plot holes made it a bad game
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Aug 20, 2021
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Aug 20, 2021