Lightyear Frontier is not the kind of game that fits neatly into a 30-minute Gamescom demo. There’s so much to see and do in this laidback farming mech sim that by the time my demo ends, I barely feel like I’ve scratched the surface of it (and that’s even with the assistance of some handy secret dev cheats to show me some of the structures and features they’ve got planned later on in the game). Rather, this is a game that’s designed to unfurl slowly, bit by bit, over the course of several hours, and before we begin, developer Frame Break’s CEO Joakim Hedström tells me they’ve shortened the game’s opening sequence for this particular demo, just so they can get players right into the thick of things as quickly as possible.
But even on this whistlestop tour, there’s plenty to dig into and delight in here – not least its gloriously bright and inviting colour palette (take that, Todd). I got to sample its farming, its wonderfully weighty mech exploration, and even indulge in a little bit of, well, powerwashing. Yep, PowerWash Simulator‘s influence was well and truly felt at this year’s Gamescom, and I’m so very here for it.
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