One of my most anticipated games of 2024 is the one where mechs do farming

GamesAdventureLightyear FrontierOne of my most anticipated games of 2024 is the one where mechs do farmingWhen 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

There are a whole lot ofnew games in 2024: For me personally, the shortlist is largely these10 cozy games to watch for. Though I’m genuinely excited about all those launches, I know what kind of creature I am. I’m a ‘nightly game sessions with the group chat’ girl, and multiplayer crafting games are the easy wins for my friends. So one of my most anticipated launches of next year is definitely the multiplayer mech farming gameLightyear Frontier.

(Image credit: Frame Break)

Lightyear Frontier - In first person a player stands in a golden field of wheat while another player and a leaf-covered mech stand nearby

If you think that a mech seems like an unwieldy contraption for the delicate work of raising crops I ask you: have you seen a modern combine? The things are real life Decepticons. With the confidence of someone who’s sat in the cab of a combine exactly one time, I’m going to say that a bipedal mech with a pilot is even better suited to caring for corn. Someone phone up Mr. Deere to suggest that, thanks.

Another part of Lightyear Frontier I’m psyched about is the concept of planetary revitalization. This has been a bugbear for me with my beloved farm sims for a while, that no matter the setting or pretext, I’m always encouraged to mow down everything in my path and replace it with my personal vision for the space. Whether it’s a beautiful aesthetic farm or an overly-optimized monocrop operation, it’s all about control.

(Image credit: Frame Break)

Lightyear Frontier - in first person a player sit inside a mech cockpit looking at two blue barns, several garden boxes, and a brightly plumed alient bird

As the developers explain in anupdate on sustainability, in Lightyear Frontier there’s a big emphasis on bringing balance to the ecosystem. “Without a healthy ecosystem, you’re in for a literal world of hardships,” Frame Break says. “Your crops will struggle, flora and fauna will disappear, and the barren landscape will have nothing to give.”

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There is still big tillage farming though, according toNovember’s update, and that farmstead building as well—and I sure do like a building system. The more I hear about Lightyear Frontier, the more it feels like it could be my main crafting game of the year.

Lightyear Frontier is expected to launch in early access in March this year with plans to remain there for about a year and a half. Over the course of early access, Frame Break says it wants to add “new environments, plants, resources, animals, and hazards, as well as several new upgrade tiers, and modules for the mech.”

That’s a pretty stock standard early access tenure for crafting and survival games, so I’ve not got worries about hopping into the pilot seat of this one in March. All of its gameplay videos have been nothing but promising thus far.

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