LIGHTYEAR FRONTIER
Developer/Publisher Frame Break, Amplifier Game Invest Format PC, Xbox Series Release Early 2023
A few key themes resonated across the summer showcases. A trend in indie games was farming, while it was hard to avoid the preponderance of space games among the blockbuster crop. Lightyear Frontier – or Titanfarm, as we’ve taken to calling it – deftly combines the two. Whoever came up with the idea of repurposing a mech as a piece of agricultural hardware (there’s a tractor-beam gag in there somewhere) deserves a pay rise: with its various attachments it’s an efficient way to harvest resources, water and fertilise crops, pull down trees and construct buildings as you establish a home on a suspiciously peaceful planet. It can roll around on tracks for exploration, leading you towards evidence that you’re not the only intelligent life here. You needn’t face danger alone: up to three friends can join you for collaborative exofarming.