Available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One in early 2022
Frontier Developments, creators of Planet Coaster, are branching out into external publishing with a new label, Frontier Foundry, and one of their first pickups – Lemnis Gate – should speak to Edge of Tomorrow fans.
It is billed as a "strategic turn-based shooter with four-dimensional gameplay."
You'll want to see the trailer footage before reading on, because even after talking to developer Ratloop Games Canada, my mind is still reeling from the possibilities. Essentially, though, you can expect 1v1 and 2v2 arena shootouts that take place in 25-second rounds over five rounds.
Players take turns adding characters to the same time loop, and when you're waiting, you'll be watching the action and trying to figure out how to counter what your opponent just did. At the end of the final round, there will be five versions of each player all doing their thing within the same 25 seconds.
"Most first-person shooters look at the screen and react to what's happening," game director James Anderson said. Here, “you have to think about what's happening on screen, what might happen in the future, and what's happened in the past. There is a very multidimensional fight. »
There are multiple modes (including CTF), gadgets, and distinct character abilities. One might fire toxic sludge to prevent access to a room, while another might fire a "shield orb" to absorb bullets.
"We didn't really want to innovate what you do in a first-person shooter," Anderson said. “Controls are standard, most weapons are pretty standard, game modes are standard, but with this twist to the time loop, everything feels fresh. The way you use these elements is brand new. »
"When you start playing, you'll play like a normal shooter, [but further in] you start thinking in four dimensions. You start doing things that you would never normally do in a shooter. "
I asked why Ratloop chose to have damage pop-ups in Lemnis Gate and the answer didn't even occur to me: you don't necessarily have to kill a character in one turn. “You can [strategically] spread your damage across multiple waves,” according to Anderson. You think in layers. "
I also wondered about the links with the COTF. Whoever gets the most flags after both sides have played their five turns wins, but there is a save score to avoid draws (eg: most kills, most damage, etc.).
That said, there's plenty of potential for clutch plays and last-minute hijinks. “So even on the last turn, if I have multiple flags, and you still have one turn left, it's possible that you could do something really clever to disrupt all these characters that were going to get the flags and then they don't will do more. "
Lemnis Gate is the kind of game I won't fully cover until I play it. Even then, who knows.
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