FOREVER SKIES

Though its knightly get-ups remind us of the Arthurian tone of Dark Souls, and its gothic environments carry the miasma of Bloodborne’s Yharnam, it doesn’t take long for Hexworks’ Soulslike to spill beyond the mould in which it’s been set.

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Stranded on an Earth coated in toxic dust, we take whatever food we can get. From our position atop a creaking metal tower, one of a smattering of structures tall enough to keep their heads above the murk, our only recourse is a kind of fishing winch fitted with a lure, which we lower through the cloud to attract whatever dwells below. Invariably, the delicacies we pull up are manky dust cabbages and dust moths, or if we’re lucky a fat dust moth – lucky because it’s more filling, so we won’t have to reach back into the polluted larder quite so soon. Whatever emerges, though, Forever Skies has us queasily wondering what the hell else is down there.

The post-cataclysmic nature of this scenario is familiar, of course, but Far From Home has taken the extreme step of creating an Earth that’s fully uninhabitable, the last humans long since self-exiled to space stations. Your explorer is a lone scientist, crashing down in a small pod with hopes of figuring out the ecological catastrophe that befell the world years before. Supplies are limited, so you need to procure and produce more on site. The only early aid to such endeavours comes from the remains of a past expedition, which left behind an incomplete airship, the winch and a 3D printer.

As much as it flings you into the distant future, though, Forever Skies is designed for contemporary relevance, and a vision of ecodisaster that’s very much tied to existing trends. “In winter we often get public warning announcements that it’s better to stay indoors because of the air pollution levels,”