Announced at E3 2019, 12 Minutes is the interesting videogame experiment by Luis Antonio, director and writer. The interactive thriller recently returned to public display in an approximately 6-minute video released by IGN US. The video is commented by Luis Antonio himself.
Let’s look at the whole story from one unusual view from above, we are the Big Brother who observes events and maneuvers them. The unfortunate protagonist is about to enjoy a nice evening (which also promises to be quite spicy) with his girlfriend, but the danger is lurking and he is preparing to ruin the party.
12 Minutes is a narrative game in which we will have to proceed to trial and error, counting on our intuitiveness and readiness to survive and also save our partner from a decidedly violent fate. The evening is in fact interrupted by a shady figure ringing the bell with the intention of arresting us.
We know nothing of what is happening, but we will have to try to understand it and protect ourselves: we move, from what we have seen so far, in the narrow space of our apartment. We can to interact with many elements of the scenario, which we can use and move. You can also speak to our fiancée through multiple choice dialogues.
The peculiarity of the game is that each “game” lasts a maximum of 12 minutes. If we die or time ends, the protagonist will go back in time and the evening will start all over again, in an infinity time loop which will be very useful for us to find the solution to the puzzle and survive.
Each time we start over, the protagonist will not lose the memory of what happened to him in the previous attempts, so the possible interactions and possible dialogues will be more numerous and different. The paths to take seem many, as well as the narrative context is quite intriguing. Trying to resist at the risk of being killed first or hiding in the bathroom, thus foreseeing the enemy’s moves? Each of our actions will have some consequences.
12 Minutes, born from the union of Annapurna and Microsoft, will be released in 2021 for PC, XboX One and XboX Series X / S at an unspecified date. The cast of voice actors it is highly respected and includes notable voices such as James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley and Willem Dafoe.
