icon Author: Vexwryn
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Lightyear Frontier Review
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Earth’s No Good Anymore… Now What?
With the Earth seemingly less and less inhabitable, you have little option but to venture out into space, looking for a place to call home. While others perhaps choose differently, you decide to venture farther- out into the Lightyear Frontier. After a somewhat less-than-graceful arrival, you meet your guide to this vast new alien world, Pip-3r, your “eye-in-the-sky”. Reacquire your trusty Farmech™, along with all the tools you will need to survive and thrive. Your adventure begins in this beautiful, lush and mysterious planet- time to grab your pickaxe and make yourself at home!

An amazing glimpse of your new home.

Lightyear Frontier is a pleasantly cozy farm sim, with extremely light survival elements. You’ll be much more focused on exploration and making sure your crops are thriving- needing no food, water or required sleep. While sleeping has it’s own benefits, you are free to explore and learn at your own pace, with no pressure, or timelines to rush how quickly things must be done. Explore beautiful biomes, befriend alien fauna, and defend your homestead from harmful contaminants. While some may have reservations about the lack of any combat elements, the team at Frame Break brings a unique twist to a saturated genre. It’s a breath of fresh air, with charmingly beautiful graphics, amazing skylines and all the time in the world to make it your own.

A gorgeous view of the night sky.

So Many Sights to See…
From your first glimpse at the alien planet you’re about to call home-you can’t help but fall in love with the attention to detail and charm that this beautiful world has. In a balance of cartoony realism, lose yourself in a vast landscape teeming with critters-full of life and movement. With rendering that fades in softly in the background, immersion in this fantastic world couldn’t be better. Gorgeous sunsets and breathtaking starscapes make it worthwhile to simply stop, and take a quiet moment to enjoy. Massive planets loom in the sky, with Pip-3r glinting in the distance- you can’t help but marvel at the thought and care Frame Break put in. Whimsical trees, breathtaking waterfalls dimly lit caves and mysterious ruins are only a few of the magical places you can explore, when you are ready.

Sometimes it's necessary to leave the comfort of your mech...

Get to Work!
Before you lose yourself too deeply in all there is to see, set yourself up for success! Build a homestead- plant and harvest crops, set up a workshop and get creative! Controls feel clear and intuitive to anyone vaguely familiar with similar titles, and building is a snap. Bring up your build menu, select your structure, rotate as you see fit, and get to gathering! With available resources being pulled from in-range containers, the implemented Quality Of Life details are fantastic. This has always been a huge personal point of contention among myself and others- and clearly the developers put players at the forefront, having this feature available at Early Access launch.

Construct your home, and DECORATE! While in most games, decorations serve merely a face-value purpose, in Lightyear Frontier, nothing could be farther from the truth. While (as of yet) you cannot go INSIDE your home, every piece of décor within radius of your house will work to increases your perks. These are useful passive you gain for the entire day when you sleep, and give you boosts to things such as how much you find to forage, to how much your animal friends leave when you treat them. As your home grows, so do the passive you can gain!

An early game homestead.

Build crop boxes, growing different flora that you use in a multitude of ways. While the watering mechanic can absolutely leave some to be desired when you plant in large quantity, overall it’s a simple process. Simply plant your seeds, and water them daily. In no-time, you’ll have a box overflowing with resources to harvest, press, squeeze and roast to perfection. While some crops may look familiar, you also have a host of intriguing alien plants to choose from. The possibilities are endless- keep them for crafting, or perhaps you fancy to sell them to the Merchant? Watch the flow of the market, it might be worth it to sell, if the price is right.

All in a days work!

Enjoy exploring by yourself, or up to 4 players- there is MORE than enough room for everyone. Team up, tackle biomes infested with noxious plants and ooze, using your watering tool and vacuum to clean your path, gaining valuable resources in the process. Fully clearing a biome with reward you with new materials to discover and wildlife to befriend. Customize your Farmech™ to show off some personal flair- swap out arms, legs, windshields-mix and match or use a full set to stand out from your friends. Get creative with your fellow exofarmers!

Customize your Farmech™ with a wide range of replaceable arms, legs, engines, and wind shields! 

There's more than enough work to go around! Have up to 4 players to share your adventure with.

I Sure Hope We Solve This Mystery…
Not only is the world of Lightyear Frontier teeming with life, it’s also overflowing with mystery. Explore obscure caves only reachable outside of your mech, full of resources and treasure, or explore the crumbling ruins. Who built them? Did they leave, where are they and what’s that GIANT door? You may start to think that not everything is straightforward as it seems…

Who built this magnificent structure, and what does it do?

Somewhere to Relax, and Call Home…
Lightyear Frontier, while still in early Access is nearly perfect for gamers who want a relaxed exploration experience, while building up a meaningful homestead and growing crops. The game is ultimately quite feature complete, with the developers actively taking notes of what players think and want, adjusting accordingly. It is abundantly clear this is a labor of love, and they really let it show.

If a cozy, unrushed adventure is what you’re after, you will absolutely find it here. It’s so incredibly easy to get lost in this gorgeous space the folks at Frame Break have created- and I’ve loved every second of it. If you are in search of a cozy game where you are free to move at your own pace- this is for you. If you love whimsical graphics, gorgeous scenery, and want a little taste of farm life on the side- this is for you. If you enjoy searching for narrative, piecing together mysteries and exploring the unknown- this is for you. And while this title may not be everyone's cup of tea with the lack of combat- I believe there are many who will find Lightyear Frontier easy to pick up, and hard to put down, just like I did.

Currently, Lightyear Frontier is available in Early Access on PC, Xbox Series S|X and Xbox Game Pass.

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