![]() ![]() Annapurna's biggest misstep prior to Twelve Minutes was Maquette, which starred Bryce Dallas Howard. Of course 'star-fucking', as it's known in the industry, does not always yield results. What's that? Avid gamer James McAvoy, the brilliant Willem Dafoe, and the usually-quite-alright Daisy Ridley feature too? Shaping up to be this year's cult hit. A time loop narrative, told via point and click mechanics in a shoebox apartment, published by Annapurna? Sign me the heck up. Twelve Minutes has all the makings of a great game. Any potentially compelling parts of the narrative are thrown out the window in service of a 'gotcha' ending, because in that era of gaming, the twist was about as close to ‘real’ storytelling as you were likely to get. But not only does it fail to put them all together - it never seems particularly interested in trying. Heavy Rain has a decent story at its core - it involves a doomed marriage in the wake of a child's death, another child’s kidnapping, a private detective and hot shot cop both on the trail, a rich businessman on the hook, drugs, love, deceit, and betrayal. It wasn't even gaming's answer to Stephen King. I'm not arguing Heavy Rain was gaming's answer to John Steinbeck. Twelve Minutes is inspired by the same style of storytelling. You didn’t guess the ending, and that’s what made it great. But here’s the thing - the game fooled you. A man wandering around at night creating origami for no reason other than to trick the audience? Genius. You might be sitting there thinking “Nah, Heavy Rain was naff,” and I’m right there with you. For a while, Heavy Rain was considered the peak of video game storytelling. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |