Once Human is an action-adventure survival MMO by Starry Studio that pits you against a world full of eldritch biomechanical abominations, read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Once Human Review Overview
What is Once Human?
Once Human is set in a post-apocalyptic world where an alien entity called Stardust has taken over human society. What were once humans, animals, and plants, have now mutated into terrifying and dangerous creatures called Deviations. With Deviations out and about, human survivors have grouped into factions. Some of these factions are worthwhile allies, some are outright evil, and some are complete lunatics.
You play as a Meta-Human who wakes up in the middle of nowhere, hungry, and with horrific Deviations all around you. As a Meta-Human, you can survive the contamination and use the power of Stardust. However, you’re not at all invincible as Deviations could still rip you apart, and other survivors could shoot you dead.
Discover the truth behind Stardust, learn its origins, and find out what it aims to accomplish. You are humanity’s last hope.
Once Human features:
⚫︎ 100+ gun blueprints across 7 categories with countless modifications for each
⚫︎ 100+ craftable items and building pieces
⚫︎ Massive multiplayer map filled with world bosses and scavenging areas
⚫︎ Fast-paced gun combat with resource gathering and looting mechanics
⚫︎ Dedicated PvE and PvP servers
⚫︎ Seasonal content cycle with free rewards each season
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Once Human's gameplay and story.
 Steam |
 Google Play |
 App Store |
Once Human Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Budget-Friendly System Requirements Unique and Well-Implemented Seasonal Cycle |
Questionable Terms of Service Poorly Paced, High-Concept Story |
Once Human Overall Score - 86/100
Once Human is a freak of nature by contemporary industry standards and I mean that in the best way. It’s a free-to-play game with great gameplay, smooth multiplayer, plenty of dedicated servers, and a very distinct visual style that adds character to its otherwise pedestrian premise. There might be something to be said about its questionable terms of service or its buggy release, but judging its quality as a game alone, Once Human sets a new standard for the free-to-play experience.
Once Human Story - 7/10
Once Human’s story isn’t one you’d expect for a survival MMO and it gets a lot of points for creativity. Unfortunately, a premise is only as great as its execution, and Once Human dropped the ball a few times with its narrative pacing and exposition. It’s a curse suffered by even the most story-driven survival MMOs, but that doesn’t mean that Once Human is off the hook.
Once Human Gameplay - 9/10
Once Human’s gameplay is solid, well-rounded, well-implemented, and most of all, lots of fun. The game’s base-building has plenty of quality-of-life features, as well as some of the best-looking building assets I’ve seen in a survival MMO. The third-person gunplay is crisp and responsive, and there’s barely any issue with the game’s multiplayer aspect. There’s nothing groundbreaking about it, but you won’t catch me complaining about basic game design implemented well.
Once Human Visuals - 10/10
Once Human’s visuals are certainly high-quality, but more important than that, they are decidedly unique. With its creative combination of nightmarish Lovecraftian horrors and anthropomorphized machinery from urban legends like Siren Head, there isn’t a vibe quite like this game’s. It’s a feast for the eyes and imagination, that’s for sure.
Once Human Audio - 7/10
If not for Once Human’s well-made but off-genre soundtrack, then this game’s overall audio quality would’ve taken a much larger hit from its atrocious voice acting. With line deliveries bordering on AI-generated voice-overs, much of the immersion and storytelling is lost in translation.
Once Human Value for Money - 10/10
Once Human’s content would be plenty for a game costing around $25-30, but this game is free to play. Of course, it’s going to be worth your money; you won’t be spending a cent unless you want to clear out its cosmetics store. As long as your PC can handle it, there’s no reason to not give this game a try. And even if it can’t, you can always try it on mobile.
Once Human Review: There’s No Way This is Free-To-Play
I had the pleasure of playing and reviewing Once Human during its closed beta test and, while it didn’t exactly wow me then, I can safely say that it has vastly improved since. There’s still much to be said about what it didn’t improve—and even more about its terms of service—but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go through everything that Once Human has to offer: the good, the bad, and the questionable.
Let’s go through it in the order I listed, starting with one of the game’s better aspects: gameplay. Combat and survival mechanics are usually a survival MMO’s bread and butter, and it’s no different for Once Human. Those two make up the game’s core mechanics and they’re really pulling their weight with this one. The game’s base-building alone already makes it worth a try, so let’s go into detail as to why I hold it in such high regard. To put it simply, this game’s base-building is effective and eye-catching.
The building prefabs snap together incredibly well, and the quality-of-life features in the building system make base building a breeze. I’m particularly fond of the "Flying Mode," which lets you control the camera freely while building, making it easy to reach those hard-to-access spots. The prefab duplication input is another highlight, allowing you to select a built prefab, sample it, and adjust your active blueprint accordingly. This makes building large structures made out of repeated prefab pieces a walk in the park.
While the absence of a world grid to snap the entire structure onto and the occasionally finicky territorial claim area could be considered drawbacks, these are minor and fixable issues. Overall, there's little to criticize about this game's base-building system.
In addition to the building system’s overall ease of use, the prefabs and the assets they house are well-crafted and perfectly suited to the game's surreal futuristic architecture. This ensures that your base won't just be a makeshift structure held together by sap and faith, but a truly customizable creation that highlights the best aspects of the game's visual design and your creativity.
Moving on to the other main aspect of its gameplay, let's discuss Once Human's exploration and combat. Once Human is a third-person shooter and a pretty dynamic one at that. It features standard mechanics like aim-down-sights, sprints, and dodge rolls, but it also includes a variety of vertical traversal options such as gliders, ledge climbs, and vehicle controls. These options not only enhance exploration but also make the gunplay more engaging by introducing varied angles, ranges, and cover mechanics. While this depth mainly benefits PvP, as the Deviations remain mostly static except for bosses, the effort to keep both exploration and combat fresh is commendable.
To round off this section about Once Human’s gameplay, let's talk about its crafting and progression. Once Human operates on a crafting tree progression system, where new bundles of buildable recipes are unlocked using an in-game currency called Ciphers. These are earned by leveling up or completing seasonal tasks, with player progression limited by how many Ciphers they can earn within a given period. While experience-based progression isn’t anything new, I appreciate that players have the agency to choose which recipes to unlock rather than having unlocks tied solely to player level. This allows players to focus on what they want to focus on, be it combat, base-building, crafting, or just exploring the map on their vehicle.
Let’s move on to the game’s visuals, which is another of its better aspects. Once Human’s aesthetics and art direction are both rather unique, pulling design elements from urban legends, Lovecraftian horror, modern architecture, dark futurism, and surrealism in equal measure. All of these influences culminated in a game that "feels wrong" on many levels, both perceptible and imperceptible. There’s a sense of otherworldly unease across many of the game’s monster designs and story set pieces, conveying the vibes you’d expect from post-apocalypse of eldritch proportions.
As for the game’s shortcomings, there are quite a few, although none are surprising considering NetEase’s reputation. The initial release build was rather buggy, causing issues with the game’s servers, character creation, and base-building systems. I encountered a bug with the building system firsthand, which locked me into the building layer indefinitely.
Additionally, the game has faced criticism for its oddly specific and invasive terms of service agreement, which demands nearly all your private information short of your social security number. The in-game chat was abuzz during my playtime, with many players calling it another "Day Before" crypto mining scam. While this concern may not directly impact the gameplay, it's something worth noting if privacy is a priority for you.
Continuing with the game's other shortcomings, its audio hasn't improved since the closed beta build. With voice-line deliveries ranging from bad to completely non-existent, I'd prefer playing with the voice-over turned all the way down. That said, the rest of the audio isn't bad—the game's soundtrack, especially the menu music, is quite good, albeit a bit off-genre.
Overall, Once Human is a great free-to-play game with plenty of high-quality content and a distinct visual style. Its gameplay is well-rounded and genuinely fun, especially when played with friends. However, it falters in a few areas, particularly its audio and server-side quality control. Despite these flaws, it's a less-than-perfect but highly recommendable game for the discerning survival MMO player.
Pros of Once Human
| Things Once Human Got Right |
|---|
|
Budget-Friendly System Requirements Unique and Well-Implemented Seasonal Cycle |
Budget-Friendly System Requirements
Despite its stunning visuals and spanning scope, Once Human’s system requirements are actually quite budget-friendly, mostly appealing to low-to-mid-tier systems. If you're looking for free-to-play multiplayer game that can run on a toaster, then this one's your best bet.
Unique and Well-Implemented Seasonal Cycle
Once Human operates on a unique seasonal content cycle where servers are refreshed at the end of every season to make way for new content. To prevent the loss of player progress, players are given access to a unique personal server called "Eternaland", where they can build to their heart’s content using unique pieces and rewards gained during a season. This is a good way to introduce new content to the game and keep things fresh, even for veteran players with well-established player bases.
Cons of Once Human
| Things That Once Human Can Improve |
|---|
|
Questionable Terms of Service Poorly Paced, High-Concept Story |
Questionable Terms of Service
Once Human's terms of service, and by extension NetEase's, has been a subject of debate among the game's earliest players, with many considering it overtly specific and invasive. Some have come to call it yet another "Day Before" crypto scam, although that much remains unproven. This isn't a hard con per se, but if your online privacy and information is something you'd rather keep to yourself, then maybe this game isn't the one for you.
Poorly Paced, High-Concept Story
Once Human has a story that’s rather unique for a survival MMO, involving an otherworldly threat turning people into abominations. Survival is a matter of finding these abominations and eliminating them rather than finding rescue or establishing your dominion over an area. This is a good thing on paper, but Starry Studio didn’t do a good job of representing this high-concept premise through gameplay or even direct storytelling.
The game suffers from severe narrative pacing issues due to the nature of its core gameplay loop. Players are given free rein on how and when they tackle story missions, without as much as a scripted encounter to force them to move forward. While this is good for player agency, the game’s story suffers as a result. This is a fate suffered by most survival MMOs, although it’s particularly bad for Once Human because none of its characters are memorable and the dialogue writing is simply atrocious.
I appreciate the concept. It’s unique and stands to give the game its own vibe in a genre saturated by similar-looking and similar-sounding titles. That said, uniqueness on its own does not make for a great narrative.
Is Once Human Worth It?
It’s Free-to-Play and Worth Every Hour You Put Into It
First and foremost, this game is free-to-play, so it has some innate value for your purchase and all you stand to lose is time. Free-to-play often denotes lower quality or less content, but that is decidedly not the case for Once Human. Sure, it’s a bit buggy at the moment and there’s a genuine concern regarding personal privacy, but if neither of those are deal-breakers for you, then this is definitely a game you should be playing.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
Google Play |
App Store |
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| Price | Free-to-Play | ||||
Once Human FAQ
Can I Make Another Character in Once Human?
Although each player was only allowed one character per account on release, the Once Human development team has since implemented multiple-character creation across different servers due to popular demand from the game’s first wave of players.
Can The Same Once Human Accounts Be Accessed Across Different Platforms?
According to the game’s developers, cross-platform support is available for Android and iOS players, allowing the same account to be accessed between those platforms. This is currently not applicable to Steam accounts due to the platform’s innate limitations.
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Once Human Product Information
 |
|
| Title | ONCE HUMAN |
|---|---|
| Release Date | July 9, 2024 |
| Developer | Starry Studio |
| Publisher | Starry Studio |
| Supported Platforms | PC (Steam), Mobile (Android, iOS) |
| Genre | Action, Adventure, Shooting, Survival |
| Number of Players | Massive Online Multiplayer |
| ESRB Rating | RP |
| Official Website | Once Human Website |
