Once Human on Game Pass is janky, strange and weirdly hard to put down. CMoney came for a trailer and stayed for creature powers and a boss fight that slapped.
Verdict Worth a Look
Once Human landed on Game Pass and I went in with nothing but a couple of trailers in my head. I didn’t know how it worked. I didn’t know if it was even something I could play solo. All I knew was that the latest trailer looked cool and I was intrigued. So I jumped in to see what this thing really is.
What I found is strange, a little janky and a lot more interesting than I expected.
Watch the RAW IMPRESSIONS
Once Human RAW IMPRESSIONS: State of Decay Meets Weird, and It’s Better Than It LooksIt’s better than it seems, which is maybe a weird way to say it, but I’m digging it.
CMoney, OnPoint 4 Gamers
It opens like a fever dream
The game does not ease you in. One second you’re on a train, the next the whole thing is coming apart and you’re tumbling out of it into a world that has gone completely wrong. Then I turned a corner and the screen was packed with what looked like 50 people, and a moment later they were all gone. I honestly said out loud, “Where is everybody?” That’s the energy of the opening. You don’t fully understand what you’re looking at, and that’s kind of the point.
Then you meet the woman at the center of it all, a mysterious figure the game calls Mitsuko, with a butterfly in her eye. She apologizes for dragging you into this. She tells you a force called Manibus is contaminating the world, that a tear in time and space pulled you here, and that her power and memories are sealed inside broken world stones. Fix the stones, push back Manibus, save the island. You’re a silent protagonist, so you mostly nod along.
I’ll be real, the way the story is delivered is not my usual thing. The lip sync is rough in a few spots, and there’s one moment where a character’s mouth moves and nothing really lands. A little more energy in those scenes would go a long way.
Pokémon, but you steal the powers
Here’s where Once Human got weird in a way I liked. Early on you build a containment pod, drop a creature called a Zap Amander inside and sync with it. Now its powers are yours. My first reaction was, wait, is this Pokémon? Except instead of sending them out to battle, you just take their abilities.
Then it gets better. You can actually call that creature out to fight with you. My little electric friend jumped in, lit enemies up and helped me finish the job. That was the moment I stopped thinking of Once Human as just another survival shooter. It has ideas of its own.
Survival in the details
This is a survival game at heart. You craft weapons at a workbench, build ammo, manage your gear, and keep an eye on food and water. Midway through my session my character was hungry and thirsty, so it was boiled water and vegetables before anything else. There’s loot everywhere, and they hand you a ton of ammo early, which I appreciated.
Some of the systems could explain themselves better. I crafted ammo and the game told me I had zero, because I still had to claim it. Would have been nice to know. Claiming items one at a time instead of grabbing them as a group adds up too.
Then there’s the ghost bus
The ride that stuck with me most is what I can only call the ghost bus. You hop on, the whole interior glows blood red, and the world outside gets stranger by the second. I felt like I should be sitting somewhere safe. It’s janky as all get out, but it’s also unique. I haven’t seen anything quite like it.
The State of Decay comparison is real
One of the folks in chat nailed it early: this has State of Decay vibes. The more I played, the more I felt it. The open world, the scavenging, the base building, the feeling that you’re scraping by. It’s just less refined. There’s no climb, so where State of Decay lets you clamber over things, here you just stop. Everything is a jog with no slow walk, which I missed because I like taking my time in a world like this. The flashlight sometimes points behind your character while they look forward. Gunplay doesn’t feel particularly great yet, and I hit a sound glitch during the big boss fight.
On the visuals, from afar it gives you a really nice image. Up close the detail falls off. If you don’t look too close, it looks good, and honestly that’s part of why it kept my attention. If the graphics were bad, I probably would have bounced. They aren’t, so I kept going.
The boss fight sold me
The tutorial wraps with a fight against a towering creature called the Secret Servitor, and this is where Once Human clicked for me. My electric buddy was in, the lightning was flying, I nearly died more than once and came back clutch to take her down. That fight was dope. It’s also exactly where you can feel the multiplayer side calling. A boss that big is built for a group, and I can only imagine how good it feels with a squad of friends.
When it’s over, you cleanse the environment, and the fog lifts on a world that used to be normal. That’s the Once Human idea in one shot. The world was once human. Now it’s something else.
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A lot more game waiting
After that, the game opens up into separate scenarios, each its own independent world, starting with a Manibus novice option before you work your way up. There’s clearly a decent amount of content here for people who want to sink in, and I still haven’t touched the full multiplayer servers. That’s the next thing I want to see.
Verdict: Worth a Look
Once Human is better than it seems, which is maybe a weird way to say it, but it’s true. It’s janky, it’s less polished than the games it reminds you of, and the story delivery needs more life. But it’s also unique, the creature powers are a blast, and that first boss fight was genuinely dope. If you’re into the State of Decay kind of survival game and you’re waiting on the next one, this will hold you over.
The best part is the price of entry. Once Human is free-to-play on Xbox Series X|S and PC, it supports Xbox Play Anywhere with cross-play and cross-progression, and it’s included with Game Pass Essential, Premium and Ultimate with extra member perks. No harm, no foul. Jump in, try a few servers and see how it hits you.
What’s working
- Stealing creature powers and calling Deviants into fights is a genuinely fun hook
- A strange, unsettling world with moments like the ghost bus you won’t see anywhere else
- The Secret Servitor boss fight is a real highlight
- Looks great from a distance
- Free-to-play and on Game Pass, so there’s zero risk in trying it
What needs work
- Janky and less polished than State of Decay, with no climbing and no slow walk
- Rough lip sync and low-energy story delivery
- Gunplay doesn’t feel great yet
- Some systems, like claiming crafted items, aren’t explained well
Platform played: PC (RTX 4090; Xbox controller prompts on screen)
Screenshots captured by OnPoint 4 Gamers from gameplay. Featured image: OnPoint 4 Gamers typography over official Once Human Steam art. Not a generic RAW stock image.
Sources
- Xbox Wire, Sept 7, 2026: Once Human is available on Xbox Series X|S with Game Pass (free-to-play, Play Anywhere, cross-play, cross-progression)
- Xbox Store: Once Human (9N0QWXC09MPT; Free+; Aug 25, 2026; NetEase)
- CMoney’s Once Human RAW IMPRESSIONS video, Aug 30, 2026
