Twelve Minutes

 PC
User Score
6.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 513 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 227 out of 513
  2. Mixed: 141 out of 513
  3. Negative: 145 out of 513

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  1. RomanG700
    Aug 22, 2021
    6
    A very mediocre game without variability, logic and an interesting plot. You expect much more from a project that has been done for six years.
  2. parallax_84
    Aug 28, 2021
    6
    The game is not that bad but in my opinion gets ruined by a soap opera twist that you can see coming from far and the endings are completely awful,
  3. ajgamer
    Aug 27, 2021
    6
    Compelling idea, poor execution. The mystery reveals itself to be a poorly thought out plot, and the big plot twist falls flat. Not only that, but the exciting time loop becomes gratingly frustrating the more that you play, until you reach the point that you hate the characters of the story, despite some solid voice acting.

    On the voice acting - William Dafoe is stellar. James McCavoy    Compelling idea, poor execution. The mystery reveals itself to be a poorly thought out plot, and the big plot twist falls flat. Not only that, but the exciting time loop becomes gratingly frustrating the more that you play, until you reach the point that you hate the characters of the story, despite some solid voice acting.

    On the voice acting - William Dafoe is stellar. James McCavoy okay but unfortunately Daisy Ridley's character becomes extremely annoying through repetition and always doubting your character or lying to you. You stop seeing them as characters and more as means to an end by design on the experimental gameplay.    … Expand
  4. seyis
    Aug 20, 2021
    5
    Although it has a nice idea and story, it gets boring after a while due to the uncertainty in the gameplay and the repetition of itself a lot. It is a game that will be more enjoyable when it is short, but it is very annoying after long hours of playing the same moment and doing the same things over and over again.
  5. ajosanyi
    Aug 21, 2021
    5
    Good story. Good basic idea. Repetitive and boring. Self-repeating. There is nothing to help the game move forward. You always do the same thing in it. The first 12 minutes are exciting after that, the whole game is awful.
  6. ashmit
    Aug 24, 2021
    6
    It's tryhard M. Night Shyamalan ending ruins the whole game. I strongly recommend no one to buy it. Unless you're a **** neckbearded loser
  7. Igniting
    Aug 20, 2021
    7
    In short terms, it's a good game with a good idea. It has nice visuals, good set of puzzles, excellent cast and great voice acting. But, it delivers a average story, that has some unnecessary plots and frustrating loops that will requires some patience to be solved(although, in my opinion it is intended to). It's very recommended to be played on Game Pass if you don't like or aren'tIn short terms, it's a good game with a good idea. It has nice visuals, good set of puzzles, excellent cast and great voice acting. But, it delivers a average story, that has some unnecessary plots and frustrating loops that will requires some patience to be solved(although, in my opinion it is intended to). It's very recommended to be played on Game Pass if you don't like or aren't familiar with the genre.… Expand
  8. Dorner
    Aug 20, 2021
    5
    It's nice to feel free to do something in the beginning. But as you progress, you have to do everything as the game demands, and this reduces the dose of fun. You start to get bored with each loop.
  9. D1zzy0509
    Aug 20, 2021
    7
    The idea behind this game is great but it could have been better executed, as you progress through the game it becomes progressively slower because you have to do the same things over and over again and that can be discouraging, combined with the fact that you sometimes have to do some very specific actions which aren't really clear to progress the game, which can become quite boring, butThe idea behind this game is great but it could have been better executed, as you progress through the game it becomes progressively slower because you have to do the same things over and over again and that can be discouraging, combined with the fact that you sometimes have to do some very specific actions which aren't really clear to progress the game, which can become quite boring, but I still think that the turn the narrative takes as you reach the end of the game makes it worth it to endure the not so great game-play, but it was ever so slightly longer I don't think I would reach its end. Overall this is a pleasant experience that is worth a try if you are interested in the concept.… Expand
  10. EfiDiveroli
    Aug 21, 2021
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I love the concept of this game, but it does not respect one's free time at all and is poorly executed, especially if one takes into account that they worked on it at least for 3 years. The voice acting is on spot, but the developers managed to string their lines and conversations together so poorly that sometimes the dialogues are incredibly clumsy and threw me out of the whole experience. I also encountered cases when the same dialogue resulted in different reaction from a character, which affected the ending of the given loop.

    I often thought more of this game than what it really could offer and I ended up spending ridiculous amount of time repeating the loops in order to try things that eventually did not matter at all (looking out of the windows, analysing paintings etc.). Furthermore, several times I knew how to progress in the story, but I could not find the dialogue that triggered the advancement.

    The number of visual bugs I experienced is frustrating considering that the game provides the tiniest playing area I have ever encountered in a story game. I expect perfect execution when the whole game is 3 small rooms and there are only 3 characters (whose faces were not even animated due to the perspective and what you could see from their face through the peephole was literally pre 2004 graphics), there is no excuse in this matter when you spend 3+ YEARS!!! on this minimalistic graphical content, even if just a single person worked on the graphical content (which I assume was not the case). I also disliked the dialogue skip mechanism. I hated that I had to skip by constant clicks and I just could not jump to the end of a dialogue that I had heard countless times before.

    This game had so much potential, but it was mostly frustrating and a disappointment after waiting for 2 years since the announcement trailer from the 2019 E3. I pity the actors, they deserved better execution. I personally disliked the story and found it bizarre. It was not immersive for me at all (mainly due to the aforementioned frustrating parts and poor design).

    Spoilers:
    I also want to share some really frustrating experiences about certain parts. There are countless like this in the game.

    1. When I convince the cop's daughter that I have evidence about the wife not being the killer, and the cop comes into the apartment he will kill me if I take polaroid photo (the evidence) off of the fridge, even if it is in my pocket and I click on it to show him.

    2. When I wanted to end the game with the meditation quote I accidentally clicked the book a little after the husband started the quotation which resulted in the father beating me up and his death due to the accident, which also resulted in the need of repeating the whole loop.

    3. The light switch... I knew that the only way to advance in the game is to make the light switch shock the cop (when the cop got into the bedroom he always said that **** this light switch, and the wife also talked about the need of repair multiple times). I thought that I had to use one of the available tools in order to jinx it somehow (logical, not?). I tried everything. Literally I spent more than an hour on this matter, and I finally managed to activate the electric shock on the WIFE by accidentally using the switch before her once.

    4. The title. The title does not make any sense at all. It could be 13 minutes or 15 minutes or whatever. The game let you experience the first ~5 mins at the beginning. As you advance the game you get to live through more and more time in each loop. But only 10 minutes all in all. The 12 minutes clearly is just a random integer number that is greater than 10 and you have to set back the clock 12 minutes in order to trigger a certain ending.

    5. I found the writing quite childish that it wanted to make the player hate the wife then like the wife, hate the cop and then arouse sympathy towards him... similar narrative applies to the protagonist with the twist that you were made to like him first and feel disguise at the end.

    6. Once I was stuck in the game and I made the following: I knocked out the wife with the meds, then took the pocket watch, which I put on the dining table. Then I hid in the wardrobe and waited for the cop to arrive. I thought this would be interesting, since the cop would take the watch and leave without further notice, but it was not the case. He did not even notice the watch, even though he clearly had looked around in the house, but managed to find me and kill me instead...    … Expand
  11. dubesor
    Aug 20, 2021
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. It's such a great concept (time manipulation in general) but executed rather mediocre. There are 3 main issues with the game.

    1) Repetitiveness - yes this is a game about a time loop but repeating the same dialogue and actions over and over again could have been handled much better. For example if you reveal something big to a person there are 20 lines of dialogue and you can skip the repeat but it only fast forwards line by line, instead of the entire segment, gets old really fast.

    2) No real clever situations with obtained knowledge - a lot of times the dialogue doesn't make sense considering the knowledge the player/MC should have. One example is if you call 911 for the first time the main character is surprised by the given long response time. If you call again in another loop mc must have lost all memory because his dialogue is the exact same and thus he is again surprised on the 20th loop. This is just one example but basically this was experienced all throughout the game. Just having different lines of dialogue or progression of character with his obtained memory during previous loops should have been an absolute must.

    3) Bit too much illogical mechanics (and/or moon logic) - one very obvious example from early on (in order to prevent spoilers) is that you can put sleeping pills in your wife's water mug. If you do this in her sight she will comment on it (cool!) and if you offer her the drink she will refuse it (again, good!) but if you then place it for her in plain sight, right after she refused it, she will drink it after 1 second. There are many such illogical scenarios and also some really weirdly specific illogical steps needed to be taken.

    3b) weak ending (canon ending as well as all alternate "endings").

    Overall neither game play nor dialogue felt particularly clever, which in a time loop game absolute has to be. Mediocre game.    … Expand
  12. aljirik1992
    Aug 22, 2021
    7
    Без пяти минут 12

    … уже с титульного экрана. Внимание, понимание и азарт играющих начинают биться с намеренной монотонностью полёта фантазии авторов двенадцати минут. А потому риск ни к чему не прийти, когда все три действующих фактора сойдут на нет, крайне велик, как и мастерски проделанная работа трёх актёров, которых не смогли лаконично связать со всеми сценами, где трио    Без пяти минут 12

    … уже с титульного экрана. Внимание, понимание и азарт играющих начинают биться с намеренной монотонностью полёта фантазии авторов двенадцати минут. А потому риск ни к чему не прийти, когда все три действующих фактора сойдут на нет, крайне велик, как и мастерски проделанная работа трёх актёров, которых не смогли лаконично связать со всеми сценами, где трио взаимодействует друг с другом. В то же время попарно химией между персонажами просто свербит, а оставшись наедине с подконтрольным уже сам игрок волен поддаться безысходности, пока мрачная «как достать соседа» насчитывает минуты до очередного перезапуска происходящего, что одновременно является и главной загвоздкой, и беспринципной силой игрового процесса. Правда данность эта предназначена только для того, чтобы единожды сделать всё правильно, и не как-либо иначе. Где-то за 5 минут до финала вопросов накопившихся за прохождение окажется больше, чем ответов, но всё, что получится в конце это продолжить…    … Expand
  13. RagnusLif
    Aug 20, 2021
    5
    good premisse, but the story, and the way characters react or simply talk is horrendous, also the game is pure repeat and you get all the story halfway thought the game, so the ending is only seeing differente routes that never make you feel like you accomplishment something
  14. SuperBurger
    Aug 22, 2021
    7
    Fun for a short while but can get repetitive and boring. Fun for someone looking for a story based mystery game, but overall a mediocre game at best.
  15. TheRealPurtuzzi
    Aug 20, 2021
    7
    Twelve Minutes uses clever storytelling, coupled with elite Hollywood talent, to unravel a dark mystery surrounding a family heirloom. The story is short but well-written, and solid ambience adds suspense and realism to counter sub-par animations.

    Voice performances are memorable and engaging, allowing players to be engrossed in the gradually exposed drama... err trauma. While    Twelve Minutes uses clever storytelling, coupled with elite Hollywood talent, to unravel a dark mystery surrounding a family heirloom. The story is short but well-written, and solid ambience adds suspense and realism to counter sub-par animations.

    Voice performances are memorable and engaging, allowing players to be engrossed in the gradually exposed drama... err trauma. While animations and rendering do not detract from the overall experience, they certainly aren't groundbreaking -- or even exceptional.

    The short experience of this point-and-click murder mystery is a markedly AA game with AAA talent. Asking $30 (Canadian) for this game is a little steep, as replay value to extremely low; I would say this is a solid $20 experience.    … Expand
  16. Cinetyk
    Aug 21, 2021
    5
    Played for about an hour and got frustrated and gave up. There's very little to help you on, basically you keep banging your head against the wall trying different things to try and make some progress. Then you eventually find something, but you keep restarting and having to repeat a lot of the same actions to get to a point where you maybe could try something different. The time of eachPlayed for about an hour and got frustrated and gave up. There's very little to help you on, basically you keep banging your head against the wall trying different things to try and make some progress. Then you eventually find something, but you keep restarting and having to repeat a lot of the same actions to get to a point where you maybe could try something different. The time of each loop feels too long when you're repeating stuff you already did and when you're finally able to do and discover new things you barely have any time. Not to mention that when you make a mistake earlier on you just wish you could restart right there.
    I guess the frustrations is on theme give the main character is in the time loop, but it was just too frustrating to carry on. I suppose there could be an interesting story behind all this, but the method of unravelling it is too frustrating for me.    … Expand
  17. tamayo1993
    Aug 21, 2021
    5
    Brilliant idea, lousy execution. This is the summary that could be given to the game. It gets repetitive and long, and you feel like you repeat the same sequence too many times. Illogical decision and at times with little or no meaning.
  18. TomasLacerda
    Aug 22, 2021
    6
    Liked the story and the concept of it.
    Disliked the endings, how clunky animations are and same actor voicing multiples characters.
  19. DickPain
    May 14, 2022
    7
    Innovative and exciting in parts, but let down by some baffling puzzles leading to boring replays where the player has a fleeting chance to choose the right option otherwise be punished by replaying the same sequences many, many times. Definitely worth playing, but it's also necessary to use a guide to overcome some of the puzzles and avoid wasting your life clicking through dialogueInnovative and exciting in parts, but let down by some baffling puzzles leading to boring replays where the player has a fleeting chance to choose the right option otherwise be punished by replaying the same sequences many, many times. Definitely worth playing, but it's also necessary to use a guide to overcome some of the puzzles and avoid wasting your life clicking through dialogue you've heard 20 times already. If the flow of the game had been refined and smoothed, this would be better, but despite it's flaws it's still worth playing.… Expand
  20. onderd
    Aug 22, 2021
    5
    i had high expectations about the game, after i saw the trailer on e3 2019. But it was a disappointment for me. Short and cheap story(even for an independent game), average acting. I give all the six points for experimental game play. It could inspire other game developers. But to call it a game, maybe it should have more stories and possibilities to change the storyline with ouri had high expectations about the game, after i saw the trailer on e3 2019. But it was a disappointment for me. Short and cheap story(even for an independent game), average acting. I give all the six points for experimental game play. It could inspire other game developers. But to call it a game, maybe it should have more stories and possibilities to change the storyline with our decisions. As i said, it is a too much short and cheap story and even in this story there are unreasonable moments, such as that she opens the door, after i tell her to don't open and she accept. She can open the door after I lock/bar from inside.

    As many told, the idea is good, execution is bad.    … Expand
  21. Wweald
    Aug 25, 2021
    6
    It's mediocre, the gameplay is kind of boring as it's just a clicking interaction game. Getting stuck on a part is annoying because you have to do the whole loop again until you find what you were missing. It looks nice and has good voice acting, the story is mediocre. It's like it was trying to be a big twist mind blown kind of story, but it just falls short and is rather boring.
  22. JontyS
    Aug 22, 2021
    5
    Boring, with some bugs. Glad what I played it on Game Pass and don't waste money on this game
  23. BlackLung17
    Aug 21, 2021
    5
    Anyone who votes 0/10 obviously didn’t play the game, it didn’t have game breaking errors, it didn’t have a horrible story (not a great one albeit) the review bombing here is definitely unnecessary.
  24. Mandulum
    Sep 5, 2021
    7
    I'm a sucker for time loop games and movies. It made this one an easy choice and I had a lot of fun with it. The game takes place in a tiny apartment, which means trying everything doesn't take too long.

    Date Completed: 2021-09-05
    Playtime: 3.5h
    Enjoyment: 7/10
    Recommendation: It's short. It's fun. If you have Game Pass there's no reason not to!
  25. LaRock0wns
    Sep 5, 2021
    7
    Great Game at the beginning, frustrating towards the end. At the beginning of the game, you start picking apart the puzzle of the mystery. It's satisfying to know that as you get each clue, that you can figure out how to unlock new pieces of the puzzle

    However, toward last quarter part of the game, you'll be REALLY struggling to move forward without a guidebook or something because    Great Game at the beginning, frustrating towards the end. At the beginning of the game, you start picking apart the puzzle of the mystery. It's satisfying to know that as you get each clue, that you can figure out how to unlock new pieces of the puzzle

    However, toward last quarter part of the game, you'll be REALLY struggling to move forward without a guidebook or something because there is absolute no clear direction on what you can or can not do in certain scenes, which will lead to you pulling your hair out

    And the ending is unsatisfying. Also, the dialog tends to step on each other.

    Overall, glad I played it, but have a guide book handy and wait for a sale    … Expand
  26. muzmuz
    Apr 30, 2022
    6
    Twelve Minutes is a short but unique and engaging narrative experience carried by 3 amazing cast, unfortunately, even for its really interesting writing the game itself has not a lot of game in it, which was further embittered by unsatisfying endings.
  27. Vern33
    Aug 25, 2021
    7
    Nice game yes i guess nice game gsme game nice game nice game nice game nice
  28. Deckard2
    Feb 3, 2022
    6
    An intriguing premise eventually becomes your own personal purgatory. I don't think I've ever played a game like this before. The story and gameplay loop sucks you in from its opening few minutes. The events that unfold throughout your 8 or so hour adventure takes place in a single apartment over a course of 12 minutes. The setting; you play as a man having dinner with his wife and allAn intriguing premise eventually becomes your own personal purgatory. I don't think I've ever played a game like this before. The story and gameplay loop sucks you in from its opening few minutes. The events that unfold throughout your 8 or so hour adventure takes place in a single apartment over a course of 12 minutes. The setting; you play as a man having dinner with his wife and all seems serene until the night slowly spirals into chaos as a policeman abruptly interrupts and wreaks havoc. Then, boom! The day repeats. Timeloop.

    The game is played from a single top down perspective and is essentially a point and click adventure. You click on things and direct the husband throughout his 12 minute evening choosing different dialogue options and choosing certain actions that cause the events to drastically change on each repeated time loop. The games goal is that your wife is being accused of murder and you must prove her innocence. The art style is pleasing enough and the sound design does the job. The voice talent hear is excellent with James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley and Willem Defoe voicing the husband, wife and policeman respectively. Defoe here is a particular joy to listen to and stands out as the menacing mysterious policeman.

    Unfortuantley what starts out with intrigue and mystery and a desire to press on quickly gets bogged down in tedium and frustration. You have to repeat dialogue loops over and over to progress. The story often hits a brick wall with regards progression and randomly trying different options to progress can become tiring. The game over stays its welcome by about 3 or so hours and doesn't serve to guide the player or have any system other than trial an error in some cases to advance things along. In the end after sinking 5 or so hours I had had enough and just used a guide to suss out the endings. There are multiple resolutions to this tale and the twist ending feels somewhat unearned and not as intelligent as it thinks it is.

    All in all the premise here is exciting but its execution could have done with some refinement. An interesting game with some excellent performances that unfortunately out stays its welcome. Try it on game pass or pick it up in a sale.    … Expand
  29. Archound
    Dec 13, 2021
    5
    Overhyped. 12 Minutes proves how magnificent The Forgotten City turned out to be. Time-loop gameplay is hard to design, and unfortunately Luis Antonio developer failed in the attempt.
    The very same item given slightly later in the dialogue might lead to a different outcome, usually forcing you to repeat several minutes of repetitive non-skippable part of the game (part is skippable, but    Overhyped. 12 Minutes proves how magnificent The Forgotten City turned out to be. Time-loop gameplay is hard to design, and unfortunately Luis Antonio developer failed in the attempt.
    The very same item given slightly later in the dialogue might lead to a different outcome, usually forcing you to repeat several minutes of repetitive non-skippable part of the game (part is skippable, but not enough). 12 Minutes does not respect the player's time. Save game system (reducing repetition and encouraging experiments) could easily boost the grade 1-2 points up. Besides, the story is a joke!    … Expand
  30. SilverOrlov
    Aug 24, 2021
    6
    This could be a good game if not for two BUTs:
    1) From some moment, the same repetitions in such a small space simply cannot but get bored. Physically. In addition, this game is also sick with such a thing as "from time to time to solve the puzzle you need to give up with logic and just hit with mouse everywhere".
    2) Partly because of the strained boredom from the (1), the quality level    This could be a good game if not for two BUTs:
    1) From some moment, the same repetitions in such a small space simply cannot but get bored. Physically. In addition, this game is also sick with such a thing as "from time to time to solve the puzzle you need to give up with logic and just hit with mouse everywhere".
    2) Partly because of the strained boredom from the (1), the quality level is raised and so ... the pompously end of story give us only a very funny end. Just disappointed. It could be normal if the game itself built the right interesting path to that ending, but no.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

21
#21 Most Discussed PC Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 60 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 60
  2. Mixed: 25 out of 60
  3. Negative: 0 out of 60
  1. Gamersky
    Dec 2, 2021
    66
    Twelve 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.
    Read full review
  2. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Nov 30, 2021
    64
    It’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]
  3. JeuxActu
    Nov 24, 2021
    75
    Used to atypical games, the publisher Annapurna Interactive surprises us once again with Twelve Minutes. Yes indeed the game has some rigid animations, not really worthy in 2021, game is quite short, and the system of dialogues isn't perfect, but the stifling atmosphere, the atypical staging, the surprising scenario and the puzzles are really worth the detour in our opinion.
    Read full review
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