"12 minutes", the new point and click video game from Annapurna interactive, creators of "What remains of Edith Finch", is as smart and addicting as it is tedious and some what lackluster. The premise, much like a movie, is a "Ground hogs day" like rinse and repeat of 12 minutes in the main characters life. James McAvoy, voices the main character, only known as "husband", as he comes home to the worst night of his life. His wife, voiced by Daisy Ridley, has been keeping secrets from him and a would be cop, voiced by Willem Dafoe, is about to bring all that to light. That is if you can figure out the mystery of the incidents playing out in one of the countless minutes you will replay over and over again. Your only hope is that in each loop you will learn just a tad more information to unlock a new dialogue tree or figure out how to use something in the small apartment that haplens to be the only location in the game. After many tries and many fails you will find yourself doing hilarously terrible things just to see what will happen. This tedium can make you lose interest fast, but if you are like me, you will be to fascinated in the mystery before you to give up. What you will find as you truck forward is a plethora of endings, scenarios and smart use of game norms to mess with your experience. As much as I loved all of these things, I was ultimately confused and let down by what seems to be the only twist. It's dark in a strange way and you will be left feeling that it can't be the real truth. This is made worse by some rather annoying glitches and lack of smarter controls. There is however, some rather clever game play, acting and visuals to make this one more special than your average game. Add to that some truly clever uses of Xbox achievements and a dense amount of story and this one really shines over its flaws .
