It will be interesting to see how far I end up getting in a single season. Since they last just six weeks and have different phases. I’m going to try and get a bit hard early on. I kind of want to explore everything and do all the things.
Shortly after landing in the world, I put down a modest base. I’ll admit it was quite close to where I was dropped into the world. I also at the time had no idea if I could move it or what the cost of a territory claim was.
They start you off with one tile. I put another layer around it starting me off with a little three-by-three base. I had no idea just how cramped it would be. The good news was at least I did not put any walls up at first.
The downside is not having any walls for quite some time. There was some local wildlife that would attack me. Since I'm so used to playing single-player games. The idea that I can’t just AFK when I need to anywhere let alone somewhere like my base almost got me killed a few times over.
Turns out logging out works just as well as a game pause for the most part. If you are not in a dungeon. Along with anything else that might be timed like an event. A good enough solution for me.
I then spent some time gathering copper ores, logs, and some other resources. The game walks you through some of the basics of getting set up. It then sends you over to the first town a safe spot.
It also goes over the basics of spending your first points in the skill tree. Getting important things like being able to smelt ores in a furnace, disassemble junk or items in a disassembly bench, a crafting bench, and some other stuff.
Turns out this game has quite a few benches. I’d also at some point once I could gather higher tier resources craft higher tiers of them all and they took up even more space.
Thankfully I did not add any walls to what would have been an otherwise way to small hut. I quickly added another layering of floors. I also found out you can just move things without fully having to destroy them and be out of resources. Even better when you do remove stuff you get resources back.
It did not take long before I realized this survival game liked to take out a lot of things that just felt stupid and annoying to have. That made learning this game quite easy. I don’t know if it’s because I'm on a novice server or if that's just how the gameplay moving forward is going to be. It was just nice not later having to be out all the resources to just move things over a tad in the base.
I was also quickly getting spammed from the journey journal for doing for the most part rather basic things. I love the fact they call groups in this game your Hive. Perhaps I'll add to my own at some point. For the time being, I went 100% solo.
I also found myself many times when waiting on ores to smelt or having my character rest. That I would go through the journey journal. While 50 experience per task over the long run is not much. It got me quite a few quick levels.
I’d even just open it up from time to time and see what random thing I could check off. This game has quite a lot going on with it. You can not only upgrade crafted weapons. You can also mod them out if you have the right resources to do so. I would not be messing with those systems for a while. I did have the journey to remind me to get around to trying out those systems at one point.
I then was sent out on a mission to get some supplies. I almost miss my early days of killing things with a crossbow. Running over to loot my arrows back. Then going on with things. At some point, I'd get a gun and the small amounts of ammo I'd be looting would do me little good.
I also ended up looting some healing supplies from this first supply run. The key binds in this game are a little strange. I’m so used to using 1-5 key binds for things eating to healing in a survival game. Instead, I'd need to get used to using 4-9.
There was a fair bit of killing and some talking with quest NPCs before I headed back to my base. Part of a fun thing I started to do after every run was just heading over to the disassembly bench and seeing all the junk I randomly looted out of chests or off the ground. Then hitting the disassemble button to get hopefully something a bit more useful out of the deal.
I don’t have a clue what most of these things are even used for in crafting. For a while, it did not matter. As I'd go to loot weapons and armor out of chests. Then I realized items that were not player-made could not be upgraded or even repaired. Then suddenly I was paying a little more attention to things.
It is also kind of nice that instead of having a massive long list of weapons. They just have a couple and then different tiers of them. While I could not craft a tier I DE.50 pistol I was more than happy with the base model. I’ve even ended up upgrading its damage output at a later date in time.
It would end up being a bit crazy just how long I'd just use this single pistol. I’d get some rather massive kill with it. I also never fired another shot from my crossbow the moment I acquired a gun.
I had a feeling resource gathering of the basics like copper and logs would be a long-term thing I'd need. So, to avoid having to do any long-drawn-out grinding I ended up heading out after each trip to just gather some of the basics.
The nice thing is the respawn on resources is rather quick. I’d even sometimes luck out and get a copper cluster of six nodes right next to each other. I ended up rather loving this base location for the early game.
At some point, it was time to head down to my first real town and advance the main storyline for the session a bit. There ended up being some vendors and quest givers in the town called Deadsville.
Even better yet. After I had it unlocked. I could teleport back there. It did have a small cost of some energy currency that I'd end up looting a decent amount of along the way. Making it such a small cost I always teleported back unless it was on cooldown or I was not in an area I could.
Something also amazing happened at this starting town. I was given a motorcycle! Sort of crashing the thing and having to pay some resources to fix it up from ramping into things. Along with the long-term need to find some fuel. This thing would end up being quite a life and time saver.
I was next given a task to head out to Rotten Manor. I ended up running into a little more excitement than I was expecting. A big nasty-looking creature. Thankfully it seemed rather confused and not in the mood to kill me for some reason.
As far as some bigger things I'd hunt he was not so bad. It took a few shots and I'd get that pistol a workout. It however felt quite doable. This also would not be the last time I'd run into something massive and nasty. I’d quickly find out not all encounters are the same and something like this is a great way to get killed.
I then discovered I rather enjoy exploring and clearing out towns. This game makes you want to go and just find a certain number of chests, get some kills, and see what kind of trouble you can find yourself in.
Any major area has a little explore Side quest that pops up. Some of these towns I'd go clearing would end up respawning before I'd find all the objectives. The developers sure do love to hide chests but there is also a way to scan for points of interest as well. Making it a little easier to find buildings to skip over when clearing some of the massive locations in this game.
I’m also just loving the fact this game just likes to mess with you. It was not bad enough I'd have light bulbs chasing after me that explode. It turns out that getting too close to a freezer could get you killed if anything is attacking you. As they open up and freeze you for a short amount of time.
The amount of skin-crawling crepey things I'd end up coming across in this game is amazing. While I'm not usually into that kind of stuff. This game just has a fun way of doing creative stuff like having creatures I'd later fight with balloons as heads that you have to take out.
The main objective I was given in all the areas I was running across was activating the rift anchors so I could open a rift and fight a boss. I was in no hurry to do that in my first little while of playing the game.
I just could not help myself in wanting to find the chests needed to have an area checked off on the map. If I'd get stumped it almost felt like defeat leaving loot behind. I’d come back at a later point in time and make another attempt at finding usually the mystical crate that I was missing.
Final Thoughts
While I know for progressing along in a game like this you should try and find a decent balance between pushing the main storyline and sticking around an area to see everything it has to offer.
As everything I'm going to gather in the first few areas will not be that great. It is however a season-style game. I know if I end up jumping into another season in the future, I'll want to move at a quicker rate than I have been.
That also means for my first time around. I’m going to take my time. I’ll be attempting to seek out every quest I find. I want to loot all the buildings. While not that great in moving quickly on a five-week timetable season. Sometimes you just have to take things slow and enjoy the adventure for what it is.
Information
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Once Human.
I like this kind of adventure games a lot
It's been a lot of fun so far!