Once Human

Once Human offers a deeply moreish open world scavenge-em-up, but weak action and generic clutter hold it back.

Neither Once Human’s third-person combat or survival crafting are especially novel or exciting, made less so by reams of live service baggage and seemingly endless resources and collectables. But an idiosyncratic soul and great creature design keeps it from being uninteresting.

Once Human is a fantastic MMO based in an interesting post-apocalyptic landscape, but still has some growing to do to reach the peak of the genre.

Build, farm, shoot, and cooperate in this deep MMO.

Once Human might be the first crafting game I find myself coming back to regularly thanks to solid combat fundamentals, a perfectly-tuned crafting loop, and a level of polish that’s often all too rare in the genre.

A survival MMO that offers a unique experience, but still has plenty of room to improve.

Games that take a multi-genre approach to design have at least two challenges. First, the components have to make sense together. Second, the hybrid mash-up still needs a strong identity. It can’t be “jack-of-all-trades, master of none.” Luckily, Once Human solves these problems in a satisfying and engaging way. It might still be an amalgam of other genres, but it works.

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.

At its core, Once Human is a survival game that encourages and rewards exploration. It nails the gameplay loop of gathering resources and gear, upgrading your character, and then venturing out to do it all over again. I had a great time running around and fighting alongside friends, and I’ll probably continue to jump in and play when I get that survival itch. However, it’s hard not to be put off by forced live-service elements that undercut mechanics and lock unique items behind a paywall.

Once Human's setting and gunplay have merits, despite some unoriginal ideas and systems. However, its faulty foundations, from the blueprint system and the building to the story-telling, keep it from truly standing out.