On the face of it, there’s not much in Once Human that hasn’t been done a thousand times before. Better, too, in some instances. Seemingly the very epitome of design-by-committee, it’s everything you may expect a free-to-play multiplayer open-world survival horror to be, down to its garish shop and two-track battle pass. There’s about eleventy gazillion menus and items to track, your UI is painfully cluttered, and in some places, the game simply feels unfinished; you can’t use a controller for example, and your character seemingly only communicates by waving their arms about wildly, like improv semaphore.
Once Human reviewDeveloper: Starry StudioPublisher: Starry Studio / NetEasePlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC (Steam, Epic), iOS and Android version TBC
And yet here I am, at 3:30am – that’s real-life time, not the in-game clock, I’m embarrassed to say – creeping around this abandoned hospital because I have just one more crate to find to “complete” the stronghold, and I there might be a fabulous gun hiding somewhere inside.
Once Human may be a drop in the post-apocalyptic survival games ocean, but it’s an intriguing one. Rather than struggling to survive in a world ravaged by war or plague, we’re fighting to save humanity against the deadly otherworld organism Stardust that turns everyday items into bloodthirsty fiends. The more of the world you explore, the more you’ll find yourself exclaiming, “What the hell is ?!” as an animated satellite dish or drooling suitcase or a bunch of colourful balloons sticking out of where a gorilla’s head should be lurches towards you.
More interestingly still, Stardust doesn’t just magic up things that want to kill you. Other “deviations” become collectible creatures that vary from aggressive butterflies to paper house elves to brooding gingerbread houses. Your job as a meta-human – which apparently just means you’re mute and walk around the world with a Death Stranding-esque backpack strapped to you – is to rid the world of the former, and collect the latter. You know. Like Pokémon. Pokémon you store proudly in little glass display cases in your home.