Twelve Minutes Review (Mishima)
We need more games like this. Every studio tries to make a big open world game or soulless copy of a big budget title, every game wants at least 20+ hours from you. I finished this game in about 6 hours (I messed up and lost my progress, 7+ hours with that totally my fault), and it was a great experience. It has incredibly memorable moments in it and overally a great experience.
As much as I want to praise this game, I also need to express negatives. First of all, this game has a time loop type story and I can say it is really well writen. But the problem is this, in a puzzle type game tempo is set by the player. Its not like a movie where everyone experiences the perfect moments because its all pre erranged. When that combines with the time loop concept, it starts to get frustrating. When you get stuck in this game, at first glance you really can't see anything new. You only have some amount of time before everything resets, and sometimes you don't even know you made any progress or not. With the concept and game style this is unavoidable, but I think it could be designed better. The game has an optimal rotue and in my second run I saw the hints but in this game everything can be fucked up quite easily. For example I want to explain my first run to you, it contains minor spoiler so you can avoid next paragraph if you don't want that.
***minor spoiler starts***
So I get into my house, kiss my wife and she tells me that she made my favourite desert. I explore the house a bit, flip some switches etc. Then I say lets eat , she says wait a bit and goes to bedroom for an unknown reason. Then I see a fall noise, when I go check on her... She is dead. Wtf! I panic and just look around , then the door rings. ITS THE COP WTF!. I talk to him some shit happen and bam loop restarts. I am like damn, wtf is this.
***minor spoiler ends***
There is like %1 percent chance that this will be your first run. There is so much unknown variables at first and its a joy (for the most time) to slowly learn each of them. But like I said, it could be more user friendly to create a better experience generally.
Other than that, William Dafoe and McAvoy is fantastic, I don't need to say anymore if you like them just play the game. Visuals are outstanding, it captures some moments so well that they will not leave my mind for some time. Soundtrack was noting special, like it didn't cought my attention. Motion capture was smooth and generally gameplay works well.
And I think thats all. Twelve minutes is a generally well polished game with some problems, but it still worth to give it a shot. It uses a interestic concept well and price tag fits with what you get. You will not regret if you play it.