It’s also polishing the feel of one’s Farmech, making it heavier without affecting the speed. By utilizing visual and sound effects, the developer wants to “emphasize the mech’s size,” making it feel much more powerful. Then there’s the prospect of building your own farmhouse, decorating its interiors and the outside. It’s under investigation, but initial results look promising.

Frame Break will return with more in January, so stay tuned for further updates. Lightyear Frontier is currently available for PC via Steam Early Access – it had 700,000 players in its launch week. Check out our review when it first entered early access – we gave it a seven out of 10 for its visuals, progression, and relaxing atmosphere.

Lightyear Frontier sees players venturing (read: crash landing) on an alien planet, eventually rendezvousing with PIP-3R and setting to work on cleansing the landscape of a strange corruption. There are also mysterious alien ruins and artifacts to collect. Early access only contains the first Act, that too the beginning, but story updates, additional missions, new upgrade tiers, environments and more are in the works.

Frame Break is currently “working hard” on a roadmap, so stay tuned for updates in the coming months. In the meantime, it continues to support the title with bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements. For more details on Lightyear Frontier and the state of early access, check out our review.

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.

So when a game like Lightyear Frontier comes along every once in a while; a game that’s able to challenge the status quo with its unique approach to survival – it instantly catches the eye of tons of fans. This feature series is dedicated to putting a spotlight on such games and understanding what makes them tick, so to that end we finally ask the question – what the hell is exactly Lightyear Frontier?

Currently in development at FRAME BREAK and Amplifier Studios, Lightyear Frontier is an open-world survival game where players are thrust into an alien world that’s brimming with life and imagination. As a space explorer, you find yourself stranded in the middle of nowhere on this planet and you must use everything in your power – accrued precious resources, wits, and strategies – to make a living in this foreign land that plays by its set of rules and conditions.

This description might sound as formulaic as it can be for a survival game, but Lightyear Frontier is certainly a bit different from its contemporaries in more than a few ways. You see, survival games have this obsession with being absolutely brutal and realistic in terms of the actual mechanics itself – but Lightyear Frontier wraps those mechanics around in a package that feels pretty inviting for players of all age groups and skill levels.

There are no stats like hunger or thirst, so you don’t have to constantly keep tabs on these levels. Furthermore, the trailers haven’t really showcased any signs of combat as well. Instead, the focus is on just relaxing and continuing to work towards larger goals without having to overtly stress about your survival and overwhelming enemy forces. The moment-to-moment gameplay still revolves around collecting resources and using them to build structures and craft equipment that will make your life a lot easier in this alien world, and you also have a large mech to help you with all this busy work.

This companion mech is a multi-purpose tool fitted with all kinds of modules to help you carve out resources. For instance, you can use the saw module to efficiently chop down trees while the sprinkler module can be used for spraying down water on plants. There are a bunch of these modules scattered throughout the alien planet, and you can swap between these modules at any time to alter the functionality of your mech according to your own needs.

Furthermore, your companion mech can also be upgraded in a variety of different ways, which can further extend its utility in a bunch of interesting ways. The trailer showcases the mech’s leg unit being replaced by what seems to be a roller of sorts – and that can be used to efficiently harvest crops at a rapid pace. We don’t really know the extent of this customization and personalization in this aspect, but we are definitely hoping it to be one of the star elements of the game nevertheless.

Additionally, Lightyear Frontier also makes a point to tell a larger story about the history of the alien world that you will be inhabiting. Much like how Subnautica’s plot is revealed through vignettes that you find across its world, Lightyear Frontier will also tell a story that must be pieced together by exploring its huge world and collecting the many clues that lie in its deepest corners.

And what an expansive world it is. The developers have done an amazing job with Lightyear Frontier’s visual elements. More specifically, the art direction on display is spectacular – and it manages to strike the perfect sense of wonder and excitement as you explore its many diverse biomes. There are arid deserts, lush forests, and dark caves peppered throughout its world – and they all seem to flow into one another perfectly which should make for a cohesive exploration experience. Add to that the planet-specific flora and fauna on display, and Lightyear Frontier’s world becomes an absolute joy to explore.

Progression is a really important part of any survival game, and Lightyear Frontier is no different in that regard. And this is the part where perhaps this game represents its contemporaries the most. You will start out by chopping trees and collecting a few resources which will then allow you to get yourself a small shack and maybe a small farm, but as you explore the world and collect better resources – you will be able to expand your house and farming empire by a significant margin.

There isn’t any end goal to all this, and because the motivation to grow in terms of the game itself is largely intrinsic – it’s great that Lightyear Frontier isn’t all that brutal in terms of the mechanics itself. It’s a chill game that should serve you well in the long run, and you could easily spend hundreds upon hundreds of hours just exploring the world and expressing yourself through your creations. It’s also great that the game also features support for co-op, so you can hop into a game with 3 of your friends and engage in some friendly cooperation while working towards shared goals.

Coming to the topic of release dates, Lightyear Frontier is set to launch in early access on March 19, 2024. The game is currently set to release on PC only, but there’s a high chance that fans on consoles will be able to experience what the game has to offer if it manages to garner enough success with its initial offerings. And the developers seems to have great plans for Lightyear Frontier in the long run as well. As can be seen from the Steam description, they already have a roadmap for planned feature additions and tweaks that are set to be released in the coming months through updates – so the team looks to be really passionate about what they are building here.

Games that offer a relaxing experience with their mechanics have started to gain a lot of traction lately, and the runaway success of similar games like Stardew Valley is more than enough proof of that notion. Lightyear Frontier is blending those relaxing elements into the fold of a survival game, and that mixture has the potential to be a smash hit for years to come. We are waiting to see what’s in store with bated breath, and hopefully – it will be able to deliver upon those promises and then some more.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.