A Zany Adventure Game – WGB

3 Minutes to Midnight debuted earlier this year on PC, but now its come to console where the adventure game does not typically thrive. Whether it’s because people much prefer a mouse and keyboard or because the console crowd just isn’t interested in solving puzzles, I couldn’t say, but what I do know is 3 Minutes to Midnight is a funny and charming adventure.

Betty is definitely on the crazier end of the adventure game spectrum. While she has a good heart, she’s also a little clueless, a tad destructive and comprised of 110% manic energy. She’s a prankster and a mischief maker, which explains the rough relationship she has with her mother (and second playable character) Mayor Eliza who often struggles to express her feelings in any other way than strictness and tough love. The fact that the Mayor refers to her daughter as “offspring” really tells you everything you need to know.

Available On: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, Switch
Reviewed On: PS5
Developed by: Scarecrow Studio
Published by: Scarecrow Studio

Review code provided by Scarecrow Studio

Unfortunately for Betty and the townsfolk, some crazy accident has resulted in everyone losing their memories, so now it’s up to our heroine to unravel the crazy conspiracy. That means dealing with her uncaring Mayor/mother, investigating the military base just outside of town, rounding up ghost chickens, feeding a hamster too much sugar and generally causing chaos wherever she steps foot. And then the game flips the script by putting you into the stylish high heels of Betty’s mother. It’s a fun twist, especially because Eliza’s portion of the game takes place at slightly different times, which in turn adds a lot of context to Betty’s misadventures earlier.

3 Minutes to Midnight claims to have the largest script ever for an adventure game. It’s impossible for me to verify if this is accurate, but I can certainly say 3 Minutes to Midnight is a wordy game, and quite long for a point-and-clicker. Sometimes that’s to its credit as it delves into various aspects of the story and characters or expands on the universe. The game’s script is packed full of zany, memorable characters who are absolutely worth spending time with, whether it’s the wrench-happy Linda or the commie-hating Ben. Other times though, it can be needlessly verbose with meandering dialogue trees that go nowhere, ramble on and obscure what you actually need to know to advance the plot. And it does frequently linger for far too long on a joke or scene, well past the point where it should have packed up and moved on with its life.

The writing quality can be equally inconsistent in times, too. In its quest to be funny and zany, the game can often come across as trying too hard by turning every line and moment into an attempted joke. It’s the shotgun approach, spraying you with joke-shot in the hopes that at least some of it will hit. There are also a lot of references used, some of which land and many of which don’t, and a couple of very random moments that come out of nowhere.

Flaws aside though, I generally had a good time with the story. It’s supported by an interesting cast of characters and some really strong vocal performances. Betty’s actress, in particular, brings an impressive level of energy to the role that suits the character’s chaotic nature. The writing isn’t quite as sharp as some of the classic titles 3 Minutes to Midnight wants to emulate but it’s still very funny in places. At about 10-15 hours it stretches things out farther than it probably should, but that didn’t stop me from having a good time.

Of course, it helps that 3 Minutes to Midnight looks lovely. The small, rural American town is depicted as a classic slice of Americana set during the Cold War, from the diner to the clothing. The artwork is gorgeous, capturing the exaggerated elements of classic point-and-click adventure games while giving it a modern makeover.

While not as smooth as playing with a mouse, the controls for the PS5 version of 3 Minutes to Midnight work pretty well. Betty walks around using the left stick, only occasionally getting stuck on the scenery, while the triggers are used to quickly swap between interactive elements on the screen. The bumpers let you cycle through Betty’s inventory, or you can just open it up with a tap of the triangle button. The biggest problem is that the shoulder buttons don’t work correctly, usually taking a couple of presses before they start swapping between items. Hopefully, that will get patched quickly.

Being an adventure game, 3 Minutes to Midnight lives and dies based on its story and the quality of its puzzles. Items must be combined, every piece of scenery must be clicked on to discover vital clues and characters need to be talked too, all in the name of overcoming the latest hurdle. Maybe you need to set off a high-school science experiment to distract a janitor. Maybe you need to distract a sheriff so you can steal some evidence. Or maybe you need to engage in an intellectually challenging conversation with a deranged quacking chicken.

The game does occasionally veer into the crazier side of puzzle-solving though, where the logic needed to figure something out resembles how a 5-year-old reckons the world works. There were a few moments where I had to rub objects against things in the vague hope of making some progress, or had to spend too long trudging back and forth across town talking to every single character in case they said something I missed. But for the most part, the puzzles are fun to solve and don’t require too many insane feats of logical gymnastics to overcome. Veterans of the genre shouldn’t have a problem. Newcomers should also handle it quite well, though some sort of hint system like we’ve seen in other modern adventure games could have been helpful.

One of the game’s most intriguing ideas is that the story offers multiple endings and routes. As you play the game, puzzles can often be solved in a couple of different ways and you’ll have the opportunity to make choices which determine how the story plays out. Whole characters and sections might be skipped depending on what you do, and there’s even a secret ending which can resolve the whole story in 5-6 hours rather than the 10-15 it might normally take.

It’s a very cool concept, but one I feel doesn’t fit into the adventure game genre. Going back and replaying the game again doesn’t feel enticing because I’ll already know how to solve most of the puzzles. The story changes are more appealing, although it isn’t always very clear where the plot branches out. A progress tracker in the PC version of the game helps with this, but on the console version, it currently isn’t working, displaying a message that it’s currently being improved. Hopefully, that will be up and running soon as it would help make replaying the game more appealing. Most of the time, I didn’t even realise I was solving a puzzle a different way or making an important decision. On the one hand, that means the choices are woven into the story in a very natural way, but on the other hand it meant I thought I was just playing through a linear game.

3 Minutes to Midnight is a highly entertaining point-and-click adventure game. It’s funny, it’s packed with interesting characters and it tells a great story. Whether you’re a seasoned pro at using wacky logic to solve puzzles or a newcomer who doesn’t know why you’d ever need to try combining every single item in your inventory, 3 Minutes to Midnight is worth checking out.