As has been proven time and time again, giant robots are like magical girls in that there’s nothing they can’t do. Get involved in military politics, turn into household items, be made out of enslaved angels, you name it and a giant robot has probably been tasked to the purpose. Usually, though, all that power is used for something big and flashy, because the call of theItano Circusis hard to resist. Still, giant robots are at heart just big machines, and the job of a machine is work. In the case ofLightyear Frontier, that work is being the most souped-up tractor a farm has ever seen.
With the Earth ruined, mankind headed out into space to find something better, and while the planet you set down on is peaceful and inviting, it’s also obviously got a history. Clear blue skies and rich green fields are lovely, but so are the ruins kicking around the landscape. It’s more mystery than threat, though, becauseLightyear Frontieris a peaceful farming game with only minimal dangers, and those are to the crops rather than the player. The new world is a place to relax and approach at your own speed, crafting up a base and exploring the planet in whatever order seems best.
Living the Rustic Life in a Giant Mech in Lightyear Frontier Gameplay Trailer
Living the simple life is much easier with a giant robot.
The landing didn’t go as planned, and at the start of the game and demo you’re on foot for a minute or two before finding the slightly broken pieces of your farming mech. It’s modular so easy to put back together, with the techno-pickaxe doubling as a resource harvester and carrier of multi-hundred-pound mechanical parts. Once the mech is back on its feet you’re able to hop in the cockpit and take it for a spin, heading across the landscape to collect its lost tools one by one. The vacuum hoovers up plants and water, the water cannon douses plants and areas of gooey corruption with equal efficiency, and two types of guns shoot the seeds you’ve collected into the earth. Finally, the spike saw (exactly what it sounds like, a chainsaw with a spike at its tip) harvests bushes and trees with a couple of swipes or breaks boulders into usable stone with a few good stabs. It’s left unspoken that this mech used to be much more deadly than it currently is.
With all those tools it’s not too taxing to harvest the resources needed to start building a home. A tent and bonfire are easy enough to build, and then comes a small three by three plot to start growing some seeds. A little exploration turns up aluminum, good for building an upgrade station for the mech, and the demo gives access to a second area that needs to be cleaned up before it yields its resources. Once done you can summon a trader who has access to blueprints for items both useful and decorative, plus seeds for nicely-profitable crops. The demo doesn’t go too deep into the upgrades, but you can build a nice little starter farm in the two hours or so it will take to see everything.
While there are hints that things are bad elsewhere inLightyear Frontier’s universe, the game is all about being chill and kicking back to enjoy your new planet. The map keeps track of how many secrets of each area’s total you’ve found, and the world’s story will unfold as you explore, but there’s no rush. Realize you built the farm too far away from the water, or that it’s just not coming together as pretty as you’d like? Take an in-game day or two to deconstruct and rebuild, the game won’t penalize you at all. Whatever terrible things happened back on Earth are in the past, and whether you tackle the new world by yourself or with friends to explore, farm or just hang out, it’s going to turn out all right. And even if it somehow didn’t, you still get to pilot a giant mech.
