- Publisher: NetEase Games , Starry Studio
- Release Date: Jul 9, 2024
- Also On: iPhone/iPad
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
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Jul 30, 2024At 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.
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Jul 25, 2024If you like survival games and are not afraid of grinding, feel free to start Once Human. This is a stylish and expensive game that will keep you busy for a long time.
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Jul 21, 2024Once Human excels at practically nothing, yet it is a thoroughly convincing free-to-play. Thanks to a map packed with points of interest, adrenaline-pumping and immediate combat, and crafting that is never too overwhelming, even those who usually steer clear of survival games might find Starry Studio's offering interesting. Unfortunately, the AI is woefully inadequate and artistically everything is really far too derivative to generate real interest.
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Jul 25, 2024Once Human offers a deeply moreish open world scavenge-em-up, but weak action and generic clutter hold it back.
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Jul 16, 2024If you can see past its dull story and some uninspired art direction, what remains of Once Human is a profoundly compelling shared-world survival game. It’s a moreish riot of perilous progression and deep customisation, more than capable of keeping you entertained for months, and maybe years, to come.
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Jul 15, 2024Starry Studio's survival crafting shooter throws horror, looting and MMO elements into one big potpourri with mixed results.
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Jul 24, 2024Once Human offers a world full of strange creatures that's refreshingly unique in the survival MMO genre, but that world is populated by derivative gameplay and boring combat and never matches the potential of its premise.
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Jul 15, 2024While the quality of every game is ultimately subjective, Once Human is unique in how, other than its serious technical issues, all of its problems or strengths are contentious ones that it is easy to imagine every person feeling differently about. For many, however, I suspect that it will end up being such a mixed bag as not to be worth sticking with in favor of a more focused and refined competitor.
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| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
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Jul 15, 2024It all ends up feeling like someone pushed a cult classic console gem through a shredder and filled in the space between the strips with silica gel and sausage rusk and self-assessment forms. But its saving grace lies in the fact that it doesn’t feel cynical as much as it feels adherent, almost like its trapped under a pile of norms and necessaries needed for it to exist in the first place. Maybe you'll fancy enduring long enough to find the places where it pokes its curious little head out from under that rubble. The little robot was for mining ore, by the way, so it might help.