Once Human is a free-to-play, post-apocalyptic open-world survival game from NetEase's Starry Studio, set in a world corrupted by an alien substance called Stardust. As a Meta-Human, you scavenge and craft across the ruined territory of Nalcott, tame or fight bizarre eldritch monsters, capture friendly creatures called Deviants, and build sprawling movable bases with friends. Its signature hook is a rotating library of timed "Scenarios" (servers with a defined lifecycle and eventual wipe) that reframe the same world as chill PvE co-op, hardcore PvP conquest, or new survival twists like sub-zero temperature management. It blends Rust-style base building, looter-shooter gunplay, and an unsettling SCP-flavored horror atmosphere.
Our take
Once Human is one of the most generous free-to-play survival games on the market: base building is genuinely deep, the monster and Deviant design is delightfully weird, and the monetization is broadly fair, which is why recent Steam reviews sit at "Very Positive" and it topped Steam's top-sellers at launch with 230k+ concurrent players. The catch is the seasonal-wipe cadence, which resets progress on a roughly six-week-to-quarterly cycle and is polarizing for anyone who can't grind consistently, and critic reception was more muted (Metacritic 71) over shooting feel and early performance stutter. If seasonal resets and a persistent "Eternaland" carry-over sound fun rather than frustrating, it's an easy recommendation; if you want permanent progression, look elsewhere. For the price of nothing, it's very much worth a season.