SGF 2024: Once Human's Preview - A Proficient, But Rough Open World Shooter

A monolith stands at the top of a mountain, a monstrous creature with a television for a head lumbers across a sleepy little suburb and a pair of human limbs sprout from the side of a bus. The latest trailer for Once Human graced Summer Game Fest, but it was vague in what the game was outside of being an online shooter of some kind. MMORPG was invited to play Once Human, which I ended up doing. While my session was relatively short, as I did not have the time to check out the base-building mechanics, I was given some time to get a feel for the gameplay loop of the online shooter.

Once Human, which launches next month on PC and mobile, allows players to equip a total of three weapons, which can range from a fire ax to an SMG. There are some powers you can harness thanks to the interference from the “beyond” that has bled into the world. This includes assistance from a companion you can assign at your base, which are generally cute mascot-like characters, or the ability to lift and throw enemies with the power of telekinesis. After testing out some controls, I was immediately given a directive by the developer sitting next to me. We were going to fight some monsters.

As I navigated the map, the developer sitting beside me asked me how long it would take to cross from one end to another. Based on my experience with open-world games, I took a shot in the dark and guessed around ten hours. He informed me that I was the closest any press member had gotten before telling me that the answer was somewhere closer to around fifty. I laughed, zooming out to take in just how expansive the map was. Without a vehicle, I could imagine it taking that long, given that you would need to fight your way through eldritch abominations.

I was then instructed to head to a world event that took place in something that closely resembled a concert venue. To get there I manifested a motorcycle from thin air and clumsily weaved my way between houses and down a set of stairs where a boss awaited