Lightyear Frontier Early Access Review – To Infinity (Eventually)

With recent survival crafting games having you fight off fog monsters, real monsters, Fae monsters and, well, pocket monsters, it’s sometimes nice to settle down on a gorgeous landscape and relax. Lightyear Frontier from Frame Break and Amplifier Studios doesn’t lean towards a violent path despite featuring giant mechs. Instead, the premise is agricultural, as you seek to restore a planet to its previous beauty through relatively clean technology.

Of course, there’s a bit more to the plot than that. The player character travels the star, eventually crash landing on this unknown landscape, with only the friendly PIP-3R (or Piper) to guide them. As you reassemble your mech and recover each of your essential tools, you learn more about the Lightyear Initiative and how it didn’t take off.

"Thankfully, Lightyear Frontier flawlessly nails its immaculate vibe. Being stranded on a planet slowly succumbing to some alien infestation has never felt so comfy."

Also, while you must cleanse the planet of the mysterious Noxious Slimes and Weeds infesting it, there are the usual mysterious alien artifacts in key locations to discover. What could they be for? How is purifying each region tied to the giant vault door, which conspicuously lights up over time?

It’s a well-worn premise. No spoilers, but the mysterious vault serves as more of a framework for something down the line, closing the current story content on a cliffhanger. Which is fine – this is early access – but don’t expect to get all the answers, especially after so much work.

You also shouldn’t expect the most well-defined characters (or even a massive roster of them). For the most part, Piper comes across as likeable and while I didn’t mind some of her alerts, they sometimes felt unnecessary. Saying “morning sleepyhead” when I didn’t turn in for the night is odd, though I’m unsure if I want a different voice line in its place. On the bright side, a solution to make her less chatty is in the works.

Thankfully, Lightyear Frontier flawlessly nails its immaculate vibe. Being stranded on a planet slowly succumbing to some alien infestation has never felt so comfy. The intriguing lifeforms go about their day, comfortably snoozing when night falls; the colorful art style belies a more positive sci-fi outlook without feeling too corny or cartoonish; and the music is relaxingly lilting. It’s the perfect atmosphere for sitting back and slowly building your homestead. Performance is pretty good in this regard, even in High settings with atmospheric lighting and weather effects.

"The progression system does a pretty good job of going through each region’s resources and prepping you for the next…"

There’s also a feeling of sheer freedom as you can explore almost every area after your rudimentary camp, plots and crops are set up. The gameplay loop consists of venturing to a region and cleaning it by removing weeds with the Vacuum Harvester or washing away red slime with the Irrigation Hose. Once a region is completely purified, you’ll discover new materials to fuel new recipes, crops, resources and upgrades for your mech’s tools.

There is a set order of purification to follow as you come across weeds that are a little too durable for your Harvester or slime that’s too strong for your current Hose. The progression system does a pretty good job of going through each region’s resources and prepping you for the next, as you go from growing crops and crushing them into oils to grinding materials and baking treats for the wildlife.

Feeding local nests boosts your resource gain, but wild animals can drop resources a limited number of times if you feed them separately (provided the right Fodder is on hand). After upgrading your tools and gathering or mining that one resource, that dopamine hit from unlocking new recipes, materials and/or machines is satisfying (as is to be expected from any competent farming game).

Each region also has you hunting for Artifacts. These can be interesting since some require venturing outside of your mech and a bit of platforming. Nothing too crazy, but it’s a nice change of pace. Otherwise, the regions can feel a bit too similar at times with their side quests and objectives.

"In terms of scale, Lightyear Frontier isn’t trying to present a massive world. It’s reasonably sized, without a doubt, but everything you need is within reasonable walking distance of your base."

Some require constructing a Radio Tower to gather requests from other individuals or creating a Landing Pad to purchase goods from the Merchant. However, the requests boil down to little more than collecting and delivering materials for money. The farm also doesn’t have many hazard events outside of vacuuming Noxious Weeds out of the air or hosing down Noxious Bubbles lest they ruin your crops.

While the Merchant offers several things to buy, much of it consists of decoration blueprints, already discovered seeds and new parts for your mech. The new parts don’t appear to have any discernible impact on your performance, but the customization is appreciated. Now, if only the upgrade terminal’s interface let me easily slot in different parts instead of spawning an arm, removing an existing arm and socketing the new one, rinse and repeat for each component.

In terms of scale, Lightyear Frontier isn’t trying to present a massive world. It’s reasonably sized, without a doubt, but everything you need is within reasonable walking distance of your base. Get used to a lot of walking though, especially in the absence of fast travel. Even the option to return to base at any given time would have been nice.

At least upgrading your mech’s traversal speed and jump height helps to mitigate that. It’s sometimes prone to stumbling on environmental objects, and while I haven’t had the misfortune of being tripped by a pebble, it can feel annoying. Fortunately, getting out and resetting is relatively painless, and it offers a good amount of responsiveness while still having enough heft to feel like an actual mech.

"I’m intrigued by the overall premise, and despite needing some refinements – alongside more options to customize one’s experience – it’s a solid foundation to build on with a unique identity."

Perhaps because it’s not this massive landscape, the days seem to end too quickly. You can still keep exploring, but it’s pointless to tend to the farm – setting oils and materials for refinement can take several minutes, while some crops require days to flourish, so it’s better to turn in for the day. Cue awkwardly waiting around for crops and oils initially since you need certain upgrades to continue progressing.

At the very least, crafting pulls from your storage, and some materials like copper wires, aluminium electronics and fodder can be crafted instantly without waiting. The UI also feels relatively easy to navigate, though I’d appreciate being able to drop items with a single button. As far as the fundamentals go, there’s certainly some satisfaction in planting multiple crops at a single time and watering them simultaneously with a single charged shot. Customizing your homestead with different decorations and expanding it further also feels nice.

Lightyear Frontier’s early access version isn’t an inherently long experience. A massive new region in the northwest is coming later alongside more hazards, mech upgrades, plants, resources and animals inbound. It’s also worth noting that this is only the beginning of Act 1, so the story clearly has more to offer.

I’m intrigued by the overall premise, and despite needing some refinements – alongside more options to customize one’s experience – it’s a solid foundation to build on with a unique identity. The relatively peaceful vibes and gorgeous presentation make it easy to pass the time while forgetting your worries. Now, it just needs to be fleshed out in every other important area.

This game was reviewed on PC.