izigame.me

I set my expectations correctly given that this is an Annapurna game and to be fair, the concept is a great one, but for all its attempts at being compelling and layered, the end result is mostly just frustratingly bleh. As well you know, Twelve Minutes is a narrative game in which you find yourself trapped in a short time loop that you must relive repeatedly until you figure out how to escape it. The story it tells is passable for the medium and it's a noble attempt at doing something different than its peers.
Obviously, the game relies on you trying different things as you repeat its short loop. However, its heavily-scripted nature means that you're not really experimenting and more just hunting for the triggers to find another route and it often feels - at least to me - like the director (Luis Antonio) doesn't like to step aside and let the game be a game. This is more like an arthouse film masquerading as a game and there are fewer considerations on how to make the game play well than on how to tell a convoluted tale. And given the publisher, that's kind of on-brand and not necessarily a bad thing.
Where the game feels weak, though, is in how it approaches the repetition. Given the nature of the central mechanic, of course the game is going to be repetitive, but you'll be doing the same things over and over again only to change one minor thing here or there to divert the narrative flow, so to speak. In other games of a similar nature, the loops allow for tons of variation where grander gestures or completely different routes can be explored by making choices early; in contrast, a lot of Twelve's choices are made at the mid or late points so unless you give up and look at a guide, chances are you'll be repeating the same opening half of the run a tremendous amount of times before you figure out how to avoid it only to then find yourself in a different, repeating opening half. In film form, we'd only see one or two complete loops before jumping 'in media res' so we can see what actually changes each go. Ever seen Run Lola Run? Imagine if every cut had the entire running sequence in full, or maybe a Groundhog Day where we see each and every day completely - that's kind of how this game plays out and it's annoying.
This is what I mean about not allowing the game to be a game. On top of that, you can sort of semi-skip dialogue, but it's more like a fast-forward than a full skip so you only save seconds. Then you have camera work and artsy dissolves and slow zooms, etc. It makes it a lot less fun to explore than if there were some sort of tree to navigate like in Virtue's Last Reward. This results in the game becoming rote and mundane instead of fascinating and compelling because you're so bored by the time something new happens and well, the payoff isn't ever that mind-blowing except perhaps once.
On a technical level, it's well put together. There's no weirdness I encountered and the graphics and lighting all serve their purpose. The A-list actors don't really bring much to the table, though. Anybody could have lent their voices, probably at a lower cost, and nothing would change. The core of the game is centered more on presentation than anything else and as far as that goes, I think it succeeds.
And it kind of make sense - Antonio's credits are all art-based (on fantastic games, mind you) so Twelve has an artist's eye rather than a game designer's one. I don't mean that as an insult, either; as an art piece, Twelve is a fantastic piece of work. It just could have played a lot better.