Despite a Middling Launch Reception, Why is Once Human Such a Huge Hit?

Many of us didn’t know it, but when 2023 was kicking off, with praise surrounding titles like Hi-Fi Rush, Dead Space, and Like a Dragon: Ishin!, Once Human had its first closed beta. Its second arrived in December, as the industry celebrated big names like Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake 2 and more. A third and final beta followed last March while the world was enamored with Helldivers 2, and it wouldn’t be long before the survival sandbox title, with equal measures of cosmic horror and looting shooting, launched earlier this month on PC.

2024 has been a year of odd hits – heck, even Nexon’s The First Descendant was making waves, crossing 10 million players in a week. When Once Human finally arrived on July 10th, it faced excessive backlash on Steam and other forums. There were complaints about optimization and not being able to make characters in other servers, much less delete or move them, which became especially irritating when playing with friends and getting sorted into different worlds.

However, many negative user reviews focused on the Terms of Service, which cited the need for ID and other personal information. It was quickly clarified that this only applied to countries mandating the same, not North America, Europe or any other places. Otherwise, its Terms of Service and privacy policy are similar to many other online titles. The narrative quickly spread, though, and Once Human seemed destined for Steam’s notorious “Mostly Negative” rating.

Then something crazy happened – more people started trying the game. And liked it.

It started with 4491 positive user reviews and 3324 negative reviews on Steam within the first 24 hours of launch, bringing the overall rating to “Mixed.” The negative reviews continued, but they were quickly overrun by the positive. In a little over two weeks, Once Human now has a “Mostly Positive” rating on the platform, with 70 percent of its 49,104 user reviews positive.

Of course, regardless of the initial backlash, it was putting up some serious numbers, crossing 200,000 peak concurrent players on Steam within the first day. This climbed to 231,668 by July 14th, with Starry Studio confirming over 300,000 concurrent players across all platforms on July 16th (and celebrated by doling out free stuff). Even now, its player numbers continue to hover close to 200,000, going higher whenever the weekend rolls in.

As someone who had mixed feelings about the title, going as far as to give it a 6 out of 10, Once Human’s success has been fascinating to watch. It’s been a year where Palworld blew everything out of the water one month, followed by Helldivers 2 the next. Big blockbuster live service games like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Skull and Bones have completely lost the plot, while games like Content Warning come out of nowhere and become surprise hits.

What is it about Once Human that’s earned it so much praise from its player base? You could argue that it’s the free-to-play element, but that only goes so far (ask MultiVersus players how their player counts look). Getting over the initial negative backlash and ToS confusion, what has many players returning, day in and day out? Why are they so keen on the title to the extent of wanting to spend money on it?

It all starts with the very nature of the game itself. A comment on the closed beta trailer from December succinctly said, “Somehow manages to look unique and completely generic at the same time.” Sure, it sounds like a knock against the game, but it’s also fitting. Once Human fuses so many mechanics from different titles, including The Division, Fallout 76, Days Gone and even Pokemon, while adding its own flavor of cosmic horrors. Sometimes you’ll encounter enemies with briefcases and searchlights for heads – defeat them and their craniums become weapons. You may run into a massive wandering boss one second that can be shot in the knees and encounter a bus with legs the next.

The gunplay is also admittedly enjoyable, and even if you’re not keen on building, being able to select presets (or copy other players’ blueprints, with their permission) to create good-looking bases, is a nice option. This brings up another positive thing about the resource collection. While Once Human has survival elements, including Sanity that reduces your max health when venturing into polluted areas, weight gain and loss, and more, on top of ammo, weapon and gear crafting, it’s not trying to bog you down with the resource collection.

They’re readily available, fast-tracking many of the slower elements of the genre while getting you into the action quicker. For all my issues with collecting Blueprint Fragments, having loot drops with limited shelf life (but not that limited), causing you to prioritize crafting gear and weapons, is pretty innovative.

Another aspect the community has brought up is how quickly Starry Studio has addressed various issues. It enabled multiple characters across different servers on launch day itself. Alongside working on server issues and optimization, numerous bugs have been addressed, from buffs not working to disappearing Energy Links and improving the spawn chance of some Deviations.

Perhaps the most notable aspect is the studio sticking to its guns and not implementing pay-to-win mechanics. There’s a gacha machine that requires Starchrom to dole out weapons, gear and Blueprint Fragments, but you can also buy the Blueprints directly. Starchrom is earned entirely in-game by completing various goals, challenges and activities. You can’t even get any from the paid tier of the Battle Pass (which is also as pay-to-win-free as possible).

In a title where PvP is available, it’s pretty refreshing to see a studio stick to this stance. The general handling of microtransactions has also been praised for not being too in your face, to the extent that locating Seasonal Goals can be annoying since it’s in the same section as the Battle Pass. Compare this to a game like Suicide Squad, where the Store and Battle Pass have their tabs when trying to access your inventory. Such is the positive response to Once Human’s handling that some players are spending money to thank the developer.

This isn’t to say there are no problems – it drew some mixed reactions with its approach to seasons, which only last six weeks and resets your level, though several aspects like unlocked Gear Blueprints, Fragments, Starchroms, main and side story progress, etc. carry over. The base building still needs fine-tuning, like when snapping roof panels into place. Nevertheless, Starry Studio is working hard to address various problems while ensuring a smooth experience and developing new content. New PvP and PvE scenarios are coming in September, the latter offering a new region to explore with fresh monsters to fight.

Like The First Descendant, you could call it a flash in the pan – a trending title that will fizzle out when the next shiny thing comes around. However, it’s clear that Once Human is making the right moves to cater to both genre fans and newcomers. The long game is where the challenge begins, but for now, it’s become an endearingly addictive experience for its player base.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.