2021 continues to prove itself as the year that time-loop
video games take over. And demonstrating this yet again is none other than
Lemnis Gate, a new “four-dimensional” strategy and first-person shooter mash-up
that challenges you to team up with yourself in order to win. Confused? We don’t
blame you. The truth is that only by playing Lemnis Gate yourself do the rules
and flow of matches begin to really click, but we recently went hands on with
the game and will do our best to illustrate how it works.
Set in a universe where scientists have cracked how to
travel forward in time in order to save present-day humanity from extinction,
it’s your job as an eclectic party of operatives to fend off players from
alternate realities to ensure that yours is the last one standing. What this
boils down to gameplay-wise is 5 set rounds that all take place within the same
25-second time bubble, where you must prevent the opposing team from completing
tasks through objective-based warfare in modes like Domination and Seek and
Destroy. The twist comes in how each round is exclusively turn-based, letting
you and your rival watch and account for the move they’ve just made, giving you
the necessary knowledge to deploy a specific operative or tactic. You want to
do this to avoid a certain shot or capture from ever happening.
I began my preview session treating Lemnis Gate almost like
any other big online first-person shooter. This was a big mistake! Because
while I was able to capture a good amount of exotic matter and return it to my
gate within the first couple rounds, my opponent quickly foiled this short-lived
success by stopping my people in their paths early on within the repeating
25-second loop. I quickly learned the best course of action, at least in Domination,
was to protect the actions of my future operatives ahead of time, giving them
the best chances at succeeding in their original goal. This is what forces you
to think strategically in Lemnis Gate, trying to predict the moves of your opponent
to accommodate that for the next round. Don’t be fooled. This may look like a
ho-hum sci-fi shooter on the service, but Lemnis Gate is actually a chess board
full of endless chicken-and-egg scenarios like this.
One bullet fired at the very start of a competitive match can
have drastic effects towards the end of the game, especially if you’re just
running around in a haze trying to account for a past operative’s exotic matter
capture or destruction of a resistor (your objective in Seek & Destroy). You
see, even if one of your five operatives gets killed unceremoniously without your
planning, his actions carry on in ghost form because you may wish to use your
next turn to save him. It takes a while to get used to, sure, but learning to
think four, sometimes even five steps ahead is what it takes to play
successfully on this four-dimensional playing field.
In terms of the operators, Lemnis Gate has done a great job
offering up a lot of variety with each’s special skills. Using all the abilities
appropriately increases your chances of tripping the rival’s side up, which
might not only leave them handicapped for this current turn but potentially for
the remaining rounds of the match, too. In my short time playing both competitive
modes in standard 1v1 and the slightly faster paced 2v2, time was the biggest
barrier to being successful (go figure). This was largely because, while maps
aren’t overly large, running or boosting fast enough so as to perfectly cross
paths with your enemy target is always a tight challenge. You know where they’re
going to be, sure, but are you quick enough to lay down a mine or line up a
sniper shot precisely when you need to? It’s a case of being in the right place
at the right time. You only have 25 seconds, after all.
Lemnis Gate being turn-based obviously means that for half
of each match you’re expected to wait and watch your opponent’s moves before
being let off the leash yourself. Thankfully, this isn’t too much of a test of
patience, as developer Ratloop Games give you the means to scout out the
various goings on using what’s called the reconnaissance drone. This allows you
to fly around the map to help you keep an eye on proceedings as the entire
25-second time loop plays out, making it much easier to consider tactical decisions
and plan ahead when it isn’t your turn to wreck shop, It’s a cleverly way to
keep you invested in the game despite being forced to take a breather, and in
my experience can prove equally as fruitful as when you’re in control.
The clear goal with Lemnis Gate is to trick unsuspecting
first-person shooter fans to think more logistically about how they play when
approaching combat scenarios. Until now, the only way this was possible was through
tried-and-tested modes like Capture the Flag, Overwatch’s Escort and others. Most
developers seem to have struggled to find new ways to make objective-based
shooting interesting or fun with just three dimensions. By playing around with
time both literally as well as in-universe, however, the makings are there for
Lemnis Gate to carve out its own FPS niche.
Question is: Are two game modes and 7 operatives enough to
keep the community satiated? We’ll find out when it releases on August 3rd,
2021.
