Forever Skies is a first-person, post-apocalyptic survival game set in a future Earth no longer habitable by humans, forcing people to leave the planet or live atop skyscrapers to conduct research. Forever Skies was developed and produced by Far From Home, a Polish game studio newly established in 2020, and Forever Skies is their first title.

If you need more reference on what this game is, think Subnautica, or Raft, except aerial and a little more realistic. These types of games always excite me when they are announced. Survival and base building, mixed with some exploration and danger – that’s a beautiful recipe.

The goal of this game is to build up your airship and travel to different places and uncover secrets, learn about the mysterious ecological disaster infecting the Earth, and gather technologies to help you survive.

You float thousands of meters above a toxic smog covering the surface, so watch your step. It’s a long way down. Your character is a scientist sent to Earth to investigate the planet, and you’ll witness evolved flora and fauna while traversing the now barely recognizable planet we called home.

After picking your difficulty, you will emerge from your pod and the game begins. As it’s played in a first-person’s perspective, you need to make sure you watch where you are walking as there are no safety nets in this new Earth.

You’ll use the standard WASD controls, but there is an option to change the key binds in the settings, so use what is comfortable for you. I only needed to move the altitude up and down buttons to my mouse buttons as it was easier for me to maneuver. Following the story beats is easy enough, but it will sometimes make you work for the answer, either by investigating or looking back at your notes.

Everything seemed to function as it should, and I didn’t find any problems with any of the controls, but when using the extractor on the airship, I could sometimes see my body next to the turret. This didn’t affect the game, as such, it was just a slight bug. Exiting from the extractor turret was always scary as it sometimes looked as if I was exiting off of the airship, but it never did. The map you use while on your vessel was easy enough to use, but if in doubt, fly to the blinking lights. Different colors and the number of lights mean different types of landing areas to explore.

I loved the visuals of this game. Colours are bland, and for the most part dull, however, it makes any color or brightness just pop, and besides the extractor-based out-of-body experience, I had no real graphical issues.

The airship looks amazing, and with several possible ways you can build it, it gives you so much freedom and creative license to make a masterpiece. Once you are further through the game, the visuals get even wilder as you explore closer to the surface and experience a majestic and completely overgrown world.

Now, music and sounds aren’t usually the big ticket items for most games, they are usually more complimentary, but sometimes they make the game, and the music in this is so good. As I mentioned, it is complimentary and shifts with what’s happening at the time, and it’s fantastic, but there is one sound effect I must point out that had me in absolute awe. This sound effect may seem simple, but my god, when I first heard it, it was all I could think about for a good while – the bone-chilling crack of a lightning strike. When I first heard it, I almost jumped out of my seat. I thought that lightning had hit just outside. Whoever made that sound effect deserves an award.

But wait, there’s more! Not only is the early access available with hours of story content, but more content is on its way, including new craftable items and equipment, more story and places to explore, and the big one, four-player multiplayer. I can’t wait to grab some friends and dive into this game properly. I still play Raft and Subnautica, so you can bet that this will be another constant source of gaming entertainment for me.

Written by: Adam Brasher