Humans used to be amazing. This is a free-to-play, open-world survival crafting game that combines some of the most popular genres of all time, simplifying cliché ideas into relatively simple forms. And yet, after dozens of hours, I’m not ready to quit it. It’s so fun and weird that I can’t stop thinking about my next resupply, fighting alien monsters, and building a classy bathroom that will really bring our little home together.

There’s no shortage of post-apocalyptic survival games, including Fallout 76, Rust, and 7 Days to Die. But Once Human puts a unique and interesting twist on this premise by wrapping an apocalyptic scenario around an alien plague rather than the classic zombie or nuclear war scenario. It’s a fun approach that, in retrospect, seems underused in the genre, but Once Human uses it in a very clever way.

This alien creature has the ability to turn virtually anything, living or not, into a grotesque monster. Sure, this limping, snarling figure looks like a zombie, but then turns around to reveal it has a blinding stage light for a head. I’ve fought lightbulbs that turned into giant spiders, evil trees, and even a bus that sprouted a truly unfortunate number of giant legs and crisscrossed the streets like the biggest, yellowest, weirdest centipede that ever existed. I never saw these enemies coming, which is why Once Human is full of surprises.

Not all of the strange creatures are hostile. Deviations are creatures you can capture and use in battle or as help at your base. They’re essentially alien apocalypse Pokémon. Like my buddy Festering Gel, you can carry it into battle in your backpack. Throw it and it transforms into makeshift cover. Others, like The Digby Boy, are great for helping out with tasks like ore gathering at home. They’re lovable, useful, and downright weird, which fits perfectly into this world. Their armaments, on the other hand, are very simple. Their arsenal consists of simple melee weapons like blades and baseball bats, and the usual small-arms options like pistols, rifles, and shotguns. There’s at least an interesting ownership system when it comes to weapons and armor, and you can repair and upgrade what you make yourself, but not the better gear you find in the field. You can use them until they wear out, then dismantle them to create blueprints, which wisely encourages you to try them out before investing the time and resources required to make them yourself.

While the weapons may be conventional, the enemies you use them to kill definitely aren’t. You’ll encounter everything from monsters with traffic cones for their heads to giant shadow beast bosses that are akin to God of War. Sure, most fights are resolved by simply swinging your melee weapon around, running around in circles, and shooting while your health bar depletes, but boss fights have a nice mix of unique mechanics, like needing to kill monster spawners to make the boss vulnerable.

The creatures are the most beautiful in Once Human, with organic and inorganic colliding in a strange body horror aesthetic. Aside from that, the rest of the world is pretty boring. The colors and lighting are not particularly appealing, and there are a surprising number of the same trees in every forest. Most of the urban areas are covered in murky concrete that shows signs of decay, but not to the same extent as seen in the Last of Us series, and it feels like a missed opportunity to further enhance the look of an alien invasion.

The largest monsters are reserved for instanced dungeons, similar to classic World of Warcraft design. These battles are designed for groups of up to four players, and Once Human makes it easy to form spontaneous groups. One click opens the server-wide team search, where you can browse groups others are looking for or create your own. Just select the activity you are doing, people who are interested will apply to join, and you can give them a thumbs up or thumbs down as you wish. I am a relatively shy player when it comes to lining up with random players (I usually bring my own group of friends), but I have had a lot of success putting groups together. It is a necessary feature, so it is easy to operate even for an online introvert like me. I wish I could bring my character with me when changing servers. Currently, if you are not on the same server as your friends, someone has to start over so you can play together, which is an unfortunate mistake.

Outside of combat, there is a simple linear main quest and some optional side missions. Not much is done in the main quest, as it is often more of an excuse to push into new areas than an actual story. The missions themselves – largely the same loop of visiting an area, activating a series of Rift Anchors, then fighting the local boss – got pretty boring by the end, but I appreciated the moments when Once Human leaned into the weirdness of its world, like when I was sent hunting a monster that was constantly turning pregnant people into trees (seriously).

The map is huge, roughly divided into regions by enemy level and terrain. More importantly, it feels large but not empty. Every neighborhood and lab is teeming with monsters to fight and plunder, and every vacant lot is a potential place to build a home. Traveling on foot from one part of the world to another can take a while, which is why you’ll be glad to get a motorbike that you can summon at any time in an early quest. Riding around on a motorbike is fun. There are also transport towers you can unlock that act as fast travel points and gliders, all of which help make distances more manageable.

The level curve still needs some improvement. It’s easy to keep up in the early and mid-game, but by the time you reach the final area, the enemies are so high level that you have to choose between being easily swept away with a single blow or running away for a long time to achieve equality. There’s nothing wrong with working on building your personality so that you can return the favor later, even if you get beaten up, but this challenge comes suddenly, making progress more daunting than worthwhile.

The survival crafting aspect that makes up this climb benefits from being very simple and easy. You can only craft very few things at first, but as you gain XP and level up, you’ll earn meme cyphers that can be used to unlock nodes in the four upgrade trees. As long as you have memetic ciphers and enough materials, you can quickly get to the stage where you can craft high quality food and gear. It’s a less-is-more approach that makes it easy to get back into the action, which I appreciate.

Gathering materials still requires the tried-and-true “run around and chop wood” method, but at least at the start, supplies are plentiful so heading out to mine doesn’t feel like a chore. Resources seem to regenerate quickly, and as you level up you gain access to things like auto-mining and rain catchers, taking you from hunter-gatherer to your own industrial revolution, making it very rewarding.

Once Human is ultimately a live service game, so there is a roadmap for further content. This includes next steps in the story, technical additions like controller support, special events, and more. Most importantly, each season, which lasts six weeks, will end with a server wipe, similar to what is happening in Escape from Tarkov. It sounds scary, but any blueprints you collect, including those for your home, will be saved, as will your quest progress. It remains to be seen whether this will be a fun new beginning or a terrible nuisance, but the way they approach this makes me intrigued and rather optimistic.

Once you reach the later stages of the story, you will unlock Eternal Land, which is essentially an alternative build-only mode on a private server. It has two unique currencies called Astral Sand and Astrealite, which can be used to purchase everything from seeds to fishing rods to landscape elements such as rocks and trees. Importantly, Eternal Land does not include seasonal wipes. This is an attractive option if you want to build your dream home and show it off to your friends without worry.

There are also some limited PvP offerings, but you will need to select a PvP server during character creation to see these. You will not find anything like Arena or Team Deathmatch modes. Instead, there are events that are all about PvP, most notably an Echo Stone that falls from the sky. Once the player picks it up, the goal is to bring it back to their base and defend it from monsters and other players while it is purified with a Stardust Resonant Filter. This is entirely optional, but it’s a good choice as the rewards are very few and the options are very simple.

Verdict

Once Human is super fun, with survival crafting that is easy and accessible, but still challenging. Building a house is fun, even if the pieces aren’t always cooperative and don’t always fall into place the right way. Combat is generally pretty easy, but the grotesque weirdness of the monsters more than makes up for it, especially when you’re presented with swarms of strange little creatures. Once Human would benefit from more creative quests and a flatter difficulty curve, but I still had a great time and look forward to continuing my adventures in this twisted world as the first season progresses.