Forever Skies [PC] | REVIEW

Forever Skies doesn’t reinvent the survival genre by any stretch of the imagination, but it certainly elevates it – and I mean that quite literally. Swapping the usual ground-based crafting grind for a dynamic airship experience, Forever Skies carves out its own unique identity amongst a very crowded field. Whilst some of its mechanics can lack depth, the unique twist on mobility and exploration ensure that it stands out as a compelling survival adventure that’s well worth boarding.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Set on a ruined Earth that has been devastated by an ecological collapse, Forever Skies begins in familiar territory. You play as a lone scientist, returning to the planet to uncover the fate of humanity whilst attempting to escape the toxic surface… yeah, you might have heard that one before. However, whilst the initial premise won’t surprise seasoned survival game fans, the real hook is what you’re given to tackle the challenge: a fully modular airship that serves as both your base and your means of travel.

Rather than settling down on a single patch of land to make your home, your journey unfolds aboard this mobile platform, which you build and upgrade piece by piece as you progress further through the game. The airship isn’t just a gimmick, but the heart of the entire experience – from cooking meals and purifying water to researching new tech and fending off minor threats, virtually everything you do revolves around this floating vessel. I’m a sucker for having a home base in a video game, and believe me, I grew to LOVE my airship in Forever Skies.

Construction in Forever Skies is intuitive and satisfying, with players utilising a streamlined room tool to instantly create modular spaces instead of wrestling with awkward placement systems. Expansion is as simple as extending outward or upward, allowing for creative, vertical layouts that players are given ample room to tinker with. Meanwhile, essential tools and furniture slot into designated ‘inner’ or ‘outer’ areas of the ship, ensuring their placement helps maintain a sense of order without shackling the player too much. It’s really easy to figure out, and whilst early attempt at modifying your ship might not always be pretty, it doesn’t take too long to understand the finer aspects of construction to bring an air of flair and finesse to your designs.

Whether you’re adding engines for speed or mounting fishing equipment on the exterior to keep your supplies up, upgrades are impactful and rewarding, ensuring each element of customisation feels worthwhile and beneficial. Resource collection also remains accessible – basic materials are plentiful and easy to extract using your ship’s onboard tools, keeping the game’s pace smooth and forward-moving without forcing you to half the flow of traversal on a regular basis.

“With continued updates and refinement, Forever Skies really has the potential to grow into something special. For now, it’s a polished, focused experience that knows what it wants to be – and mostly delivers.“

Unlike many survival titles where the primary loop revolves around gathering increasingly rare materials, Forever Skies’ emphasis on air travel sees a priority based on exploration and discovery. Most trips into the world aren’t about hunting down rare ore veins or finding that ONE supply you’ve been missing, but rather uncovering blueprints, lore notes, and small narrative threads scattered across the remnants of civilization. In this way, the joy of Forever Skies comes in uncovering the world and discovering all of its secrets, and honestly? That made for a much more rewarding survival experience for me. A lot of survival games can feel a bit ‘been there, done that’ these days, but Forever Skies genuinely pushes players to do something a little bit different.

Your airship’s mobility helps support this perfectly, and with your base never far away, the usual risk-reward tension of venturing too far from home is massively reduced. This design choice makes exploration more relaxing, encouraging players to lose themselves in the sky without the constant anxiety of managing return trips. It certainly makes Forever Skies a much more accessible experience, so if you’re unfamiliar with the genre, it’s an enjoyable yet unique place to start off.

In terms of traditional survival mechanics, Forever Skies takes a minimalist approach. You have hunger, thirst, and energy to manage, but none of these meters pose a significant threat, with food and water easy to come by. This system is clearly not meant to challenge players so much as maintain a light sense of realism, though for some, this stripped-down survival might feel too forgiving. But in the context of Forever Skies, it fits perfectly – the emphasis is on exploration and creative construction rather than hardcore survival.

The world itself, though not particularly rich in biomes, offers enough visual and structural variety to keep your curiosity piqued when exploring. Derelict towers and decaying facilities dot the landscape, with each hiding new information, useful tech, or design upgrades for your ship. The environmental storytelling is subtle but effective, and while the overarching narrative may not break new ground, it provides just enough context to support the gameplay loop. That being said, the later hours of the game did see a small sense of repetition come in when exploring – maybe a few more epic landmarks could’ve ensured the pacing of discovery kept the momentum building until the very end.

Check out some screenshots down below:

However, the game’s weakest component is its combat – or rather, the lack thereof. Encounters are rare in the early hours, and when they do occur, they feel like an afterthought as opposed to something the really ups the tension. Later weapons and foes do appear, but combat never develops into a compelling or engaging element.

It’s clear that Forever Skies was never meant to be an action-heavy title, but even within its exploration-first framework, a more developed threat system could have added tension and purpose to the journey. As it stands, the absence of meaningful danger makes some parts of the experience feel a bit too uneventful. And again, I get it, it does make the experience more accessible and a lot of hazards come in the landscape itself, but an extra sense of danger when exploring this abandoned and catastrophic world would’ve given Forever Skies another element of excitement that would’ve complemented the enjoyable sense of discovery.

Developer: Far From Home
Publisher: Far From Home
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed)
Website: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1641960/Forever_Skies/