You are in front of the front door of your apartment. You are preparing a delicious dinner with your wife. Suddenly, your dinner is interrupted by a loud thump with a policeman yelling for you to open the door immediately, and then being arrested. You don't have much time to think and everything happens too fast as your thoughts race through your head. You don't even have time to realize what's happening, and suddenly you're on the floor, handcuffed, and that same police officer, the law enforcement officer, is choking you in an attempt to kill you. You try to resist in agony, but to no avail. Just when you think it's over, you open your eyes again and suddenly you're back at the front door of your apartment.
The game 12 minutes is an interactive thriller developed by "Annapurna Interactive". In the game, you play as a person who is stuck in a time loop that repeats itself every 12 minutes over and over again. The story unfolds as you go through dialogue and events as you try to solve the mystery and break free from the time loop.
We can look at the time loop as a kind of paradox where a person is stuck in a repeating time frame. Time loops are used as a narrative tool (an aid to storytelling) where characters, including our main character, are stuck in cycles of time. This approach is convenient for the creators of a game, movie or novel to deepen and add to various themes such as moral dilemmas, avoiding the inevitable, fate or free will.
At the beginning of the game and the story itself, you arrive at your home during a storm one evening after a long day at work and immediately after, a policeman knocks on your door and proceeds to arrest your wife for, as the policeman adds, the murder of her father several years ago.
You play with the mouse and the camera perspective is a little different than what you're used to.
A non-linear story
Non-linear stories are those whose flow is not a straight line and path, but is mixed and gives more creative freedom in storytelling. Even in 12 minutes, the decisions the player makes have an impact on the further course of the story. You choose which conversation you have with the characters in the game - so you choose the flow in which the game goes. The ultimate goal is to answer the question - why is your wife really being arrested and what kind of murky past is involved?
As we said, you have to figure out the question the game is asking you, and I have to admit, it really knows how to intrigue the player. As you play more and more, the story gets deeper and more morbid which makes you want to play again and again. The game restarts in case you make a "wrong" move, which brings you back to the beginning, when you are just entering your wife's apartment. However, with each new playthrough, you learn new information about the story that you can use in the present. This type of storytelling is called iterative because after each playthrough, even though you are technically brought back to the beginning, you as the player have the knowledge you need to continue the story.
Gameplay
The game contains very suitable graphics, animations and is intuitive to play so you don't need any great prior knowledge. Ambient sounds in the background contribute to the mystical atmosphere, and the storm in the background creates a special atmosphere. As a player, you have to play with all the concepts in the game because you have a lot of tools at your disposal.
We have a lot and little to say about the characters themselves, without too many spoilers, I can say that they are quite dynamic and have a background story. Voices by famous Hollywood actors: James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley i Willem Dafoe.
Repeat, repeat, repeat
The gaming community has somewhat responded positively to the game with one flaw, which is that the more you play, the more tiring it becomes, as you go back to the starting point every time and have to do it all over again. A lot of gamers are critical of the story, and some of the comments are that during the making of the game, the development team ran out of inspiration, so they inserted some classic clichés at the end. Another comment is how did an Indie gaming studio (a game development team of a handful of people and a small budget) manage to get Hollywood actors to do the voices? One of the more comical responses is that they cut the budget for the story team.
Conclusion
Finally, I would like to add that, despite all the criticisms of the story, this is certainly an interesting thriller adventure that takes you through moral dilemmas, hypnosis, old memories and unsolved mysteries. Before playing, arm yourself with patience and be ready to brainstorm. You can complete the game in one day.
You can download 12 minutes from the Steam platform. At the time of writing, it is 60% off.
Bonus video:
