Twelve Minutes

[Rev+]

The latest from Annapurna, known for quirky titles such as What Remains of Edith Finch and Sayonara Wild Hearts.

It's a very simple point-and-click game, mainly set within a single location from a top-down perspective.  You're James McAvoy, coming home to spend a nice evening in your flat with your wife Daisy Ridley.  As you're sitting down at the dinner table for dessert (before you've had dinner, Daisy's weird like that), Willem Dafoe, identifying as a copper, kicks the door right in and arrests the pair of you.  Mainly her, though, for killing her father years ago.

Then:  well, everything restarts from the moment you came through the door.  It's a time loop, hence the title, with your character remembering everything that's happened in previous go-throughs.   There are 'roguelike' elements here in that you can only attempt certain things once you've tried and failed at them before, and the dialogue options greatly expand the more times you've been through the loop.  There have been criticisms about the dialogue getting repetitive, which is inevitable given you're reliving the same twelve minutes over and over, but if you click away from interactive stuff and hold down the mouse button it puts anything you've not heard before on fast-forward.

I've given it about an hour so far and it's very enjoyable, but I think I'm at the tipping point where it'll start to become annoying.  I'm exhausting the obvious options already and can see the proper route through it being very petty and precise.  20 sheets for this and all - it feels much more like something that should be going for a fiver, but I'd imagine the budget for voice acting was a bit too high.

[bgmnts]

The E3 trailer looked quite intriguing so I'm excited to give it a go (on GamePass if anyone is on xbone).

[bgmnts]

Have been enjoying it this past hour but it's a bit flawed I will say.

[ProvanFan]

Got it on PC game pass. I'm a proper time loop lad who loves a time loop so there's no way I won't like it. Absolutely no way.

[bgmnts]

Starting to bore me and get on my tits now so will prob just walk-through it.

Although I will admit that

Spoiler alert

stabbing your pregnant wife in the gut

[close]

is fucking metal. Havent done such a terrible thing in a game since

Spoiler alert

white phosphorus-ing civilians

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in Spec Ops: The Line.

[Moribunderast]

I was (and still am, to an extent) really looking forward to this game but it seems like one that's worth waiting for abit of a sale/discount. Seemed a bit pricey for what I imagine won't be a terribly long playing experience.

[bgmnts]

Yeah finished it. Not that good.

999 and Sexy Brutale did the time loops better.

Also it can fuck off with it's SAG AFTRA shite. Way to go hiring James McAvoy and Daisy Ridley on for them to not even speak in their normal accents. Could have just hired regular voice actors and saved a few quid would have been the same.

Pretentious gash.

[madhair60]

on my second "loop" the character suddenly knew loads of shit that hadn't happened??? total failure at its only thing

[brat-sampson]

yeah, I started messing around a bit straight away and my second loop definitely had at least one dialogue option that didn't 'make sense'

Spoiler alert

Asking my wife about a watch when all that had happened was Willem had only just mentioned her dead father before I tried to stab him with a knife

[close]

Play Outer Wilds instead. Unless you have game pass in which case might as well give this a go.

[Timothy]

Played it on Gamepass so it was "free." Finished it yesterday.

Learning more and more about the situation, trying different things to see what would happen.... found it an enjoyable little puzzle game. The story itself wasnt that good and

Spoiler alert

the endings were awful

[close]

but I had much fun playing around with the possibilities.

The asking price of 25 euros to buy it is ridiculous though. Its a short game without any replayablity. Perfect game for Gamepass or PS Plus.

[Zetetic]

The latest from [publisher] Annapurna

Developed mostly by a bloke called Luis Antonia (who did art for The Witness).

Play Outer Wilds instead.

Or at least as well.

[Rev+]

Developed mostly by a bloke called Luis Antonia (who did art for The Witness).

Yeah, a publisher is just a publisher, all I meant there is that they seem to be building a name for off-kilter titles.

This has far too much wrong with it for something with such a limited scope.  On the plus side, it does feel like you make a tiny bit of progress during each loop, and limiting the number of objects you can pick up and things you can interact with to a very few means that you don't get stuck in the old point-and-click 'try everything on everything' quagmire when you're out of ideas.

It's worth a try, but there are far too many rough edges and logic jumps for this kind of thing, and the story at the heart of it just isn't very interesting.  Reminded me of the fillum 'Inception' in a way.  Alright, the mechanics are sort of in place, and this is the best use you have for them?

[bgmnts]

Seriously if anyone is loving the concept but not the execution I would highly recommend Sexy Brutale.

[Rev+]

Sexy Brutale is an all-timer, one of the best games of recent years.  It's got a very different approach to the time loop concept though, and one that cheerfully treads over itself and is confident enough to make bugger all sense at times in order to make the gameplay more fun, so they're not quite on the same shelf.  This just takes a ridiculous concept far too seriously.

[Zetetic]

(I intend to give The Sexy Brutale a go - thanks Rev+.)

[falafel]

Sexy Brutale was one of those games where I didn't realise how engrossed I was in it until I had finished. It feels nice and modest and thoroughly indie but it got under my skin. Yes, it might well be a mini classic.

[Timothy]

One of the most disappointing things about this game to me was the story. Especially

Spoiler alert

the endings.

[close]

Really enjoyed puzzling and trying things out in the loop but was left disappointment.

Will give Brutale a try, sounds great.

[bgmnts]

(I intend to give The Sexy Brutale a go - thanks Rev+.)

When you know you're on ignore lol

[Zetetic]

Ah, apologies bgmnts! Thank you as well, and for provoking the discussion. Suspect it was the weight of text in Rev+'s post that drew me back theirs to the exclusion of yours when replying.

[Thursday]

Lol this is shite

Spoiler alert

You cuff him when he's unconscious and he just get's up in seconds, not even a struggle to buy time.

[close]

Also, killing him doesn't count as an ending.

[Thursday]

Doesn't matter how quickly you get her to leave the apartment, he'll just arrive sooner. Good stuff.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Willem Dafoe, identifying as a copper, kicks the door right in and arrests the pair of you.  Mainly her, though, for killing her father years ago.

I wouldn't put it past her. I saw her melt her grandfather's face a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

[Timothy]

Lol this is shite

Spoiler alert

You cuff him when he's unconscious and he just get's up in seconds, not even a struggle to buy time.

[close]

Also, killing him doesn't count as an ending.

Spoiler alert

There is another way to buy time.

[close]

There is a reason why killing him doesnt count as an ending. I was also quite surprised that nothing happened but later on it sort of makes sense.

[Thursday]

Okay I've done the thing now where it feels like you get a "happy ending" a couple of times but it keeps going. Few ideas of things to try, but it's probably not that.

[Cuellar]

I've been watching Limmy play this and it seems a bit shit and he's taking ages getting through it so I just looked up the plot online and it doesn't make any sense. I'm assuming the plot is badly described on wikipedia, but it says that

Spoiler alert

"The cop is later revealed to be a friend of her father who is accusing the wife for her father's murder. The husband further investigates and manages to prove that his wife wasn't the killer and approaches the cop peacefully where the three deduce that the wife was mistaken and the father's true killer was her half-brother, who was borne out of her father's affair. Even after successfully resolving the situation, the husband is still trapped in a loop.

Agonized about still being stuck in the loop, the husband decides to apprehend the cop and to ask him about the nanny's name. The husband realizes that the nanny was his mother, making him his wife's half-brother. [I think this is about where Limmy ended today] Despite admitting the truth to his disgusted wife and to the cop in the next loop, the loop refuses to close. The husband is forced to relive the truth: the cop was actually his father, who revealed to him that he and his wife were siblings and they should break off their love"

So it's saying that the COP (Defoe??) is actually the husband's DAD and the husband's MUM is the NANNY, that the wife's DAD had an affair with, and this affair drove the wife's MUM away. So the wife is NOT the daughter of the DEAD DAD and the NANNY. If THE COP is husband's DAD, then the husband and the wife AREN'T half-siblings. The only way for the husband and wife to be related is if the husband's DAD is the wife's DEAD DAD - so what the hell does 'The husband is forced to relive the truth: the cop was actually his father' mean??

[close]

I'm not keen on spending £20 to see if the game answers the above. But it's driving me mad.

[Timothy]

I dont think that the

Spoiler alert

cop is the husbands dad. That doesnt make sense considering he has a young sick daughter that you call. Althought the two later merge in the husbands mind. Still dont know why that happened but it cant be that the cop is their dad. That would make even less sense. Truth be told the story is a mess.

The husband is her half brother, the nanny is his mother, the man he killed was his dad, it is ridiculous.

[close]

Thursday, getting to the real ending makes absolutely no sense puzzle wise. I can give you some hints it if you want.

[Cuellar]

Yeah I thought that the wikipedia description couldn't be right and it would have to be as you say.

[Timothy]

Limmy is playing the game this week and his reaction to

Spoiler alert

the end and truth

[close]

is priceless.

[Thursday]

I dont think that the

Spoiler alert

cop is the husbands dad. That doesnt make sense considering he has a young sick daughter that you call. Althought the two later merge in the husbands mind. Still dont know why that happened but it cant be that the cop is their dad. That would make even less sense. Truth be told the story is a mess.

The husband is her half brother, the nanny is his mother, the man he killed was his dad, it is ridiculous.

[close]

Thursday, getting to the real ending makes absolutely no sense puzzle wise. I can give you some hints it if you want.

Nah it's alright, I've looked it up and stopped playing. Not quite sure what I was missing but I couldn't seem to get to

Spoiler alert

The revelation about them being half brother and sister, but that's so dumb I don't care anymore

[close]