Once Human Combines The Familiar With The Weird In An Entertaining Mix
Once Human is a post-apocalyptic survival game. It combines surreal visuals with simple combat and familiar mechanics. This makes it easy to pick up. Players who are long time survival fans may find the opening slow, however. The game starts with quite a bit of exposition through cut scenes before players get to explore. It sets up the weird alien invasion while giving the tiniest hint of your personal story. The player character is dealing with amnesia, so all we know is that the Rosetta organization has run experiments on meta-humans.
When something is introduced, a tooltip window comes up. Which is expected and can be turned down for less guidance, however this was a major issue. If the player was already moving, then their character stays in motion. Early on this could mean just running into walls. These screens can suddenly pop up while roaming the open world, which forces players to hurry through tutorials. Players on a PVP server could potentially have more issues. There were also moments where enemies suddenly popped in, but this happened less frequently.
That aside, Once Human is surprisingly fun. Crafting doesn’t feel tedious though resources become scarce. Servers have days so it’s better to choose one that’s earlier in its cycle. There are wipes after each season, which resets characters to level one. Blueprints for armor, weapons, the player’s house and currency do carry over though. There’s also a creature collection aspect with the deviations. Some help with combat while others make gathering even simpler. And depending on their level, they can collect rare materials.
Players have a lot of options when it comes to crafting and cosmetics that can be unlocked over time, versus the game’s shop. Once Human is a free to play game but remains fun days later. Though there are certainly hiccups that lead to frustration. I played on a PVE server, so the experience felt mostly laid back. I didn’t have to fight over resources or to defend my territory. Even someone who doesn’t usually pick up survival games can enjoy Once Human and progress pretty far, whether they hit level fifty or not. It’s well worth a try for fans of aliens, zombies and having strange beings as pets.
