Upon final release I am massively let down. The final touches are very limited and not interesting. The game feels like it was actually done in the beta, they just enabled a few visual things and that was that.

Truly a disappointment that this is the finished product. Story is lacking bordering on non existent, majority of the gameplay is found across countless games. The truly unique concepts have no use and the end game grind is pointless.

All dungeons are identical, the gameplay loop wears itself out in no time.

My playtime includes two early access runs, and one after the 1.0 release.
The concept is great.
The environment is, initially, fantastic.
The improvements have been good.
The building aspect is very well implemented.
The story is somewhat interesting, if not immensely lacking.
But, then you realize that the game isn't "finished". It feels about 75% of the way there.
Everything is there except content. Once you've explored for an hour or two, you've more or less seen 80% of what the game has to offer, and repeating tasks doesn't feel good due to copy+paste locations.

Subnautica meets Raft. Sounds good, but not in execution. It's important I talk about these two first.

In Subnautica, you're very base-bound. You build a small hovel and you orbit it. You build vehicles that let you go out further, maybe you build forward bases, but you often ultimately come back to the first base you have as it's the most central location. You're forced to explore new areas, explore new tunnels, search new angles as previous areas are cleaned out of materials with a constant risk of dangers around you and not knowing what's ahead.

But once you build the Cyclops in Subnautica, everything changes. You are no longer bound to that one base. You can fill up the Cyclops with tons of storage, crafting, food, battery charging. Every single thing can squeeze into a Cyclops and become your base. This is the big turning point of the game, a massive 'aha!' type ordeal that takes a lot of effort.

And in Raft, resources float around you. You're never without the resources you need, which is instead what Forever Skies opts for. You go to preset islands to get extra, new stuff. The game is generally a more peaceful experience, so its combat is rather ♥♥♥♥. Subnautica pressures you instead to avoid combat entirely instead, because unsatisfying combat is much worse than no combat and different systems entirely. And just to mention, the big 'aha!' moment in Raft is learning how to make nets and making a raft so wide that you're just flush with materials.

Now. Forever Skies has no big 'aha!' moment. You can always expand your ship fairly easily as you need more space. The closest you can say to it is gaining larger backpacks. The ventures you make out aren't dangerous, even less so than Raft's because there's no "shark". They're also repetitive, more than Raft's, because every "island" is seen at least thirty times so you already know whatever dangers there *aren't*. Even on "Hard" mode, there's no risk of going hungry or thirsty, you don't have to worry about air until way later and even then, you're swamped with items that will give you oxygen back. The pressure is entirely off as you explore identical islands and just fatten up your home in a peaceful like experience.

But that's not to say it doesn't try to make it seem like there's going to be danger and pressure. They try to hype up the mantis enemies that, realistically, you can just run right past or kill in three shots with Charged Bolts, so even slight preparation makes it super easy. Rest assured, you are *never* in danger of anything other than falling from one little goof (or bug). However, Raft at least has the bear. There is an enemy in that game that you can't nearly as easily prepare for.

But Forever Skies fancies itself hard at the same time. Later on, you unlock Boosters, all kinds of wild and different buffs that you will *never* need except for two, both of which are requirements to walk past barriers. You are *swamped* with medkits that you just start throwing out because what even is there to damage you? You barely need to filter water or cook food because every island you visit has so many cans of water, isotonic drinks, old rations... I was on Hard, and I was struggling to find somewhere *to struggle*.

I also sequence broke by accident a few times because I just wanted to see if there was something to explore and find on my own that wasn't gonna be pointed to but every single thing is pointed to.

Now, is all this bad? No, it's just dull. The tense, dramatic trailers of Forever Skies betrays its benign, ultra peaceful, super handholdy, mega safe, little sandbox for children to explore around in and go wow. But in the trailers, those scenarios where *everything* is damaged? That's never going to happen unless you try to make it happen.

It's great first survival game for small children to explore, but not much else. You could call this a failure to not research your competition, or just a survival game for people who hate survival. I liked the designs, though. They're nice.