Sci-Fi Survival Game Forever Skies Is a PS5 Console Exclusive

I was interested in this after the EDGE write-up, so pretty cool news actually.

looks cool i just hate survival games

Ok IM LISTENING! Between this and Lightyear Frontier over on PC/XBX, Us Cozy Gamer Sci Fi nerds are being fed

I want to enjoy survival games so SO badly, but they just result in such boredom and tedium for me.

I've put more hours into No Man's Sky than any other, and even in that I hit a HARD wall when I realized I was just wandering, collecting things, to make things, to collect new things or collect existing things slightly faster. It was all just math on top of math. Like a clicker game. Slowly allowing me to "click" faster or "click" on new stuff.

All I could think about toward the end of my play time with NMS was how incredible the game would be if it included actually decent combat. Or stealth. Or morality. Or real enemies. Like if it was Farcry in space, basically. Maybe mixed with a little of Mass Effect's morality system.

All I wanted was to wander onto a planet and find a pirate base. But maybe not fight them. Maybe I'd side with them and become a plundering space pirate that grew to become the scourge of multiple solar systems. Or maybe I'd sneak into their base and kill them all and steal their riches for myself. Or a space Robin Hood who stole from the bad guys to enrich the meager masses, who then showered me with adoration and protection.

The whole static nature of the state of the universe (which was admittedly, VERY impressive) made the game feel SO SMALL. Like I couldn't truly affect a single thing. It made me feel pointless (maybe that was their goal).

I dunno. I just feel like survival games seem to all devolve into tedium by way of collecting crap to build buildings, a piece of the gameplay loop I find extremely boring (I'm not, nor do I ever want to be, an architect). It didn't help that NMS's build mechanics are so grievously aggravating and dumb, even after years of updates to the broader game. (How they let those build systems remain so poor and finicky when they are a key part of the loop is beyond me, but that's a different rant...)

But, yeah. The genre always seem SO COOL to me. But then... it's just repetitive boredom.

I get the feeling this is dropping into PlayStation Plus Essential/Extra day one.

@MFTWrecks
I do get what you mean, but feel you do have to suspend disbelief with video games. Ultimately everything is exact that - maths/code. Even in the genres you mention. It’s just that the illusion of people and narratives hides it more.

This almost looks like a Subnautica mod that became a full game. If this game can capture the charm the Subnautica games have the exclusivity could be good business.

By the way, Sony also signed a deal to make V Rising (appeared on the last State Of Play) exclusive as well. The devs even call Sony an "partner" on their PR statement.

I’ve read that this game will have co-op, which if true is a day one buy for my girlfriend and I. We’ve played most survival games on PlayStation and are looking forward to this and smalland

Definitely looks interesting, I'll probably check it out.

@thefourfoldroot1 I'm fully aware. I'm just saying that survival games often move well beyond "survival" and tend to just become "wander while trying to build another hut" and that becomes extremely boring to me.

I wish they expanded in other ways to be more about a fully realized roleplaying experience. I understand the appeal of "making my own adventure." But when that adventure ends up being "making benches and tables to refine materials to make shinier leather pants or axes that save me a chop at a tree" or "save me three seconds while I travel from A to B"... it just becomes tedium.

And since there rarely IS a compelling storyline... it makes those shortcomings even more glaring to me.

Maybe the genre just truly isn't for me.

@MFTWrecks
Fair enough. Honestly I feel the same about stealth games. I don’t have time to be analysing patrol patterns and certainly don’t want anything that involves trial and error. Some genres just aren’t for everyone.

@MFTWrecks do you have a PSVR 2? I have to say, I couldn't stand Surviaval titles but got addicted to Song in the Smoke. The immesive format did the trick for me and I burned through Green Hell straight after. NMS is next on the list...

@MFTWrecks I think where you’re going wrong is thinking NMS is a survival game. Unfortunately I had the same problem with NMS, there was no surviving or risk involved.. you could literally just stand around and nothing would happen to you.

If you want to know if you enjoy survival games you have to play something like The Forest, The Long Dark, Subnautica, Stranded Deep, Green Hell etc. The appeal of these is you have to take risks to survive, food and water need to be gathered or else you die, and generally you’re trying to reach a goal (eg. escape the island or whatever).

Do we know if it's couch co-op?

@ThorsHammer I don't yet, no. But I do plan on snagging one at some point. Just waiting for a half decent sale.

@Breekhead I played The Forest. I thought it was awful. There was nothing compelling in the first hour that made me think I'd enjoy myself.

Airship base? Count me in.

@MFTWrecks I love No Mans Sky because I can have my own adventures. I have joined factions and fought against factions, been a space courier and a bounty hunter designed and built outposts and bases, completed countless expeditions, visited pirate space stations or been a space pirate alone and that's just a tiny sliver of the things you can do there is so much in the game now.

Sometimes I don't want everything to be scripted like in Fallout or Starfield. Sometimes I just want to explore planets or chill with my favourite faction characters or explore underwater biomes in my submarine or ride my motorbike jumping across the dunes or go cruising the beaches in my buggy during an alien sunset before blasting off to fly seamlessly through the clouds into space where I engage in dog fights, explore haunted abandoned freighters, fight enormous space monsters who live between the stars or protect massive ships being invaded by enemy factions or I can travel through black holes or if I'm feeling extra adventurous jump to an entirely new galaxy altogether. Maybe this time I find a planet I like and build an underwater base amid the glowing fauna and strange alien sea creatures peering at me from beyond the glass and making strange eerie sounds in the murky depths !

I know it is different for everyone but the less scripted nature frees me from being forced to play someone elses story as usual and allows me to make my own taking advantage of the masses of options the game provides and with a little imagination mixed with the masses of lore in game I am never bored.

I don't know if you are aware but the survival aspect isn't mandatory anymore and hasn't been for a while and you can just switch it off. That is only a very small part of the game now. It's a very different experience from how it was years ago and it is one of the most customisable games I have ever played. I love the fact it allows you play on your own terms instead of being forced to play a certain way.

It also has mechs ! Is there anything more I need to add ? That automatically makes a game a 10 outta 10 in my book 🤣 It's also great fun with friends and a completely different experience from playing alone. I know it might not be for you but it's worth trying without the survival aspects if that's is what you didn't like as freed from those constraints you might find you enjoy it way more and if you do try I again I really hope you do.

@Jett I mean, the problem (to me), is those are explicitly NOT characters you're interacting with. Their randomly generated NPCs with a few lines of dialog that go nowhere and don't evolve or change in any manner. There are no big epic pirate storylines or factions. It's just moving numbers on meters saying "these people like you more" or "they like you less." And that means damn near nothing when you think about it. You don't REALLY do anything.

You don't truly walk into a space station and have people cower in fear because the renowned pirate king is in their presence. You can't walk into a fight with an enemy and befriend them. You can't trick them into becoming your ally and double crossing them later on. You can't bribe your way out of a bad situation. You get attacked, you run or kill. And then those outcomes mean you're not in immediate danger and... that's it. It's a game about your immediate circumstance, surviving them, and then forgetting about it entirely.

There is no morality at play where you can be the most overzealous murderous psychopath in the known universe and people fear you. Nor can you be a renowned protector of the innocent, saving worlds from danger and have people adore you and shower you with praise and thanks. You are always just a no name space wanderer. It's all so static and so extremely one-dimensional.

Every planet is just a few space stations and outposts (if anything) over and over and over. It's a whole lot of game with nary a thing in it. And I say that as someone who LOVES the general idea of an explorable galaxy. I do. I swear.

I just find the whole thing so so hollow. The "exploring the unknown" (sadly) wore off on me really quickly. It didn't mean anything to me when it was all just numbers being switched around to generate the same-looking flora and fauna as I had "discovered" half a dozen planets ago.

I give them credit for making it a customizable experience. They deserve those props. But when it all comes down to it, it's collecting things, to make collecting other things easier. Over. And over. And over. But, hey! You can remove that part and just walk around and take pictures and build. Cool? Not so much in my book.

There is morality because if you double cross aliens or do things they don't like they won't trade with and will straight up ignore you. I understand the games not for everyone but when I save a mega ship from space pirates and return to my faction I feel like a returning hero. There are voice lines but all my favourite characters have entire personalities and I have good relationships with them though i admit those relationships are forged less through deep immersive dialogue are it would be fairer to say much of it is a figment of my overactive imagination. It's hard to explain but I built my biggest settlement from scratch. It was just a garden shed at first. Then I built my beautiful home before building more homes to attract an alien faction. Then I built offices and electricity generators, warp drives and indoors gardens and produced food and water for my happy clan everytime I come back from a mission my gorgeous funky weird cat people come say hi or if I'm honest usually pester me for things or complain in their adorably annoying way 🤣 I could even tell you what the marking are on my chief engineers cat persons face look like and I would recognise him a mile away and to me they all have their own identifies and personalities. Maybe I need to talk to a shrink hahahaha 🤣
I think I was damaged when I was younger.

You see I grew up in the era of the commodore C16 (we couldn't afford a Commodore 64)when games came on cassette in the early 80's. In my favourite game my fierce noble warrior character was actually a square sprite quite literally but to me he was a brave and courageous hero of a square bravely venturing forth to free his princess who was also a square pixel but she pink and she was a beautiful pink square at that 🤣 The forest I slayed dragons in were just a green wall but to me they were dangerous and dastardly places and the fierce dragons I was terrified of were literally to square pixels with two smaller squares pixels for wings. I guess what I'm getting at is in order to make those square blobs fun you have to invest a fair bit of effort into turning a faceless personality less square into. a fierce noble warrior or a few squares into a magical dragon and I think playing those games from a young child kind of fried my little mind and gave me a ridiculously out of control imagination. When you compare how easy it is to let your imagination go wild in No Mans Sky to the effort it takes to turn squares into warriors and pink square into your first girlfriend No Man's Sky is childs play. Giving my cat people back stories in which a magical world makes turning squares into dragons easy and maybe that makes games like No Mans Sky so enjoyable to me because I have always loved inventing my own adventures more than do playing through someone else's.

Don't get me wrong I love games with deep stories and scripts but I wonder if growing on Commodore C16 and my nostalgia for squares gave me a soft spot for games like this.

Sorry for rambling just thought if might help understand why I gravitate towards game like this and inventing stories. I have no idea how old you are and I apologise if you are familiar with games on early Commodores but if you haven't seen a Commodore Plus 4 or C16 game it might be funny to look up what a noble pixel knight looked like and it will give you an idea what my cute pink pixel girlfriend looked like 😍 I still miss my pink princess to this day 😭