Once Human is a new survival MMO from NetEase Games, known for Naraka: Bladepoint, their mobile titles and ports of popular IPs. The game is currently available for PC with plans for Android and iOS releases coming soon. I admit, I was initially skeptical. The game appeared goofy and silly, not really my vibe. However, as I dug deeper I found myself intrigued by its dark thriller elements and excellent integration of mechanics and subsystems that I believe players have been wanting over for a long time in the MMO genre.
Despite a few one-off but annoying issues, like being unable to rebind movement and other locked-in key binds and a somewhat confusing server selection structure, the game quickly grew on me.
As a Free-to-play title, the monetization model includes a well-stocked aesthetic cash shop and a Battle Pass system, with a freemium and two paid options. The lesser is priced at 9.99 EUR (around $12 USD) but you can absolutely enjoy the game without spending a dime.
The extensive customization options and rich, intersecting subsystems – like gear, vehicles, player housing, decoration, pets and more – offer nearly endless possibilities for further cash chop customizations and was something I got excited to see, not put off by at all.
STORY
At first, the story seemed to be starting off generic and loosely translated, with the classic “chosen one” trope and a bit of cliché “main character amnesia.” The early dialogue was a bit cringy, and I feared a poor English translation oncoming. Maybe hangover from recent JRPG-stye games I’d reviewed, so I shelved those thoughts (and glad I did). This concern dissipated as the game progressed.
The tutorial is well-integrated, quickly unlocking various functions like Deviations – the pet/companion system. In NPC conversations multiple dialogue options exist, but in my experience they seem to lead to the same outcome. It’s more of an illusion of choice, but it’s nice to feel like you have more input control in any case. The main storyline is fully voiced, though the main character is not, and side quests are sporadically voiced. The voice acting quality itself I found pretty good but not terribly well mixed. A nice touch anyway
Shortly into the tutorial, I found the story unfolding to draw me in a bit more. It became more engaging, drawing from dark, hopeless eldritch horror themes. Very Lovecraftian and Stranger Things-esque and it was like the writing was beginning to improve as well. Perhaps the tutorial writing was structured differently than the true main storyline quests?
Through it all, I found that the confusion I had around the early story somewhat mirrored my main characters own confusion and it kind of worked. As the game went on and my character progressed I actually found my dialogue options becoming more assertive and confident – taking on more of a strong, leadership tone rather than the timid, complacent options you usually get as a ‘good guy.’ It made me appreciate not being spoken to like an errand boy or peon for a change. I’m a f’king hero dammit, treat me like one!
This gave way to secret experiments and state conspiracies gone wrong. An underlying second world filled with darkness long since spilling over into our own, and an existential battle between the two. It developed depth, while in-game exploration revealed lore items and additional narrative through engaging riddles and puzzles.
It’s fair to say that I’ve completely 180’ed on the narrative story and how it’s delivered at every angle through gameplay. This, supported by dynamic events and a live service content model, promises longevity and player engagement if they can stay true to it.
Only a few very limited times did I feel like I was pressed into the dreaded ‘fetch quest’ loop – that creative-less, grey, bland flavour of ‘what you should expect’ from MMO tasking. Everything here felt important, worth doing and worth putting the time into. The quests became more about the hooks and the contribution rather than collect, deliver, get stuff and that was very refreshing.
Outside of the main storyline and tasks, the Journey System is a great way to provide direction, especially in a sandbox game, when you need a break or to upgrade skills and abilities. Dynamic events happen around the world producing new outside challenges and tie into the seasonal overarching storyline and content updates which are deep, progressive and seemingly well planned out for a good length of time in the live service plan.
STORY SCORE: 3/5
COMBAT
The active combat system is a standout feature and reminded me very much of The Division in its heyday. Character weight and dimensions have an effect on your stats but more simplified than a game like Mortal Online. A heavier character may have more raw strength and carrying capacity but slower attack and less stamina, whereas a more nimble character may be more agile and quick but carry less and need to avoid direct damage. Movement feels natural, and there’s a realistic lead time between switching items and weapons, adding strategic depth to combat timing. Stealth play is a viable option, which I love, though it usually ends with me blasting my way out of places when I fail the ‘delicate approach.’
The variety of weapons, tactical gear, mods, stims, buffs and abilities are vast, offering different playstyles and a ton of options. In some cases a bit strange too – I don’t think I’ve ever seen ‘fish meta’ before. Combat was pretty challenging, but I was clearing and exploring so much that I was out-leveling things quite a bit. At that point it was just fun, threat-free wrecking of things until I hit bosses and elites or moved to the next zone. The AI behaviors and sheer variety of enemies, types and factions keep encounters interesting and fluid.
The weapons feel really good to use and the balance between ammo and durability forces you to be selective of how and when to use what tools for different situations. There must be hundreds of Deviations (pets) to capture, combat being one of three different types that add a sort of ‘Ultimate’ to your combat suite – where you can invoke their powers to assist you for a short period before they must recharge – that’s a whole other video.
You can switch between third-person over the shoulder (OTS) and first-person (FPS) seamlessly, though FPS is more situational like precision aiming at distance. The benefits of different modes are enough to keep me switching and using different views when I needed to, like FPS for picking off enemies at range and OTS shoulder switching for clearing rooms and seeing around corners or mauling enemies at close range for executions and takedowns. You really do need to get savvy switching modes and even shoulders in order to be truly efficient at combat.
The creatures who have spilled over from this other dimension or Deviants, are varied very creative strange and sometimes terrifying in their presence and tactics from your run of the mill ambling zombie fodder to charging, aggressive and dangerous constructs. Human factions use clever tactics, and wildlife environments present unique hazards.
Once Human has incorporated really good MMO theme park items, POIs, exploration, questing, enemies and NPCs into a robust, survival builder. My gripe with builder survival games is that they’re often too exclusively sandboxed and not enough content in the world – Once Human has a strong offering for both styles of play here.
I Really love the loot system and how crafting is well worth-while. The loot tiers give you the means to craft those higher end items. You won’t often loot ready-to-use gear and weapons because your best rewards are the capabilities and materials to craft the better items to match your needs and preferences. This makes crafting an important endeavour, while also making you feel like you have much greater input over what rewards you ultimately end up with in the end.
Team-find and matchmaking is really well done with a mini lobby screen and dedicated channels like the now standard FPS arena-type lobbies you’d see in Warzone, Apex or Fortnite. There are Dungeons that can be played solo or in a team. These are Silos in the game, and Rift Entities where you fight more threatening group type bosses. The Boss fights do feel really epic and dangerous, the in-game events are like their own fully fleshed out experiences so there are lots of opportunities to experience scaled-up, raised stakes combat encounters.
Even on a low pop beginner server, I had no trouble getting into dungeon experiences with either option and never felt shut out of anything because I was playing solo.
COMBAT SCORE: 4/5
ENVIRONMENT AND AMBIENCE
The game evokes a Stranger Things vibe with its supernatural, Lovecraftian horror elements, reminiscent of The Secret World MMO. Everything has influences and I think these are good influences, but it’s a fresh enough take that it doesn’t feel like a cheap knockoff or copycat.
The environment seamlessly transitions between existences or worlds, creating unsettling and exciting experiences. You have to experience it to truly understand how these experiences can rip you into a mind-bending challenge from something that began as a seemingly ‘normal’ task. It can be haunting, creepy and exciting with an intensity you don’t often see or feel in an MMO, at times feeling more like a Resident Evil episode.
The survival component is well-integrated, and the music enhances the immersive atmosphere. Day/night cycles and dynamic weather systems add to the ambiance, and the map is huge, absolutely FILLED with things to explore, complete, search and clear. A completionists dream (or nightmare).
The beginner vehicle is a sweet motorcycle which is really cool! I like that they’re not afraid to challenge conventions like “all the things you begin with have to be hokey garbage.” It can still be cool and leave room for progression!
The spatial theater subsystem is a cool feature and serves as your area scan. It highlights discoverable items and reveals story items, clues and sequences. Additionally, players can leave “memories” similar to Soulsborne-type player ghosts.
The integration of instanced and open-world spaces is smooth, and the diverse threats in each zone keep players on their toes creating a unique sense of danger in every territory depending on who calls it ‘home’ and the use of thriller and suspense elements is clever and well-timed.
Building, upgrading, and crafting is satisfying, and finding a plot of land is easier than expected. My only complaint is that the beginner areas tend to look like a showroom of bare minimum starter plots due to the tutorial guide leading every newbie to construct the same items in or around the starting area. It’s a bit immersion-breaking, but thankfully confined to the earlier zones as higher level players tend to apply more time, unlocks and thus creative pride in their bases (exception for functional PvP server bases I’d imagine).
The performance was my only real sticking point – light and only occasional rendering issues and server lag from time to time – but I’m not even playing on a very populated server, so we’ll have to wait and see how that plays out.
ENVIRONMENT AND AMBIENCE SCORE: 4/5
GRAPHICS AND VISUALS
Character creation offers lots of customization which helps attach players to their characters, whether you want to reflect yourself in your avatar or something very different, and the overall visual tone is CG realism with a dark, brooding current.
The art does a really good job of desperate and dirty post-apocalyptica with the early gear and characters easily identified as a faction that has strung by and just managed to survive in a post-industrial wasteland. You can feel the history and the decay of a very long exposure to the energy that is seeping in and across these two very different influences and the textures, buildings, sets and scenery reflect that exposure.
The lighting can shift from stunning sunset to fearful dark in minutes and the use of light and shadows serves to set mood as well as offer functional benefits and challenges when approaching hostile situations. Beautiful wilderness and bright moments help create contrast around the twisted ‘other world’ that exists alongside the one we’re in.
Models and skins are well-done, Creatures from beyond the rift are clever, unique and creative, even the ones that are just outright scary or creepy. It’s like the art team compiled visuals from our strangest night terrors and built them into a faction. Yes, also clowns.
The human factions are really well crafted from super-secret government paramilitary to steampunky, Mad Maxian thugs.
The blending is really impressive with interactive objects, quest triggers and mobs fitting seamlessly into the environment. Explosions, environmental hazards and special effects are cleverly integrated enhancing the immersion, mood and visibility.
While the game world animations are smooth and realistic, close-up interactions with NPCs can be stiff and robotic. Mouths don’t move consistently and the main character isn’t voiced but at least your gear looks cool in cutscenes, right?
There are a few spelling errors in the menus, but these are minor issues and some were even being corrected during the time I played through – a minor, infrequent nit-picky thing, really. It’s worth noting that I kept my visual settings medium to low for performance reasons, so I rated based on that visual level.
GRAPHICS AND VISUALS: 3/5
OVERALL GAMEPLAY
The key-binding lockout is still a bit of a rub for me. Microsoft Power Toys helps and I’ve long since gotten past it, but having to switch it off every time I need to type or name something in game really sucks.
Server selection and structure is confusing off the hop, but at least they have recommended beginner servers, I just didn’t overthink this and picked anyone that worked closest to my region. Connectivity and server matching is very clunky and a bit of a gamble – here’s what you need to know: There are two types of servers – PvE and PvP – from there pick one that has the best location/ping, a population rating of Mid-to-High if you don’t want it to feel empty. The red (people) indicator means character creation is at max and disabled for that server – it’s not as complicated as it looks at first glance
These were the only two pre-entry issues that threated the gameplay experience for me and once cleared, they were never an issue again. It’s just unfortunate that it’s part of the pre-game experience for new users
Conversely, the customer experience as a player is VERY good. Great communication, compensation gifts in-game – I’ve seen this a lot with JRPGs for things as simple as routine server maintenance taking longer than expected etc. I usually wouldn’t address this in gameplay but because it IS a live service game, this is an important element that a lot of companies just miss the mark on. Simple acknowledgement and compensation goes a long way. You don’t have to give players an I WIN button, just some acknowledgement that they might be in your thoughts is pretty cool.
Tutorials are inline, unobtrusive and give you exactly the right amount of information to keep you moving and the gameplay and camera work is really smooth. At times the game ran a little janky, but I don’t know if that’s just my computer or not.
I remained excited to spend time in and explore the vast towns, zones and POIs regardless of level or stage of progression – I’ve not had that in a long time. I genuinely want to see and experience everything.
The depth of the game is complimented by a large host of comprehensive sub-systems. These systems are complex yet streamlined and each approached with a sense of importance and consideration not an afterthought or ‘add-on’.
The Deviation/Pet system is intuitive and fun, and the Cradle brilliantly serves as a central point for managing pets, inventory, powers, abilities, and progression – something that looks like a childs backpack, re-imagined as the most important piece of tech in your set and it works!
Survival mechanics act as buffs rather than nuisances, and quality-of-life features like auto-gathering and bulk crafting are thoughtful. The loot system emphasizes crafting, making player-crafted items important. The Whisper system allows for player tips, and the in-game wiki is helpful.
It’s still a touch buggy, but it’s also very ambitious. Nothing game-breaking for me but enough to remind you that it still needs tweaks and updates – parts of buildings not rendering, menu options resetting etc. All-in-all after 10 hours exploring the game, it’s gameplay and all it has to offer – I still honestly feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface.
OVERALL GAMEPLAY: 3/5
Summary and Conclusion
While I really want to rate the game on where I think it will go and the promise of potential it has while overlooking the hills it still has to climb, I have to critique it on where it is today. For what it’s worth it has at least 4, maybe 5/5 potential if they hit all their marks – a tall order even for the very best of the best in the MMORPG space, except this one is completely free.
Go get it and enjoy it – it’s one you have to experience for yourself. Block out the noise, ignore the pundits and go give it a shot. Decide this one for yourself and maybe I’ll see you in there.
THE FIRST DESCENDANT FINAL SCORE: 3/5
RECOMMENDATION: PLAY NOW
