For Swedish indie studio FRAME BREAK, a tight-knit group of solely 12 builders underneath the Amplifier Recreation Make investments publishing umbrella, the purpose is easy: Blur the boundaries between online game genres and permit extra individuals to play collectively. It is not a very distinctive imaginative and prescient, nevertheless it’s a noble one, and the studio’s first undertaking seems to have every thing it must ship on that ambition.
Lightyear Frontier combines facets of farming simulators, first- and third-person shooters, survival crafting video games, thriller narratives, and peaceable exploration adventures into one on-line co-op sport heading completely to Xbox and PC in Spring 2023. We got a sneak peek of what to anticipate from Lightyear Frontier forward of its Xbox Recreation Go debut in the course of the Xbox & Bethesda Video games Showcase 2022, and we’re excited for what FRAME BREAK is attempting to construct.
A peaceable tribute to nature
In line with FRAME BREAK, Lightyear Frontier is a “peaceable tribute to nature,” and strives to be continually conscious of life. Survival components are integrated with out the fixed worry of dying; gamers will concentrate on sustainability and stay in concord with nature, slightly than abuse its assets; the sport’s shooter mechanics are solely to create, by no means to kill.
Lightyear Frontier is about on a distant alien planet, with gamers’ major purpose being to discover the quite a few environments, domesticate alien crops and vegetation, and promote them within the in-game marketplace for a revenue. Nonetheless, there’s a lot occurring within the debut title from FRAME BREAK, with a plethora of challenges confronting the gamers apart from the oh-so-typical “there are enemies, and you’ll die.”
The sport is impressed by related titles like Passable, Astroneer, and Planet Crafter, however differentiates itself with its concentrate on farming, its refusal to include automation, and its overarching theme of tranquility. Gamers will embark of their customized, upgradeable mech and farm, discover their new house, construct their base and farm, analysis new tech, and uncover the secrets and techniques that encompass them.
Sure, whereas Lightyear Frontier is endlessly replayable, there’s an underlying thriller story tying the sport collectively, which gamers can unravel as they discover the planet for a definitive narrative-driven ending. The story goals to be nonintrusive, too, that means gamers can fully ignore it with out it impacting their capability to progress or play the sport.
All of this happens in Lightyear Frontier’s alien, artistic sandbox world. We had been solely proven one space in our restricted preview, the “Outset Grasslands,” however the full sport will apparently have 4 main, distinct areas to discover, with every that includes quite a lot of distinctive environments. The beginning space is designed to really feel “acquainted to Earth,” whereas every progressive zone will really feel steadily extra alien than the one earlier than.
FRAME BREAK has clearly nailed down what it desires to attain with Lightyear Frontier’s world and core theme, however how will all of it be tied collectively by means of gameplay?
A superpowered mech and inventive freedom
Lightyear Frontier will boast all kinds of gameplay mechanics and programs, which purpose to create a loop that can hold gamers for hours upon hours of farming gameplay. There’s sufficient contained inside this quirky, colourful farming sport that it is easy to listing the options out, slightly than smash all of it right into a single paragraph.
- Discover an alien planet, crammed with weird animals, vegetation, environments (even underwater), and extra
- Pilot your private mech, which may be modified with varied instruments, upgrades, and beauty alterations
- Farm all of the alien vegetation you uncover, being cautious to guard them from quite a lot of threats, have a tendency to every plant kind’s particular wants, and ultimately harvest them
- Construct your dream base and farm, with artistic freedom to construct nevertheless you need
- Accumulate uncommon assets, beneficial vegetation, and vital information so as to add to your ever-growing Codex
- Analysis new upgrades to your mech, constructing blueprints to your base and farm, merchandise recipes to your gear, and extra
- Commerce on the galactic market, the place you may promote your beneficial crops, buy uncommon assets, objects, and instruments, and extra
- Uncover the secrets and techniques on the middle of Lightyear Frontier’s thriller narrative as you discover
- Share your journey with absolutely cooperative, 4-player on-line multiplayer, Picture Mode, and extra
All of this facilities across the beforehand referenced mech. When you can go away your mech to see the world from a smaller, extra fragile human perspective, all of your exploration, crafting, farming, and past will probably be accomplished from inside the security of your clever, customizable mech.
Lightyear Frontier provides all kinds of fundamental and distinctive instruments, just like the useful resource drill, drone, scanner, harvester, seed shooter, and extra, that may be outfitted to your mech (as much as 4 on every arm). Every instrument provides upgrades that may make your work extra environment friendly and let you work together with the world in new methods, and even allow you to entry new areas.
Your mech additionally provides completely different traversal modes, and might remodel that can assist you extra simply navigate the sometimes-perilous alien planet you inhabit. Don’t fret, although, you are by no means in actual bodily hazard — the threats in Lightyear Frontier are to your crops and productiveness, to not your character. When you get right into a state of affairs from which you’ll’t escape, your mech will enter an “emergency mode” to get you out of it … on the expense of gas and time.
Crafting can also be an vital a part of Lightyear Frontier, with varied widespread and uncommon assets being essential to construct elements and different substances for buildings, instrument and mech upgrades, and extra. Lastly, Lightyear Frontier is constructed with the neighborhood and co-op in thoughts, so on-line multiplayer is designed to encourage lively teamwork and sharing.
Sure for Xbox and PC Recreation Go
I believe Lightyear Frontier appears extremely fascinating, with the mix of cathartic farming and base constructing combined with the exhilaration of unraveling a thriller and exploring an alien planet engaging my gaming senses. Will it’s sufficient to interrupt into the vaunted listing of greatest Xbox video games? It is too early to inform, however I am excited to see extra — Lightyear Frontier will make its subsequent look throughout Gamescom in August 2022.
Lightyear Frontier is launching on Xbox Sequence X|S, Xbox One, and PC in Spring 2023. For the time being, no plans to deliver the burgeoning farm journey sport to different platforms have been introduced, making it an Xbox console unique. FRAME BREAK can also be dropping Lightyear Frontier into Xbox and PC Recreation Go from day one, making it straightforward for gamers to leap in with mates.
