Protocol one : link to pilot . Protocol two : maintain the foreign mission . communications protocol three : Protect the crop .
Anyone who experience me knows that farming games are generally not my forte . Even when I do see one intriguing , it ’s usually because it ’s something for me and my friends to sink our tooth into . I wish games with a great deal more depth like RPGs and colony sims , or games that are much more tight - paced like FPS titles . However , the queer title in another genre bring off to catch my attention , and Lightyear Frontier ’s compounding of mech - based movement and farming felt unique enough to give it a go . While I have my issues with this early iteration , Lightyear Frontier ’s former access launch specify a strong foundation that could thrive with a little prison term to produce and evolve .
Up the Creek With a Mechanized Paddle
I ca n’t go any further without first focus on Lightyear ’s central feature , its mech - ground gameplay . This large fomite does just about everything you require it to . It can break off minerals and foliage , plant and water crops , avail you farm Tree , and sprinkle some light apparent movement tech for those who like to get fancy with traversal . It ’s surprisingly versatile and can serve a lot of key roles , mean regular traversal is often very situational or downright unnecessary .
However , developer Frame Break is heedful not to deal their hand too too soon . While the mech offers plenty of toys to play and experiment with , it ’s the upgrades that you slowly unlock as you find new imagination that truly make the mech shine . From severely hie up farming ( more on that later ) to countenance you bushel more of the map to even turn fields of soil using just the mech , it covers just about every base you could conjure up in your head . While I did n’t get every rise in my fourth dimension with the secret plan , what I did get felt impactful to my journeying and rarely feel like a waste of metre .
That being said , there are a few twist that could be work out . Namely , the fact that the mech does n’t take too kindly to inclines or slopes of any pattern . I could n’t count the number of times stubbing my toe on a stone decided the cockpit would be kissing the grass come , and while it ’s a simple fix to get out of the mech , it did get annoying after some time . Trying to turn with the mech while running was also unnaturally slow , forcing you to get out of run modal value , turn , then go back to running game . Still , these government issue are minor compare to how in force the mech can truly palpate at clip . It ’s an extension of you as the histrion , rather than a vehicle to get from point A to B.
Farming, Exploration, and Waiting…Lots of Waiting
The farming side of this mech - ground risky venture starts uniformly for fans of the genre , having you give up off a small farm before quickly expanding to accommodate more crops of varying case . The big your farm , the more chore you have to handle each break of day and the more reinforcement you get toward the destruction of the mean solar day . However , progression also leads to much faster way to manage these chores in ways not often date in the genre .
Chief among these is how the game uses the mech ’s prick to severely speed up daily chores . Upgrades you acquire can let you embed multiple of a specific source case at once , water an area of crop alternatively of one at a fourth dimension , and even harvest a group of crops instantaneously . These come up bit by bit and facilitate a ton to rent you sharpen on other aspect of the experience instead of spending one-half of each mean solar day asterisk at your massive farm . Occasional rainwater adds to this efficiency .
Farming is n’t the only feature that ensure a welcome bit of quality - of - life too . memory board is based alone on weight values instead of a storage-battery grid - base organization for example . This mean you could stack away 40 different items in a chest provided it does n’t match the weightiness roof . There ’s also the power to get a seeded player for each crop you harvest , meaning you do n’t have to find or purchase seeds constantly .
Image via Prima Games.
It ’s a gorgeous game at all point , whether you ’re observing the farsighted scene during the day or appreciating planets in the sky at night .
However , this quality of living seems to have come at the ( hopefully temporary ) cost of development around various game systems . Those storage variety I mentioned earlier are great , but the lack of increased storage space reach this a chest junk e-mail fiesta as you constantly go out of storage space for heavier items . Other major mechanics , such as wildlife and the economy system also bid very recess covering , meaning only those who want to min - max the adventure will find value in either .
The secret plan also currently suffers from a major time - gate issue , something a lot of other entry in the genre tend to suffer from . While all games like Lightyear Frontier require to have time - gate to some extent , it ’s the immense use of it here that makes it a problem . Almost everything is meter - gated , meaning waiting is something you ’ll do a spate if you do n’t deal to do every possible affair you may in a sidereal day as quickly as possible . It does n’t require to be tune too heavily , but make out down on craft or resource respawn times could be a Brobdingnagian service .
Image via Frame Break.
On the brilliant side , Lightyear Frontier makes a strong program line where it matters . Its gameplay flow of arouse up , handle chores , search & gather resources , and heading back to bottom is a fun gameplay loop that feels rife with intrigue as you unlock new things and discover varied locations incessantly . While these do n’t have the depth quite yet to hold the weight of a longer experience , it ’s decipherable from the passion that the team want to make that potential . They just need more time to bear on its car-mechanic further .
A Stellar Final Frontier, Mostly
If you ’ve check any memory board page for the secret plan , you do n’t require me to tell you that Lightyear Frontier is stunning in its cartoony art style . It ’s a gorgeous game at all points , whether you ’re observing the long vista during the day or appreciating planets in the sky at Nox . It wo n’t be winning any awarding for item as some closer texture will show , but its art direction is commendable .
The sound intention further accentuates this , with some wonderfully serene melody playing in between your task and exploration . Even the mech sound as weighty as ever , with the solid biff of your Spike Saw being a standout in full term of satisfying sounds . While I did turn the music off after some clip to listen to my usual play list , I ’d ascribe that less to the soundscape and more to my music tastes . But what I can blame is the singular comrade in PIP-3R. I have two playthroughs of this secret plan with my multiplayer playthrough only just started , and in that first hour , I recall my ally wishing they could put a silent button on the robot . Having play the main story cognitive content through on my solo run , I could n’t agree more . It ’s not so much that she ’s a ill written character since there are some deeper moment hidden for you to find out , but her posture of being pollyannaish 24/7 gets grating after a while . There are only so many metre I can fire up up with a robot ’s to a fault incontrovertible voice in my head without wanting to twist off the in - game comms .
Like a Seed Sprouting its First Leaf
If I had to give an doctrine of analogy for the launching state of Lightyear Frontier , it ’d be like a beautiful heyday sprouting its first folio as it pops out of the ground . The foundation for an fantabulous farming game is there , one that can make for a serene way to kill a few hours or wind down from a foresighted mean solar day . However , it ’s got a lot of study before it becomes that beautiful blossom shown on the seed packet . Given the passion of the nurseryman run to it though , I truly consider Lightyear Frontier has the voltage to see its direction to stardom upon its full release .
Image via Frame Break.
Screenshot by Prima Games
