Synopsis:
Forever Skies is a first-person post-apocalyptic survival game. Return to Earth, ravaged by an ecological disaster. Fly, upgrade and customize your mobile high-tech airship base. Scavenge resources to survive, face dangers on the surface and hunt for viral pathogens to cure a mysterious illness.
Reviewed on: PC (Intel i5-9400F @ 2.90GHz, RTX 2060, 16GB RAM)
Also available for: N/A
Developer: Far From Home
Publisher: Far From Home
I was eager to return to Forever Skies after my previous dalliance, with the first hour of the game leaving me wanting more. Now in Early Access, the game offered me a lot more time floating above the dust, exploring the ruins of skyscrapers and eventually venturing below the harsh dust layer. The mood and atmosphere remain top-class, and experiencing that is the primary reason to jump in at this stage of Early Access. Players looking for dozens of hours of survival should likely wait for a few more patches before boarding the airship.
Forever Skies starts much the same as I remembered: you disembark from a landing pod in the ruins of a skyscraper. Greeted by the remains of previous expeditions, you set off, scanning all you can and moving on to make the airship take flight. Your initial ship is simple — a single room with an engine, a resource extractor on the deck for gathering materials and little else. By the time I’d played my fill, my airship had grown exponentially and was home to a kitchen, a bedroom and a manufacturing room. I appreciated being able to dismantle and rebuild as I went; I lacked the foresight for incremental changes, so full refits were welcome.
Because the airship is both base and companion, upgrading it feels more meaningful. It isn’t just a fabrication hub; it’s your vehicle between towers. Thanks to the procedural world, it feels good not being anchored to a single spot. Building and expanding generally works well, though placing rooms, walls and equipment can feel a touch stiff. Customisation currently leans utilitarian; I largely ignored painting and kept things fairly spartan.
The main loop of Forever Skies involves:
- Sailing your ship above the dust.
- Discovering towers and pillaging them for materials and blueprints.
- Using those to expand your airship’s capabilities.
It’s a simple loop, but the atmosphere sells it. The eerily quiet towers kept me nervous with anticipation about what I might find among the ruins. These towers come in several archetypes, each housing different materials to harvest. Some are simple communication spires — good for scrap and batteries — and take little time. Others are former greenhouses packed with food and fuel sources that take several trips to fully scavenge. Climbing is straightforward: ladders and stairs guide you up, with the occasional small jump.
The final tower type in the current build takes you below the dust. After hours in the skies, the nervous anticipation crept in again as I boarded the elevator down. Up top, I’d only managed energy, hunger and thirst — simple enough on normal difficulty. Down below, the air isn’t breathable, adding a new management plate to spin. Only able to journey out for minutes at a time, I scavenged new materials and expanded my ability to move safely. The eeriness ramps up below the dust, and the constantly dwindling oxygen pushes more considered exploration.
As an Early Access survival title, Forever Skies stakes its claim with a compelling loop, elevated by an evocative setting and unearthly atmosphere from Far From Home. It also carries some familiar Early Access baggage: frequent frame drops, a bit of jank, and a content footprint that may not sustain dozens of hours yet. If you’re intrigued by merely existing and exploring in this desolate, post-apocalyptic world, though, the current offering may keep you happily soaring above the dust.
(Forever Skies code provided for review)
