In 1992, I played Bio-Hazard Battle, an absolutely unforgettable shooter game in which you returned to planet Earth decades after the complete collapse of the ecosystem, destroyed and mutated by poisonous offspring. It was half a creepy, terrifying journey into the depths of hideous nests of mutated insects, and half a depressing reminder of how our planet could end. The same theme has now been chosen by the developers from the Polish studio Far From Home for their game Forever Skies, in which you also return to our planet after it was left buried under layers of mutated toxic biomes. However, in genre terms, this time it is a completely obvious tribute to the legendary Subnautica, which, by the way, I called the best game of the decade some time ago. Combining this theme with this genre sounds like a dream come true – and it is, too.
I had the opportunity to play a relatively short, about an hour long demo right from the beginning of the game. It starts with a very modest (apparently unfinished) introduction in which you arrive on a planet from space and descend into the upper biosphere with a one-way lander. From the very brief navigation and dialogues of the computer in your suit, you will understand that you landed at the place where the last expedition reported last. And soon you will start finding their bodies too. But first, you really absorb the strangeness and ghostly “beauty” of the world around you: you landed on the roof of one of the gigantic ruined skyscrapers, rising above an impenetrable layer of poisonous yellow clouds. Pieces of plastic fly through the air, and the whole scene gives the impression of a strange synthetic life.
Strangeness and ghostly “beauty” of the surrounding world.
But you can’t look around forever, because, as it should be in a survival game, your endurance gradually decreases, while hunger and thirst, on the contrary, increase. In the first stage, you feed on both the mutant crop found in the tiny greenhouse of the previous quest, and sipping water condensed on an open-air satellite disk. But here you will also encounter another deadly aspect of this world and game mechanics: unfiltered water will infect you with the first of the killer viruses that you will have to deal with during your exploration. After all, that is why you returned to Earth, because it is here that there is hope to find a cure for one of the viruses that destroy the remnants of human civilization.
But in order to explore more than this one building rising above the poisoned clouds, you need to power your ship – a high-tech airship powered by an energy engine. In doing so, you will have to install survival essentials on board – a bed, a water filtration system, a fabricator for making more complex tools, as well as a hunting hook for hunting mutant insects under the clouds, which will serve as one of the main sources of livelihood at this stage of the game. Some elements are similar to what is known from Subnautica, but the new setting in this unique world gives them a rather unique flavor. Even though you have more control over the shape and function of your vessel.
As soon as I launched the airship, for the first time I was able to ride through the labyrinth of collapsing skyscrapers. It was a powerful experience, especially when it got dark and a storm broke out, lashing the windows of my ship in streams of water in flashes of lightning. I then began to find remains and messages from a previous expedition in nearby buildings, which helped me improve my technology and guide further research. Obviously, the next step will be to descend under the clouds, into the lower biosphere of this poisonous hell. Unfortunately, the current demo of the game ended there. However, he did exactly what he was supposed to do: he gave me a strong belief in this game and a great desire to return to this world to explore it further.
The game will launch in early access in 2022, you can add it to your Steam Wishlist.
Source :Indian TV
