Lightyear Frontier makes mechs cozy with its low-stress approach to alien planet environmentalism

GamesAdventureLightyear FrontierLightyear Frontier makes mechs cozy with its low-stress approach to alien planet environmentalismWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Frame Break)

Lightyear Frontier - a players stands in a farm plot of berries near a red mech

I’d made up my mind about loving the alien planet cozy mech homesteading game Lightyear Frontier as soon as I saw its first trailer. After playingthe demoin this week’s Steam Next Fest, and talking to Frame Break’s CEO Joakim Kopriva Hedström, I’ve not changed my mind. But it turns out that it isn’t the weeks-stealing farm sim obsession I’d expected. Instead, I found a well-oiled and approachable open world to-do list that may appeal to job simulator players much as to my usual farmcrafting friends.

Lightyear Frontier begins when I crash land on a planet and, with a robot assistant in my ear guiding me along, retrieve my huge mech suit. Clomping around in my giant red machine is immediately fun as I swivel to hack at trees with my spike saw arm and use my gatling-looking sprout cannon to zap new saplings right into the dirt. Its shiny primary color setting is giving me childhood playset vibes (in a good way) and the jaunty synth and acoustic guitar soundtrack had me humming along within the minute.

(Image credit: Frame Break)

Lightyear Frontier - a red mech stands on an upgrade platform while a player looks at a screen

Right after getting acquainted with my pilotable multi-tool, I’m setting up a base of operations for myself with a tent, campfire, storage chest, and crop planting plots. Despite how that sounds, this is not a survival game. I don’t have to worry about feeding myself, just the local wildlife.

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That environmentalism angle is what initially drew me to Lightyear Frontier. Much as I love farm sims and crafting games, they both tend to encourage dominance. In Stardew Valley I clear-cut an entire property of trees and replace it with expensive fruit crops while crafting games invite me to build sprawling wood monuments to industry and ego.

Uplifting though those games can be, Hedström tells me that Frame Break wanted a different kind of positive message in Lightyear Frontier—one that doesn’t incentivize exploitation. “You want to have this harmony with nature,” he says. “You’re finding this amazing new planet and you don’t want to destroy it; you want to become a part of it.”

Seconds before feeding the giant alien bird, not attacking it.(Image credit: Frame Break)

Lightyear Frontier - a player looks up a a larte alien bird near their barn

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You’re finding this amazing new planet and you don’t want to destroy it; you want to become a part of it.Frame Break CEO, Joakim Kopriva Hedström

You’re finding this amazing new planet and you don’t want to destroy it; you want to become a part of it.

That feedback loop didn’t always come so naturally, Hedström says. Earlier in development, Lightyear Frontier was more punitive, with an eco score and other measures meant to show players their impact, a system he describes as “take care of nature or bad things will happen.” That was way more stressful than it was fun for players, it turns out. Instead, Lightyear Frontier focuses on positive feedback in which “if you do good things, good things will happen to you.”

(Image credit: Frame Break)

Lightyear Frontier - from the cockpit view of a mecha, a player uses a water canon arm to water crops

When it comes to designing my homestead, the building system doesn’t go particularly deep. It uses prefabbed structures like the barn and a farmhouse, not individual building blocks to play with. Instead I unlock decor and other processing machines to customize the exterior of my interplanetary homestead. I can’t bring animals back to live on my farm yet, but that’s on the roadmap for early access, Hedström confirms.

(Image credit: Frame Break)

Lightyear Frontier - from third person a player in a mech places the blueprint for a barn in a meadow

Lightyear Frontier strikes me as a game that takes a light touch to a lot of systems that other farming, crafting, or survival games go deep on. Building is pretty basic, as described, there’s a simple “economics” screen showing likely price changes on individual resources I can sell, occasional weather and hazards, and farming but without the passing of seasons. It’s all very low pressure in a way that makes me believe it will be an ideal Game Pass game, especially when it has four-player co-op at launch.

Lightyear Frontier’s demo is currently availableon Steamas part of Next Fest until February 12. It will launch into early access on March 19 and will also be included in Game Pass.

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