Twelve Minutes Xbox Series X Review

Twelve Minutes Xbox Series X Review – A good time?

Twelve Minutes is a time loop game revolving around three main characters, a husband (voiced by James McAvoy), wife (Daisy Ridley) and a cop (Willem Dafoe), in which the husband has to prevent his and his wife’s untimely demise at the hands of said cop. It’s amazing how much can take place in one small apartment and within such a small timescale. Kudos to the developer, Luís António.

Viewed from the top-down, everything takes place within the husband and wife’s apartment, consisting of a living room with a closet in the corner and a small kitchen, a bathroom and a single bedroom, and that’s mostly it. Twelve Minutes is very much the definition of a trial and error game, with there being many options to exhaust while working out exactly which options to choose in order to progress the story. It being a trial and error game means there are multiple outcomes based on your decisions, meaning there’s a lot of replay value.

When you first begin to play the game, there’s a lot of tension and urgency to rush to save the husband and wife as the cop comes a-calling, but you know deep down it’s going to be a longer game than that, and there’s going to be more to it than meets the eye. You’ll definitely fail your first time loop and if you didn’t, well, good for you, have a medal. The husband and wife are getting ready to have a lovely evening, celebrating some exciting news from the wife, when the cop shows up at the door demanding the wife hands over a pocket watch and accusing her of murdering her father, and this will happen over and over until you uncover the story.

“The voice acting is very natural, at least by James McAvoy and Willem Defoe, though I sometimes felt quite annoyed by Daisy Ridley’s performance.”

As you explore the apartment, you can interact with and pick up items, such as coffee mugs, a knife, even the tealights on the table. Using certain items, it can lead the story to play out in different ways. All these items go into your pockets, which can be accessed via a dropdown menu at the top of the screen. Some items are more useful than others, and you might not have to use any items at all. It’s all about experimentation and seeing what is useful and what is not.

The story is played seriously, though I did have to laugh at one unintentionally funny moment, when the husband has just had a conversation with his wife that leaves her sobbing on the sofa, and you can get him to set up the table with the lovely dessert she has made to celebrate her good news, and have him eat it, to which he will quip aloud, “Mmmm, this is so good!” – all whilst he has just upset his wife and she is in the same room crying. I found that hilarious and completely contrary to what had happened moments earlier.

The voice acting is very natural, at least by James McAvoy and Willem Defoe, though I sometimes felt quite annoyed by Daisy Ridley’s performance. She has a soft spoken voice, and her lines are spoken the same way. In some instances I felt the story called to have more urgency in her voice, but mostly it came across as rather patronising, almost like when you have an argument and the other person stays calm, and you just want to shake them to get a reaction. That’s how I felt here, perhaps a reflection of how the husband must be feeling. The husband is telling his wife some urgent news, and yet her tone stays very nonchalant.

Twelve Minutes is a decent sized length, with some frustrations as you whittle down options and come up against brick walls. I did have to use a walkthrough from time to time (pun not intended), especially for one particular section towards the end that I just would not have been able to work out otherwise. I was fixated so much on one particular item that I was sure was the solution, but it turns out even though it reveals a significant piece of information, on its own it is worthless.

Twelve Minutes Xbox Series X Review Summary:

Besides some frustrations, I had a lot of fun with Twelve Minutes. I enjoyed gradually discovering the story and, albeit with some help, the different ways in which you can reveal it. I had fun toying around in the apartment and experimenting with different items to see what would happen, and it all wraps up to a satisfying and surprising conclusion.