12 Minutes - The Bear and Badger

Matt_82

Murder mystery/time loop/top down/point and click game from Luis Antonio that stars James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley and Willem Dafoe.

Released on Gamepass.

Reviews:

Eurogamer
IGN
NME -with oor Jon B-
Game Informer
Polygon
Gamespot

Brooks

Weirdly high profile voice actors for this.

Diluted Dante

What about Jon though?

JonB

Yeah, I liked it. With some reservaytions, but still a 4/5: https://www.nme.com/reviews/game-reviews/twelve-minutes-review-3022340

RedDave2

If it only takes 12 minutes to play through, count me in

regmcfly

Let's gooooo

MattyJ

I'm looking forward to this. Not reading the reviews but getting a feel for it based on the summaries... So know a bit of what to expect but I want to find out for myself.

Paul the sparky

Seems impossibly tedious so far

Paul the sparky

Trial and error bollocks while listening to a bad radio play

Paul the sparky

How I can't stab someone from behind I'll never fucking know. Bin

Aaroncupboard

Yeah I just gave this a go and bounced off it hard. Not my cup of tea at all.

Paul the sparky

It's the absolute fucking pits.

Spoiler:

So I've got to sit through the whole fucking thing again. Absolutely dire

yourfavouriteuncle

I quite like it so far but the it’s definitely my kind of thing. I’ve loads of open threads to consider but I’m not really sure how much actual progress I’ve made.

Paul the sparky

Chuck up some spoilers for what you've discovered so far, I'm curious

b0r1s

Paul the sparky wrote:

It's the absolute fucking pits.

Spoiler:

Just got head butted by the hand cuffed cop because I selected the wrong option and it wouldn't let me ask him any more questions.
So I've got to sit through the whole fucking thing again. Absolutely dire

Same...

Is this on PC cos the controls are gash on console. What I gather it's a point and click that you have to do everything over again until you get the one perfect route through the game. Think I'll just watch a play through on YouTube.

JonB

b0r1s wrote:

What I gather it's a point and click that you have to do everything over again until you get the one perfect route through the game.

It's not that at all, no. You need to do things to make the scene play out in different ways, to learn different things about what's going on. Most of the time, once you learn something, you won't have to go in that direction again.

There is repetition, of course - it's a time loop. But you aren't just working on a single plan throughout.

yourfavouriteuncle

Paul the sparky wrote:

Chuck up some spoilers for what you've discovered so far, I'm curious

Spoiler:

yourfavouriteuncle

Can’t stop thinking about potential avenues for looking into. I really, really, like this although I will say I can’t understand the need for the big name actors? The blank face top down stuff means they lack a vital part of their ability for dramatic delivery and so alongside the slightly shonky animation and occasional clipped delivery it can seem a little amateur? A little too video-gamey?

Paul the sparky

I've got those points and a few more, you're close to where I got to, then the lack of any real objective or leads to follow stumped me. The range of possibilities are endless, but obviously not catered for by the devs so there are a lot of frustrating dead ends, so not knowing what the game wants from me works against it massively.

It is like an old school point and click, but instead of clicking/combining everything in a scene you're stuck on you're constantly repeating certain things to get into a position to try something new, which isn't fun at all.

Safe spoilers for you here Uncle:

Spoiler:

But once you've explored that and still not come any closer to a resolution you're left repeating them, all without a clear aim in mind. Like, what the fuck am I trying to achieve here? It's not just survive, because I've done that. So fuck repeating these few scenes again and again when you don't even know what you're looking for

Paul the sparky

And yeah, the star names have helped it draw you in but it doesn't work too well with some of the dialogue choices, it becomes very clear that you're not talking to someone but picking options from a set menu, the tone and delivery are all over the shop at times despite the ability of the voice actors

b0r1s

JonB wrote:

b0r1s wrote:

What I gather it's a point and click that you have to do everything over again until you get the one perfect route through the game.

It's not that at all, no. You need to do things to make the scene play out in different ways, to learn different things about what's going on. Most of the time, once you learn something, you won't have to go in that direction again.

There is repetition, of course - it's a time loop. But you aren't just working on a single plan throughout.

Paul explains it well with this…

Paul the sparky wrote:

It is like an old school point and click, but instead of clicking/combining everything in a scene you're stuck on you're constantly repeating certain things to get into a position to try something new, which isn't fun at all.

I’ve only played it a bit but probably looped 6 times to…

Spoiler:

The latter bits have come on the last last few loops. But it’s then trial and error after that to see what to do to take it forwards. The other stuff all repeats.

JonB

But you don't have to do all those things in one go. And once you've got what you need from them, you won't have to do them again.

For example

Spoiler:

Sure, it will likely take a few cycles to get it right. That's central to the whole concept, and fair enough if you can't be arsed with that. But you won't be repeating the same stuff constantly throughout the game.

JonB

I do totally get why people are going to bounce off this, though. It is frustrating, including sometimes due to some iffy logic.

I also realise now that's it's probably more fiddly playing with a controller. It's clearly been made for mouse control.

Paul the sparky

@ JonB's spoiler:

Spoiler:

Again though, it's the difference between the multitude of possibilities that the game can't possibly cater for vs doing things the exact way the game needs you to in order to progress. Real needle in the haystack stuff, and not fun at all for me

JonB

First bit. I never tried it that way round.

Spoiler:

regmcfly

You guys know you can skip previous bits of dialogue by pressing a, right?

regmcfly

Oh shit you can restart the loop by leaving the flat.

b0r1s

This feels like perfect iPad fodder.

Matt_82

Finished it. Overall I enjoyed it.

Ending:

Spoiler:

regmcfly

I'm a couple of hours in and it has all felt quite intuitive in terms of puzzles so far. On my next run I'm going to call

Spoiler:

regmcfly

And finished. A bit of time needed to digest that one methinks. +10 for a short game I could actually clear.

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