Once Human: Mid-Beta Review

Good morning and a Happy New Year to all. As Mrs Bhagpuss said ironically, as I wished her the tidings of the season, "and doesn't it feel different?" 

I guess not but we can hope. From my perspective, it's potentially the year I stop working, something that's been an ambition of mine since I left school. As a child, when adults used to ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I had two two stock answers. One was "write poetry". The other was "nothing".

I lost interest in the first by the time I went to college but the second remained a lifelong goal and finally it seems like it might be within reach. That said, I also quite like money and working two days a week at a job I mostly enjoy isn't exactly going down the pit, so I'm leaving my options open for now.

Anyway, we didn't come here to review my retirement plan. What did we come here for? 

Oh yes. I imagine it was for a post on Once Human. It usually is, these days. Why don't we have one of those?

(See? I told you this year wasn't going to be any different.)

Since it is the start of a new year, though, perhaps I should attempt to review my findings about the game so far. I downloaded the beta client on the thirteenth of December so I've had about two and a half weeks to come to some kind of preliminary conclusion. That ought to be long enough.

The short version is - it's pretty good. A more-than-solid, entertaining, fun game with lots of content, engaging gameplay and plenty of variety. I think that should have come across in the posts I've written so far. 

Let's expand on that with a few bullet points. I do like bullet points. They're snappy!

• Good shape for beta. For a closed beta, I'd say very good shape. The client runs almost faultlessly, at least for me. I haven't had a single crash and only a couple of momentary stutters in the whole time I've been playing. Lag is minimal to non-existent even with a poor ping to the West Coast. A very smooth experience all round.
  

• Serious about testing. There's been a patch, with proper, detailed patch notes, every couple of days. Bugs are being found and fixed right in front of our eyes.

• Interested in feedback. There are several ways to send feedback, including the now-obligatory Discord channel. NetEase have been running active promotions on social media. There's a very detailed in-game survey you can complete, repeatedly, allowing you to report your changing opinions as you learn more about the game. I've done that several times. 

• In sum, a real beta. It seems like a feature-complete build that they're tuning for release, not some half-baked experiment they're running. Obviously, the beta doubles as a marketing excercise but the focus is clearly on improving the final product before release.

• 
  Lots to do. There's a broader range of gameplay options than I've seen in a new game for quite a while. After two weeks of playing every day, I still haven't even figured out what all my choices are, far less gotten to grips with most of them. I'm finding new sytems and mechanics just about every time I play.

• A content-rich environment. The world is huge. I'm still in the first region, Dayton Wetlands, which is tuned for new players up to about level 15 and I doubt I've seen even half of that. There seems to be far more leveling content than one character would possibly need, making alts seem an attractive option, for once. That said, I'm not sure alts are even available. I can't find any way to make a second character short of making another account. That's something I need to investigate further.
  

• PvE or PvP supported and separated. Nice to see servers offering both rulesets available from the get-go. Usually we have to get several months into Live before complaints from whichever faction got ignored force the devs to cave and add a half-baked version of the playstyle they hoped to avoid. On the other hand...
  
  
  
  

• PvE or PvP? Did I miss a memo? Everything I read says it's a choice you make at character creation and once you make your pick, you have to stick with it. Except I have no memory of being offered the option. Maybe I just missed it but since I can't figure out how to make a second character, I can't go back and check. My current Server Select screen shows no ruleset indicators, which I guess would make sense if it's an irreversible decision. It's not like I coud swap now. I must be on a PvE cluster... I think. At tleast, no-one's tried to gank me yet.

• Gameplay loops are satisfying. Note the plural. You can adventure, compete or create. There's a full dance card for all three. I shouldn't really comment on the competitive aspect since I haven't engaged in any of the territorial PvP, which takes place on offshore islands. Leveling, collecting, building and exploring, though, I have tried and they're are all quite compelling.

• Building is a strong feature. I've played a lot of games with construction elements and most of them are fun but this is better than average. I want to do a full post on it but suffice to say I'm finding the tools reliable and comfortable to use, the creative options inviting and the mechanics robust. There's plenty of room for improvement but for a beta it's an appropriately solid foundation.
  
  
  

• Combat is satisfying. It feels natural, intuitive and impactful. It's also kinetic, with movement playing a great part in the success of any fight. Unless you just snipe from range, of course. That works, too. Mob AI is varied and interesting. Fights can be surprising and exciting, especially when somethng grabs you and starts to wrestle or lets loose with a disorienting, psychedelic light show. Again, there's plenty of room for improvement - I could certainly do with less focus on ammo for a start - but I have no major complaints.

• Story is better than expected. I've been a bit surprised by how intriguing I'm finding it, to be honest. The narrative is more subtle than I'm used to in most imports. Definitely more New World or The Secret World than Dawnlands or Tarisland. Storytelling is varied, too. There are lengthy and engaging side-stories and there's a lot of diagetic narrative in the form of diaries, letters, journals and notes, found lying around in abandoned homes and offices. If you don't care for that sort of thing, though, there's also a central mission sequence that's much more directive. Lean into the story or stick to the basic plot. It's up to you.

• World-building is even better. Everything you see and hear supports the spoken and written narrative. It's consistent and consistently impressive. The Starfall Event gave birth to a very unnerving and peculiar environment with some strongly surreal elements. The conceit of another reality attempting to assert its dominance over the one we're familiar with is effectively conveyed, making Once Human feel notably different from what I originally thought would be its most obvious point of reference, TSW. I think it helps if you relish not fully understanding what's going on, as I do, though. It looks like it might be a while before we find out the full truth. If ever.
  

• 
  Immersive Environments. I think this needs to be highlighted, separately from any general praise for the world-building in the game as a whole. There are a lot of abandoned settlements and structures scattered all over the region I've explored and even though they use many of the same assets, they all feel different and individual. Better yet, they feel logical, like places that grew through use. They seem to tell a story just by the way they're laid out. That's by no means the case in every game and it does make quite a difference.
  

• Graphics are good, sound is great. The visuals probably aren't going to win a lot of awards. They're attractive but not jaw-dropping. The soundscape, however, is really top-notch. It's one of those games where you find yourself spinning around to see what's creeping up behind you, then finding you've guessed correctly, based entirely on what you heard. Lightning storms, which occur very frequently, are espcially nerve-wracking. I haven't yet played with headphones on yet and I'm slightly apprehensive about starting. I think it might all be a bit too immersive, especially with the lights out.

• Tuned for fun. That's how I'd generally describe the whole game. Not an awful lot gets in the way of your enjoyment as you're playing. At the same time, nothing feels overly simplistic. Systems and mechanics are largely clear and work smoothly but you still have to think and make choices. The game by no means plays itself. It can take a good while to get from one place to another but there's always so much to see and do on the way it feels like time well-spent. There are fast travel options but they don't diminish the scale of the world, which is significant. The whole thing just feels well-judged.

• 
   Overall, a very impressive achievement. I think we all know how hard it is to make a game like this to a standard that will find general acceptance, let alone be met with enthusiasm. Gamers frequently have highly unrealistic expectations and developers, equally frequently, have equally unrealistic ambitions. The two coming together can be a car crash. I doubt Once Human is going to be winning any Game of the Year awards but if the general reaction seems to be "It's better than I expected. Not bad, actually...", in gamer-speak that's almost a ringing endorsement.
  

As far as I can tell, the beta has about another three weeks to run, although I've yet to find an official date. I'm torn between carrying on as I have been, spending almost all my gaming time there and making the most of my access while it lasts, or quitting while I'm ahead to avoid bitter disappointment, when the mean devs take my new toy away. 

What I should probably do is wean myself off the beta gradually, reducing my play-time slowly as I simultaneously re-introduce other, much-neglected games to the mix. That way, by the time the servers shut down, I'll barely notice. I suspect I won't be that sensible, though. 

Finally, to sum up, I kept a couple of bullet points for the end.

• It's addictive. Like Valheim and Dawnlands before it, I could happily plow a couple of hundred hours into this one without even blinking.

Unlike those games, though

• It's an MMORPG. And we all know what that means. When this thing goes live you might never hear from me again...

Well, if I didn't have a blog that is...