Starry Studio’s take on a post-apocalyptic multiplayer survival adventure with Once Human is a solid one, a gripping and often consistent game that is making some waves. Released under the controversial free-to-play monetization system, it is nonetheless one that offers a lot of content for no cost whatsoever, more than enough at least to get a decent taste of this survival’s mechanics, for better and for worse.

Meta-Humans and Butterflies

The tale behind Once Human is a familiar one of apocalypse, with an alien creature named Stardust infecting everything and everyone. Again, you are the one that every NPC sees as a savior, the chosen one, which is always odd to see when nearby there are five other players rushing around, completing missions, dealing with their affairs as if they were the heroes of this story. That’s just how every MMO goes in terms of questing, and it was to be expected here.

The initial days in Once Human proved a couple of things. The first one is that free-to-play continues to be a massive “selling” point, drawing thousands and thousands of players into a game, allowing them to enjoy a good part of content without having to worry about reaching a paywall soon enough; the second one is that survival games are still in high demand, judging by the player numbers that exceeded NetEase’s best expectations. There’s also another important note, which is the initial and unwarranted player outrage regarding the fine print in the privacy policy before you play Once Human, apparently something that is not as big of a topic anymore.

One thing that does worry the player base is the thought of a server wipe every six weeks, for each new season. While the developers have stated that some in-game currency, blueprints, and story progress remains, there may be some caveats to this that the community isn’t accepting lightly, but we’ll reserve judgment on the actual seasonal wipes when the time comes.

Regarding gameplay, Once Human mostly does a good job with the foundations of the genre. The world is vast and fun to explore, offering some nice diversity and marriage between nature and extraterrestrial, and it looks quite good overall. Ignore the occasional lower quality NPC or the weird vehicle handling and physics, such as the bike you get early on, and you have a free-to-play game of obvious high production values in your hands.

As an MMO, you’re going to see some players around here and there. You’re bound to go alone for a while but you can join others later on; however, it was very easy to see starting bases and even some impressive houses from other explorers, but one feature that stands out is the whisper system. Think of this as Dark Souls’ messages, but with the freedom to write anything your heart desires, which can be both good and bad. Most of the time, players leave some useful tips near certain items or areas, teaching you what to do or to be wary of a tough fight; sometimes, it’s just random silliness or a vapid “hi” that isn’t worth the time and effort of reading the whisper. You can, however, thumbs up or down these, hopefully with some sort of potential to make the most downvoted whispers disappear in the near future.

I’m not a big fan of the UI… or maybe I should rephrase this. Once Human has a ton of systems going on and you need to swiftly navigate through them. Crafting and building, for example, is fairly good, no major worries getting in and out of build mode and crafting your structures given you have the required resources and learned how to go on about it. However, some menus are convoluted and just open up to more menus, mainly the ones for the shop, events, challenges, and so on, where everything just jumps at you left and right and can become a little overwhelming until you make your peace, or just endure it.

There’s a pet system in the game where you collect these creatures called Deviations and they offer you various buffs to your base, help out in combat, or aid with resource gathering. Meeting their requirements will boost efficiency, so there’s another familiar yet engaging loop to keep you on your toes. Since your house can have diverse things such as defense turrets, fish tanks, or even pianos, there’s a lot to unlock in terms of purely cosmetic but also performance-boosting qualities.

Still Human in Combat

While you’re going to face many monstrosities and anomalies of varying sizes danger levels, your weaponry is more down to earth than expected, and could be something out of DayZ or other survival game. Bows, pistols, sniper rifles, AK-47, machetes, and so on, which you can expand with some upgrades and buffs. The sensations aren’t out of this world, but some finishing moves with the machete are fun to see and the weight of the weapons is somewhat enjoyable. The largest chunk of combat is on the average spectrum, with enemies that aren’t frankly exciting or clever, just your dumb run-of-the-mill fodder. Some larger creatures, however, are more interesting and challenging, requiring at least some skill and patience to deal with. PvP is part of the plans as well, although I have been focused on the PvE part as of yet, so the consideration over that area will come at another time.

Once Human looks stunning sometimes, with dynamic weather and some views to die for, sometimes literally in-game. The character customization at the start is quite detailed, delivering some fun and unique heroes if you put the time and effort. However, the quality of other characters wildly varies, some NPCs and enemies clearly below the standard of your model and some of the sights, making for an uneven world.

Fans of survival MMOs should get their share of resource gathering, combat, and building in Once Human. For a free-to-play game, it offers quite an impressive playtime to enjoy without any constrictions, and the production values are quite good overall. It can be a riot for solo players for some long hours but it gets more enjoyable in a group, and the issues that be aren’t enough to deter any player who is having fun with it. Give it a shot and the most you can lose is the time it took you to install it and play for a while.

Score: 7.5/10

Pros:

• Great production values for a F2P survival MMO
• Really good building system with lots to delve into
• Gameplay loop is solid yet familiar
• Whispers system is a nice addition

Cons:

• Combat is by-the-numbers and average for the most
• Partial season resets can be an issue
• Some menus are convoluted and just too many

Once Human review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.