Lightyear Frontier Review – All Chill, No Fill

Lightyear Frontier on Xbox Series S

Lightyear Frontier is more of a farming adventure than just a farming sim. You land in a bright and colorful open world with the friendly disembodied voice of PIP-3R guiding the way. It doesn’t take long to get the hang of the controls and the mechanics, and soon you are farming and exploring like a pro. It’s as if Lightyear Frontier was specifically designed not to stress you out in the slightest.

At first, Lightyear Frontier confused me with its lack of peril. I am so used to games trying to kill me at every turn that it took a good while for me not to assume danger lurked around the corner. You don’t get hungry or feel too hot or too cold. Nothing on the planet is going to hurt you. Even when noxious slime seeds rain down from the sky, they just need vacuuming up and using in a crafting recipe.

It was also really comforting to know I didn’t have to kill any wildlife for survival or resources. Instead, you are encouraged to feed the adorable animals around you. This task is optional but by discovering the nests and feeding the creatures, the resources in that area are boosted considerably. Lightyear Frontier advocates living in harmony with nature, understanding that you need to help replenish natural resources if you want to continue harvesting them.

Once I got over the fact the game was as cozy as it seemed, I relaxed into it. I’m the sort of person who thrives on challenges and quests in games, so to have a task list to follow suited me and kept me engaged. The game is evenly paced and makes up for the lack of jeopardy with an intriguing story. There are a few areas to unlock and a long list of resources to discover as you explore the world and build your new home.

As you begin the clear-up of each new area, you begin to discover there is more to this planet than first meets the eye. Another civilization has clearly lived here before, but who were they? And why didn’t PIP-3R tell anyone about it? The story slowly unfolds as you discover ancient ruins and send the artifacts back for analysis.

Lightyear Frontier is a game which draws you in and encourages you to keep exploring the vivid scenery. Before long I realized I had spent hours in the world and it was past my bedtime. It is a pleasure exploring each of the different areas and discovering new plants and creatures before watching the sunset in the distance. There are no time restraints, and at no point was I penalized for not getting a task done. The experience became almost meditative after a while.

The only thing that annoyed me was the storage system. Storage is severely lacking and not user-friendly. Some materials weigh a lot so you end up with multiple boxes, sacks, or barrels lying around. Then comes the issue of actually remembering where you put the Copper Ore or the Hard Wood. Later on in the game, you can build Silos which hold a lot of one (and only one) resource. But do I want one huge Silo for each resource (of which there are dozens) lining my homestead? Perhaps not.

The game’s aesthetic is cheerful and cartoonish without being childish. The mech, with all its attachments and upgrades, is great fun to use. Even after hours in the game, I still find it amusing when my mech stumbles and rolls gracelessly down a cliffside. It just looks so goofy and, as nothing gets damaged, it is never a real issue. You just jump out, flip the mech, and then get back in to continue on your way.

I could see how some might not understand the appeal of a game without conflict or survival elements, though. We are so used to our cozy games mirroring the world we live in right now where people fight to survive. Lightyear Frontier shows us something different. Not every day has to be a battle. Sometimes you can just spend a day watering your plants without losing progress with anything else.

If you need to feel constantly on edge in your farming sims, then Lightyear Frontier might not be for you. Although, saying that, this is the game you should load up when you’ve had enough of all that anxiety. I found this to be the perfect antidote to the horror games or shooters I usually play.

As a fan of multiplayer games, I was also happy to see this as an option on Lightyear Frontier. You can build, farm, and explore with friends, which makes the experience a whole new level of fun. Working as a community, you can each be assigned different tasks to see how quickly you can rebuild this new world together.

If you love cozy games already, you will undoubtedly jump into this feet first. But will it keep you playing for months to come? Lightyear Frontier has a lot of potential. Right now, there is plenty to discover and explore: What are those ruins? Who lived here before? How many secret caves can I find?

The developers at Frame Break will have to work hard to keep people interested. Especially in this age of desensitized dopamine receptors. As long as they listen to the feedback from the community, keep those tasks coming and the storyline intriguing, I think they could be on to a winner here. As long as the world is expanding and the story is interesting, Lightyear Frontier will endure.

For now, Lightyear Frontier will continue to be my go-to comfort game. I am excited to see what is coming next and where to story will take us. Who knows, maybe we will eventually clean up the entire planet and be ready to explore a new one.