Once Human offers a thoroughly entertaining open-world treasure hunt, but is held back by weak action and general confusion.
On the surface, most of what’s in Once Human has been done before. In some cases, it’s better than what’s come before. It seems like a classic example of design by committee, with all the hallmarks of a free-to-play multiplayer open-world survival horror, including a flashy shop and a two-track battle pass. There are about 11 billion menus and items to keep track of, the user interface is incredibly confusing, and in places the game just feels unfinished; you can’t use a controller, for example, and your character seems to be able to communicate only by waving his arms wildly, like improvised signals.
Yet here I was, wandering around this abandoned hospital at 3:30am – that’s the real-life time, not the game clock, I’m embarrassed to say – because I only had one crate left to find to “complete” this fortress, and I think Maybe there is a magical gun hidden in here.
Humanity was once a drop in the ocean of post-apocalyptic survival games, but it was a lot of fun. Rather than struggling to survive in a world ravaged by war or plague, we were fighting deadly otherworldly creatures called Stardust that would transform everyday objects into bloodthirsty demons in order to save humanity. The more worlds you explore, the more you’ll find yourself saying, “What the hell is this?” That? ! ” An animated satellite dish, a drooling suitcase, or a bunch of colorful balloons extend from where the gorilla’s head would have been and pounce on you.
What’s even more interesting is that Stardust doesn’t just conjure up things that want to kill you. Other “mutations” turn into collectible creatures, from ferocious butterflies to paper house elves to brooding gingerbread houses. As a parahuman, your job — which apparently means you’re mute and travel the world with a Death Stranding-style backpack — is to rid the world of parahumans and collect them. You know. Like Pokémon. The ones you proudly collect in little glass display cases at home.
If this all sounds a bit like SCP Foundation, that’s because it is. Once Human’s inspirations are very apparent here, from its sprawling Far Cry world, Rust survival gameplay, and Elden Ring-style player messaging system that only really gets in your way (you know when someone leaves a note at the bottom of a ladder in Elden Ring, stopping you from climbing up? Yeah). That) Yet it never gets boring, driving gently along the sun-dappled river, watching deer frolicking while the hulking eight-legged buses zip toward you.
What about the combat itself? Hmm. I’ve played better. At first, the game is pretty simple, and you’ll feel completely overwhelmed as you fight your way through hordes of aliens or roaring suitcases. Enemies are mostly slow and clumsy, though I’ll admit that I felt a little out of place when I first encountered a human enemy. I’ve played for about 35 hours now and haven’t died yet, so make of that what you will.
The challenge increases a bit midway through, but even then, the boss fights aren’t that difficult tankMy brother and I went into a level 20 dungeon to fight a “tree man”. We were too high level and each of us had over a thousand rounds of ammunition, but we ran out of supplies just as we broke his health bar. This meant we had to finish the fight under the monster’s legs, chopping its ankles with a machete. I think it gave up and died of boredom. God knows I almost died.
Sometimes, there’s just too much to quest. There are too many items to collect, too many skill trees, too many menus, too many things to unlock, too many resources, too many icons flashing angrily in your face. If I spelled out the million things your character needs to unlock or understand, you’d still be reading this on Christmas morning. The funny thing is, I managed to upgrade my character, weapons, deviations, and base without having a clue what half the stuff in my backpack does. What’s even less fun, though, is that I spend more time dealing with my backpack than I do anything else, endlessly moving things around to different chests and storage units to lighten my load and at least keep my character running. Oh, and there are smithing ingots. God, how much time I’ve wasted hunched over a furnace.
Thanks to that forge, though—not to mention the myriad crafting stations and resource-management tools you’ll unlock early on—you can not only forge assault rifles from a blueprint and an empty roll of toilet paper, but you can also enhance them, modify them, choose different ammunition, and do a lot of things to keep combat fresh. Again, this is a a lot of – there’s still a lot I don’t understand, not least why I can repair weapons I’ve made but not ones I’ve found – but at least Once Human’s overly forgiving combat gives you plenty of time and space to experiment.
Its survival elements are also very forgiving, and I say that because I’d hardly stop for a sandwich in the middle of a frenetic boss fight for fun. Once Human deftly balances the need to survive with the need to keep things fun. There’s a sanity system, sure, and there are requisite skills and cooking recipes to learn, but even building your own base is thrilling, and all the methods work well. As someone who has neither the patience nor the imagination to build great gothic structures or glass-walled cathedrals, it’s a little surprising that I enjoyed building my own bases and being inspired by others’ (even if the building UI is fiddly and hard to master).
Developer Starry Studio has even gone so far as to ease the frustration of navigating the vast world. While there’s no instant fast travel system, you can unlock teleportation towers, and there are plenty of them around, making it easier to get around. You’ll also unlock the world’s jiggliest motorcycle early on, which will make exploration exponentially faster (just remember to bring spare fuel). Later on, you and a friend can hop in a jeep and go exploring, too. The metahuman also has a second-sight-like power that lets you see collectibles and points of interest in the local environment.
But Once Human’s lively, vibrant world is undoubtedly its biggest draw. While if a server is popular, its surroundings may become crowded with other players’ bases and makeshift camps (especially in your Fortress), Enforcement Camping), and watching the landscape change as other players unlock new skills and building materials is incredibly satisfying. As you grow, the world around you changes, and you discover more of Once Human’s secrets, from crates hidden in rocks, to PvE public events, PvP modes, and what’s waiting for you in the belly of that walking bus…
Because that’s where the magic is. Explore, adventure, satisfy your curiosity, and scavenge the mountains, beaches, and everything in between. Yes, there are monsters, but there are also deer and crocodiles, and plenty of resources to discover. No, admittedly, the wilderness isn’t as lively as you’d find in a Far Cry or Assassin’s Creed game, but I’m not complaining about that. With so many crops to find, seeds to plant, and resources to harvest, you could easily waste an entire evening without getting close to the main campaign – in fact, I have I spent the entire night without getting into the main story. I don’t know if I’ve suddenly fallen in love with survival games, or if there’s something special about Once Human, but this comforting loop of a game didn’t make me feel anxious at all. (This is also not like me.)
Perhaps most surprising of all? It’s free. And I really mean free. I mention this not because any game is inherently better or worse because of its price, but because it’s so rare these days for a free-to-play game to do so well, especially when it comes to live service games. Of course, the value of the game can be no way Depending on its upfront price, yes, Once Human is indeed rife with cosmetics and microtransactions. But the key point is, there is nothing The game, which you can buy with the game’s dizzying array of currencies, is pay-to-win. There are no loot boxes or “helpful” time-saving features in the game, nor the usual nefarious methods we often see used to lead players down a path that ultimately makes you spend money. You don’t have to bypass page after page of upsell efforts to get into the game. It will be interesting to see if Starry Studio and NetEase’s stance changes in the coming weeks and months.
Surprised? Me too. I never imagined that free online gaming would be an endless slog filled with traps and unforced errors from other games I’d started and stopped playing because the genre was saturated. But, I made myself another “Slippery When Wet” sign late at night and put it next to my water tank.
Eurogamer was provided with a copy of Once Human for this review.
