12 Minutes a Surgeon

Wrapped up 12 Minutes this week. So spoiler warning if you’re interested about the ending, I’ll be discussing it a bit.

Ok. I enjoyed the game but I found it tricky. The game essentially takes place in one small condo. Living room, one bedroom and one bathroom. So every clue and solution is here somewhere. After 10 minutes a cop shows up and places your wife under arrest. Asking about a watch. And then kills you to get the answer from her. That’s the gist.

The idea is you are stuck in a twelve minute loop and after you die or leave the condo the loop restarts until you get the endings. To progress requires a series of trial and error attempts. Each loop you ask new questions and find out more about the situation, and your character remembers everything from previous loops.

It’s a cool concept and pulled off well, and I think the simplistic restricted setting helps a lot. I was confused about the endings though. The finale has you find out that you and your wife are actually brother and sister and have a kid on the way. You share the same father as a result of an affair and your mom died early and you were never adopted by your father. So you never knew you had a sister.

But the confusing part is the death of the wife’s father which is the reason the cop is even here. She believed she killed her father and ran away and kept it a secret this whole time. But the dad actually survived and was killed later on by you the main character. But somehow you don’t remember that? And the endings see you confronting the dad earlier and he’s telling you you can’t continue to see his daughter. Or go through with the pregnancy. And you can choose different outcomes. One had you agree to leave her alone. One had you fighting for your love and killing the dad. And one had you hypnotized. I was kinda confused as to when these happen in the timeline as they mention the pregnancy. Anyways. I’ll probably have to read up on it. Someone smarter than me can explain better.

This door allows us to go forwards but not back in time.

I’ve also been playing more Surgeon Simulator 2, and I’m really happy about the story. It has a Portal vibe. Doors are locked. Lots of questionable scenarios. You’re being directed along by this woman doctor voice, but keep hearing this random voice through the vents which is the doctor’s assistant. Then you escape the main floors into an underground network, and start doing surgeries in the dark basements. Very cool and excited to see where it all goes.

Playing in co-op has its challenges due to the physics and the stability of the network. Sometimes your co-op buddy will be holding a tool or syringe and suddenly they get all glitchy and their character will start ghosting all over which inevitably leads to the patient getting mutilated and failing that level. But definitely a fun title.

-IROGAN