Gateways: Gateway Guns for Warping, Resizing, Wall-Walking and Time Travel

Warping Through the Lab with the Gateway Gun

The gateway gun is the central tool for crossing the large laboratory setting, letting the player leap from one place to another rather than traversing a room on foot. Gateway technology is described as enabling instant travel across a room, so a distant ledge or sealed-off area can be reached once a gateway links the two positions. The gun is also the instrument for the other documented abilities: changing size to enter small passages or defeat large enemies, walking on walls and ceilings to reach new areas, rotating the environment, and traveling in time to coordinate with past echoes of the player.

These mechanics interlock inside the puzzle rooms of the lab. A gateway placement can move the player to a spot that a size change then makes usable, since shrinking opens small passages while growing makes large enemies beatable. Wall and ceiling walking extends reach to areas a standing route cannot touch, and rotation rearranges the level itself. Time travel adds a second actor: the player works alongside past echoes of themselves, so an earlier pass through a room can be combined with the present one to solve the space.

Resizing, Wall-Walking and Echoes in Time

Resizing and wall-walking turn the same gateway gun into tools for reshaping both the player and the route. A change in size lets the player explore small passages that an ordinary body cannot enter, and the same size adjustment lets the player defeat large enemies that would otherwise outmatch them. Wall-walking and ceiling-walking reach areas that an upright route through the lab cannot touch; rotation is the named mechanic tied to walking on walls and ceilings, so turning the environment is how the player reorients gravity and gains those surfaces.

Time travel introduces a second actor into the puzzle rooms: the player can travel in time to work together with past echoes of themselves. The documented interaction is coordination between the present player and those earlier echoes, so a room is solved by combining what the current pass does with what a past echo is already doing. That cooperation sits alongside the other gun functions, since resizing opens small passages, wall and ceiling walking reaches new areas, and gateway travel links distant spots; a chamber can require the echo partner and a reoriented or resized route at once.

Puzzles, Power Ups and Unlocked Shortcuts

The huge lab is built around mysterious puzzles, and the gateway gun provides the functions that solve them. Changing size with the resizing gateway gun lets the player shrink into small passages or grow to handle large enemies, wall and ceiling walking through the rotation gateway gun opens surfaces an upright route cannot use, and time travel lets the player work together with past echoes of themselves. Each of these abilities is used to progress further, unlock shortcuts and find even more power ups, so a solved room feeds back into the abilities available for the next one.

Progression in the sprawling lab is tied to discovery: the player explores, discovers new power ups, and uses each new ability to push farther, unlock shortcuts and locate still more power ups. Those shortcuts reduce the need to re-cross the labyrinthian map, and movement between its different areas happens without waiting for loading screens. The reward for applying a resized route, a rotated surface or an echo partnership is access to fresh sections of the lab and to the power ups waiting there, with escape from the lab as the stated goal.

An Open Lab with a Help System and One Goal

The laboratory is laid out as a sprawling open-world map rather than a sequence of separate stages. Moving between its different areas happens seamlessly, with no waiting for loading screens, so exploration continues uninterrupted as the player pushes deeper into the labyrinthian complex and searches for new power ups. Each newly found ability feeds back into that exploration: it is used to progress further, to unlock shortcuts through the map, and to reach still more power ups. Those shortcuts cut down on re-crossing ground already covered, and the stated goal at the end of the search is to escape the lab.

For the puzzles themselves, the game supplies a sophisticated help system. Its first documented job is to tell the player whether a given puzzle can actually be solved, so a room that seems blocked can be checked before more time goes into it. The system goes further than a yes-or-no answer: it can play the solution out in front of the player, showing how the puzzle is completed. That demonstration sits alongside the gateway gun's functions, which cover instant travel across a room, size changes, wall and ceiling walking, and cooperation with past echoes, giving the player a way to see a working approach when a combination of those abilities stalls progress.

First published Oct 27, 2026.