Summary

  • Lightyear Frontier is a sci-fi farming game with a mech focused on restoring an alien world.
  • The mech has tools for farming, thrusters for mobility, and transformation modes for versatility.
  • The game offers mech progression upgrades, animal feeding bonuses, exploration, and mysterious storytelling.

Despite all the success and hype around the mechs of early Lightyear Frontier previews show it may be the perfect game for those who want a more relaxing and casual experience.

Originally planned to be released in 2023, Lightyear Frontier is a single-player or online co-op game where players begin their lives anew on an alien planet. They take up the role of a farmer, but instead of using regular tools, a state-of-the-art mech is used. With these mechs, farmers are tasked with restoring the semi-polluted world, building up their farms, and unlocking the secrets of this abandoned planet. Lightyear Frontier offers a vast open world for players to explore and expand while enjoying their peaceful sci-fi farming life.

What Can Mechs Do In Lightyear Frontier

Lightyear Frontier Mech Farming Gameplay

Unlike Helldivers 2's new mech, the mech in Lightyear Frontier is focused on farming and offers five tools to perform the job. First, the Power Saw can break trees, plants, rocks, and ore for resource gathering. Second is the Vacuum, which will allow players to harvest their crops, crop seeds, and fill their water tanks. This water is needed for the Irrigation Hose, used to water the crops and clean up any hazardous materials. Lastly, the Seed Shooter and Sprout Shooter will shoot crop seeds and tree sprouts into their respective plots for growth.

Along with the tools, Lightyear Frontier's mech has two other abilities in the Thrusters and Transformation Modes. The Thrusters allow the mech to reach higher points and traverse obstacles that normal walking can't. Meanwhile, unlocking Transformation Modes will allow the mech's legs to transform into different vehicles like a plow to quickly harvest and prepare plots.

These modes and the five tools can all be upgraded using the mech Upgrade Station. Upgrades are purchased using resources that are gathered, harvested, or crafted. The bonuses these upgrades give range from extra storage, abilities, stamina, and carry weight. Overall, it becomes crucial to upgrade one's mech promptly to keep up with how fast the game will introduce new resources.

What To Do In Lightyear Frontier

Open-World Farming Sim

A mech standing among plots of crops in Lightyear Frontier.

While Lightyear Frontier has drawn comparisons to Stardew Valley, and though the similarities are obvious, the game makes itself distinct from Stardew and other farming games. Frontier plays into the sci-fi aspect of its world throughout. The addition of the mech not only makes what some may find to be tedious farming easier but introduces creative new ways of performing the age-old task. So far, the only other use for crops and resources besides mech upgrades is selling to the Merchant, who will offer decorative cosmetic items for the player's mech and home.

Each area has three groups of animals and feeding the animals will grant a bonus to resource restoration for the next day.

Besides farming, the other main content of Lightyear Frontier is exploring and restoring the world to unlock its mysteries. It is briefly mentioned that the world players land on was once planned to be inhabited but abandoned. Thus, exploring why the world was abandoned and what happened to it is a key part of the story. Besides that, each different area past the start must be restored so that animals and resources spawn once again. Without restoring the land, players will get locked out of progression as resources they need to acquire will be unavailable to them.

Overall, Lightyear Frontier offers a fresh sci-fi take on the farming genre, while adding in a good mix of mysterious storytelling. The progression system is enough to hold the attention of those who like to set goals for themselves, while still giving the game an avenue for multiple content updates in the future. Lightyear Frontier is set to launch on March 19, offering a distinctly different experience than the usually violent mech affairs like in Helldivers 2, and it stands a fair chance to become one of the next big Steam games of 2024.