Lightyear Frontier is Stardew Valley with mechs on an open-world alien planet

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SHOULD I PLAY LIGHTYEAR FRONTIER?

If you’re a fan of farming and crafting games, you should definitely add this title to your wishlist. Lightyear Frontier is an open world farming game with a sci-fi twist. After landing on a distant planet, you can build a homestead, farm alien crops, and restore the local ecosystem. I had a great time playing through the demo on my own, and I can’t wait to try the multiplayer when the full game is out. Lightyear Frontier is a part of the February 2024 Steam Next Fest, which runs until February 13, 2024, so you should definitely check out the demo while you still can!

TIME PLAYED

I played the Lightyear Frontier demo for around four hours. That gave me time to get through all of the available quests and take on some projects of my own. The demo gave me access to a huge selection of craftable items, and I could keep playing for as long as I wanted. By the time I shut things down, I felt like I had a great sense of what I could expect from the full game.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT LIGHTYEAR FRONTIER?

• Great setting and visuals. There are tons of farming games out there, but Lightyear Frontier’s peaceful sci-fi setting makes it feel unique. I loved seeing all the cute alien creatures and exploring the bright, colorful landscape, especially since I had a mech to stomp around in. All of the craftable items have a distinctive retro-futuristic style, and the designs for the mechs and spacecraft are absolutely fantastic.

• Mech upgrades. Speaking of mechs, powering up my giant robot was a ton of fun. Once I crafted the mech upgrade depot, I could access a skill tree that gave me access to all kinds of upgrades. I could enhance my mech’s toolset, increase its carrying capacity, and even modify it to turn it into a field plow. I was also able to customize my mech’s appearance, swapping out its original parts to give it a fresh new look.

• There’s so much to craft. When I started Lightyear Frontier, I only had a few crafting recipes, but I unlocked new items at an extremely fast pace. Even in the demo, there’s a huge selection of things to build, ranging from practical items like a storage shed to cute decorative pieces, like a clothesline and washbasin.

Lightyear Frontier also makes it easy to keep track of what you need for a crafting project. When I unlocked a new crafting recipe, I could immediately place an outline of the item at my base. From there, I could drop off the necessary materials until I’d gathered everything I needed. The new item would automatically be built once I deposited the last of the materials. I was able to put together a layout for my base, then gather the materials I needed to bring it to life!

• Tons of fun activities. Farming and crafting play a major role in Lightyear Frontier, but there are plenty of other things to do. One of my favorite features was the economic system, which allowed me to track the value of in-game items. Buying and selling items at the right time earned me a huge profit, making it easier to afford pricey new mech parts.

The planetary exploration features also seem like a lot of fun. The demo gave me access to two regions of the map: The Meadows and Pine Heights. The Meadows had a thriving ecosystem, but Pine Heights was in rough shape. Little by little, I was able to clean up Pine Heights and bring it back to life. Revitalizing the area was incredibly satisfying, and I can’t wait to clean up more of the map.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT IN LIGHTYEAR FRONTIER?

• The mech is painfully slow. I don’t expect a giant robot to be fast, but the starting speed for mechs is way too slow for an open world game. It took forever for my mech to get from one place to another, even when I used the sprint button. Speed upgrades are available, but mechs need to be faster from the get-go. Even a small speed increase would make a huge difference.

• No crafting from storage. Mechs also have limited carrying capacity, which meant I had to toss a lot of materials into storage. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue, but Lightyear Frontier didn’t allow me to use the materials I had in storage for crafting. Every time I needed something, I had to walk over to my storage bin and grab the necessary items. It’s a needless extra step that slows down the game.

• You can’t go inside houses. I love decorating, so I was pretty thrilled when I built my first house. Unfortunately, that excitement quickly faded away when I finished construction and realized that I couldn’t actually go inside; houses are just an item that lets you go to sleep. Hopefully, this is a demo-only restriction. I’d love to create a cozy interstellar home!

PLATFORM TESTED

PC via Steam.