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With its well executed
time loop concept,
Lemnis Gate could be
the sleeper looper
shooter of the year.VERDICTdamage that they wouldn’t survive
my turret in the next room, so they
didn’t kill my shotgunner defending
my reactor, so my shotgunner did kill
the enemy rocketeer on a path to
blow up my reactor. That last-gasp
glob won me the game.
Lemnis Gate doesn’t quite have
the precision you’d want from a game
where the margins between defeat
and victory are so fine. Acceleration
and sprinting feels stodgy, hitboxes
around heads and objectives aren’t
always precise, and the Rocket
Launcher crosshair is a nightmare. It
means that amidst all the wonderful
time loop choreography you devise,
there are a few moments of
frustration when the lack of polish
undercuts your bullet ballets.
But all in all it’s a very auspicious
start for this high-concept twist on
the arena shooter, where smart
strategising between rounds and
dexterous gunplay during them are
constantly vying to one-up each other
as you play, where games can hinge
on a single bullet, well-placed turret,
or, yes, a globulet of green goo fired at
just the right moment. It could prove
an ever-swirling timesink for shooter
fans with a cerebral side.ABOVE: By the end of
a match, you’ll be
running amidst – and
killing – your enemy
from previous rounds.
TIMELESS MOMENTS
Games with clever time-bending mechanicsDISHONORED 2
MAGIC MIRROR
Arkane’s finest
time-bending
moment came in
Dishonored 2, where
a piece of glass let
you warp into the
past. You use it to
explore a mansion in
two time periods.QUANTUM
LEAGUE
TIME LOOP
Where Lemnis Gate
is the time loop
shooter for the
Unreal generation,
Quantum League is
pretty much the
same idea for
Fortnite fans.TITANFALL 2
TIME GAUNTLET
The Time Gauntlet in
Titanfall 2 lets you
switch between past
and present during
one level of the
game. Its particularly
fun jaunting back and
forth in combat to
ambush enemies.SUPER TIME
FORCE ULTRA
REWIND
When you die in this
platformer, you can
rewind and jump in
as a new character,
playing alongside
your previous self,
even preventing
them from dying.That jetpack chap you see on
the left is Rush, the most mobile
character in the game.The photo mode lets you capture
the elegant coordination of your
time loopy past selves.