Forever Skies is a game that, unlike typical survival games, allows us to survive high above Earth, not on it. Developed by Far From Home—a studio made up of developers who previously worked on titles like Dying Light and Outriders—Forever Skies mixes exploration, survival, and base building. After losing ourselves in the full release and the recent Final Echoes update, we came away impressed by its ambition, even if not every system reaches the same heights.
In Forever Skies, you are a scientist returning to Earth in the year 2637. Humanity has abandoned the planet after an ecological catastrophe, and the mission is to search for a cure that could save those still living aboard an orbital station.
Building a Home in the Sky
What we loved the most was our airship and how you start modest but add to it. At the beginning, it’s little more than a tiny platform suspended beneath a balloon, but every piece of floating debris becomes valuable as you collect metals, glass, synthetic materials, and many other resources needed to expand your flying home. Before long, we watched with awe as our tiny platform grew into a fully functional laboratory complete with crafting stations, research equipment, storage rooms, gardens, and living quarters. Thanks to intuitive building, the rooms around us snap together cleanly, while larger modules force us to think not just about space, but also about efficiency. Building in Forever Skies is more than simply placing everything wherever it fits. Watching your modest airship slowly transform into a massive flying base can be a very satisfying achievement and one of the best parts of the entire experience.
The Final Echoes update came at just the right time to add another in-depth layer by introducing a proper electrical system and more detailed ship maintenance. If you haven’t played the game or played it before this update, know that you’re missing out on power generators, batteries, wiring, and damaged equipment that now require constant attention. Whenever a storm came our way, we noticed ourselves breathing heavily as we remembered vividly how it can damage exposed machinery. If overloaded systems fail, then your airship will start feeling less like a static base and more like a living machine that constantly demands your attention.
Exploration Above and Below the Clouds
In terms of exploration, most of your time is spent navigating above the poisonous dust that covers Earth. It’s docking your airship next to the remains of towering skyscrapers and abandoned research stations that’s fun, especially searching for resources, research opportunities, and new blueprints. We looked forward to each opportunity to explore these places and find things that gradually unlock better technology for our ship. Every new blueprint opens additional possibilities, whether it’s improved engines, advanced crafting stations, or equipment that allows you to travel farther into the unknown. Some essential blueprints, however, depend heavily on random drops, meaning you may find yourself revisiting similar locations again and again because the item you need refuses to find its way to you. It’s a system that’s clearly designed to extend playtime, and it’s hard not to develop a love/hate relationship with it. But once you find something you’ve been looking for for a while—oh man, there’s a sense of relief that washes over you like sun on a cold day.
You will occasionally go below the dust. It’s a descent where oxygen replaces altitude as your biggest concern and visibility drops dramatically. To us, every expedition became this tense race against time where we frantically searched laboratories for viral samples. That, combined with harvesting rare resources, creates some genuinely atmospheric moments. There’s so much in Forever Skies, and the sheer contrast between the peaceful skies above and the dangerous world below made us appreciate the world even more. It kept us wanting to go back to the game and push harder to see what next surprise is hiding around the corner.
Survival Comes First
We just realized we talked your ear off, and yet we didn’t even scratch the surface of the survival elements. Like most survival games, proper food and water consumption is a must. What that means is you’ll spend some time purifying dirty water and preparing simple meals. We love how recent updates introduced extensive custom difficulty options that let us adjust hunger, thirst, oxygen consumption, and several other survival settings. We appreciate this flexibility, as sometimes we just want to focus on exploration or building and spend less time on strict survival mechanics.
Combat could use work, though, as most encounters involve little more than using a knife or crossbow. Aside from the mutated creatures, we have the recently introduced hostile drones, which can be a pain during aerial exploration. None of these fights feel particularly memorable. Enemy behavior is predictable, animations can feel stiff, and combat lacks the responsiveness found elsewhere in the game. We can see how this could annoy gamers who want more substance out of the combat system. More often than not, the real danger comes from running out of oxygen or getting lost underground rather than the enemies themselves. It’s one area that feels underdeveloped compared to the excellent building and exploration systems.
Better Together?
We experienced the game solo, so we can’t say much about co-op, aside from knowing it exists and that, by all accounts, it should change the experience considerably. With support for up to four players, we can see how everyone naturally falls into different roles. One person could pilot the ship, another could manage crafting and research, while others gather resources or explore nearby structures.
Forever Skies has improved considerably since launch, but performance remains inconsistent, especially during severe weather, larger environments, and transitions into the Underdust. We also encountered occasional frame rate drops and smaller visual hiccups that remind you the game still isn’t as polished as it could be. None of these issues completely ruin the experience, but they’re noticeable enough to prevent the game from feeling truly smooth.
Forever Skies delivers one of the more original takes on the survival genre in recent years. Building and expanding your flying base is fun, and exploration captures a real sense of discovery. If you have a buddy to tag along, co-op would surely make the experience even more enjoyable. Combat, repetitive blueprint hunting, and shaky optimization may temporarily stop it from reaching greater heights, but there’s still a very good survival adventure waiting for anyone willing to overlook a few rough edges.
8/10 – Great!
Developer: Far From Home
Publisher: Far From Home
Platform Reviewed: PlayStation 5
Also Available On: PC, Xbox Series X|S
Genre: Survival, Crafting, Exploration
Players: 1–4 Online Co-op
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