Once Human

1. Summary

Players who stay with Once Human describe a big, weird survival game that costs nothing to start and gives a lot for free. Base building gets the warmest praise of any system: it is detailed, it lets you automate crafting, and you can move your whole base in one click. The world gets plenty of praise too, a cosmic-horror Earth full of strange creatures and odd landmarks. Many reviewers can't get over how much of this is free, and a lot of them play with friends, and some with a partner or family members. Some players who came back after time away say the game has improved, crediting permanent servers that ended the forced resets, or reworked mod and blueprint systems.

Monetization and the menus draw more negative reviews than anything else. Many players are happy that the shop sells cosmetics only, while others object to gacha crates, high prices and shop pop-ups when the game loads. Players describe dozens of screens and currencies, and a few say they had to learn the basics from YouTube or online guides. Crashes, stutter and the odd loading screen that never finishes come up less often but can stop a player before the game even starts. Newcomers struggle to join friends, since characters are tied to servers and regions. Long-time players add complaints about reworked progression systems, weekly resource caps and an endgame that repeats itself.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

A huge amount to do for a free gameHigh

The price comes up in hundreds of positive reviews, usually tied to how much content is on offer. Short reviews simply marvel at it ("Still can't believe this is free to play"), and longer ones list exploration, building, farming, fishing, dungeons, PvE and PvP modes, and seasonal scenarios. Players often add that paying is optional for progress: "Least predatory gacha and game is very fun." Plenty of the same players still find the shop pushy even though it sells only cosmetics, as the monetization section below covers.

Base building and decoratingHigh

"The base building is insanely good. You can automate crafting, build some insane houses, and relocating your entire base is literally just one click," one detailed review says. Building comes up more than any other system in the positive reviews. One player calls it "best base building in sandbox", and some keep playing for it even after other changes put them off: "Still hate the new tech tree, but this game has the best base building I can find and that keeps bringing me back!" Players enjoy furnishing interiors, laying out production chains and building with friends on shared territory. Within building itself, the complaints are that the best furniture and building sets sit in paid bundles, and that resets used to wipe what players had built (see the split section).

A strange, atmospheric worldHigh

Reviewers praise the setting: an apocalypse with Lovecraft and SCP-style horrors, mutated wildlife, odd landmarks, good graphics and a radio to listen to while driving. Exploring it is a pleasure of its own for a lot of them. One player described the tonal surprise this way: "came for survival horror" and "stayed for interior decorating and creature adoption." A few feel the horror fades into a standard survival shooter once the novelty wears off.

Playing with friends, partners and familyMedium

Friends turn up in hundreds of reviews, and a smaller group mentions playing with a wife, husband, partner, kids or siblings. Co-op building, shared territory and group bosses are the draw, and a few dozen reviews describe the community as friendly and helpful to newcomers. Getting everyone onto the same server first is often the hard part, covered under frustrations.

Gunplay, builds and bossesMedium

Players who like the combat point to the shooting and to the depth of the mod and build system, which lets a character specialize in elements and weapon types. Boss fights and dungeons get credit for variety. A minority find the combat generic or the enemies too spongy, covered under difficulty below.

Deviants, farming and the slower survival loopLow

Collecting Deviants (creature companions that fight, gather or work in the base), farming, raising animals and fishing give the game a relaxed side that players enjoy between fights. Some players single out a favorite Deviant, often with real affection.

Where players are split

Monetization: cosmetics-only shop or pushy gachaHigh

Reviewers who bring up pay-to-win generally say there isn't any, so the argument is about the shop itself. One side accepts it because progress is free and the outfits look good, and some even call the cosmetics among the best they have seen. The other side describes a heavy gacha layer: loot crates, battle passes, expensive building bundles, many shop currencies and pop-ups that try to sell something. One positive review lands in between: "heavy on the gacha mechanics and pushy in-game purchases, but fun nevertheless". Some complaints are specific, such as an "Unskippable ad selling you cosmetics at game start." Complaints about prices come mostly from players with hundreds of hours.

Story, writing and voice actingMedium

Story comes up far less often than building or exploration, and the reviews that mention it lean positive: players call it interesting or fun and enjoy the lore. Others find it confusing, predictable or badly presented, with weak endings. Voice acting comes up only a handful of times, nearly always as a complaint: "Awful Voice acting, dialogue, cutscenes." Another reviewer calls the voice work "very hit and miss" and mentions unvoiced side quests and subtitles that don't match the spoken lines. Several others point to clumsy translations.

Seasonal resets and permanent serversMedium

Resets drove much of the older criticism. By reviewers' accounts, seasonal servers wiped progress on a cycle of about six weeks, and some players quit over it: "The whole regular wipe mechanic killed it for me." Reviewers report that permanent servers were added later, and some returning players credit them: "It's better now that there's permanent servers to play on." A smaller group likes the resets as a fresh start, comparing them to Rust. Some long-time players feel the game now pulls them between both server types to farm season rewards.

Reworked progression systemsMedium

Reviewers describe major reworks: the old tech tree and memetics replaced by reverse engineering and scavenging, plus changes to mods, Deviants and other systems. Players with hundreds of hours raise this most often, and many of them are unhappy about it: "Since the update, the game is so bad. UI has been changed, tech point system means you find yourself running around days on end just to reverse engineer enough stuff". A few call the new system an improvement, and some returning players are upbeat about the game's state overall. One updated review says "Much of the original issues have now been fixed and we can enjoy the game at our own pace thanks to permanent servers."

Difficulty and enemy balanceLow

Players disagree on whether the game is too hard or too easy. Some describe bullet-sponge enemies and one-shot deaths: "enemies are absolute bullet sponges while i get one shot." Others find the open world easy and the AI simple once a build comes together. For some players, the sanity and pollution mechanics add to the sense of punishment.

Outfit styleLow

Some players love the character creator and the outfits. Others say revealing or flashy cosmetics clash with the grim post-apocalyptic tone and break immersion.

What frustrates players

Crashes, loading-screen hangs and performanceHigh

Players report getting stuck at 100% on the loading screen, black screens, crashes, stutter and memory leaks, and some never get into the game at all. One long-time player who still likes the game put it as "Crash, after crash, after crash." Others say it runs well on their machine. Complaints come from new and long-time players alike, and some veterans say specific updates made stability worse.

Confusing menus and too many currenciesHigh

Players at every playtime level mention the interface. Reviews describe dozens of menus, many currencies, daily claims, battle passes and event tabs, and a few say they had to turn to YouTube or online guides for the basics. One returning player wrote "Just remember: the greatest Deviant in Once Human is the user interface." A reviewer who calls the game genuinely fun still voted it down over this, opening with "Great game, exhausting currencies."

Joining friends and the server systemMedium

New players especially describe a hard time getting onto the same server as friends. Characters are tied to a server and region, popular servers fill up, and players report redoing the start of the game after switching. "it is so god damn IMMPOSIBLE TO INVITE FRIENDS TO PLAY THIS GAME." Another wrote that the developers "made the process incredibly convoluted and gave minimal information in regards to server information for grouping up." Some tried renting a custom server instead and describe that as frustrating too, and one found the rentals all sold out.

Ping and missing regional serversMedium

A handful of players in Australia and Oceania ask for local servers ("The game needs OCE servers!!!!!!!!!!!!") and describe high latency on the Southeast Asia servers. Players elsewhere report high ping, rubber-banding and server timeouts.

Repetitive endgame and slow new contentMedium

Long-time players say the loop repeats once you have everything: "Game is fun for a while, until you have everything." Some veterans feel updates bring cosmetics more than new maps or systems, and that each season feels the same as the last.

Large install and frequent big patchesLow

The install runs well over 100 GB by reviewers' accounts, and updates are frequent and large: "every week I want to play, I have to download 15 to 25 GB, so I just give up on it entirely." Some players say Steam needs much more free space than the patch size to apply an update.

Locked keybinds and weak controller supportLow

Players report that some keys cannot be rebound, invert options are missing, and the keybind menu can trap them in conflicts: "Keybinds are locked out." Controller players report input conflicts and want better gamepad support.

Starchrom caps and time gatesLow

Players who progress quickly hit the weekly cap on Starchrom, a key upgrade currency, and say it stalls them: "my only complaint is the weekly starchrom system, it makes progression really damn slow." Crafting timers and other gates get similar complaints.

Cheaters in PvPLow

The PvP and raid modes draw reports of hackers and stolen bases. One player's advice: "Great PVE experience, just don't play PVP because it's filled with cheaters".

Lost progress and supportLow

A small number of players report losing items, achievements or characters during server transfers or account changes, and say support did not help them recover anything.

3. The player conversation

Short, enthusiastic reviews make up a large share of the positive side, many of them about the game being free or about building with friends. Some reviewers say the game offered an in-game reward for posting a Steam review, and a handful of the short positive reviews say they were written for it. The longer reviews tend to be balanced, some with a score out of ten or a list of pros and cons, and they keep returning to the same caveats: menus, the gacha shop and the server system.

Newcomers talk most about joining friends, learning the interface and getting past the loading screen. Players with hundreds of hours write most of the complaints about reworked systems, Starchrom caps, repetitive seasons and store prices. Returning players form their own group: some left over seasonal wipes or early balance and came back after permanent servers arrived or systems were reworked, and they often describe the game as better than they remembered.

Reviews written more recently are more positive. Older reviews, written before June 2026 and many of them edited since, were 64% positive (765 reviews). Reviews written from June through late August 2026 were 89% positive, and the large wave from late August 2026 onward was 91% positive.

4. What the developers could do

1. Fix the loading-screen hangs, crashes and memory leaks. Players who hit them describe getting stuck at 100% loading or crashing on start, and some never got into the game.
2. Cut down the menus and currencies, and teach the basics in game. Players at every level describe the interface as overwhelming, and some say they needed outside guides to understand it.
3. Make joining friends simple. Newcomers describe days lost trying to reach the same server, so clear invites, easier server and region moves, and available server rentals would remove one of the first hurdles.
4. Tone down the shop pressure. Players accept cosmetics-only sales but object to pop-up ads, many shop currencies and steep bundle and gacha prices, especially for building sets.
5. Add new endgame content and ease the Starchrom cap. Veterans say the loop repeats and that weekly caps stall the progression they still enjoy.
6. Add Oceania servers and improve regional ping. Players in Oceania ask for local servers, and players there and elsewhere describe lag that undermines combat.
7. Shrink patches and their disk-space needs. Players with smaller drives say big weekly updates that need extra free space make them give up on the game.
8. Allow full key rebinding and better controller support. Locked keys and missing invert options stop some players from playing at all.