Early Access Preview— Lightyear Frontier
Settle on a planet at the edge of the galaxy and start your farming-adventure Lightyear Frontier.
As my life has gotten more hectic over the years, I find myself also enjoying cozy, slice of life games as a way to unwind after a day filled with work and two small children. Because of this, I have come to appreciate games like Story of Seasons, Harvest Moon, Lake or Bandle Tale. But on the other hand, I’m still a sci-fi nerd who has an affinity for mechs. Because of this, I was immediately fascinated by Lightyear Frontier, a new game made by a small Swedish studio called FRAME BREAK. Their first outing lets us farm at the edged of the galaxy.
Lightyear Frontier released in early access last month on PC and Xbox. It is also available on Game Pass since day one, so if you’re curious about the game and you have a subscription, you can even try the game for free. The game takes an approach to the genre that can be compared to that of an open world survival game. But instead of actually trying to survive on the planet, you’ll be able to build your own homestead, farm crops and explore the environments, either alone or with up to three other players. This of course implies that you create your own world (or server) and you can invite other players to join you. Once you’ve landed on the planet, the fun can finally begin.
Exotic Agriculture
Before you can actually start exploring and farming, there’s a small matter of rebuilding your mech and locating your farming tools. Once you’ve did this, the game will give you small tasks to help you out with the mechanics of the game. There isn’t really an overarching story and these small missions help you to progress early in the game. Later on, you’ll set your own missions to keep track of how you’re advancing in terms of mech development or expanding your farm. Aside from these aspects, the main focal points in the game during this early access release are the clearing of the various regions, so that you have access to the various resources, and the exploring of ancient ruins of a civilization that lived here before you arrived on the planet.
The main appeal of the game however, is of course that fact that you can explore an alien world, interact with weird animal species and grow crops that are out of this world. And all of this, you’ll do with the help of your own mech. While the gameplay itself isn’t that much different from other farming games, but being able to do all this with a mech certainly makes for a fun experience. Your mech is like your own multi-purpose tool that slowly keeps getting better and better as you improve it throughout the game. You can of course also personalize your mech with various cosmetic upgrades and colors, making this machine truly yours. One thing that bothered me however, is that your mech is rather slow and has limited carry capacity, so aside from the upgrades needed to clear all regions, these were the first upgrades I tried to acquire.
Exploring the Unknown
The map itself presents us a colorful world that reminded me somewhat of Journey to the Savage Planet (while the design of the characters will probably be reminiscent of Satisfactory). Each area has somewhat it’s own distinct feeling, with the starting area resembling your typical meadows, but other area’s will focus on a more beach-like setting or forests and mountainous areas. The world did feel somewhat empty though. You’ll encounter some strange creatures, but interactions with NPC’s are very limited at the moment. I’ve only had contact with a trader that visits your homestead every few days.
You also have a drone companion called PIP-3R, who chats to you as you live out your daily life, but you’ll probably get tired of him after a while (luckily they added the option to toggle this ambient dialogue and decreased the overall occurrence in a recent patch). The game is still in early access at the moment, so maybe they’ll add more NPC’s later down the road. But as of now, the game can feel like a very solitary experience, especially if you’re playing on your own. Because of this, I would really recommend to play this game with at least one kindred soul, as this not only allows you to gather resources faster but it’ll also make you feel less lonely. Although the concept of being a lone settler on a distant planet might sound appealing too.
The Road Ahead
Considering Lightyear Frontier is still in early access, it’s fair to accept that the game is far from finished of course. But all in all, in its current state, the game already offers a pleasant experience. The main goal for the developers should be to add more content, as it currently feels a bit on the light side. Once you’ve cleared all regions, there’s little incentive to keep playing except for the incremental upgrades to your mech and the expansion of your homestead. If the game can expand its’ scope, it certainly has a lot of potential in the future.
Aside from that, there’s also a lot of room for some much needed quality of life improvements and additional features. The first patch already raised the storage capacity of containers for example, something which was really needed. One thing the game is currently lacking, is a fast travel system that allow you to quickly return to one of your homes, as you’ll be spending a log time going back and forth between regions. The ragdoll physics for your mech are also a bit silly at the moment. And it might sound trivial, but as a non-American, it would be nice to be able to change my key bindings as our keyboard lay-out is different.
Finally, the game could also use some optimization, especially on the Steam Deck. It runs fine on this handheld console, but the game is pretty demanding and you really need to turn down the graphical options to have a somewhat smooth experience. Because the game is rather demanding, you’ll also want to have a hefty PC. While the system requirements aren’t that high, running the game with a GeForce RTX 2060, 16 GB RAM and an Intel i7 9750 wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience. My other setup with a RTX 4080, 32 GB RAM and an i7 13700HX ran the game without issues on the other hand.
Played on PC and Steam Deck.
Download code provided by the publisher and PR agency.
