Starry Studio’s Once Human is a free online multiplayer shooter that was released on July 9th. I love the genre, so I waited for the release and decided to start the game for a few minutes – just to check if everything was working. But things quickly got out of hand: it was only the dawn that pulled me away from building a cozy home and chopping up monsters. A week has passed since then, and Once Human is still shamelessly eating up my time. It’s all the more surprising to see the mixed reviews on Steam. Why is this survival game being criticized, and should I play it?
Once Human was one of the most anticipated games of July, but judging by the early reviews, it turned out to be perhaps the biggest disappointment. Accusations of mining, suspicions that the authors are illegally collecting user data and even infecting your computer with viruses, the controversial policy of distributing players between game worlds… What kind of game did we get?
I Can Tell You for a Fact that the Game is Safe
Of course, Once Human, published by one of the largest Chinese gaming companies, NetEase, does not engage in mining and does not infect anyone with viruses. On the Internet you can find detailed explanations of what files are included in the download manager, there is nothing wrong with them, and the fact that developers collect data about user activity in the game is a common practice, read the WOW agreement and you will be surprised too.
And yet, at first, Once Human didn’t really disappoint me, but rather surprised me. I was expecting a game focused on survival, but what I got was a looter-shooter with survival elements, something in the spirit of The Division. Moreover, it is an MMO that immediately emphasizes with its whole appearance that you are not the only hero-savior here, but one of many.
In the beginning, we meet this girl with a butterfly in her eye who plays a crucial role in the plot. In general, there are a lot of strange characters. For example, there is a merchant who has… a mushroom instead of a head.
A bizarre introduction explains the reasons for the local post-apocalypse. In addition to a pretty girl with a butterfly in her eye, there are experiments to create a special race of people, travel between worlds, and strange creatures from another dimension (they’re called Deviants) to fight the Metahumans, which is to say us. Then, we are literally dropped into a Fortnite-type world and asked to choose a place for our base in the open world.
So we fly on a local paraglider (this role is played by a talking bird named V), and from above, we see that everything below is filled with other players’ bases.
You feel like you’re on the beach in the heat of July. When you approach the place of the first serious battle, it seems that you have arrived at the sea, and all the approaches are already filled with tents. The game tells you that it would be better to set up a temporary camp where you will be resurrected if you die. And already a kilometer before the place, everything along the road is filled with the same camps of other players.
The Stardust is such a local corruption. The action takes place in two parallel worlds: one is calmer, where there are not many dangers, but the second is full of this very corruption.
All this is reflected in the characteristics of the local base structure. And there is no time for laughter and funny comparisons. We start, as usual, with a small area, and then for various successes and achievements, we receive skills (here they are called Memetic), which gradually open up construction options from sofas to walls, workbenches, and ore smelters. One of the upgrades allows you to expand your base, but this cannot be done near roads, “fortresses” (large abandoned buildings with monsters), and other players’ camps. And with the density of local buildings, this becomes a problem.
It can be solved – go to another world (there are many of them on each server) or enter a special mode and look for a more spacious and suitable place from a bird’s-eye view. When you finally succeed and find a place by the water, where no one is around but is full of greenery and the sun breaks through the palm trees, you feel like a lucky person who moved from Butovo to Goa. But it’s still confusing that you have to do so many body movements and dance with a tambourine.
Weapons, weapons, and weapons!
This isn’t very pleasant at first. Again, a shareware MMO with all that implies – microtransactions, gacha, and even a bunch of people literally sitting on your head. But your first impressions change pretty quickly, and you find it hard to tear yourself away from the game. What’s wrong with it? All looter shooters are highly addictive at first because they play on known human weaknesses. But Once Human is a high-quality and free looter-shooter, where practically only “cosmetics” are sold for money.
It is quite expensive, but various types of resources and currencies, including for customization, can be earned simply by playing the game, completing all sorts of tasks, challenges, and achievements – there are many variations of Battle Passes that constantly reward us. There is also a paid pass, but again the rewards are focused on “cosmetics” and resources.
So it all depends on us and our skills. And the gameplay itself is really addictive. It’s interesting to fight here – not only firearms and melee weapons are used in combat, but also magic, namely telekinesis, with the help of which we can throw flaming barrels at enemies or raise cannons in the air and shoot enemies with them.
In addition, you can call on those very deviants who have come from another dimension for help. Some of them are not terrible monsters but funny creatures that can be useful in one area or another. For example, a butterfly can attack or distract enemies at your command.
There are many types of weapons, and each can and should be made, repaired, and improved on the workbench. In addition, we are free to add mods with bonuses to the weapons, install additional devices such as improved optics, paint them any way we want, and put stickers on them. And believe me, tinkering with your favorite sniper is a joy. The same goes for armor, which is plentiful here. You’ll have to fight various bizarre enemies, but it’s best not to touch this walking bus for the time being.
What about the open world?
In Once Human, it is also interesting to explore the world, including finding blueprints and other resources for crafting. The world is large, open, and colorful. We are gradually sent to new, increasingly dangerous areas. And everywhere, there is a central plot task – to kill the main local reptile, after which the hunt opens for the next one. But no one is stopping you from roaming freely, searching for resources, activating different towers and altars (they give special rewards), and clearing all kinds of dungeons and outposts. There are countless activities and points of interest.
Yes, it sounds like another “open world” from Ubisoft, but no one is forcing us to activate towers (they increase the radius of fast movement) and clear outposts, much less ask us to do it according to a scenario. Each of these zones is a unique place, naturally woven into the world. It could be a huge warehouse, an underground base, open farmland with scarecrows and corn, a dark village with cultists, or a flooded city with crocodiles.
In search of loot, the road takes us everywhere. And the locations are worked out in detail everywhere. Each zone is filled with monsters, objects, and sometimes puzzles. And each one has tasks – kill an elite enemy, find all the chests, and so on. But again, no one forces you to do this, and you can run in, grab something from the quest, and ride off on your bike with hard rock music on the radio. Only if you complete the quests and tasks will you get additional rewards.
There are also a lot of side quests. Yes, almost everything boils down to finding something, picking it up and bringing it back, helping to clean up a place, investigating the appearance of another monster, or finding a treasure based on clues. But this is quite normal for a scavenger hunt game, and there are also quite interesting situations, both tragic and funny. In one scene, we learn that our quest giver sent a pregnant woman to her death, and in another, after searching for a mutated dragon, we find a weirdo in a carnival costume, for whom we have to cook and fry on the stove.
Once a man, now “super” with a cat
The survival mechanics also leave a generally pleasant impression. As I said, this is an MMO with survival elements, not the other way around, so everything is quite casual. The character is dependent on hunger and thirst, periodically his stamina decreases and different statuses are imposed, for example if he was in the water for a long time. In addition, in dangerous areas and when encountering aggressive deviants, mental health starts to decrease – if it drops critically, we get both positive and very unpleasant negative effects.
But the game is full of consumables to help you cope with all this. You can also travel back to your base from almost anywhere at any time and sleep in bed to recover. Of course, the further we go through the plot and into more dangerous regions, the harder it gets, but it is still nothing compared to what we see in real survivalists.
But resources are more complicated. Yes, there are a lot of them. Wood, stones, berries, and some types of ore will always spawn next to the base, no matter where you place it. But for many important operations and for creating/repairing/improving equipment, you need special ingots, especially bronze ingots, which are obtained after processing. And you need a lot of them, and some of the types of ore required for them may be less available in your region.
So we have to take that very seriously as well as getting blueprints for crafting and memetic points that unlock new abilities in the base. It’s not as serious as full-blown survival games, but it’s not primitive either – Once Human strikes a balance between casual and hardcore.
In PvE mode, you can safely collect resources from other players’ bases – they are still there, consider them common. I also really liked how you can use the aforementioned peaceful deviants in the base. Some of these creatures help in combat, while others work around the house. Among them are paper and stone men. The latter extract stones and ore and bring them back to the base. But the main attraction is the giant cat that lies next to you while you sleep, purring and giving you rest bonuses.
Freedom of choice
In the end, the decision to populate the worlds of Once Human, which raised some questions at first, turned out to be the right one. Not only do you get used to other players, but without them, you feel sad and lonely. Even if you don’t intend to contact anyone, when you suddenly don’t see players rushing by for a long time, you can’t help but wonder where everyone went.
Furthermore, this is true for both PvE and PvP servers. In the former case, you can play at your own pace and regularly experience the spirit of camaraderie and brotherhood. Once Human has a convenient system for finding and creating groups, and it is best not to go to the story bosses outside of that system (especially on higher than normal difficulties). You can also form your own groups of four (called hives) or join them in guilds (warbands). This is especially useful during large seasonal events and the Prime War when the entire community must fight world bosses.
But even if you don’t do any of these things, you might stumble upon another player who is fiercely defending some mechanism in the industrial complex. You will help him, shake his hand, or even add him as a friend, and find out that this was one of the regular activities for which there is a good reward. And there are many such little things. For example, just like in Dark Souls and other games, players can leave notes. Some are malicious jokes or ridiculous, but many are useful hints on where to find a rare mystical chest or how to solve a puzzle.
In PvE mode, you can fight with other players if you wish – but only by mutual agreement if you yourself are in “chaos mode” and wish to participate in the activities. PvP also has this mode, but it works differently – there are fewer restrictions and more opportunities to kick your neighbor’s ass.
The main PvP events include battles for “strongholds” and “contested territories” – these are densely populated competitive zones, entering which automatically activates Chaos Mode and makes you a target for other players. Only in “Player vs. Player” mode can you fight for valuable Echo Stones – you have to bring them to your base and clear them, but then your house in the village becomes a legal PvP zone. This is where turrets and other defensive structures will be needed. After that, a fairly moderate existence in PvE will seem like a lost paradise.
Let’s move on to questions
I’m not asking for anything. The important thing here is that everyone decides for themselves which scenario they want to play in – then it will no longer be possible to transfer your character from one to the other. And that seems quite logical. More questions were raised by the fact that each player is tied to a specific world – and they evolve independently. If your friends start playing in one world and you start playing in another, you will have to move your base and find a new place for it. This can be done, but we have to admit that this mechanic looks ambiguous.
There are also questions about the cross-play system. The game is available on PC, but can be played in different stores and through different launchers. And for Steam accounts, as the developers themselves report, “cross-platform support is not available… due to their inherent limitations”.
Finally, not everyone liked the fact that the game, which is divided into seasons (each of which lasts six weeks), deletes your progress after the season ends. As it turns out, Once Human has found a rather elegant solution – there is a special zone, Eternaland, where you can not only build, grow your farm, fish, complete tasks, and earn currency in free mode but also save some items between seasons, as well as unlocked blueprints for buildings and equipment. This “Eternal Land” does not open right away (I unlocked it at level 20) – until then, you have something that can be transferred and saved.
Yes, once Human had some questions, but it wasn’t a disappointment. On the contrary, I happily stayed with the game for three days and spent a long time understanding the mechanics of Eternaland, because I’m already thinking about the second season. The authors created an interesting world, filled it with activities and quests, and allowed us to choose how, at what pace, and with whom to play. Of course, it’s not a fact that pay-to-win will not appear in the next seasons, but for now, Once Human leaves a very good impression.
