Once Human Review – This is the MMO I’ve Been Waiting For
Once Human Review
Story/Lore: 9/10
Aesthetics: 8/10
Character Customization: 9/10
Overall Gameplay: 10/10
Imagine if Fallout 76, The Division, Resident Evil, and Pokemon had a baby. That beautiful, creepy, but lovable baby would be the new free-to-play, open-world MMO-like, multiplayer Once Human. Starry Studio and NetEase Games take the survival genre to a new level, setting the game miles apart from the many, many survival games already saturating the market. Once Human fuses all the typical survival horror RPG tropes and somehow makes it work very, very well.
What is Once Human About?
Once again, humans have f*cked up and caused an apocalyptic event. Scientists from tech giant Rosetta (think Umbrella Corporation) harnessed an unearthly substance called Stardust and caused a catastrophic event, opening a gateway for aliens to walk through and invade. These aliens can manipulate a living creature or an inanimate object, turning them into monsters—Deviants. Humans struggled to survive for 30 years. In those 30 years, Rosetta continued their pursuit to become even more powerful to contend with The Great Ones.
Then you wake up in a Rosetta laboratory on the island of Nalcott with no memory of who you are—what you are. As you play the game, you will uncover the mystery behind who you are and your mission.
Character Creation
Once Human has one of the most intricate character creation systems. In addition to the normal creation mechanisms, they have introduced a unique weight class mechanic that impacts gameplay. Players can adjust their character's weight, which does not correlate with height, to fall into one of three categories: Light, Moderate, or Heavy. Each category has bonuses and penalties that are playstyle-defining and irreversible post-creation. Light characters have increased attack speed but reduced damage with melee weapons, and higher stamina, making them suitable for players who prefer agility and speed. Moderate characters balance defense and stamina recovery, providing a versatile build. Heavy characters, while slower, deal more damage and have better weapon stability, catering to players who favor strength.
The extensive character creation options give players the leeway to get as creative as possible with their character’s physical features. Of course, I love a game that allows me to create a Black character whose skin doesn’t look ashy the darker I make her. Thank you, thank you, thank you, devs! If you want to change up your look, you can do that by building a floor mirror in your territory and using a Chrysalis Token to reforge your character.
Once Human Gameplay
Once Human is such a fun ride. Starry Studio and NetEase Games simplified the typical survivor-shooter gameplay tactics without making it feel boring or too easy. Like most survival games, you have to forage and scavenge to survive. The survival-crafting genre is overly saturated, but Once Human feels refreshing, even though much of the game feels like a new and improved version of NetEase’s other free-to-play, post-apocalyptic survival game, LifeAfter, especially the community-building aspect.
While exploring and scavenging, you will come across different chance encounters, puzzles, and more. Use SpaceTime (press Q on PC) to find things hidden in a space rift near you. And pay attention to your Cradle (your backpack). If a flashing light starts blinking on your Cradle, you’re close to a Memetic Crate. Once Human has something for everyone, camp building, fishing, PvP (not my forte), gardening/farming, selling and making money, and end-game content.
Memetics
After you wake up, V, your new friend, a former meta-human turned raven, teaches you how to survive off the land and introduces you to the Memetic Cypher system. Memetics is a system of four skill trees: Infrastructure, Crafting, Logistics, and Building. These skills let you unlock abilities and use formulas. Gain Cyphers from completing missions, leveling, completing Season Goals, capturing Deviants, and more. Use Cyphers to unlock formulas on the skill tree including allowing you to mine higher-level ore and upgrading your crafting bench.
Memetics has so many amazing features for players that allow you to automate some tedious tasks around your home, including mining and logging. Memetics’ intricate system allows you to choose a specialization as well, which unlocks a new formula within that specialization.
Once Human Territories (Home)
One of the most fun aspects of this survival game is building up your territory. Your territory is your home. One of the first skills you will unlock in Memetics is Wooden Support, which is pretty basic. In addition to Memetics, however, you can find formulas for furniture as well as placeable furniture while out in the wilds of Nalcott doing missions or scavenging.
You can build your territory practically anywhere except on roads, within strongholds, major points of interest, or overlapping with other players' territories. You can construct a variety of prefabricated structures on your territory, provided you have the resources needed. Moving your territory is straightforward and free, although it is subject to a cooldown period and varies with your level. When relocating, all your items and facilities are transferred to the Territory Terminal Vault.
Shops and Currencies
The world of Once Human uses three basic currencies:
Energy Link: You can earn Energy Links through most activities: completing missions, finding crates, running dungeons, and completing Exploration tasks. EL is used to pay for teleporting to a Teleportation Tower, crafting and calibrating gear and weapons, it’s also used to buy items from other players’ vending machines.
Starchrom: You can earn Starchrom by completing Season Goals, Journey challenges, Territory Cleansing, and other methods. Starchrom is used in the Season Shop (summon V to Open Season Shop) and at the Wish Machine to make a wish or buy a blueprint.
Crystgin: Crystgin is the currency you buy with real money in the Top Up store and is used to buy cosmetic items.
Weapons and Armor
The weapons system in Once Human is pretty easy to understand. The game has nine types of weapons: Pistols, Shotguns, Submachine Guns, Assault Rifles, Sniper Rifles, LMGs, Bows/Crossbows, Heavy Artillery, and Melee Weapons. Each weapon type has several brands that can be unlocked. Players can have two ballistic and a melee weapon equipped – so they can have three weapons equipped at all times. One of the cool things is that weapons can be switched out while in combat (you need to be in a safe spot to do it quickly or the situation can get dicey).
Players can get weapons and armor from random drops from mobs, bosses, and inside crates or they can craft them. To upgrade your weapons, armor, and mods you must upgrade your Gear Workbench. Your gear and modifications can only be upgraded as high as your workbench. Though bullets are crafted at the Supplies Workbench, you must upgrade your Supplies Workbench and unlock the Memetic to craft higher-level ammunition.
You can buy gear skins in the shops or you can find some skins while out in the wilderness doing your thing. Even during the first two weeks, the skins are a’plenty.
Deviants
The typical survival game usually centers around some type of outbreak that leads to zombies. Once Human, however, put a fresh twist on the “outbreak” survival trope by introducing Deviants. Deviants are organisms that have been contaminated by Stardust and have undergone partial decay. These anomalies come in many forms, and they could be anything, including a man with a searchlight for a head who does damage to you when he shines the light on you. Or it could be an inanimate object brought to life.
Not all Deviants are hostile. Some Deviants aren’t hostile until you provoke them. You will encounter some Deviants who only want to cook a fire meal (literally) or just want to cuddle with you while you are sleeping (partial spoiler).
Each capturable Deviant falls into one of three categories: Combat, Territory, or Crafting. Yes, you can capture Deviants like Pokemon and keep them in your territory. Deviants possess distinct powers that can aid in combat, resource gathering in your territory, or even teleporting allies. For instance, the Butterfly’s Emissary is a combat attacker that you acquire early in the game and is adept at attacking enemies within its proximity. To use a combat Deviant, you need to synchronize the Deviant to your Cradle.
Once Human Seasons
Instead of having the normal Seasons that most games have implemented, Once Human took a different approach to “Seasons” and implemented Scenarios. A Scenario is a monthly occurrence of fresh gameplay experience with new missions, game modes, and events on both PvP and PvE servers. In the scenario there’s a new Story Event each week, lasting six days.
At the end of each season, players' progress, including major currencies and recipe unlocks, is preserved in the Eternal Land, a hub for storing valuable resources and showcasing achievements. Although gear and memetics from the previous season are not carried over, players can re-level and complete quests to regain them. Additionally, players can save and transfer structures they've built as blueprints to the new season, allowing for continuity and a sense of progression. Each Scenario brings unique content and challenges, detailed in the official Once Human website and Starry Studio's blog posts.
The only thing I don’t like about this is having to start over. Then again, the game is fresh and has not had a reset yet. Still, that bothers me.
Dungeons and Cross-play
The dungeons house the biggest, most grotesque Deviants to fight. The boss fights are challenging and require strategies to take on the unique fight mechanics. And these mechanics are unique and fresh to the point you don’t mind dying the first few times to figure them out. The Deviants are grotesque monstrosities and combat.
Players are encouraged to form Hives. Hives are teams that can build a territory together to withstand the onslaught of monsters. Hives are unique social units where up to eight players can share territory and resources, fostering a sense of community and mutual progress. Warbands are larger alliances, like guilds, comprising multiple Hives, that can include up to 50 players, focusing on large-scale PvP battles and territory control.
The game makes teaming up with others on the same server relatively easy. If you’re looking for a group press U and a list of teams pops up. From there, you can also create your own team.
If you want to make sure you can play with your friends, coordinate which server you want to join beforehand because cross-server play is currently limited. However players can switch between worlds within the same server, and each server has 10 worlds to play on. Developers have said cross-server character transfers will be coming either in late 2024 or early 2025. Also, cross-play between PC and mobile platforms will be supported, allowing friends to team up regardless of the device they use.
For a while now I’ve been pretty bored with the games I have in my library and the new releases these last few months just haven’t wowed me. Once Human feels like the game I’ve been waiting for. Though its gameplay and systems are simplistic, the simplicity works to the game’s advantage, allowing players to focus on actually playing the game and enjoy exploration, the monsters, and the evolving story. After sinking over 100 hours into the game already, Once Human might have become one of my favorites. I can’t wait to see what else the developers have in store for us. Once Human is available on Steam and in the Epic Store and will be coming to mobile soon.
