What do you want from a survival game? Crafting. Difficult combat. Exploration. Building. One of the most popular genres on PC has been especially extant during the last 12 months, thanks to the arrivals of Sons of the Forest, Palworld, and Soulmask, to name but a few. Now, a gigantic new survival epic, currently ninth on the global Steam wishlist chart, has a new playtest, and after just a few days it’s blowing up majorly.
This is Once Human, a survival game – and RPG, and FPS, and about everything else – created by Starry Studio. The premise may seem familiar. You awaken in a post-apocalyptic world where an alien creature has infected every living organism with a mutagenic chemical called Stardust.
The landscape is warped. Animals have become feral monstrosities. Your fellow humans are now rampaging, flesh-hungry killers. Somehow, though, the Stardust has a unique effect upon your biology. You’re able to wield it to deploy both destructive and reconstructive powers, and gradually strive to build the ruined world back into something livable.
In practice, however, Once Human is much more than a survival experience. You can build and customize your own weapons, collect animals and raise them on a farm, construct huge settlements and dwellings, and participate in large-scale battles with AI enemies and other players. You can play co-op or go it alone. As well as the usual survivalistic status demands, you also need to monitor your sanity meter – consuming Stardust-polluted food and water might make your attacks more powerful, but it will have an adverse effect on your mental stability.
The Once Human release date is scheduled for Tuesday July 9, but a big new playtest has just launched is available right now. And the response is strong. Arriving on Friday June 7, the Once Human demo has so far attracted a peak of more than 16,000 players – as of this writing, 12,460 people are playing the pseudo MMORPG on Steam simultaneously.
Already one of the most wishlisted games on Valve’s platform, above even Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and Slay the Spire 2, Once Human is now also one of the top 100 games in terms of player count. If you want to try the playtest for yourself, just head right here. PCGamesN also spoke with the developers at Starry Studio earlier this year.
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