Once Human is not getting enough meaningful content till October, but that's not its biggest problem

While some Once Human players are still struggling to catch up to the endgame content due to limited playtime, many others have found themselves with little to do after the second week of the ongoing season. Many players may dismiss their opinions because no game can have infinite content, but some legitimate criticisms warrant a discourse.

A live-service MMO like Once Human will always attract two types of players: those who complete everything the game offers within a few days and those who barely reach the endgame due to limited time. It's the former group that the developer, Starry Studio, aimed to satisfy with the Phase system. Unfortunately, according to most of those players, the developers failed miserably.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely reflect the writer's opinion.

Once Human appeared to be a deep ocean at launch, but it turned out to be a shallow pool

Phases 1 and 2 are the most exciting part of the current Seasonal Scenario (Image via Starry Studio)

Phases in Once Human were designed to release content gradually, providing players with something new to do at any point in a season. While this concept sounds great in theory, it failed miserably in practice, and it's not just due to a lack of content that many hardcore players are complaining about.

Phases 1 and 2 were the best part of Season 1, unlocking the entire world map, all the Silos, most of the Monolith bosses, and Prime Wars. The game seemed endless, with exciting and engaging content. However, this was the peak of what the current scenario could offer. After Phase 2, each subsequent phase released harder difficulties of Monolith bosses, Silos, and Prime Wars, and not much else.

While Phase 4 introduced the LEA Research Lab (a new dungeon) and the final Monolith boss, they are, unfortunately, the worst places to farm gold mods in Once Human due to the huge RNG pool of items that drops from them. This makes them essentially pointless, aside from the challenge and fun of doing them a few times.

Lastly, Phase 5 introduced the Nightmare mode Prime War boss, Manibus, which marked the beginning of a significant player drop-off. The failure of the phase system can be attributed to two main issues: the Controller system and the game's poor performance.

The limited quantity of Controllers detracts from the enjoyment of hunting for your ideal Legendary Mod (Image via Starry Studio)

Controllers in Once Human are items that allow you to claim loot from specific dungeons or boss battles. They are used to acquire high-rarity mods and Calibration Blueprints. However, they are limited in quantity, and once you run out, there is little to do besides completing Public Crisis Events to earn one Controller at a time.

These events — while initially fun and adding flavor to the world — become tedious in the endgame when players are forced to do them instead of the content they want to engage in.

On the other hand, Prime Wars, the 40-player world boss territory defense game mode, is essentially the main feature of this entire scenario. It differentiates the current scenario from Evolution's Call and the upcoming content announced in the scenario timeline by the developer.

However, despite being the focal point of the ongoing Seasonal Scenario, Prime Wars is also its weakest aspect. The experience of engaging in this activity is marred by terrible lag, frequent rubberbanding, and persistent bugs like bosses getting stuck in the sky.

Frequent bugs, such as bosses getting stuck in the sky, are among the reasons why Prime Wars aren't as enjoyable as the developer intended (Image via Starry Studio)

The Nightmare Prime War boss, Manibus, which players must defeat multiple times to complete the Seasonal Objective, is the worst offender. Half of your Red Plasma and Biomass Missiles miss the target due to lag, and when shooting with your gun, you are frequently stuck in a reload animation.

These issues are exacerbated by the announcement of the Once Human scenario timeline, which confirmed that there won't be any new PvE Seasonal Scenario until October 2024. As a result, after Season 1, players are forced to either repeat the current PvE scenario or join a PvP server.

Repeating what has already become a bore-fest since week two is driving players away, as their only alternative is to join PvP, which many aren't keen on playing.

Live service games can't provide unlimited content, and players are expected to run out of things to do eventually. That's the nature of an MMO, where players must wait for new content to be released.

However, in Once Human, hardcore players are restricted from farming mods due to the limited quantity of Controllers, and the main feature of the current PvE Seasonal Scenario is held back by abysmal performance.

The LEA Research Lab can drop all the Legendary mods in Once Human, making the RNG pool too large to justify using your limited Controllers here (Image via Starry Studio)

Additionally, the terrible RNG loot pool of the final Monolith boss and LEA Research Lab dungeon leaves players with no reason to engage with them. These issues have to be addressed — especially if the developer expects players to repeat the same Seasonal Scenario multiple times until new content arrives.

In conclusion, if all the systems in Once Human functioned as intended, repeating the current PvE Seasonal Scenario multiple times until the next one wouldn't be such an issue. However, due to the problems mentioned, many players feel there is a lack of content — not because there aren't enough things to do, but because the flawed systems create that impression.

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Edited by Adarsh J Kumar