Developer Frontier Developments is forging a different path with its new third-party publishing label, Frontier Foundry. The label has five titles under its belt thus far, two of which were announced during yesterday’s gamescom: Opening Night Live broadcast–Struggling and Lemnis Gate. Ratloop Games Canada produced Lemnis Gate, a turn-based strategy FPS that revolves around a time loop. If it sounds a little off the wall, wait until you see the game in action.
Frontier Foundry and Ratloop Games Canada unveiled footage of Lemnis Gate in the following announcement trailer:
The development team describes Lemnis Gate as a “revolutionary turn-based combat strategy FPS.” While the time loop mechanic introduces an interesting wrinkle to the typical FPS, there are other facets that may complicate action on the battlefield. For one, players will have access to unique abilities belonging to deep space operatives. One skill may involve absorbing bullets with a “protection orb,” while another sees an operative flinging toxic much to prevent foes from accessing other areas. The battles themselves are meant to play out in “mind-bending four-dimensional battles,” with the fourth dimension here being “time” as players map actions within the loop’s limits.
Destructoid interviewed the developers, gaining insight about how Lemnis Gate battles will function. The gist of it is that 1v1 and 2v2 arena-based fights “are played in 25-second turns across five rounds.” Each player will take turns adding a character to the time loop. While waiting for their turn, players must strategically spectate and determine how best to respond to their opponent’s action. Once the fifth round concludes, every player will have five versions of their character on the field, carrying out assigned actions in the 25-second loop.
Game Director James Anderson explained the multi-dimensional aspect as follows: “Most first-person shooters, you look at the screen and react to what’s happening. Here you have to think about what’s happening on the screen, what might happen in the future, and what has happened in the past. There’s a very multi-dimensional combat.”
Lemnis Gate will land on the PlayStation 4, PC via Steam, and Xbox One platforms on an unspecified date in early 2021. No next-gen versions have been announced at this time.
[Source: Frontier Foundry, GamesIndustry.biz, Destructoid]
