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Forever Skies is a gentle survival game of lonely, desolate beautyA promising start
A promising start
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Far From Home
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Far From Home
When I played a timedearly demoofForever Skieslast year, my key question about this airborneSubnautica-like was how it would successfully guide its players across its boundless world of ruined, rusting skyscrapers, overgrown plant tendrils and swampy, toxic clouds. As we searched for a rumoured cure that would save what’s left of humanity back in the depths of space, would we be ping-ponging from perilous rooftop to perilous turbine pad unaided as we bobbed along the nauseous expanse below? Or would it be a more guided affair, with forgotten text logs and computer terminals nudging us toward tailored waypoints?
Forever Skies - Launch TrailerWatch on YouTube
Forever Skies - Launch Trailer
Wind turbines are home to some very specific resources you’ll need to craft more advanced equipment for your airship. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Far From Home
No, if this is a world I’m going to be continually dipping in and out of over the better part of the next year, I want this to be a journey I can savour and get cosy with before having to acclimatise to the next big rug pull. There’s no need to rush, is what I’m saying - although I’m sure the thousands of folks I’m meant to be getting a cure for on this wretched future Earth would probably think differently. Still, until they learn to pipe up and shout at me to hurry the hell up from wherever they are in space, I’m content with taking my time down here.
It’s easy to find your rhythm in Forever Skies. Land on a rusty outcrop, pillage its innards for scraps and supplies, yoink the battery from the communication tower, and carry on to the next one. You’ll need to give your ship’s fuel supply topped up as you go about your business, but thankfully there’s a steady stream of basic fuel components available on tap if you look out the window. One of your early ship modules is the extractor, which can vaporise the enormous synthetic dust bunnies careening through the air around you, as well as other resource types such as glass and metal. Chuck those synthetic bundles into your fabricator, and hey presto, you’ve got some fuel. Sure, that synthetic fuel isn’t as efficient as other types you’ll find on your journey, but it’ll do in a pinch, and means you’re never left stranded between landing points. When you do touch down, your ship also has a very handy knack of telling you upfront if there are new gizmos to scan while you’re there - and if there is, you can betcha bottom dust dollar that there’s a new piece of tech waiting for you to plug back into your ship’s research station.
Dusk is my favourite time of day in Forever Skies. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Far From Home
Early on, a combination of smartly placed computer terminals and your general ship’s navigation system will guide you where you need to go, giving you the basic equipment blueprints you need to head to your next story destination. Things like that aforementioned radar, a build tool to expand your ship, and basic turbines to increase your altitude. The latter become particularly important when you start encountering higher landing platforms - wind turbines that reach higher above the dust sea, for example, and overgrown greenhouse gardens that sit precariously on top of large skyscrapers. Much of what you need to do is signposted in your objective log, but there’s also just enough leeway for you to make a couple of connections of your own without being explicitly told what you need to do next. It’s a welcome combo of feeling both self-sufficient while still having a firm hand on your back to keep you steady.
It’s not much, but it’s home (and yes, there’s a bug friend you can craft a big cushion for, too, but you can’t pet it). |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Far From Home
Scan other bits of technology out in the world, such as that oxygen tank, and you’ll be able to research how to make them yourself back at your ship. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Far From Home
For now, I’ve had a swell time in Forever Skies, and I look forward to returning soon when see what else its strange and beautiful world has hiding beneath its toxic cloud blanket. There is something bleakly beautiful about its pock-marked surface of stringy skyscrapers that look like they could topple over at any moment, and the raging lightning storms and gorgeous sunsets cast an eerie glow on the world through the murk and the gloom. You feel terribly alone out there, but that’s probably for the best, all things considered. I’m not sure I could cope with something else rising out of the shadows to swallow my box on a balloon hook, line and sinker. But it feels like there could be, which is the important thing. There’s a lot of potential in this desolate apocalypse, and I can’t wait to explore it further.
