Lemnis Gate Review: An Ambitious Time Travel FPS

Lemnis Gate has competition as one of 2021’s multiplayer-focused first-person shooters that adds strategy elements thanks to time travel. While it’s a fantastic concept, the other game it will likely be compared to (Nimble Giant Entertainment’s Quantum League) found only a small, dedicated following before ceasing future updates. Thanks to a Game Pass release and some interesting mechanical tweaks, Lemnis Gate feels like it dodges that fate and provides the more complete strategy shooter experience.

Each match in Lemnis Gate plays out over several quick turns. Players pick one of the varied hero characters and try to outwit their opponents in a very limited timeframe. If a character dies, players have the opportunity to cycle back in the next round and take out the hero who killed them, letting them live and play out the rest of their turn uninterrupted. Therefore, unlike FPS mainstays like Halo, team scores can go up and down between each round as players steal kills or prevent flag captures after they’ve already happened. It takes a few tries to really get the hang of it, but the concept is innovative enough to be worth the investment.

Lemnis Gate is far more experimental with its implementation of strategic first-person shooting. In addition to more objective-based modes, there are also several different rulesets for time travel shenanigans. Matchmaking has separate queues for games where players take turns simultaneously and one at a time, and each variant wildly changes the flow of combat. The former is more focused on action while the latter is all about slowly spectating each enemy move and plotting out the next counter. It’s in the slower gameplay where Lemnis Gate really shines, even if those games can take longer than the average online deathmatch.

Each character brings a single ability and a unique weapon to the proceedings, and players can only use one of each character in a match. When there are no points on the board, is the best move to rush forward with a fast character that can recapture the objective, or it is more important to launch acid or rockets to devastate players before their scores happen? Countering an opponent’s pick round after round makes Lemnis Gate feel more like an intense match of Magic: The Gathering than an online shooter, although bringing a few FPS skills to the table is certainly recommended.

Lemnis Gate is still very much a shooter at heart, however. Characters move and fire just fine, although it’s not going to surpass some of the more refined experiences that already exist within the genre. Considering the gimmick, it would be easy to skate by on average shooting, but there are enough abilities and interesting weapons to provide depth for a genre fan. The arenas can be pretty simple, with clearly defined lanes and only a few places to surprise opponents, but that is likely a limitation of the time travel concept rather than any deficit in map design.

The biggest problem with Lemnis Gate is how it looks to the past rather than the future for its graphic design. While the game has improved significantly since its showcases on convention floors two years ago, Lemnis Gate still has the aesthetic of the last generation of shooters. Each character is a generic future soldier in the vein of the forgettable cast of LawBreakers and countless others. This makes sense considering the game’s Unreal Engine roots, which are easily identifiable thanks to the major graphical pop-in players can see every time they hit the main menu. While the gameplay takes a clear priority over this dated presentation, it is the one area where Quantum League has a clear advantage over its strategic shooter competition.

Like Quantum League, LemnisGate‘s online-only experience lives and dies by how active its servers are. Developer Ratloop Games seems to understand this, as they’ve launched the game at a reasonably low price and have a day and date launch on Xbox Game Pass. Considering the lack of any sizable single-player options and meaningful progression, purchasing Lemnis Gate on its own could be a risky proposition, at least until it’s clear how long the game will be able to hold out. However, as an add-on to Game Pass on PC and console, Lemnis Gate is a perfect fit. Players can jump in and out without much worry about the smaller scope of the action on offer.

Overall, Lemnis Gate brings a lot of innovation to the table, surpassing its time travel rival to present a strategic FPS that’s well worth some attention. While held back by a lack of modes outside of online multiplayer and an outdated presentation, launching on the hugely successful Xbox Game Pass service makes the game palatable to those with an existing subscription. Whether it’s jumping into an online lobby or gathering a group of friends for private matchmaking, there’s nothing else quite like Lemnis Gate on console, and it’s well worth a look for anyone who wants to see one possible future of the FPS genre.

Lemnis Gate is out now on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC. Screen Rant received an Xbox copy of the game for the purposes of this preview.

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