Will Once Human stand the test of time?

Once Human has now been on our digital shelves for close to three months, and it’s still peaking at around 150,000 players per day. We all had our doubts, and I actually thought this game would die a quick death once the first season ended and we lost all our hard-earned loot.

I was wrong.

How has my prediction changed in time? More importantly, now that we have a better view of things, will Once Human stand the test of time?

The critical factor in Once Human’s longevity

It’s been said since the start; this game’s success or failure will depend on whether the developers actually listen to players and adapt accordingly. Since launch, the developers have shown a surprising amount of responsiveness to player feedback — a welcome surprise to us all.

When players complained about the fact that we were losing everything, the developers put in tons of thought and hard work to adapt the system and make it feel more long-term. When players complained about not having access to cosmetics on multiple characters, the developers fixed that — with impressive speed, I might add.

And, finally, when players complained about the Manibus melting their restrainer two minutes into the Nightmare Prime Wars, they tweaked the damage and added the buffer time we needed to move players away from the restrainer in time.

These are just a few examples, and they do wonders for Starry Studio’s reputation with their debut game, despite being tied to Netease, which most would agree have a… mixed… history with games.

Overall, the team at Starry have won over the player base and attracted a large and dedicated following for their stunning title.

The issues aren’t all solved though

Despite showing amazing responsiveness, there are still some issues plaguing the game. A myriad of bugs and resulting exploits caused a massive ban wave from Starry, which has split the player base pretty much down the middle.

Some feel like Starry should fix their game and pay for their own shortcomings instead of taking it out on the players. Others feel that exploitation of bugs should never be tolerated. It is a tough line to walk, since it can be difficult to ascertain whether an innocent player has accidentally discovered a bug, or whether true malicious exploitation has occurred.

It’s notoriously difficult to submit any sort of bug report in-game. It simply doesn’t work, and the only viable way seems to be through the game’s official Discord.

In any case, if you discover a bug that benefits you in any way, think twice before using it, and try to submit a bug report immediately.

Another major problem plaguing the game is the server lag. Again, this is an area of dispute, and there are plenty of theories around. A simple server upgrade may help with the lag spikes in the overworld, but the Prime Wars are a different story altogether.

These lag fests can sometimes be impossible to win at all because of the severe lag. I know, I’ve wasted hundreds of Bio missiles only for one or two hits to register and the rest to be lost to lag.

At Shadowfall, especially, we had game-breaking lag. This could be because of all the wildlife, ores, and different textures in that area. Add fourty players all blasting rockets and shooting flaming bullets at the same time, and you’re asking for trouble.

Many players blame the burn builds, with some saying the visual effects cause the lag and others blaming buggy code in the burn damage calculations.

In any case, we’ve seen enough of Starry Studios to know that if there’s a problem, they’ll be working on a solution.

The final verdict: Will Once Human stand the test of time?

In my humble opinion, absolutely yes. Starry has been responsive, which is not something we often see. Yes, the cosmetics are quite expensive, but to date that’s all we’ve seen — cosmetics. There’s been no pay-to-win or pay-to-progress elements added. In fact, once you know what you’re doing, it’s very easy to progress the game.

We’ve also seen a healthy mix of cosmetics development and game maintenance — or bug fixing. The developers seem to genuinely care about their player base and want everyone to have a good experience in the game.

They also often release new cosmetics, which is great. It means that more players will keep supporting the game, and we can keep playing this mind-blowing title.

In the end, I hope Once Human will be around for the long term. I’m confident that it will be, but developers do make mistakes sometimes. We can only hope that no game-killing mistakes take place. Once Human is a refreshing title with plenty of variation, and with all-new scenarios launching in the next two months, we might even see the player base spike beyond its previous record within this time.

Overall, this game has the potential to stay in the Steam top ten indefinitely.

If you’re having trouble with the game, here’s a Power Surge build that’ll help you melt enemies and clear areas with extreme ease.