Once Human

"Once Human: A Quirky and Addictive Free-to-Play Survival Crafting Gem"

Once Human is surprising. It’s a free-to-play open-world survival crafting game, a word salad of flavor-of-the-month genres if ever there was one, and it takes those well-worn ideas and simplifies them into relatively basic forms. And yet, I’m not ready to put it down even after dozens of hours. It’s so fun, and so weird, that I can’t help but think about my next supply run or alien monster fight, or crafting the tasteful ensuite that would really bring my little homestead together.There’s no shortage of post-apocalyptic survival games out there, whether you’re talking about Fallout 76, Rust, 7 Days to Die, or many, many other options. But Once Human makes its take on that setup feel unique and interesting by wrapping the end of the world around an alien infestation rather than your classic zombies or nuclear war scenarios. It’s a fun approach that, in hindsight, seems underused in the genre, and Once Human puts it to use in some really clever ways.

Editor`s Reviews:  

This alien organism has the ability to turn basically anything into a grotesque monster, living or otherwise. Sure, that shuffling and snarling person may seem like a zombie, but then it turns around and reveals it has a blinding stage light for a head. I’ve fought lightbulbs that have turned into giant spiders, evil trees, and even a bus that sprouted a really unfortunate number of giant legs and trotted up and down the road like the biggest, yellowest, and strangest centipede that has ever existed. I did not see those enemies coming, and that has kept Once Human full of surprises.

Not all of the strange creatures are hostile. Deviations are creatures you can capture and then use either in battle or to help you out around your base. They are essentially the Pokemon of the alien apocalypse. You can carry one into combat in your backpack, like my pal Festering Gel, which can reshape itself into makeshift cover when thrown. Others, like The Digby Boy, are best put to use at home helping with chores like collecting ore. They are endearing, useful, and utterly bizarre, perfectly suited for this world.

Summary：

The weapons may be conventional, but the enemies you defeat with them most definitely are not. You’ll come up against everything from a monster with a traffic cone for a head to a massive shadow-beast boss that would look at home in God of War. Sure, most of the fights are resolved by simply flailing your melee weapon or running around in circles and shooting as you drain health bars, but the boss fights do a nice job of mixing in unique mechanics, like forcing you to kill monster spawners to make the boss vulnerable.