Once Human review

Sometimes it’s hard to be a fan of other people, particularly online. I’m not much of a socialite at the best of times, and largely play games to escape the world and all the inherent stress. I don’t mind popping some heads in Destiny 2’s Crucible or teaming up with nameless randoms to tackle a gargantuan beastie in Monster Hunter World, but generally speaking I can take or leave the social experience. It’s why I rarely play MMOs nowadays, and simply ignore all the people charging around me in games like Diablo 4 (unless I want to take on a World Boss, of course, and then I’m suddenly everyone’s bestie). But something about Starry Studios’ Once Human has compelled me nonetheless,

Things that bothered me in early access titles like Bellwright and Nightingale simply haven’t here, and I honestly don’t know exactly why. Case in point is that, in the early-game areas in particular, evidence of Other People is everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. From glowing little “whispers” that act like Dark Soul-like notes and tips to literal half-built homes, or the hilariously silly tent-cities that remain outside boss encounters or tough missions zones because everyone and their dog has dropped a temporary save point there and the game never cleans them up – Once Human is littered with the detritus of humanity.

Which is fitting, I suppose, for a post-apocalyptic survival horror wherein the Earth has been invaded by a mutating alien compound called Stardust, and most of humanity has gone the way of the dodo. As a survivor in this world you find yourself possessed of the ability to manipulate the Stardust in certain ways, making you uniquely suited to saving what’s left of the world. I say “uniquely” with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek as another player wearing nothing but his pants and a modified American Football Helmet screeches by me on a bike identical to my own, but you get the intended message.

You’ll team up with a magical bird called V and a mystical spirit lady, then ingratiate yourself with a ragtag band of fortune-fighting survivors before heading out to fight monsters with lamps and briefcases for heads, or giant segmented buses that walk on multiple arm-like legs. You’ll mine copper in your backyard and slaughter majestic deer by the actual dozen for hide and meat, while collecting alien creatures called Deviations like you’re playing Pokemon in the end-times.

Once Human is as much about building and surviving as it is about combat and exploration, and Starry Studios and NetEase have done a tremendous job with quality-of-life right out of the box. Gathering materials is simple and quick, while crafting early-level items like storage boxes is made super easy. It doesn’t take long before you’ve built a rudimentary hut fitted with its own teleporter and containment facility for the Deviations you find. Advancing to second storeys, or more sophisticated methods of cooking, growing, and storing food swiftly follow. And you can craft everything with materials out of your storage, without needing to stockpile everything in your inventory.

An easy to use skill-point system allows you to move fairly quickly along multiple skill trees, unlocking more and more ways to build, craft, decorate, and prosper. Hunger and thirst meters are fair, rarely feeling intrusive since food and drink are in abundance around you. Likewise, you sleep not to remove tiredness but to restore your sanity, which consistently takes knocks from fighting giant explosive spiders that look like lightbulbs or hornets the size of border collies.

One of my only real complaints is that, even though control is confined to mouse and keyboard at present, the building controls are excruciatingly fiddly. Why every game can’t just be ass easy as Enshrouded in this regard, I don’t know, but seriously: try to build a simple roof in Once Human and then come back to me when you’ve finished pulling out your own eyelashes in frustration. Other complaints include some weird enemy behaviour, the way your character nods and gestured mutely in response to voiced dialogue, and some fairly prominent visual glitches now and then. Perhaps these are to be expected in a large, free, open world game, but they’re still worth mentioning.

That said, Once Human is a game designed to be played. And while that sounds obvious and ridiculous to read, what I mean is that the developer has removed a number of the usual boundaries right from the off. Want to relocate your “territory” to be nearer to a new questing area or resource? You can do it with zero charge and no waiting: simply relocate your entire house and grounds in an instant, and redistribute your furniture. Want to get around quicker in the open world? You’ll craft a bike in the first four to five hours that you can summon with two clicks whenever you need it. Ammo is available in abundance, and you can carry a huge amount of resources without worrying about encumbrance.

The price paid here, though, is that you must also contend with the live service aspects of Once Human, a ridiculous amount of currencies, menus that constantly remind you of live events, new cosmetics, and seasonal activities that you’ll feel compelled to take part in purely down to fear of missing out. You can craft tons of weapons and armour using blueprints that bind to your account, but the coolest-looking stuff is always walled behind the cash shop or the grind, which in itself starts to become incredibly up-hill in the later game.

But there’s a lot of fun to be had in Once Human before – and after – that point. A lot of the open world revolves around clearing outposts. These are often abandoned towns, shopping precincts, labs, gas stations, farms, and multiple other areas that can be cleaned out for resources, gear chests, special blueprints, sometimes new teleporter locations. A fair few missions require you to search these areas, too, which could become samey if not for the fact that there’s always something worth finding.

Currently there are three large bosses to take on, either alone or in a group, and they follow the same design ethos as all the other enemies – that if you can stick extra limbs on it and make it look gross, it’s worth making it an enemy. The monster design is very cool throughout, with some of the minor enemies paying pretty close “homage” to the Clickers from The Last of Us, but with shooting and combat that feels reminiscent of Massive Entertainment’s The Division.

You can, of course, opt to play in a PvP-enabled server, which feature extra activities that pit you against other players – but you can’t change once you begin a character. If you want to indulge in PvP you must select that type of server at character creation. At a certain point you can even unlock a special server called “Eternaland”, which is essentially a creative sandbox mode where you can simply gather resources and build, foregoing any of that pesky saving-the-world nonsense.

Ultimately, Once Human is an immensely playable, atmospheric and addictive third-person survival crafter with enough content at launch to carry you through the first batch of seasonal drops and a huge world to go out and explore, alone or with others. It has its fair share of jank at times, from the awkward building controls to weird AI, texture pop-in, and the dreaded online lag, but none of these were able to distract me from a rich, colourful world, fun combat, and well-balanced survival-crafting elements. It’s also free-to-play, with a monetisation system that’s visible but not intrusive. What more could you want?